Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

What do you get when you throw characters from different settings together?
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Lilith Anderson
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Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

(Crossposted from RDI, circa December 2015)

Blue eyes blue wandered lazily about as the schmooze prowled about the dirty and dark side ways of the Docks district. It was another day same as last; a blur of time spent drinking, smoking, working, or entertaining himself in a way most appropriate for one such as he. The life of Mach - an irony that tickled the man's dark humor and crushed him all the same.

Work today lasted late with the pursuit and capture of some underground fairy dust dealer and the odd set of circumstances set the man in a mood. He didn't want to go back to his apartment alone tonight, didn't want to face nightmares both old and new with only the haze of nicotine and alcohol on his side. And so he was on the move, grooving as the schmooze that he could only be looking for a little company to while the hours with until his next job lead came to fruition. Ducking into some dive bar or another, the man pushed that winning smile of his upon those ruggedly handsome features as he noted a lonely heart at 10 o'clock sipping away at something strong.

An easy approach, sly yet cocky. Measured movement that was almost textbook in its method and execution let the hunter slide on up to the woman with an easy grin and a flick of brows. �You know, you let me go into your wine cabinet and I bet I could pull out a stiff one..." A little wink, a sassy smirk, and a bark of laughter at that ice breaker delivered without a shred of pride. It was stupid, and he hated himself for it all, but it worked like a charm as a melodic chime of laughter rose up with his painting the way for that night of flirting and schmoozing.

While only blocks from home, the Lilith couldn't bring herself to make the finally leg of a journey that had taken her all over the city in the course of a day. Aimless wandering that did little to sate overwhelming urge to run from the city and leave it burning in her wake. A leather clad bundle of volatility, the late night crowds of Dockside seemed to take heed of the aura she radiated and parted for her without so much as a jostling shoulder check. The harbor's seedier dives were far more of a home than her apartment had ever been, no matter how much Andrea had filled it with furniture and clothes, warmth and notes on the fridge, toothbrushes and rugs. Damn rugs.

Familiarity came in fleeting glimpses, bare glances of faces she knew. Whether personally or just in passing, they were spots of comfort against the desolate canvas of the city. It surprised her still to catch a brief gander of Race Bannen. No, that wasn't Race but rather a slightly more worn down and a little more rugged doppleganger. Mach. The name came to mind, permeating through the day's gloominess as she wondered if a certain pink haired marvel would be with him.

The bar itself was one she found herself in often, known for its heavy handed tender who had no issue laying on the liquor so long as the tips kept coming. Lil ducked in with a push past a drunken sailor who was on his way out with a not so pretty little thing that he'd likely regret waking up to the next day. Mach was at the bar, that much was evident. But with a quick scan, it definitely wasn't with Serah. Lilith's brows knitted with vague confusion. Maybe it wasn't him. She inched closer and found her own lean on the bar. Whiskey, neat and with the bottle, was set in front of her. Her usual. It gave her an excuse to drink and listen, waiting to confirm her suspicions while she reminded herself that the last time she let her temper get the better of her, a man spontaneously combusted. Couldn't have that again.

There was no pink one with the schmooze this evening, a doppelganger that could give even Race a run for his money for the veracity of appetite he could hold... and sate. There hadn't been that better half of him for a few weeks now, something that had been taking a heavy and silent toll on the hunter. It left him feeling as little more than a husk; a creature working the moves that he knew, enjoying life in the shallowest of manners he could so as he'd not harm another as the one that he... he... A pointless venture, a thought that did not but kill him a little more each time it arose. The very thing that drove him to these seedy places, drove him to push everyone away from him by being as much as the schmooze as they only knew him to be, to be the very living incarnate of the mask that was Mach.

But it was a comfortable mask, one that he wore oh so well as he swooned the woman with his honeyed words, his smooth moves and confident nature. She was a receptionist of some shipping firm and hired on mostly to be eye candy for the boss and his workers. And he? He was everything she dreamed. A mysterious stranger that was friendly and kind but naughty and aggressive in the most tender of ways. It was a game of charades and Mach was a thespian, building the stranger up and making a ****ty night seem magical... with he as her knight in shining armor, or an easily infectious grin at least. The words were unimportant, vapid in their content though the ends were more and more evident as Mach moved ever closer.

