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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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 Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 7:15 pm
“Get up you filthy hybrid!”
Cas’ gaze jerked in the direction he heard the command come from. The words and tone conveying nothing but a sense of hatred from the person uttering them. He frowned, hesitating on moving forward. This wasn’t his battle. He had enough of his own battles to deal with never mind taking on someone else’s problems as well. He took a step forward, intent on heading back to his house when he heard the impact of a hand against a cheek. It was faint but he had heard it. Followed by the smack came the sound of crying. Cas grit his teeth together at the noise. Impossible for him to ignore.
“Oh look, it’s crying now.” The laughing that was followed by another cry sent Cas over the edge. He cursed, turning around and stalking over to the alley way where the commotion had been coming from. What he saw stopped him in his tracks. Two orderites stood over a smaller boy, much younger than Cas himself. Maybe around twelve or thirteen Young enough to not be able to hold his own against the two older boys attacking him.
Cas surveyed the scene, noting the dark mark on the boy’s cheek. The armored gloves on the orderite’s hands, the heavy boots and the overall nasty looks they were giving the hybrid on the ground. His fists clenched as he took a step into the alley. Just as he opened his mouth, the taller of the orderites moved to kick the boy. Cas moved, stomping the ground and sending a ripple traveling through the ground and towards the orderites. As it reached them, it threw them off balance, causing the one to about to kick the boy to tumble over. “You should keep your hands to yourself, if you know what’s good for you.” He narrowed his eyes, moving over to the boy on the ground. He crouched just as the orderite he’d knocked down pulled himself back up to his feet.
“You should be the one to stay out of this hybrid.” Came the voice a second before a splitting pain spread over the back of his head and down into his neck. He grunted, falling forward and catching himself against the wall before his body collapsed on top of the boy. The laughter again. Insults spewing from their mouths. Nothing he hadn’t heard before. Nothing he wasn’t use to. To attack a defenseless boy like this, though, it riled Cas to no ends.
“Run.” he gritted out as he looked the hybrid boy in the eyes. “Now.” As the boy scrambled out from under Cas, he heard the jeers again, heard them tossing rocks towards the fleeing boy. Cas pushed away from the wall, spinning and throwing a punch towards the nearest Orderite. His fist connected with flesh as the orderite stumbled backwards, caught off guard by the sudden attack.
“b*****d.” The other spat out as he tackled Cas in the side, sending him flying to the ground. The air rushed out of Cas’ lungs as his body slammed into the ground. He hissed at the pain as the orderite swung, connecting with Cas’ cheek and nose a few times before Cas could pull at his magic. With a bit of maneuvering, Cas raised the ground to one side of him, forming a slight incline that allowed him to roll the orderite on top of him. Cas straddled his chest, pinning the orderite’s wings down with his knees. His fists connected a few times with the boy’s face before hands came up to protect him.
Cas heard the curses behind him, felt the tugging at his arms. He slammed his elbow back, connecting with the chest of the orderite trying to pull him off. His magic came alive, as if on it’s own, smashing into the orderite and knocking him back against the wall. Distracted with the second one, the first orderite managed to get enough leverage against Cas to push him up and away from him. Cas grunted as he tumbled backwards, falling to the ground. He glared, wiping the blood away from his lip with the back of his hand. He snarled at the two orderites as they spat at him, throwing more insults his way before staggering off in the opposite direction that the boy had disappeared to.
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:14 pm
“You should have broken their wings.”
Detraeus stepped forward as he said it, moving in towards the grounded hybrid and then tilting his head with narrow-eyed curiosity as he looked over him. Something about the boy’s appearance — particularly up close — itched at the back of his mind. The strange pattern to his unique, tri-pronged horns, or his mismatched eyes. Familiar in their oddity, like a long-faded shadow of a memory…
Detraeus shoved his musings away.
His fingers still shook, or would have been shaking, if he hadn’t balled them into fists, but Taliuma was teaching him quickly to grip hard on his impulses. A thousand things — panic, disgust, loathing, and a rearing, bloody instinct for violence — washed over him every time he spotted wings on display in the streets. Birds and bird hybrids meshed in with everything else like a sea of filth dribbled out into the ocean. But he knew better, in a crowded port town, than to give into every urge to draw a blade or bow, and settled instead for gripping the hilts of his weapons, timing his breathing, and working himself through such panic attacks privately until the race to his pulse subsided.
Fortunately, even in an intermixed port, there was still a good bit of racial segregation, ords generally preferring to work with others of their blood, and the same for oblivionites. Dovaa mixed themselves in everywhere, but at least that didn’t bother him. In his chosen portion of the city, Detraeus could largely avoid unwanted encounters, but there were of course exceptions. This morning was one such exception.
He’d spotted the commotion late, thankfully, since — if it had been him stepping up to the plate — he might have done far worse, and wound himself behind bars, or being hanged for murder. He grimaced. This boy, though…
As a dovaa-oblivionite hybrid, surely he could relate to Detraeus’ hate?
