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 Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:49 pm
Boring.
That's what life had been like post-Hillworth. No strict teachers, no strict order, no strict people strictly yelling at him for breaking the strict rules. Dare he admit that he actually missed the rigid system a bit? Mm...not really, but you'd think the guy would be in bliss. Oddly enough, Dominic had started to feel as though something was sorely lacking from his day-to-day. Sure, knight business was all well and good every other night or so, but otherwise the thrill in his life was just...gone. Poof. Vanished. Nowhere in sight. Hell, even while on patrol (but not really, since basically all he does is just walk around in uniform while carrying two flimsy sticks, all the while praying that nothing bad happens) there's hardly any sort of thrill! Was all this "order" and "chaos" business really that dull?
That was the idea was running through his head while Dominic, sans his uniform and sticks of course, walked aimlessly around Destiny City. With no particular goal in sight, the teen just...kept on going. He figured he'd just keep on going until he found somewhere to be, which is basically exactly what happened. Not ten minutes later Dom found himself walking into some random store, fighting back a yawn as he approached the magazine rack near the register. He could've sworn there was something to be read according to some online post somewhere...
Well that was vague. Whatever. He'd just have to make due with whatever random article he could find. Maybe he could live vicariously through someone else's fun, thrilling and fulfilling life. After checking to make sure there was no signs anywhere telling him to not read the magazines in the shop, Dominic reached for the one magazine cover that didn't have some teenage idol's picture on it and flipped to a random article. He probably would've paid it some attention too, maybe even read a word or even a sentence, had the shiny not caught his eye. It wasn't anything big, sure, but it was a puzzle, and one that he'd never seen before. Or maybe he'd just never noticed? Not that it mattered, since it was in his sights now.
The teen immediately replaced the magazine and turned to face whoever was buying it, the boredom wiped clean off his face. "Yo, where'd you find that?" he asked, trying to act casual. Too bad it was pretty obvious he was kinda giddy about the whole thing. Odd, but hey. The guy loves his puzzles.
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Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:56 pm
Scraps of stories littered Destiny City: half-written phone numbers on napkins, graffiti plastering the walls, a body at the end of the street. Every day, its denizens began their own trite tales as they struggled to form new memories caked atop old, like the dried blood crusting beneath cold sunlight. Portions of thoughts scrawled themselves through action, and from that came evidence of their failure to fruit. A curious cycle, maybe, but one that held Alois' attention for a time.
In a passing interest to assist one Clarisse Stark, Alois combed the city for these discarded yarns, from peeking into a dentist's office for a heavily-abused magazine to finding a child's lost scarf brushed beneath the seat of a subway. Alois scavenged the city at a decent clip, occasionally garnering a sideways glance from passersby for particularly unusual activities, like trying to fish a broken locket out of a storm drain, but overall he managed his forays with little trouble. In a city that housed terrorists, aliens or unconscionably harrowing monsters, what did they care for one misanthrope that cleaned up trite tales left behind? What was a poached pocket watch to a contorted elderly woman sporting a red halo?
And so they walked, and so he searched.
When the pilfered coffee box reached a respectable volume, mostly occupied by the scarf from earlier, he considered abandoning his efforts and heading back to the house to script strange memories for the girl to read. A tailored past, written and rewritten for her proper choice in recollection. In a sense, he envied her for that chance - but even with his current poor standing in the Negaverse, Alois loathed the thought of forsaking encouraged iniquity just for the chance at a possible memory wipe. Besides, some of his more caustic memories felt too personal to relinquish. Maybe she felt the same about a handful of her own, before she turned, but those thought long left her by now. An eighteen-year-old adrift in a blank sea. Too bad.
In one last effort, Alois left his box just outside the door of a convenience store, cleverly obscured between a bench and a great deal of filth. As he pressed past the glass doors, clouded with fingerprints of flighty children and tired fathers alike, he contributed his own small story to the city - almost a consolation for the handful he reaped for Clarisse's benefit. And in perusing the isles, somewhere between the wall coolers full of pisswater beer and an endbase loaded with Corn Nuts, Bugles, and Gardetto's, he caught a glimmer of shine from metal reflecting the oppressive fluorescent lighting. Initially he thought it something far more naughty than it truly was, but closer inspection revealed the mass of metal as a ring of sorts. The misanthrope scooped it up without a second thought, examining its near pristine surface for any denotation of price. He came up with nothing but fingerprints from a previous owner - maybe a child, maybe a high schooler, maybe a ***** with a hole in his pocket. Alois cared little either way.