A touch of hand here, a nudge there, a wink and laugh. Rhy'Din really was a place for people of loose morals and wanton desires. And the schmooze did stoke that desire in this young woman that now crooned into him, drunkenly giggling at his silly jokes, swaying into him 'coyly' so as to molest herself upon his person, and gasping a moaning purr as the man enticed her with nibbles and kisses to her neck. It was obvious that these were not mere friends having a gay ol' time. These were strangers looking to pass a lonely evening in the warmth and comfort of each other's arms; arms that now snacked along the woman's shoulders as the schmooze started to lead her for the door. A much finer catch then the other fellow indeed!

The amber liquid in the bottle of Jack was quickly dwindling with the more that she heard. Drain, refill, drain, refill, the pattern continued until the tender stopped by a few murmured words. An expectation of payment for a tab neglected. She feigned ignorance with a sloe eyed bat of lashes while fishing out a stack of silver sufficient enough to sate the man. He wasn't the sort to fall for her games even if the glamour tugged and pulled at the edges of his subconscious, so he scooped up the offering, tilled the payment and pocketed the ample tip she gave him. It was the benefit of leaving her alone to her own devices for the most part.

The more she drank and the more she listened, the further she felt the blood boil in her veins. She ran hot by nature, between the daemonic essence that sustained her tether to this realm and the red opal she carried constantly. Those around her made subtle shifts to relieve themselves of the growing warmth around her. Mach was pulling away from the bar, with that woman nonetheless, and a low grumble rumbled in the back of her throat. Fingers wrapped around a tumbler set the liquor within aflame and without a worry in the world, she tossed the burning liquid into her mouth for a final swallow. Focusing her ire on the man was easier than thinking about her own problems. Where the heck was Serah?

Upending the tumbler on the top of the bottle to signal to the tender that she was done, she pushed out of her lean to see if she could intercept the pair before they made it to the door. Briefly accosted by a trashed man reeking of tequila, she cringed and shoved past him. If she could, she made a grab for the back of Mach's jacket just before the door. "Turner? What in the Hell do you think you're doing?!"

The heat was something neither of that pair seemed to notice as it was probably just the two of them together that was lighting things up! At very least that's what the schmooze told himself as he kept up that attack, oblivious or perhaps uninterested in anything else at the bar. He just wanted his distraction, his get away for tonight from all those dark thoughts that followed him, those desires that only burned him, that wish he knew could not be granted and only mocked him for even desiring such. He was a monster; not born as such but made by the way that he was, what he had done and become in the process. And hunters... hunters knew what to do with monsters.

He left a few bills behind on the bartop for the tender to pay for the liquid courage he'd encouraged to Amy...Amelie? It didn't really matter as they both knew what this was. A single cast spell, a night to remember before they once more returned to their respective solitudes. She was vapid and empty even by Mach's standards and he was something dangerous that she instinctively knew to avoid save for this one night of poor judgment. Almost to the door the schmooze felt a tug catch the back of his button down, a wholly inappropriate amount of clothing but then the resistance potions he'd drank to keep him comfortable from the cold kiss of winter made it so he didn't need to bother with a coat. May also have explained his complete lack of notice for the near burning heat of the woman's touch.

Of course the use of that last name did set off an alarm as cobalt gaze slid back easily to the woman, a quirk of brow offered to the demanding stranger. He... didn't know this one. That... that wasn't a very comforting. "Huh? I think you got the wrong person, yeah?" An easy smile for the purple haired one playing things off simply as a fact of mistaken identity.

She let go the moment he turned around, red eyed gaze taking in both the man and his target for the evening. The woman was pretty, Lilith would give her that. At least the man couldn't be faulted for poor taste. Taste aside, a heavy glare met his smile and she shook her head. "No, I definitely don't have the wrong person." She said matter of factly. "Mach. Eli or whatever the **** your name actually is. Serah's boyfriend?" See, she knew what she was talking about. Or so she thought. A cursory glance was bounced back to his companion.