“They deserved far worse than what you gave them. Do you even use your weapon in a fight? Or do you rely completely on your dragon magic to save you?”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:25 pm
Cas' gaze jerked away from the other end of the alley at the other voice. His eyes narrowed at the newcomer as he pushed himself up from the ground. "I'd rather not hang because of some stupid bullies." He shrugged, rolling his shoulders to work out a few kinks. He reached up, running his fingers over his nose to check for breaks. Thankfully, even though the orderite had landed a nice hit to his nose, it wasn't broken. "I use it. Sometimes." Cas grunted as he fingered the hilt of his ax. "I only wanted to teach them a lesson, not kill them. Why do you care anyway?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:40 pm
Detraeus snorted. “Every bird is better dead than alive,” he said, voice bitter and crisp with an extra clip to it that dared the other to object. “But best, I suppose, that you don’t end up dying for it. The more of the world populated with us than them, the better. Particularly if you’re going to go out so embarrassingly with half-arsed punches and a magic handicap.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 7:15 pm
Cas eyed the oblivionite warily, his hold on his wings increasing with each second he was in the presence of the other. The last thing he needed was for his wings to randomly pop out. He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring. "I won, didn't I? Why does it matter how or with what?" Cas shrugged, letting his arms drop down to his sides. "I didn't see you jumping in to help. You were obviously watching. Care to show me how you could have done better?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 7:37 pm
“Tch…” ‘If you call that winning,’ a part of Detraeus countered, but he didn’t bother voicing the words. It was good that the battle had been left to this…hybrid. Detraeus knew, realistically, that — were the fight in his hands — things would have gone far too out of control, and ended with more blood than he wanted on his hands in a public setting. A time for making his blood count would come, but this was not the place.
“I could,” he said eventually. “If you promise not to waste my time. Care to try and teach me something, hybrid? Or do you have a name?”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 7:42 pm
Cas' eyebrows rose as the oblivionite finally spoke. "Mmm. You're on," he said as he grinned. "The name's Casseth."
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 8:06 pm
Detraeus blinked, freezing at the name like a man caught in the quick-locking ice of an aiskala’s blast. All at once, too fast, memories bombard him.
“Are you alright?” A young voice, and a familiar, rounded face lit by the light of the just-rising sun with a dead arrical for a backdrop. “My name’s Cas. What’s yours? Where are you from? Where are your—”
“Casseth. Enough.”
Detraeus swallowed hard. “Cas…” He cleared his throat. “Casseth.”
“Detra…eus…?” The hybrid boy tilted his head to the side as he pronounced the name, a smile forming on his lips. “Hello Detra,” he greeted, full of boundless energy and good cheer that had confused Detraeus to the world’s edge and back again at that age. “My name’s Cas but I told you that already, didn’t I?”
Between the distinct, tri-pronged horns, heteroform eye sockets, name, and having just met with the boy’s father again so recently, Detraeus had no doubt it was — by some ridiculous coincidence — the same hybrid. His cheeks burned, stomach knotting at the thought of his younger self. How pitiful he must have seemed at the time. Letting out a huff of breath, he nodded sidelong, towards the west edge of town.
“Somewhere without an audience, mm?”
Without waiting for Casseth’s response, Detraeus started walking, trusting the hybrid to follow, and he did. When they’d reached the town’s outskirts and an open, hardened patch of dry earth, Detraeus gave a speculating glance backwards to Cas before unfastening his quiver, setting it aside, and then propping his bow against it before stepping away. His daggers — consciously or not — he left strapped to his chest and hip.
“No magic.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 8:14 pm
Cas frowned as he watched the oblivionite set aside his bow and arrows. Fighting without his magic would be hard. It was second nature for him to pull at it and use it as an advantage in his fighting. Suppressing that instinct would take a lot of concentration and he wasn't one hundred percent sure he could keep a grip on that control.
"Agreed. No weapons either," he said as Cas nodded towards the daggers strapped at his chest. His gaze flicked down to the oblivioninte's waist, eyebrows raising at the dagger that was strapped to his hip. "That too..." His brain plucked at a memory long forgotten, something shoved so far back he wasn't even sure if it was real or just a dream he had had. His gaze flit back to the oblivionite's face. "I told you my name. It's only fair I get the same in return." Cas unfastened the sheath that held his ax, sitting the large weapon off to the side.
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 8:27 pm
Detraeus’ chest clenched, pulse stuttering a fraction as he watched Casseth set his weapons aside. So much trust. What if he had lured the hybrid out here with the intent of killing him, out of sight of the city? It would have been so easy. Though, unfairly enough, Casseth was never fully weaponless. Frowning at the thought of the other boy’s magic, how effortlessly the earth itself bent to his will, he felt a pinch of bitter jealousy, and turned his gaze away. The thought of making himself weaponless, when his opponent never truly would be…
Detraeus grit his teeth.
Quelling the sharp, twisting fear that attempted to root his fingers in place, he worked free the belt fastening his throwing blades to his chest, and tossed them aside before carefully unbuckling and setting aside the very dagger that Casseth himself had gifted him half a decade prior. Bitter as it was to admit, he owed this boy — and his father — his life. If making himself weaponless in this moment got him killed, then so be it. He had five free years already.