As Alois examined it, his thumbnail caught in one of the gaps between the individual bands and the ring exploded into a series of four bands, all connected to one another. Though it took him a minute to deduce the reasoning, he finally realized that it was never a ring in the first place, but rather a 3D puzzle. Straightening up, Alois aimed to walk out of the shop while the mass of rings lingered on his index and middle finger.
He long mastered the art of fixing his gaze on an inanimate object to discourage human interaction, but one particularly grating individual called his attention regardless. Setting his jaw, he eyed the boy for a fast handful of seconds to draw judgments from his appearance. Black hair, striking blue eyes. A spot of beard. No real history in his face - no scars, no sunken eyes, no pallor from a recovering cold. A pity, really, but Alois paid it little mind, for the boy exhibited an unusual interest in Alois' newly-obtained puzzle ring.
This coaxed a smile out of the German, composed of unkindness and cleverness alike. "Interested, are we? I'd tell you, but I'd haf' to charge you." He cocked an eyebrow at the stranger as his sole sign of mirth. "But, if you're interested in obtaining zis little gem, we could work somesing out. Follow me; zis stuffy little convenience store will rot me to ze bones if I linger much longer." Narrowly shouldering his new acquaintance upon passing, Alois beckoned the boy toward the exit.
Clarisse Stark wouldn't even know it was missing.
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Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 4:14 am
Had it been a normal doohickey Alois had in his hands Dominic probably wouldn't have paid him any mind at all, actually. The only reason that the dark-haired teen bothered with calling his attention was that very puzzle he was holding, and it was also the only reason he had anything to smile about. But never mind that. Ignoring most everything else, Dominic listened as the other guy spoke...or he kind of tried to. He was mostly looking right at the puzzle, though occasionally his eyes would travel up to meet the guy's rather curious orange ones before going back. Accent, so foreigner...and that was about all the observation the teen could be bothered to do.
The guy carrying the puzzle wasn't his main focus anyway, though it probably wasn't the smartest thing to just follow some random guy out the store, but Dom didn't care so much about that either. He wanted that puzzle, and all the guy was telling him to do was follow him, anyway. What could it hurt? With a relative bounce in his step, Dominic simply followed after the guy. "So," he started, craning his head a little to get a better look at the shiny in Alois's hand. It looked like a ring puzzle of some kind...
"You gonna tell me where you got it? Or do you want me to buy it off you? I don't really have much on me, but I can get a bit more at home if you let me..." and he just went on from there, explaining why he was so interested but eventually going on a (sort of) rant elaborating on the latest Rubik's Cube he'd solved and going on about the last challenging puzzle he managed to figure out took him a whole two weeks and a butt-ton of research. No warning signs that anything bad was about to happen, nothing that gave him a sense of foreboding. It was a normal, boring, average, everyday conversation.
Nothing to worry about!
"Anyway, I mean if it's something reasonable I'm sure we can definitely work something out," he finally managed to find it in him to stop talking and give the other guy some room to breathe. Dom had never bothered to make it a secret that he loved such contraptions, even if Alois wasn't all that interested in hearing anything he had to say about his love for puzzles. Then, as though it was simply an after though, he added, "I'm Dominic, by the way."
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 5:22 pm
Retracing his steps proved more difficult with the boisterous youth yammering at his side, but Alois managed to focus through the fog of bragging about various puzzles to reverse his course with a modicum of accuracy. Though not one to operate through landmark navigation, Alois relocated various points of interest that confirmed his route. And all through the man's animated speech, he remained silent, never once looking to his newly-obtained tagalong to establish eye contact. In a one-sided conversation, Alois recognized his presence was largely unneeded, nor did he hide his recognition of that fact.