"Look lady, you don't want any part of this. Unless you're the homewrecking sort, in which case, I'd be glad to see you outside instead." The Lilith cut an imposing figure as she let her threat sink in. At a couple inches shy of the six foot mark when flat footed, the sharp heeled, red soled boots put her nearly at eye level with Mach and a head over most women in Rhydin. Leather jacket, leather pants, the barest peek of red shirt beneath, it all added up to the sort of "Don't **** with me" attitude that she was all too good at wielding. The glamour that drenched her like a second skin bled a sort of predatory appeal that spelled doom for most even on the best of days and she had no qualms about using that to her advantage. With her solid cockblocking attempt on the books, she looked back to Mach. "So, I'm gonna ask you again. What in the Hell do you think you're doing?"
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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Lilith Anderson
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Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

Mach did attract the pretty ones but then again he was oh so ruggedly handsome and knew how to use such to his advantage. He'd not really have turned that much, seeming fine to give whoever was grabbing him all but a cursory moment of time. But then he saw that look upon crimson eyes, saw the way she was made up and the ugly twist that held to her otherwise pretty features. This was someone that had a bone to pick with him, this much was evident. And in his line of work.. line of life you didn't brush such folks of so easily, not if you valued not being a pile of ash.

Turning fully to face the woman the man would pause a moment, a hitch in his cocky manner at words that parted this one's lips. 'Serah's boyfriend'. It was something that felt like a sucker punch with an icicle to his chest causing a howl of pain that didn't quite make it to mar his pretty boy looks. Of course as she turned her anger towards Annie... Annabelle... B-Brittany!? Whatever her name was the man turned ever so protectively so as to shield the woman. Hey, she was nothing more than a distraction, but not matter how much Mach tried he just couldn't dump that chivalrous side to him.

"Who's Sarah?" Words from the woman that squirmed a little under his arm, both trying to put distance between herself and the purple haired one as well as snuggle into the hunter. Cheeky one this, but then 'homewrecker' really wasn't an insult that held such weight for folks that came to places as these. Mach just ignored his mark a he smiled anemically to the stranger. "Yeah, you do got it wrong. I-I'm not Serah's boyfriend, a'right? Got d-...dumped, so now I'm just a guy, yeah? So lay off." That smile was thin as he stepped up to that 'don't **** with me' attitude, his manner confident, dangerous, and tense from something wholly different that writhed beneath the surface.

Her gaze narrowed as he turned fully, fighting the urge to roll her eyes at the drunk woman at his side. By now people were beginning to stare at the brewing confrontation, not as though she cared. The bartender, however, knew it was bad for business and hollered over to her. "Lil, if yer gonna set him on fire or something, do it outside, yeah?"

The Lilith groaned, flashed a wink and a grin at the tender and looked back to Mach. Her brows rose slightly with the revelation that they had broken up and for the briefest of moments, she contemplated whether or not she should back off. The little tiny nagging at the edge of her mind told her to walk away. That nobody would benefit from her socking him in the face. But the rest of her, that proverbial devil on her shoulder, told her it would feel all too good. Thinking it over, she pulled a metallic cigarette case from her pocket and plucked one of the hand rolled sticks from within. Pinning it at the corner of her mouth, the tip ignited without provocation and she inhaled deeply.

"Got dumped huh? Kinda odd coming from the sorta girl that doesn't give up on anyone. I swear to the gods above and the nine hells below that if you hurt her..." She trailed off when she cut another glance toward the woman. "Yeah, you think you're cute coming down here to pick up a guy like this but they're a dime a dozen, darlin'. Go find another one. I'm sure your daddy issues will be fully, if temporarily, sated by morning." A curl of smoke was exhaled from the corner of her mouth, upwards rather than straightforward. She wasn't that rude after all. "As for you? Outside." Gesturing for Mach and if he didn't get to moving real quick like, she would have no issue trying to drag his butt out there.

The man's expression dimmed at the continued agitation of this one. A friend of Serah's perhaps, but why were they picking a fight with him? Why wouldn't they? It was a thought that seared through his mind, made his lips thin a touch more so if only for the cold realization that it brought to him. Listening and watching the little exchange between the woman and the tender the man turned a little more to try and put himself between this 'Lil' and the woman he'd so picked up for the evening. The phrase 'set on fire' was something the hunter knew well, a danger sort of phrase that told him plenty of the sort that this one may be.