As he stepped away from his weapons again, he rolled his shoulders, forcing out a slow, paced breath before answering: “Detraeus.” And then, because he couldn’t resist the curiosity, he lifted his chin, pinning Casseth with an assessing stare. “Do you remember me?”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 8:37 pm
Casseth lips worked up into a grin, his own wondering confirmed as soon as the boy's name left his lips. "You've changed. Though I suppose that's to be expected after so many years." Heh tilted his head as he moved away from his ax, rolling his shoulders in much the same way Detra had. Cas' face ached as he spoke, his split lip swollen but no longer bleeding, his nose throbbing. He ignored all that, though, eager to get the spar started. "Of course I remember you. I gave you that dagger," he said as he nodded towards the last weapon he had discarded.
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:04 pm
Detraeus’ attention flicked to the split in Casseth’s lip. Already badgered, and still eager as ever to keep on. He supposed he could respect that. Curbing his lip’s natural instinct to curve upwards at Casseth’s grin — ‘When was the last time I met someone who made me smile?’ — Detraeus snorted, and moved in.
Casseth sparred, as Detraeus might have expected, with energy. He seemed ever at odds, though, with the desire to curb his magic, and came out far better at blocking and warding Detraeus away than doing much damage. He did, though, land his fair share of hits — largely since Detraeus rarely ever bothered to put up a defense, quite Cas’ opposite — and more than once, Detraeus felt the earth ripple with Cas’ restrained magic. Not quite jumping up to his aid, but desiring to. On the one occasion that his dragon magic did slip out of his control — the earth jerking under Detraeus’ feet to knock him off balance and then darting up to shield Casseth when Detraeus moved in to punch — Detraeus called him out on it. Sharply.
Casseth, to Detraeus’ great surprise, apologized immediately, and looked more frustrated with himself for the error than anything else. By the time they both reached exhaustion, Detraeus had to admit, grudgingly, that perhaps there was a good bit he had still to learn — and some of it could well come from the boy who’d saved him so many years before.
Wiping the rapidly drying salt-sweat from his forehead, Detraeus huffed, breathless, as the two of them stepped apart. Unwilling to breathe a word of his conclusions aloud, he settled for: “You live here?”
Maybe, if this hybrid truly had been pushed upon him and lived in the area, Soudana was sending him a sign.
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:22 pm
Casseth breathed heavily as the two stepped apart. Sweat clinging to his skin and his body aching all over again. The spar, however draining, had been fun and though he had lost control of his magic at least once, he had done pretty well at keeping it under control. He bent, retrieving his ax and hooking it back to his ax. The heavy, familiar weight of his weapon was welcome against his hip.
He nodded at Detra's question. "Just inside of town." Cas tilted his head to the side, genuinely curious. "Where are you staying? How long have you been here? It couldn't have been long...I would suspect I'd have seen you by now." He snapped his mouth shut as he realized his old habit of asking question after question was slowly making it's way back to him. He shook his head, a small smile on his lips, one last comment. Something he couldn't help but put out there. "You're welcome at our home if you ever need a place to stay."
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 12:42 am
Detraeus tensed at the last comment. Did Casseth assume him still incapable of housing himself? The ease of the boy’s smile though, and the warm, carefree nature to his voice, gave Detraeus pause. If the boy was mocking him — which Detraeus considered entirely possible — he buried it well, and after an extended pause, Detraeus opted to snort and tackle the initial questions first.
“The west quarter, far corner off the coast. Where the rats live.” Stooping, he gripped, lifted, and re-fastened his quiver to his waist, then strapped on his dagger and throwing blades as well. Once armed again, Detraeus felt better. Safer, and content in his own skin again, despite his fatigue and pleasantly worn, stinging muscles. It had been a good spar, and it would better him, he decided, to not drive Casseth away, if possible. Thus:
“Four months,” he said, answering the second question, “and while I appreciate your offer, I can feed myself now, and have a bed of my own to sleep in. Perhaps we could meet again, though?” He eyed Casseth — taller than he by over a hand’s breadth, sturdy, and resilient — a strange sight to reconcile with his memory of a nine-year-old child, scrawny, grinning, and dwarfed by the side of a grown khehora. “I might learn more from you than I gave you credit for.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 3:41 am
"Four months, really?" Casseth tilted his head. "Part of me is surprised we haven't ran into each other. Then again, a part of me knows that Taliuma is a big enough place that you can stay lost in the crowd for some time." He watched as Detra strapped his weapons back on to him.
Casseth shrugged as his offer was turned down. "The offer stands indefinitely. I rarely leave Eowyn, so it's easy enough to find me." He paused, contemplating briefly. "There's a produce shop in the market. The only one, not hard to miss. If you ever need to get a message to me or my dad, you can leave it with the woman there and she'll get it to us quick."
Cas gave Detra a smile, genially glad that they had met up again. "More sparring would be fun. I could learn a thing or two from you as well."
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