As the two peeled away from the busier streets of Destiny City, Alois watched with approval as the populace thinned out down in the alleys. He estimated such prudence stemmed from the various news reports on mounting youma strikes in sparsely populated areas, but thus far his companion proved too enthralled with his own stories to fully recognize their destination. It wouldn't matter much; if the man intended to obtain the puzzle ring clutched between bony fingers, he would forego his better judgments and accompany him nonetheless.
With his hypothesis proven correct, Alois wound his way through a particularly crowded alley, behind a bulging dumpster and through an accommodating hole cut into chain link fence, past haphazardly strewn garbage bags and through a a small stream of runoff from a nearby gutter. In the dead of the alley, where the slick pavement sloped toward the center, stood a large gate with iron bars preventing a rare fall. Alois likened it to the initial scene in It, where the boy set his waterproofed paper boat to the stormy tributaries and watched it swirl into a storm drain such as this. And, effectively, the scene found its own mirror in reality, given what Alois intended to offer as fair trade for his scrounged up story from the aisles of a dingy convenience store.
Finally the Saarlander drew to a halt. "Dominic. Shut up and listen." A sharp glare affirmed the urgency of his statement. As one with no love for small talk, Alois offered few pleasantries or polite commands in conversation. Instead he gestured toward the storm drain, where faint sounds of a bubbling, guttural growl echoed outward. "You hear zat, correct? Somesing lingers in zat storm drain, somesing zat might well account for ze rising attacks in ze alleys." The news never spoke of such, but the weight of his statement proved potent even without truth. "By now you're probably wondering why I drew you here, and what it has to do wis' zis little ring I found." The misanthrope held it up for observation, expertly pinned between index and thumb. His remaining three fingers splayed outward as if giving the ok sign.
"I don't find money a useful trade for anysing. I like experiences. I like sings zat can change me, or spark my interest in a manner I did not expect. I like surprises, not dollars and cents. So, if you truly want my latest acquisition, you will slip your arm between ze bars and taunt ze sing zat lurks in ze storm drain. If you still haf' an arm afterward, ze ring's yours. If not, well... A puzzle ring will do you no good for a tourniquet."
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 7:19 am
Really, the guy's silence was kind of...weird. Most people who held onto puzzles like the ones Alois was currently holding usually had questions for him by this point. How many have you solved? What kinds? Why do you like solving them so much? Does it really matter to you? That kind of stuff. Apparently not this guy, though, which Dominic found a little disconcerting at first. Of course, considering he had no basis with which to judge the guy's reaction to his little rant that culminated in a rather lame introduction, Dominic chocked it up to shyness. Not a bad guess, he figured, and at least the guy had remembered his name. That got more of a smile out of him, though what followed slowly flattened that smile, soon turning his expression to one of mixed curiosity and uncertainty.
Even in his powered form he couldn't have guessed what was waiting behind the bars that his guide had led him to.
Which was...where, exactly? Looking around, the teen realized that he couldn't even tell where they were anymore. He'd been too absorbed with puzzle-talk and other stuff he considered more important than paying attention to where a stranger was leading him. Now that he had a better look at his surroundings, though, it dawned on him that he was in a minor fix. Minor, as in he could put off finding directions out of the dank little alleyway. What was more important was the puzzle, and the intructions that he'd been given were certainly simple enough to follow: go over there, stick your arm through the bars and provoke whatever was growling behind it.
Oh, and pray that he still had an arm afterwards to use in order to solve the puzzle ring.
Dominic actually had to think about that for a second, but his brain was obviously a little biased toward obtaining the puzzle and decided to forego common sense and any regard for his safety. Yeah, it was that important. Pfft. With a confident nod and a roll of his shoulders to kind of relax himself, Dominic gave the man his answer. "You're on. I just gotta piss it off, right? Simple enough..." Dom would likely kick a rabid dog for a rare, novelty Cube; this probably wasn't any different from that. After about a minute of steeling himself he started heading for the storm drain.
"Uh, any other rules that I should know about? And how long have I got to keep it up?" he suddenly called out, spying a thin, crooked something-or-other not too far away and suddenly feeling tempted to use it as some kind of prop. The growling, which sounded sickening and sparked quite a bit of unpleasant imagery to mind that contorted Dominic's face into a look of disgust, he could here a bit more clearly from where he was currently standing. It was starting to get at his nerves, and he had to stop walking and wait for a reply so that he didn't back away entirely.