Of course at her dark and goading words the man could feel a bit of bile rise up, impotent rage and wallowing anguish rolling as one within him at just how cruel such words were. A sneer crossed him as those cobalt blues took on a dangerous glint the likes found in the gaze of a cornered and wounded animal. "Yeah, well, guess she just hadn't met the right sad case yet, so piss off." Those last words spoken with a touch of hurt and venom as he turned. Outside, yeah, he was going outside. Outside with the woman that seemed to complain some beneath that arm of his. "H-Hey! I'm not gonna walk away from that bitch after what she said to ME! Are you going to put up with that!?"

He heard the complaints and paid them little mind. He had no investment in this one's honor that hadn't really felt much tarnish from the other one's words. If she had she'd probably have let go by now rather than seeming to try and pull him back into some sort of drama that was likely just for her own personal kicks.

Her quarrel wasn't with the broad, not in the least. But if she kept running her mouth, it may be. One hand came up to pull the cigarette away, letting it dangle between her middle and index finger for a brief moment before it was drawn up again. A cruel smirk curled the corners of her mouth when she finally decided she had got him where it hurt. The glimmer of self-deprecation layered over a broken give-a-damn was a sight she knew all too well just by looking in the mirror. "No, you don't get to tell me to piss off. You lost that right when you hurt my friend."

He was going outside, just like she told him to. Even if it was with the woman. That was fine. Lilith could handle that. She wasn't far behind them, stepping outside into the cold November night where her breath mingled with the cigarette smoke seamlessly. "You gonna let him fight your fights, girlie? I'd be more than happy to see what you're brave enough to say to my face." She cut the woman a sharklike grin. Just a little too wide to be comforting. If Mach was leaving-leaving, she followed, but if he came to stop, she had no problem getting right in his face again. "So what'd you do to her?" Of course she could have just called Serah to find out, but that would make too much sense. She just wanted the man to say something wrong so she had an excuse to lay him out.

Mach's teeth ground at those words from the woman though he kept that stolid mask as he moved for and out the door, the woman under his arm following but just so as she grew in fury over those provoking words. He had no interest in getting in a fight with any of Serah's friends, had no interest in getting in a fight over the woman in general. She had made her decision, given him her answer, told him what already he knew was inevitably going to destroy them... what he'd tried so hard to ignore. But in the end it had just rushed things to this destiny, pushed them to live too brightly, love too hard... and consequently burn out too quickly. Far, far too quickly; but it was for the better. She could move on, be happy after just a little bit of pain.... so wasn't that a good thing?

His thoughts whirred as he continued, assaulted by the crisp cool of the night that did little to phase him. Was he stopping? Hell to the no! The man seemed intent to cart the other off without so much as another word if not for the sharp pull from that touch of warm that rested beneath his arm. "What was that bitch? You think I'm afraid of some emo haired prissy cunt that fell through the dumpster of a Hot Topic!? Say something Mach!? Where's your balls!?" She tugged at the man, an angry look shot between the two. The schmooze could still save this. He could play all this out, smooth his buddy while slipping away from the other. Let them eat their crow alone unable to find purchase upon him... but he just couldn't let that topic lie. It bled and hurt too much to ignore.

And this showed. It showed in the tired look he cast back to Lilith, showed in the heavy manner of his expression."[/color]You limp dick, you ju-" The woman's words cut short as she saw the same dim look cast to her, the vibrancy of the schmooze missing leaving only the wounded hunter - certainly not the man she had been so charmed with. Sneering she pushed away from him finally, a resounding crack of flesh against flesh as she slapped the man. "***hole!" An angry huff left her as she turned on heel, storming off into the night leaving the schmooze to offer a sour glare to the purple haired one. "You happy with yourself?" Lips twisted into a 'tch' as he turned his back on Lilith. "I was me. That's all she needed. Now go home, I'm not looking for any trouble." She was looking for an excuse and he, he was looking for an escape as those words just dug in to far to tender territory.

"Emo haired... prissy cunt. Oh that's rich. Come here princess, say that to my face, yeah?" She kept grinning, clearly amused by the way she was able to get the woman riled up. Antagonistic to a fault, she took too much pleasure in pushing buttons. It was a holdover of the blood that once flowed through her veins when she was alive, a defense mechanism of insults and heckling that inevitably led to conflict. Because talking with your fists was easier than talking with words. The hellcat smiled as he finally looked back at her while the woman tittered in his ear about his lacking manhood. As she slapped him, she barked out a laugh, evidently far too pleased by that result.

