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 Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:46 pm
This is War!
Who?
Audrey (Ka-ray-zee) and Adal (Zanaroo)
When?
Early wintertime in Imisus. The ports are foggy and hints of snow are just around the corner.
Where?
Near the inner workings of an Imisese city, thoroughly crowded with begging urchins, black marketers, and shady entrepreneurs alike.
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Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 11:01 pm
Indeed, there was a bad and good side to being an urchin.
The bad parts, for one, came in multitudes. To any discerning pedestrian or, frankly, any man with a pence of wit, it was obvious that being an urchin had many more bad things about it than good. For one, there was the horrible dependency on weather-- urchins left and right were inevitably scrambling for shelter to hide themselves away from the frigid and foggy winter that Imisus suffered through annually. Because of this, even the barren parts of the factory cities were covered with life; boys and girls alike huddled close to one another and made makeshift fires where they could, while the ones that didn't have the best of luck were left to die of cold or to be picked up, from bad man or good man alike.
Second of all, urchins had a terrible dependency on talent. To urchins, adults did not know the meaning of 'survival of the fittest,' not in the least-- urchins knew, for one, the importance of being weak. It was the urchins that looked considerably scrawny or haphazardly put-together that reaped the best profit, and all urchins knew that the smaller of the bunch weren't really as helpless as they looked. Consequently, on cold winter nights, many of the street rats out and about on the more populous roads did indeed look quite ratty.
Amongst them was a boy, one as coated with dirt and as laced with tricks and bluffs as any other intelligible homeless child. Hat pulled close to the rim of his nose, not much else about him reflected the dire need for clothing to keep alive for the winter. Save for a scarf and one or two extra jackets, he was content with the winter, but he kept quiet about it.
Part of the reason was, assuredly, that he was huddled quite close to people at all times. That was a pickpocket's occupation, after all.
Thumbing through pockets and finding thick bundles of Shillings was the aim of the game and, with an ego as inflated as a drunkard's belly, his thief's contempt led him to undermine competition.
And, with that, comes a third point-- urchins had a horrid and dismal dependency on stupidity, of which they thought they had none, and wisdom, of which they thought they had all. Frankly, it was to quite the contrary.
Without further ado, Adal made for his first catch of the day, and his fingers slipped lightly through a wealthy man's pocket with an urchin's grace. Adal Malt suffered quite a lot from the third point and, to be quite honest, the man needed a stealing anyway.
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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:07 pm
"Psst!"
There came a sound not more than a few feet away from the boy, a harsh whisper, as if attempting to shoo away an unwelcome feline. Among the bodies that huddled close to another in the bustling Imisese market, a young girl stood close, her hand hovering not far from the pocket the Anhelo himself was riffling through, her face portraying a complete sense of bitter disbelief.
She'd been tracking this b*****d half of the way down the strip, followed him as stealthily as possible, pushing her way through the crowds, and now that the urchin was so close, fingers extended to make her catch, this random a*****e just walks up and steals her chance. The southerner was less than amused.
"What the ******** are you doing," the tattered girl questioned, her voice an agitated hiss through clenched teeth, a breathy whisper as to avoid the man before them hearing her over the hum of the crowd. Her half mitted hand had now curled into a tight fist, bright eyes staring intently on the stranger, her thick brows pressed down in obvious frustration.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 7:00 pm
What was more than fortunate for the both of them was that, at this current point in time, was that the idiot they were both trying to steal from was too tied up in getting through this maddening part of the street than paying attention to his behind. That aspect aside, the flaxen Locos, brows pressed into a firm annoyed look, stared equally as disapprovingly at the Auvinian urchin just in front of him. He was in for the catch, eyes concentrated so closely on his prize that he knew he couldn't miss it, and now that was all for naught.
Not only did Adal work long and hard to get where he was, shirking across the street and looking for the fattest pocket to steal from, he was being-- what, interrupted by a girl (he was sure because of the pigtails)? Huffing, Adal let cold smoke roll through his mouth before he dared respond to the irritated pickpocket.
"What nonsense are you trying to pull? Can't you see I'm-- you know," He nodded his head toward the man, "Busy?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:31 pm
"Busy?"