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Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 12:25 pm
"Yes, you 'just gotta piss it off'", Alois returned in his best Americanized accent (which still stacked poorly to the real deal). A small cringe disrupted his features, as if speaking in such tones left a bitter aftertaste. Alois continued once his countenance smoothed to its usual dull, if not slightly haunted, appearance. "Zere's no special attachments to it - only ze addendum zat you must hold its attention for a full..." The misanthrope petered off, eyes alight with harrowing possibilities. "Sirty seconds. I sink zat should suffice." Should the creatures of the Dark Kingdom prove themselves worthy killing machines, mutilating some headstrong, wayward civilian won't offer much of a challenge.
And as one who had more faith in monstrous conglomerations than the fellow officers who claimed various, lofty titles, he staked a great deal of confidence in this seemingly ridiculous endeavor.
Maybe he subscribed to utter stupidity by partaking in this off-color deal, as he could very well be taunting a fellow plainclothes officer in losing his arm to the youma trapped in the sewers. Alternatively, it could be a senshi, or knight, or Dark Mirror shitstain chomping at the bit for a chance to indulge his disgusting, abrasive obsession with trite little trinkets such as puzzles. And Alois harbored no love for the man, not even a modicum of hate, for the act that Dominic was about to attempt had successfully captured all of the misanthrope's attention.
He wanted to see blood. He wanted to see bone discolored with red. He wanted to see death. And if all his demands were met with bartering off a puzzle ring? Oh, what a striking deal!
Alois slipped the prize in question onto his left ring finger, where it hung loosely and wavered in the soft wind. Afterward the scrawny man slipped into a crouch next to the storm drain bars, where he peered into the darkness beyond his long, tapering bangs. Though he found no distinctive features in the dark, he deduced that the monstrosity must've smelled him, for the growls emerging from those depths grew in intensity and derision. It hated them, absolutely abhorred them, but Alois smiled all the same. Hate felt refreshing. Hate was easy. Hate harbored no strings attached.
He'd take hate over reckless camaraderie any day. "Whenever you're ready, Dominic."
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:20 pm
Dominic listened to the other man carefully, mentally cheering when it was made clear that there were no other particular stipulations to the dare other than to go and irritate whatever was in the gutter. He might have found the attempt at an American accent more amusing under different circumstances, probably he would have tried to imitate whatever accent Alois had to return the favor to try and get a laugh out of the guy, but as it was he was trying to focus on the task at hand. That puzzle was at stake, after all; he glanced down at where Alois held the puzzle ring for a second to steel his resolve a bit more.
"Gotcha. Thirty seconds, no sweat." And so he bent down and scooped up the pipe-thing he eyed right before posing his question. No other rules, right? Worked for him.
The teen inched closer to the bars of the storm drain, putting his face as close to it all the while having to fight down the urge to puke right then -- he wasn't a fan of the smell, safe to say -- as he tried to get a better look at whatever was inside. A dog? A big dog? A...bear? Some mutant monster from the pits of sewer system than ran underneath Destiny City? ...did those even seriously exist? Dom narrowed his eyes a bit, his vision not quite adjusting to the darkness as it normally would have if it were actually nighttime. Beyond the thing's silhouette, though, he couldn't get see much else.
Finally, as it probably made little difference whatever was beyond the bars in the big picture (which was to irritate it enough to satisfy the dark-haired man beside him for thirty seconds), Dominic inhaled deeply and started to stick the pipe he'd picked up through the bars to try and poke at whatever it was.
"Alright..." he started to say, his eyes going buggy when the edge of the pipe made contact with something...pudgy? The contact elicited more growls, as he expected, but little more of a reaction from whatever it was. At this point he really couldn't tell, nor did he really care anymore. Raising a brow, he poked the pipe at it some more, even attempted to splash the thing a little (with minimal success). Whatever he could do to try and irritate it. Still, not much.
He really didn't want to stick his arm in there, but if he had to.... Hopefully it wouldn't come to that. "Aw, come on!" The teen jabbed and prodded at the animal some more, and it replied with growls that seemed to increase in volume and intensity the longer he kept trying.