"Well that went swimmingly, yeah?" Through a laugh, she waved after the woman. "Bye Daddy Issues! Talk to you soo-oooon." Sing song tone followed. As the woman stalked off, Lil zeroed her attention in on Mach right as he turned away. "You being you evidently *was* what she needed at one point. So what the hell happened to change that? And don't give me the Woe-is-me-my-life-sucks story either. I don't care about you but I do care about her and if you hurt her, that makes you my problem. So you gonna man up or run away to the next pair of spread legs you can find?"

The woman shot back a one finger salute for Lilith and her mocking tone, that laughter that had her storming off alone in the night. Mach may well have tried to go after her if he didn't know a lost cause when he saw one. All the schmoozing in the world couldn't have gotten him what he'd want from her.... not tonight at least. And he certainly held little enough interest to pursue her over days. And so he just watched as... right, Angie.... as she walked off into the night before a cool blue gaze was turned back to the woman that continued to talk mockingly at him. "Nothing happened. She just came to realize what that all entailed. You curious, why not ask her rather than pissing in my Wheaties yeah? Or have you already and you're just here to pick a fight because she told you what sort of bastard I am?"

His tone was an agitated sneer as those words left him, the pain and anger evident in his bristling gaze. What did this one know! What did they assume to know about his problems or how they killed the best thing that happened to him in years!? She was like all of Serah's other friends saying that they should just be happy, enjoy the ride but they didn't have a clue, didn't have ****ing idea what that entailed... and it was starting to piss off the rude boy that preferred the speech of fists over words himself. "It's none of your business, alright? She broke up with me so she can find happiness so yeah, it hurts now, but all else is well. So drop it. What? Ain't got nothing better to do than try and kick a man trying to have a life? Your's that ****ty?"
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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Lilith Anderson
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Posts: 226
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:24 pm
Location: Twilight Isle

Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

She stubbed out her cigarette and flicked the butt aside as whatsherface stomped off. One hand tucked into her pocket just barely, her thumb hooked on the edge as she admired her handiwork. Red met blue and she paired it with a smile. "Haven't had a chance to talk to her real in depth. She's been hiding herself away, but now that I know why, I'm not surprised. Meanwhile you're moving right along onto whoever will have you next. Was she that easy to get over that you have no issue climbing into bed with someone else so soon?"

The hand came out of the pocket empty and pushed back through her hair, sending the plum waves scattering. What did she know about him? It wasn't much. Only what she had been told about Serah and the little bit she had learned for herself once upon a while ago when she had tailed him at the start of his relationship with the pink hair. But unlike the others, she didn't think happiness could be found in just going with the flow, enjoying the ride, all of that sappy ****. All she knew is that people only hurt you in the end and the people that hurt her friends need to be hurt back. Sure it perpetuated an ugly cycle but it had worked for so long, why break it. "None of my business? None of my business? So I'm not supposed to care when someone hurts one of the few genuinely good people in this backwater ****hole of a city? Nice joke. I'm sure she'll find plenty of happiness when she finds out you're all over anything with a pulse. How's that gonna make her feel? Oh... that's right. You don't care."

His dig at her own life was met with more derisive laughter. He had nailed it, for sure. It was a pattern she couldn't escape even in death. "Mine may be ****ty, but it's better for her involvement." However narrow that involvement may have been.

A growl was bit off as the man's temper flared. That easy to get over? Something about that just flared an anger in the man that not even he'd allowed himself to really understand or know. That hurt that at the whole situation, the anger he felt not just at himself, not just at his situation, but at Serah for her betrayal. "No... she isn't... never will be. But I was." A torrent of anger boiled on the man replacing that apathy, and blase attitude. The schmoozy facade burnt away under the cold glare from the hunter beneath. "You say this is your business because I hurt a genuinely good and wonderful person? You know what I did? I. Was. ME. The **** do you think I should do about that, huh? And you keep rattling on about what I did to her, what I did to her. You know what I did to her? I let myself get dumped by her, that's what. She dumped me jackass or do you know know how that sort of thing works? She wanted ME gone. She didn't want to handle ME. But I'm the one hurting her is it?"