The girl scoffed, her voice still a hushed frustration, cheeks beginning to prickle with the warmth of her irritation.
"Yeah! I was busy too until you--," she extended a hand, pressing a finger firmly against his collarbone before letting it retreat to take it's back hovering near the man's pocket," came along and interrupted me. This one's mine, you a*****e, I've been tracking me all the way down the damn street!"
Staring intently at the boy ( she wasn't too sure of this but she decided to lean towards male. The ponytail was throwing her off a bit though... and what was with those bangs? ), she exuded bitter discontentment, and through gritted teeth she hissed once again, "Back off."
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Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:06 pm
"Busy indeed," Adal watched in complete and utter disapproval when Audrey poked him in the collarbone, seemingly offended as he stared back at her green and yellow eyes. "Interrupted you? Came long and interrupted you? This man's the fattest one on the street, of course you've been tracking him down all the way, and so have I."
He shifted his hand all the more closer to the pocket in mind and pushed up the rim of his hat, looking back and forth between his alleged prize and back at the girl who, suspiciously, smelled like a distinct mix of musky fur and pestilence that he couldn't seem to notice the source of. A more viable and tangible collection of Shillings meant more to him now, however, and he poked the Auvinian's forehead with his index finger in return to her biting command. Shifting his displeased frown into a deep-set smile, he slipped his fingers into the man's pocket and quietly wrung out a thick bag, heavy with coins. He whispered a spiteful "Okay" and took a gaping step back, straightening out his wiry form as he pocketed the man's earnings and slid his shoulder past the stranger, smirking.
It took a damn impressive amount of willpower to stop himself from looking back at the girl.
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 7:00 pm
And for a moment, she just stood there.
But just for one moment.
It had only taken that long for her to have gotten over her complete disbelief that the stranger could pull such an a** move, to properly fill with a greater loathing for the boy, and dive back into the crowd, pushing her way up past her original prey to shuffle through the bodies keeping her from her new target. No way in hell was that b*****d just walking off with her catch, especially not looking that smug.
Hissing under her breath the whole way through, ducking around bystanders, light on her feet as she could be while oppressing the heavy urge to stomp with every step, she finally caught the Anhelo fully in her sight. She then approached, reaching forward, eyes intently locked on his back, hand reaching out to grasp at the stream of flaxen hair that flowed so prettily behind him with dirtied fingers. She then gave the ponytail a very curt, enthusiastic tug.
Immediately proceeding the action, her face still reeking of discontentment, mouth pressed into a tight frown, cheeks flushed, she spat,
" Where the hell do you think you're going?!"
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 2:32 pm
Adal snapped his head back at the girl and returned her biting question with a spiteful frown of his own. The Anhelo paused to take a good look at Audrey then and, in that moment, noticed the famliar lingering scent rollcking about her form once more; what he'd smelled before was not a simple whiff of something off of the street. He was left to briefly survey the girl, where this scent might be coming from, and he was left staring at the strangely out of place tail swishing at her side. The distraction was momentary, though, and he broke eyesight with the Auvinian; there were a few quiet moments in silence and he showed the slightest look of concern on his face-- the smell of Death perfuming her was difficult to ignore when he was so close to her, but spite riddled his pride and he couldn't bear to ask any questions, and instead he answered her question with sharp reprieve.
"Home," he snapped. Then, regrettably, Adal wondered about the price of a Plague. He wondered if it held the same hefty weight as the coins had when he held them in his hands; the weight of a week's worth of stability. Was risking this catch worth it? He wondered how short his newly met enemy's temper was, and he wondered about the challenge of capturing this Plague so unfortunately tied around her waist, and not his. The price of his job compared to spite.
After going over his choices and, with a reluctant sigh, he gambled.
He idly grabbed Audrey's arm, extended so she could tug on his ponytail, and shoved it off and away from him, scrutinizing it as if were a piece of filth. He turned around to fully face Audrey and waved toward the oncoming crowd behind them. "Bugger off before I make you. What, are you so incapable that you can't catch a single fish without following one the entire day? " he straightened his shoulders and smiled, eyes scrunched, "Or are you bothering me because you're low enough to ask another rat like you for some charity?" He threw a coin at the girl's feet before walking away. "There, then, a rat's charity for a rat. The rest is mine."