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Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:17 pm
"Maybe it sinks you're not wors' eating, Dominic." The misanthrope chuckled, thoroughly pleased by the complete lack of turnout. Without the extra sense latent in his powered form, Alois lacked the means to discern if the creature in the sewer truly was a youma. "Go ahead and stick your arm in between ze bars. Maybe it finds metal piping unappetizing." Folding one arm across his chest, ALois rested his free elbow in his hand and pressed his thumb to his jaw. Idly he traced his own jawline as he analyzed the scene with his full attention. Never before had he considered weighing trite trinkets against the sense of self-preservation before, and the impromptu idea proved greatly entertaining.
A seething, bubbling growl emanated from the depths, as if taunting the teen to up the ante. And Alois responded in kind - rather than waiting for the boy to muster up the gumption to goad the beast with his own potential injury, Alois usurped Dominic's hand with practiced deftness. The misanthrope entwined his finger's with the boy, using his knuckles to prevent a quick escape. And afterward, once he was sure his grip proved secure, the misanthrope thrust their interlinked arms betwixt the bars and toward the source of certain violence. There he felt the hot, humid air enveloping his skin, slowly sinking into the protection offered by his long sleeves.
Suddenly a harrowing commotion stirred below ground, with thick, violent splashing followed by deep thumps of heavy appendages slamming against the walls. A visceral roar peeled out, ringing through the misanthrope's ears and wrenching a flinch from the otherwise stoic boy. The monstrosity's infuriated clamors built to deafening volumes until Alois seriously considered if its vocal chords would burst or he might go deaf from the encounter. And even then, the creature prowled closer.
He could tell, for the storm drain bars shook like leaves in a hurricane, and his teeth chattered from the vibrations underground. It sought them. It wanted them. And with every charging, pounding thud came the growing paranoia that the next jarring, visceral sound might very well be the snap of both their forearms splintering like brittle wood, caught in the creatures voracious jaws. And he liked it.
He liked it because it petrified him.
Alois leveled his enthralled gaze on Dominic with a growing, ominous grin - it spoke of all teeth and unkindness. "If we're going to lose our arms togezzer and mix our blood as we exsanguinate, you should at least know my name - Alois Scholz." Soon he started shouting to explain himself over the commotion. "Twenty seconds now, Dominic - and if we survif'e zis wis all our limbs intact, you will haf' your puzzle ring, but I urge you to reconsider ze value behind ze experience while you set about solving ze damned sing. Zey made several undoubtedly, but you will only discover zis situation once!" A sudden breeze swept by Alois' knuckles, cutting him off. He gasped in mixed wonder and terror.
It jumped for them.
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Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 3:19 am
The initial words that came from his darkly clad companion were heavy, and for a second Dominic seriously considered whether a puzzle ring was really worth feeding his arm to whatever was down there was. He pulled the pipe out from between the bars and tossed it aside, ready to drop the dare and move on -- there were likely other similar puzzles and things to be found at the various thrift stores and novelty shops that were scattered across Destiny City -- but Alois caught him off guard. In a single, swift motion the man had easily taken hold of his hand and slipped it right between the bars. Dominic, more shocked and panicked than anything else, tried and failed to pull his hand out of the other's grip, and he winced.
The growls seemed louder now, and there was some kind of stirring from inside the storm drain that he couldn't help but focus on. Was that pudgy thing he'd prodded really so big as to cause such loud, thudding foot steps? Was it actually making the bars of the storm drain vibrate as it made its way over to them? Uh...well, obviously. It was heading for them, likely quite pissed off at being prodded and poked by a steel pipe, and he kept on trying to break free but found himself unable. There was still some part of him that fought to stay the urge to punch the other guy in the face as a means for escape, but as he trying to figure out a nicer way to free himself Alois cut through his thoughts and quite easily put things into perspective for him.
It wasn't worth it. And, really, he didn't need to be nice about trying to save his arm from becoming something's dinner.
But then there was the matter of his pride and the fact that there was really only so little time left before he found himself in possession of a new puzzle. He didn't have all that much time to decide at all, he was basically neck-deep in the situation already, and before he realized it Dom felt something whiz past his knuckles. To his shock and horror, a quick and sudden pain shot up and down his arm only seconds later, quickly followed by a terror-filled scream that erupted from his own throat. It was warm...probably his blood...and wet and slobbery and excruciating -- like an extra large, extra violent dog had just taken hold and refused to let go, instead sinking its teeth deeper into his flesh -- but he could still feel his fingers as he struggled to free himself from the vice-like grip whatever it was had on his arm.