Hands balled in anger as she spoke about how he didn't care and how her life was better for Serah's involvement. It was all just a mockery, a sick joke that kept smacking the man in the face. "Don't you dare say I don't care you hair brained bitch. If I didn't care we'd still be together! I'd still be selfishly holding on to her, dragging her to inevitable misery! So what, you pissed because she'll be hurt with me trying to have a life afterwards? Trying to enjoy what little I have left? Am I supposed to roll over and just wait for her to deign ready for me to pick up the pieces of my life?" Mach stepped back towards her, his presence looming and threatening. Did it matter that she was a woman, the 'lesser' half of the species? Hell no, she brought this can of worms out all her own. And Mach had been a hunter for far too long to think women of any species were really so helpless as they needed to always be shielded by the ugly sides of life. Besides all that this woman seemed to reveal in such and that just further goaded the man's anger, his anguish.

Buttons. They were so easy to push. Were there always two sides to a story? Sure there were. Did the Lilith care? Not really. With her latest issues, she couldn't find it in herself to care about much of anything. When in doubt, revert to a pattern of self-destruction and with FireStar's influence, that self-destruction had an area of collateral damage around her too. Some part of her, way deep down inside, felt bad for the man. "Don't you even dare try and claim that she's over you already. Have you not seen the way she holds on to people? Even after they broken her heart and left? The way she held on to her sister, some idea of who she was before... nevermind all that selfish broad does is leave." Lilith snorted and shook her head. "If she let you go it was because she thought that was for the best. That you'd both be better off for it. Or at the very least that you would be. Sure looks like you're doing juuuuuuuust fine."

As he neared, she smirked up at him. The height distance was scant, maybe an inch or two thanks to the killer heels she was wearing. "I seriously doubt she let you go because of so called inevitable misery. That girl would gladly go through hell for the people she cares about under one condition. That they make an honest effort to be in her life. Never, EVER have I known someone so willing to be miserable solely for the sake of having certain people in her life. Maybe if you'd stop thinking with your dick and try looking at **** from her view you'd see what it would have taken to keep her. Don't try and tell me otherwise, use that god given brain of yours." With her final words, two fingers crossed the distance between them for a condescending push against his forehead.

�Bull. ****." The words were spit out in budding ire not only at what was being said, but at who was saying it as they spoke so casually about things they had no clue about. It was something that was wearing thin with the man as of late. Folks who had plenty of time or didn't have a clue about their own inevitable end trying to tell him what he should do from their shallow and unempathetic view. And that she only saw her side of things not even considering his or maybe even Serah's? Yeah, that was not improving the man's view of this one. �Yeah, maybe she's not 'over' me right now. But she'll get that way... probably sooner than you figure. See, she always clung to the worst of me... never could let that go or see past it. Was just waiting for me to **** up and then cling on to that with everything else. Even now her view of what will 'make me happy', what you say is her doing me a solid? It's HER holding on to HER view that I just can't make an honest effort, that I can't stay with her because SHE doesn't want to see that about me. Can't really."

Those two fingers that reached to push his forehead would not make their mark as his head tipped back just long enough for his own hand to move instinctively to backhand hers off to the side. It was a swift and practiced move, born of muscle reflex than conscience choice. But then a tap to the forehead was the opening move for just about every dominance spell out there. �No... she knew what she was doing, for her own sake. She said she wanted someone she could marry, have children with... a future. And she can't have any of those things with me. So you want to focus on my dick bagging about? I'm giving her what she wants. Vindicating all she thinks about me so she can move on with a clear conscious. Because I can't... but I don't get a choice in that. So I'll be there for her, root for her, be her biggest ****ing cheerleader helping her so she can find the happiness she deserves even if it kills me."

A derisive snort for the woman and her judgment, his own gaze cold and uncaring. Certainly not a look one would expect to find on the sort of person with a woman like Serah. �Or what, think I should 'use my god given brain' to keep her trapped in something that we both know won't give her what she wants? You looking to 'do her a solid'? Then why don't you start trying to consider what she wants than forcing some short term happiness that'll just collapse out from under her... or is that your damage? You lookin' for her to suffer through being miserable because it just pisses you off to see somebody so wonderful having it so good while you can only be a bitch?" Now would have been the time to poke her back but Mach knew enough about martial arts to know doing that was just asking for trouble. And so he'd settle for an ugly 'tch' as he looked down on the woman.