He turned around swiftly to continue going on his way, unwilling to give Audrey a chance to retort. He glanced to the side of him at the pocket of Shllings secured around his waist; it was a significant amount of coins in there, a more-than-fortunate urchin's catch if he'd ever seen one. He had two mouths to feed with it, several tiny knacks he had in mind to buy, a promise to stay a night or two at a nearby lodge instead of a shoddy Plague-ridden building with holes in the wall during the middle of a rough Imisese winter. If all went well, all of those wishes would be left unfulfilled.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 9:42 pm
Audrey nearly felt dizzy with the amount of disdain for the boy she had built up over the last few minutes. What was left of her patience was wearing unbearably thin, and as the stranger berated her with insults her fists clenched so tight she could feel her fingernails pressing into her palms, her face burning with anger and embarrassment as she glared him down. The only break from her radiating hate was a moment of offended shock as a coin clinked against the street below her and the young man went strolling of ahead, smiling.
It had felt like everything around her had turned to white noise for a split second, her eyes wide and on the back of her opponent.
That was the final straw.
The girl's expression quickly twisted into a snarl as she lunged forward after him. she did not even bother to glance down at the coin that rested by her feet, hell if she cared about a single coin. Hell if she cared about the whole damn purse that started this mess. This had become a matter of pride. There was no was Audrey could let any pompous kid belittle her, not without a fight.
The southerner went flying across the cobblestone, closing the small gap that had formed between the two once more, grasping out to grapple onto him again, grabbing hold of the back of his shirt before yanking him to a halt. Swiftly following after this movement, she lifted a foot, swinging it back before slamming it into the back of the thief's ankle
" I don't want your s**t charity, you b*****d!"
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:49 pm
Adal breathed in. He straightened his back, narrowed his eyes, and quietly readjusted the rim of his hat and brushed the dirt off of his collar, as if he were readying himself for a funeral procession made specifically for himself. Of course, the Locos had no time to brace himself when Audrey started to bolt past the cobblestone, swift as she was, and just when Adal braced his breath his ankle nicked, buckled, and sent him falling to the ground.
Oof.
He slid against the cobblestone, though the rough uneven texture of the ground allowed him to grip his palms against something sturdy. There was no real use in brushing off dirt from the rim of his collar, after all, and the initial furrow about his brows was a clear sign of annoyance. Most of it was brushed away when he realized Audrey was in closer contact, and his swirled eyes started to search vainly for the sight of the smell, though his piquant slack of the jaw seemed more like idle scrutiny for a girl, brutish an expression as any urchin's, than anything else.
His nose did catch onto the pungent smell of death after mere seconds, however, and his eyes were trailed along to the musky colored tail hanging loosely by Audrey's side. Adal looked back up at Audrey and knelt, ready to stand given the chance, though his strategy of taunting the girl stopped midway. He responded with an annoyingly amused look to Audrey's angry remark, and he nodded his head towards the tail and pointed.
"Give me that," he said, quaintly, spontaneously and, if anything, quite surely. "You don't need it."
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 8:06 pm
Audrey moved to loom over the boy, staring down at him with eyes like daggers, ready for whatever fight he may pick once he should lift himself from the street. She felt as through she was quite prepared for whatever move he might make, to bolt, to lunge, even perhaps a rare surrender... but as the boy lifted his bizarre bright eyes up to her, she could not help but flinch in surprise as what he had to say to her. There was a moment of confusion, her guards falling for a split second as her expression shifted from a scowl, to bewilderment, then quickly to a panicked snarl.
"Wait.. what? N-No way in hell," she barked back, obviously startled by the demand, her voice faltering as her heart picked up pace. Instinctively the girl throwed her hands to her side, pivoting herself so that the precious item attached to her waist was out of view, clutched withing protective fingers.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Don't tell me what I need or don't need, you freak! " Taking a step back, she remains defensive, keeping her gaze locked solid on the boy. Her face growing red once more, she spat at him again,
" What does it have to do with anything anyways? We're discussing finances not my possessions! D-Don't try to distract me!"
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:21 pm
"Wait.. what? N-No way in hell!"
