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 Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 5:10 am
Backdated to shortly before Mayflies.A guy's gotta eat.
Cas had been nearly catatonic since the death of his father, and was content to hide away in Gently's house being treated like a glorified, video game playing pet. Even if he wasn't so in to being player 2 and usually didn't offer her much in the way of entertainment.
He wasn't sure if it was a comforting feeling or claustrophobic, confining himself to bed beneath a cocoon of blankets to avoid facing the fact he had shattered his civilian life, but after a day and a half of psyching himself up tonight, he got up the urge to put on some real pants and go outside. There was a corner store three blocks away. He would get in, get some snacks, get out, and when he got back relish in his accomplishment.
Although once he put his hands in his pockets and started walking, three locks suddenly felt very far away.
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Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 5:24 am
Emily needed to escape the house if she was going to have any hope of ever escaping her uncle trying to rope her into cooking, or leaving her room, but Emily was in no mood to come out - not really. The news anymore was depressing and she was initially trying to ignore the world to work on configuring her computer, so fleeing, while not her idea of fun, was a required act taking her out into the city, and Emily walked along the sidewalk with the look of someone thinking. In truth, she was a little afraid of being outside. While not one to frighten terribly easily - video games and living at home with homeschooling remedied that or caused it, she didn't know - an encounter with a monster while survived... Left her shaken. She didn't want to think of where she'd be if Ganymede hadn't been there or if auto-pilot hadn't kicked in to force her to think, but her eyes flicked around watching things. She tried talking to her uncle about it (God knew her father would be completely freaked out and blow things out of proportion) but neither her Uncle Tom nor Aunt Emily believed her. Frustrated, Emily decided not to discuss it at all, so, today, all she could do was feel incredibly paranoid and miss her computer, but avoid sanctuary only to escape smothering more. Still, she smiled when she saw Cas across the street on the sidewalk, and releif at seeing something pleasant to be around made her clear the crosswalk nearby to move over. However, she didn't pull him into her customary hug, not yet, instead she kept looking around nervously, then grinned. "Hey Cas." She greeted softly. Was her voice shaking? Probably. But she was NERVOUS.
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 7:34 pm
Cas nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw someone familiar. It was familiarity he was terrified of. He regarded Emily with suspicion and unease. Did she know his dad had been murdered? Probably not, he attempted to reason.
It would have been up to his grandfather or his brother to get into his computer and find his contacts to aks any of his friends where he was, and neither of them were close enough to know who his friends were otherwise. He hadn't seen any front page coverage on it, but they lived in a city where people disappeared and died all the time. A man found murdered in is home, especially a nobody in a bad neighborhood with no terrorist connection, was probably low on the list of things to report about.
"H-hi..." He stumbled and cleared his throat into his fist.
"What are you doing out? You should go home." His priority, he thought now, was to probably get her away. He was dangerous, and the woman who had been acting as his guardian these last few days was worse. Emily had no place in his life now that he was tethered to nothing in his civilian affairs.
God damn it, he just wanted a soda.
She looked nervous. He took that as maybe a sign she knew things weren't so great in Destiny City when the sun started going down.
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 7:41 pm
Emily was oblivious to Cas' recent going ons. She'd noticed he hadn't been online, but he also had that real life thing she wanted to hide from. Real life had monsters and nobody believed her in her house. Oh no, she was instead coddled like she was some poor head case (she wasn't!) who pretended dragons were hunting them daily. Emily hated it and hated her family trying to act like giant monsters weren't running around trying to eat them. Did Cas know? ... He wouldn't believe her either she bet, and suddenly she slumped, managing to fake a half-grin. "Getting away from the house. Folks seem to think I've been too isolated likely." Did that work? That worked. He didn't need to think she was crazy. She wasn't crazy! Her medication worked! OK maybe the technicalities weren't important. But what was important was the illusion she was fine. Even if she wasn't. "How about you?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 9:55 am
"I just ******** said you should go home," Cas snapped, although her nervous behavior made his stomach sink after the fact. It was a side of him that rarely was allowed out during his civilian life, but was all to free to run wild when he was powered.
He had spent the last few days hearing there was no distinction, and there was nothing left but the Chaos now. There was no reason to keep playing the shy dork so he could let his anger out behind a disguise.
He felt caught between two personal extremes with Emily, and he fumbled and twisted in his stance before trying to think of what to say next.
"There's monsters and s**t out here and you need to go," Were the next words, but youma weren't quite as high on his defined list of monsters than himself and Painite, and this was their[/] territory. He wasn't sure what was making him angry about Emily's presence in it. She was an invader, but at the same time, he didn't want her lumped in with the chattel other humans were.