"Ah, there's the victim card. Knew it would come out soon enough. Woe is Mach, nobody sees the good in me. Nevermind I do my best to prove them right. But yes. Woe is you." she said with a roll of her eyes. "That isn't fair of you to say and you know it. Don't you put this one her. Don't you even."

Her motion had been solely physical, no magic basis behind it. While the woman dripped with glamour, she avoid magic like the plague for the most part. Brute force won out in her mind. One good motion deserved another but as he deflected her prod, she resisted the instinctive urge to raise a knee for his gut. The brief twitch of her leg found her settling her foot firmly against the ground. No, don't knee the man in the stomach, that's rude, Lil. "You know, I can't speak for her obviously. But I know her. Better than she might think. And have you ever just maybe thought for a moment that saying something like that was the easiest way to get you to go? Like... oh my god, dude. How can dense can you be. When a woman pushes you away, you don't say 'Okay, bye', you ****ing chase after her and show her why you should stay. Have you, like, never seen a chick flick in the history of ever?"

The look he gave her further reiterated her point that Serah had a habit of letting herself go through hell for the worst of them. After all, Lilith could count herself among the woman's friends and Lil considered herself the lowest of the low. "You're short on time, yeah? She's gonna be heartbroken when you finally kick the bucket regardless of if you're together, yeah? So what's it hurt to be together a little bit longer until that comes. I know you've probably heard that a billion and a half time, but whatever. I want her to be happy. Even if that is with some dumb**** like you. But if you're a ****ing moron, then I hope you rest well knowing that you ruined something so good. Good job, dude." With the condescending words came another attempt at a push, four fingers of her right hand aimed for his shoulder. "You're almost as good at this as I am. You can call me a bitch all you want but it doesn't make you any less of one yourself. Great company, aren't I?"

�Oh, my victim card is it? Not a word about the damsel card? That if she wanted this to work she wouldn't push me away huh? If that happens it's obviously my ****ing fault because I'm the damn idiot man who doesn't see through the ****. I gotta work for the girl yeah? Gotta be just damn glad that she deigns me worthy of her attention and work my ass so that never wavers. **** if I got problems, maybe if we let 'em lie they'll just poof away like farts in the wind and if they even lift, well, fu-uck why was I hiding them, obviously my ****ing bad right?" Bitterness took hold of the hunters words as this one was just pushing for that unaired laundry that the man had been keeping locked inside. The other side of wonderland that even he'd been attempting to ignore. Maybe this was the exact thing that Serah realized sat nested in the paranoid man, and decided it was better him be free than attempting to wade through that mire.

�Not fair, huh? Seems pretty ****ing hypocritical to say all this is solely on me and mine and there ain't a damn thing on her. That she ****'s rainbows 24/7 and any complaint, any conceived grievance or problem I might have is just my 'victim card' popping up? You don't know **** about me lady, you don't get to say what's what with me or mine. You say she said all that because it was the best way to get rid of me? Whoop, whoop, grand prize winner there! Goes for the ****ING BALLS, THE WORST THING SHE COULD EVER MOCK ME ABOUT!?! But OHHH, that's just FINE and ****ING dandy because, hey, chick, and me, hey, ****ING Mach yeah?�

Others walking down the street took note of the screaming man, or in particular, took note to put distance between them and the man. But the hunter didn't seem to pay them any mind. �No, she wanted this. This IS on her. And if she goes saying 'it's for me' than obviously that just shows how ****ing little she ever listened or paid attention. But guess that's my fault too, right? I should chase her, chase her to death and beyond, and chase her still after she ****ing guts me, but that's alright, yeah? Ain't no big thang for me to do because **** me, right? And you say what's it matter to be together or not." A scoffed, mocking laugh escaped him at this. �Right. **** you dumb ****. You ever watch someone you love dying? Someone your devoted to as more than friends wither and deteriorate before your very eyes? You see the people who have? How they get misty eyed and still choked up about the good times they had before the end years later!? You want her to be happy? Than find her someone that can give her EVERYTHING she wants. Not some place holder that'll just disappoint her..."