It was a disappointing answer, but one Adal should have expected nonetheless-- his eyes narrwoed and he hopped up from the ground into a defensive kneel, those bizarre eyes of his trailing after Audrey as she backed away in defense. He merely smiled at her question, though, letting a small frown let loose only when she called her a freak.
"What does it have to do with anything anyways? We're discussing finances not my possessions! D-Don't try to distract me!"
"I'm a freak who knows much more than you do, and more importantly, I think you'd like to know what you have around that waist of yours." It was something to marvel, though, being a freak, and he was sooner beginning to embrace it nowadays than defend himself against it. It was unfortunate that he didn't quite look the part, not as much as an Infitialis or a Quietus could, but he remained knelt and took a small crawl towards her. What harm was there in a small boy walking like a hungry old wolf, anyway, especially in this quaint situation.
Adal urged again, "Give it to me. If I can't say you don't need it, I know for sure you won't need it."
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Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 6:03 pm
Audrey took a defensive step back as the boy below her crawled forward, however, her expression did not appear cautious but rather it sunk into a deeper, more disdainful, grimace.
"The hell would you know about anything," she spat, glaring jade daggers down at the young man, one hand still to her side shielding the tail at her hip. Her eyes remained seething, focused intently on her opponent. The girl could feel her anger burning in her chest and as she would grit her teeth or narrow her lids the plagued object at her hip would twitch and writhe.
Her thoughts attempted to distract her from her rage, though even her inquires of how this boy could recognize her plague, or even claim to have knowledge of it was insufficient in quelling her. She would deal with the matter at hand before bothering to decipher it.
She pivoted, preparing to land another kick if she so needed too; tense and at the ready.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 1:24 am
Adal knelt and looked up at Audrey still, though it was difficult maintaining his focus. His glance swayed every few moments back at that draping fur tail.
Still, though he was losing his patience, every bit of scathing remark from the girl earned a biting snicker from him. At this point, though, he needed to maintain composure and tick her of even further, somehow-- there was no winning this otherwise, in any case.
His eyes narrowed. "Allow me to guess. Once upon a time, that little tail ruined your life. It destroyed everything you knew and the people you've cherished. You move out of your little town because you're a stigmata they all need to avoid, but lo, who else would take you?
"Yet, unlike a regular story, you had no revelation in that sad, sad story of yours. The realization merely grew on you after weeks and months of being alone. The Plague wrapped around your little finger is the very last thing you have in this wide world, and it's possessed you, it's tricked you into believing it's somehow a friend. The last reminder of your miserable, downtrodden existence."
Adal paused, not for effect, but to stare at the tail again. He crouched forward, though, and looked somberly up at Audrey. "Am I right, little urchin girl? Orphans like you are obvious. You stand out. And none of you last very long on your own. So give me that horrible burden of yours and move on. That Plague will never amount to anything."
Not with her, at least. That was his gut instinct, and the reminder of all the Plagues that died at youths' hands weighed heavily for his actions now.
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Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 11:07 pm
The very instant Adal had finished his speech, there was a swift slam of a foot to his jaw.
It had taken quite a bit of self control for Audrey to of managed to listen to the whole of the stranger's theory. There was only a single moment where she had felt any shock from his words: In the very beginning, as he had reminded her of the gruesome events that had unraveled far away in her auvinian home. It was in that instant that her eyes widened ever so slightly in recollection, realization. She had felt sadness attempt to grasp at her throat as she considered just for a split second...
No.
No, this kid couldn't be more wrong. Every single word he attempted to throw at her like clever little daggers were false and faulty to the core. Suddenly each syllable was like plucking another horrible cord to resonate unwelcome inside her ears. Eyes narrowed and her frown deepened as she glared down at the Locos beneath her.
Oh, she was welling with rage now. No, her life hadn't been ruined. No, that tail was no burden. It was the best thing that had ever happened to her... it was the best thing that could ever happen for her!
"You don't know s**t!"
That was when she had grit her teeth, throwing her leg out from under her to collide with the side of the anhelo's face. She was flush with disdain, her eyes burning with the threat of tears. No way in hell would she cry though. Not over any bullshit spilled by this a*****e.
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