"Like, now."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:25 am
"Y..You've seen them too?" Emily's eyes went weide and suddenly... She was actively petrified, looking around nerviously, trying to forceably calm herself down. "Some weird monster tried to kill people the other day, nobody's believed me..." Her voice shook - she was expecting him to call her nuts, and further, expected mentioning Ganymede was a dumb idea, but... There was some hoipe. Even still she took note of a scant few objects nearby she could weaponize. She was afraid though.
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:47 am
"They're called youma," Cas said with increasing comfort in his prickly demeanor, falling into his upset more easily now that things were slipping through the cracks. What was the point in hiding anymore? He couldn't go back to being Cas, and he had forgotten if the quiet doof or the angry a*****e full of rage was the mask and which one needed to be discarded.
"They feed on people, the Negaverse releases them into the streets. Higher level officers can control them."
He had been avoiding direct eye contact. Was still avoiding direct eye contact. But he folded his arms and tried to look as sour and unfriendly as possible.
"It's just a lot of bad s**t, Em, and you should probably just go home and avoid it."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 11:00 am
"Except my family didn't believe I even saw a monster." She mentally wandered back to the park, even before the - youma? Youma - and swallowed. "I try. I keep running into... Some weird s**t. It keeps getting... Weirder too. I... Don't want to and can't stay inside all the time. Cas... I'm... Don't tell please..." She paused, swallowing. It had taken a lot to even feel fear, but the youma, and the fight, finally wrest it out from the cobwebs. "Cas, I'm scared."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 11:54 am
Cas was trying really hard not to give in to the rising sympathy and guilt bubbling in his chest. He was ready to shut down again.
"It wasn't the first time?" He mumbled some degree of solicitude he had been trying to avoid.
"This city isn't safe. No one who claims to be powered by Chaos is safe, and neither are their monsters. It doesn't matter if anyone believes you. If you keep running in to those people then maybe it's best to just get out."
His instinct as to pull her into a hug and tell her it was okay, but she was scared and he was scared and for some reason the anger and emotion that still hurt in his chest told him the tough love route. Or maybe he just wanted to finish the job and scare her off. These few lingering ties to some civilian life he couldn't go back to needed to be eliminated, or they'd be strained to the point of breaking in harsher ways.
"They're everywhere here. All over the city, and I know because," Emily was suddenly faced with the glowing, hooded captain in place of Cas and his sloppy clothes. "Because I'm with them."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:00 pm
Emily blinked several moments before she could respond. She'd never seen anyone do that, but on some level, it made some sense he'd been hiding something. At the same time -- if he was bad, why was he telling her anything?Emily swallowed, then frowned. "Cas, you know I can't... Leave." Was his name Cas like that? How did this work? This was a little.... Weird."I can't... Exactly bail just like that. ....Besides." She raised a brow. Analysing helped. Right? It kept5 her calm before. Yeah. Logic. WOO SCIENCE. Maybe. "Besides, if you were - a monster - yopu. You wouldn't tell me how to... Stay safe." She swallowed, then thought. "Besides... Chaos - that's a myth in Greece, right? Like... The primordial soup mix of everything... Right?" She was half-hoping he was using analogies.
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 4:13 pm
"Sure you can, anyone can leave."
Even Zippeite could sense the bitterness there. Ouch.
He shifted his jaw and ground his teeth, arms firmly crossed to keep himself from reaching out or doing anything. "It's called Chaos magic, it's what makes the monsters, it's what makes me strong. Be real, Emily, a scrawny nerd like me doesn't get ripped sitting around and playing on computers. I got swirlies in junior high, but now if I felt like it I could break someone's neck. I have broken someone's neck."
He did his best to snarl, look dangerous, but with Emily it was hard.
"There's a lot of weird s**t in this city. Not all of it's bad, but I am. I ******** up, and now I'm stuck. I like you Emily, a lot, but be real. I could reach into you chest and pull out your starseed, which would kill you. I could drain your energy pool dry until you died. And the difference between me and the others is they will. It's not safe here for normal humans. You should be scared. You should be scared of being out here and you should definitely be scared of me."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 4:26 pm
Carneli THAT;'S OKAY I DIDN'T NEED MY HEART OR FEELINGS. Emily finally cringed, trying to not start crying there on the spot, and managed some compromise of conciously gritting her own teeth, but the tears began to form, a couple already spilling over. Her breath hitched and she stared Zippeite square in the facer. She was trying. Hard. "You don't think I'm not afraid? I saw one of those - youma things. I know they're out there." You're the only person I can trust to talk to about it. You're my friend. I -"Besides, you're not... A bad guy. And if it was malicious... You're still a good person. You can try.. Finding some way to redeem yourself... Right?" She wanted to cling to him, but based on his face, he wouldn't let her. "You're better than the others, I know you gotta be. You said they would. If you were as bad... Ourt friendship wouldn't matter." She managed a forced grin, breath hitching again. "You're looking out for me. You're my best friend, Cas. Please don't do this. We can work something outy..."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 5:35 pm
"No, it doesn't need to be worked out. It's what Chaos is meant to do," Zippeite said with a firm nod, parroting back the rhetoric Gently filled his head with. Had been filling his head with since he started high school and joined the Negaverse.