His mind was basically blank; nothing registered, nothing else mattered. The puzzle wasn't worth anything to him at that point, not anymore -- he just wanted his arm back, thank you. And he fought for it, swinging the thing around with what strength was left, even grabbing hold of the pipe he'd tossed aside just moments prior and slipping it back through the bars to hopefully whack the thing off. Anything so long as he could get away with his arm intact.Strickenized Physical injury felt unavoidable, so there that is. :1 But I'd really prefer it if he got away with his arm.. :'DD
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Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 10:40 am
The pain caught in his throat as it bubbled down his hand, raked by teeth and rage. Wide eyes looked to his companion, the shuddering agony peeling up his arm finally giving a full sense of vibrancy to the misanthrope who sat hear the man who shared his pain in mirrored recognition. Alois hissed through his teeth, his features knitting together through the gouging bite before a ragged gasp finally unlatched his jaw. Even now, even when the monstrosity was upon them, the seconds ticked by in his mind as a displaced backdrop to violence. But Alois neglected to draw back his arm, even now when continued ravages loomed in the next few fateful seconds.
But he didn't have to.
His free hand darted to his belt, where a clip held a switchblade with an unadorned black handle. Grasping it with wayward adrenaline, he wrenched the knife from its perch and deployed the blade in a whisk of air while Dominic sought to beat the monstrosity back into the sewer. Alois leaned forward, breath ragged with coursing pain, and thrust his arm into the darkness, poised to strike the dimly-lit gums housed just above those sickening, shining teeth now smeared with their blood. The creature gurgled as it slackened its jaws in preparation for a second, greater bite, and Alois thrust the blade into its gums.
The creature almost didn't register the pain. It paused, but no howls or angered protests came form those insatiable jaws. Even as the misanthrope stabbed repeatedly, each thrust opening new holes in its gums where thick, viscous tar bubbled out, the beast only slowed in its assault on the beckoning meat. Panicked, Alois searched for a better target - an eye, a tongue, some bulbous appendage that held even a smattering of nerve endings - but the darkness only revealed more thick carapace covered in layers of mucus.
In a last act of desperation, Alois held the blade to his wrist, but the effort soon proved unnecessary as a snap sounded and the beast suddenly loosed a great bellow of pain, relinquishing its iron grip on the pair's hands as it turned toward the darkness. Looking toward Dominic's steel pipe, he realized the source of the monstrosity's sudden agony - an abnormally large, dark tooth had broken off into the pipe where his companion must've struck it. Now he was more than willing to withdraw his bleeding hand from between the storm drain pipes - assuming he still had one.
Slowly he raised his arm out of the darkness, and surely enough, his hand sported great gouges where gouts of blood spilled down his fingers. Even attempting to move his fingers nearly paralyzed him with pain - instead he clutched his wrist so tightly that he hoped his desperate measures might stymie the blood. Alois groaned; never had he experienced harm by something posthuman before. The pain pulsed straight up his arm, but he still had the sense about him to grin as the fading adrenaline invited exhaustion in its place.
"Nicely done, Dominic. Sanks to you, I might still be able to play piano sometime in ze future." That was assuming the monstrosity hadn't entirely rearranged his bones and sinew, or that some unknown, necrotic substance seeped from its teeth. "You'f earned your puzzle ring, and probably a trip to ze hospital." Alois edged the ring toward his companion with his foot, careful to give the grate a wide berth. The youma likely left by now, but Alois lacked the interest in risking more appendages to its torturous bite.
Alois started to walk in the direction of the hospital, but paused but a few feet from the other black-haired man. "Since we're likely headed to ze same destination, maybe you can educate me about zat ring while we try not to bleed out." The misanthrope's gaze spoke of intense pain, but mixed in was a weariness, and perhaps fainter still, some semblance of interest.
And if it bored him, the hospital proved a short walk._ p a o cx this works as a close, if you like!
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