Welcome to Gaia! ::

Vash winces as his shoulder connects with the damp cement wall of his cell, lying breathlessly where the guard threw him without a second glance. Black spots obscure the edges of his vision and he laughs wryly as he pants for breath. His laugh echoes eerily through the otherwise empty warehouse, and Vash leans his head against the rough stone in defeat. His only comfort was the knowledge that it had taken several guards to take him down - two more once he'd slipped into the mansion's guard dog. They'd fought him for nearly ten minutes until one of the guards grew tired of his games and shot the dog right between the eyes, sending him back into his own body.

Vash rubbed his forehead as he remembered what it felt like to have a bullet pierce his skull, and he shuddered at the memory. No matter how many times he died as an animal, the memories always lingered - torturing him wih ghost pains as recompense for stealing another's life.

A screech from above broke Vash out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see his hawk perched on the upper bars of his cell. He chuckled and held out an arm for the creature as it slipped through the metal. Its talons dug deep into Vash's arm, the blood dripping down to his elbows, but he didn't care. He would heal soon enough. Besides, pain was a worthy price for company. His fingers ran over the bird's smooth feathers as he spoke to it in a low voice, murmuring it's name.

"A lot of help you were, Lucien. Flying off when I had need of you is incredibly rude."

The hawk screeched its disapproval and clenched its talsons tighter around Vash's arm. "Ah! Alright, alright. You're right, I didn't want you to end up like the dog either. Jeez, you're so sensitive - like a little girl."

Lucien merely screeched his reply and gripped Vash's arm tighter.

Vash scowled at the man lingering outside his cell, the oily smoke from his cigarette burning his nose with the scent of tar. The hawk screeched at him from the confines of the cell and released Vash's arm in favor of perching on his shoulder. The skinchanger flinched as the sharp talons slid out of his arm, pressing his palm to the wound to stop the bleeding while it healed. It stung like hellfire, but experience told him it would heal in a matter of seconds. He watched, mildly fascinated, as the skin began to knit itself back together. By the time the man was done rifling through his clipboard, the wound had completely healed - leaving only a series of puckered pink scars and an angry wash of blood in its wake. Vash glared at the bird, contemplating whether or not he needed a new feather pillow, until a deep voice caught his attention.

Crimson eyes stared blankly through the bars to find the same man crouched outside his cell. He was a demon, if the talons digging into his should blades were any judge, with burgundy hair and red eyes that mirrored his own. Vash narrowed his eyes as this new stranger continued to goad him - picking at his enslavement as though it were a joke. Then again, to him it probably was. He decided to play along for now, out of boredom if not curiousity.

"Well, I suppose you'll just have to come in here and find out. It's different for everyone you know." He shrugs and absentmindedly strokes Lucien's feathers. "Some slaves scream and fight to get out, others bide their time and wait for their next chance to escape. But me, I rather think of it like the deep breath before the storm." He plucks a single feather from atop the hawk's head and holds it up to examine it, watching as the light catches the maroon undertones and scatters them across the cell. "It's...tense."

His fingers release the feather and it floats gently down to the floor, where it stays as Vash stands. He crosses the damp cell in a few strides and leans against the bars closest to the door, eyeing the demon as though he were a potential ally...or enemy.

"But I'm sure you didn't come all this way to chat with the likes of me about my cell, now did you? So why don't you let me in on the secret. What does a demon like you want with a slave like me?"