"There are bigger things in the universe, Emily."
He took a deep breath and flared his nostrils and forced himself to look directly at her and convey seriousness he didn't truly feel. "I'm fine with what I am. If you're not fine with your place in the food chain, then leave. Because you either join the monsters or you get eaten here."
He kept his face set in that solid frown, digging in his heels. "I can offer either service," He sneered. "But I think the better option for both of us is for you to just haul your a** home and forget this ever happened. I'm not coming back. Not to school or home or anywhere else. s**t happens, Em. I'm done playing as dorky Cas. I'm Captain Zippeite, and I'm not going to be hunted down like everyone else here. If that means I'm going to be doing the hunting, then I'm okay with it."
All forgetting that he was dorky Cas first. But he didn't know what to do. He was floundering as much as she was but he had perfected the art of offensive defense when he felt cornered. He had just never had so much of it creep in to his interactions with people who were important as a civilian. Just like he had never used his powers on them when he lost his temper like the night he'd killed Marcel.
"Just, it's for your own good, Emily. Go home."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 5:54 pm
Carneli TRUST ME EMILY IS TWO SECONDS AWAY FROM CLINGING TO HIM. WHAT'S GOING ON ANYMORE. Emily swallowed, shivering a moment before thinking over what she'd found out by sheer, stupid luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time - sort of like finding out her cousin had snuck a motocycle in under his mother's nose, or... Well, finding the winged man in an alley and she shuddered. Had he been this - Negaverse group too? Emily managed to swallow at the comment about monsters, shaking her head with a grim look usually reserved for attacking her computer when it got malware (rare, but it happened), or when she was actively challenged. Except she was losing Cas because he - Did he want her gone? Emily's hand began shaking, flexing and stretching in an anxious manner. For once, she was the nervous one and he was the confident. But she didn't know half of what this - war? - was about and she stared Zippeite in the face, breath coming raspy and short, trying to calm herself, trying to hold on to- something. " Nobody..." She finally managed. " Nobody hunts Emily Wren Wiley. Nobody." She used the phrase often - almost as often as she quoted 'I am Loki of Asgard' lines from movies, but did she believe it? Only partially. Right now she weas terrified that she was losing Cas - losing - was he her best friend outside her family? What was he? ...He was important. Hell, she'd worried when he stopped logging on so much. He was <******** important and she was... Well, crying like a noob. "Damnit, you're not a ******** monster. That's bullshit and we know it. I trust you Cas. I've always trusted you." She gripped air in two tight fists, knuckles going white as her Uncle Tom's did often when someone upset his children - when her aunt worked hard on something, or her father was managing not to snarl at someone in his way. "Cas, you know me better than to think I'll just roll over. And I ******** know you aren't a monster or you'd have tried to drop me. I'll make it home. Stop deluding yourself with whatever bullshit you picked up about being a monster or hunting people with no choice. Because I know you're better than that."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 6:37 pm
Zippeite raised one eyebrow, masking a perfected uncaring a*****e expression.
"I killed my dad, you think I won't kill you if you get in my way too? Just because you're sentimental about a bunch of online chatting?" He reached out to see if she'd flinch, to pull an orb of energy from her to demonstrate he could, and his hand remained outstretched to show it.
"I'm done with being Cas. I'm Captain Zippeite and I'm loyal to no one else besides General Painite and Metallia. I don't have room for people like you in my life anymore. I'm moving up in the world. And you bones can either make the foundation or you can leave. Your choice, Emily Wren Riley. But you are breakable. You're nothing but a fragile energy source and if you stay here you will be broken."
And with those words he teleported away, out of sight and back in the warm safety of Gently's apartment where he powered down. All at once he exhaled the pressure and twisted emotion of the interaction in a loud, wavering groan.
He yelled and gripped his head and flopped right back down where he had spent the last several days to pull the blanket over his head, trying to muffle further noises. He had no idea why he had tried to exit his catatonic state and tiptoe out into the real world. There was nothing but consequences out there brought on by the pitifully dumb decisions of Cassidy Bresner and Zippeite both.
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