As she poked at him the man smacked that hand even harder, his gaze hard as he all but growled at the woman. �Try that gain and I'll break it." This was a very real threat from a man that look both enraged and broken. �And don't you dare say I ruined this. Serah. Dumped. Me... and she did it in the most hurtful way possible... because she was running... and she knew it. Believe whatever you want, doesn't matter **** to me. She'll be heartbroken about her boyfriend of four months maybe half that time... sad her friend croaked. Better than being heartbroken for years after while having to suffer watching and helping him up while he dies. But guess that's my fault too..." A broken sigh as he finally turned away, tired and defeated. �**** me or leave me alone." A wry smirk as he started walking.
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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Lilith Anderson
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Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

Nothing like two perfect strangers standing in the middle of Dockside yelling at each other. They got looks, sure, but for the most part people left them be. It was the beauty of the district. At the first chance he got to take a breath, she cut him a grin. "Keep going. You're doing a great job of proving my points. Go ahead, keep saying all that **** you're spewing. You're just showing your true colors. ****ing people, I swear. See, this is why relationships are a goddamned waste of time, because people like you are ****ing self-centered narcissists, who, the moment you call them out on their ****, prove who they really are. I know your type. You wear the masks well, trust me, I wear 'em too. But ya gotta because what's under the mask is ugly. What the **** did she see in you?" She spat at the ground near his feet to mark her disdain.

"Sweetheart." the way she said it was anything but sweet, full of vitriol and condescension, "just like you say I don't know you, you don't know a goddamn thing about me. I watched a man I loved kill himself right in front of my eyes. Nothing I could have done to help, absolutely nothing. ****s a person up, yeah, not gonna lie. And those sayings about time healing all wounds is bull**** sure, but you fail to recognize that she'll bear those wounds regardless. You're only making them worse by gallivanting around town, sticking your dick in anything that gives you the time of day. But hey, at least you're telling her she was right to let you go. Go ahead and justify it in your little head with made up timeframes."

The smack to her hand was met with wild laughter. "That a threat or a promise?" With a toothy grin, she did exactly what he said not to do, this time to with two hands, a full shove with all of her weight behind it. The hellcat had said her piece about how Serah might fare through his death and when he finally declared defeat and turned his back on her, she found herself smirking. A dangerous proposition, all things considered. "I'd break you, but thanks anyways."

Mach wore an ugly expression, a sneer that told of his disgust in the woman and what she dredged up in him. This looked to be stuff even he hadn't seen, hadn't allowed himself to see about how he felt about things. In another frame of mind, a rational discussion both their points may have been made and something productive potentially gleaned or garnered. But in the way they'd been raised? The one sided nature of them all without care for listening or understanding... all it did was fuel the flames of self destruction.

�Proven your points? How's that you figure? All you keep saying is I'M the one self-centered, ALONE, and it's all MY fault, and why, because it ****ing is. Oh, well why's that? Because I'M the one self-centered, ALONE, and it's all MY fault. And why was that again? BECAUSE IT ****ING IS! Circle as hell logic that don't prove nothing but what a stupid **** you are. 'I know your type, I know you, what did she see in you' **** you. Words of the ignant grasping at **** they don't know **** about because they gotta feel mighty."

At her cheekily, condescending manner the man found his fists flexing once more, his rage near beyond reason. This wasn't a discussion. This wasn't even a lecture. At this point it was simply a pissing match to see who would snap first. �Yup, it's all on me why she pushed me away. All my fault. That's totally how it always work. Never any give or take, never a two way street. ****... you say you watched a person you love kill themselves in front of you? I can't imagine why they'd do that with your condescending and supremely one dimensional grasp of the world. Seriously, you damage yourself falling off the train of ****ing milk and honey on it's way to god damned candy land or you really that ****ing retarded that you don't hear how ****ing one sided your **** is? Oh, she pushes people away because she's dying but that's totes okay, she just needs to live. I do it and I'm a ****ing self-centered prick of a monster. **** you and the high and mighty horse you rode in on. She don't get to piss on my head, tell me it's raining, and then expect me to hand her an umbrella each and every time. Nu-uh, doesn't work that way!�

Mach hated this side of him. Hid it so deeply and this one just pulled it out, goaded it forward. Unshackled it from the harness that he used to make it productive and let it run wild spewing his hate for the world and how uncaring it was. The anger born of his deepest fears laid bare. As she shoved him again the man reacted on instinct once more as he rolled with it, let her put her weight into it. He wanted her unbalanced as he pivoted, one hand grasping for a momentary hold on her wrist just long enough to try and lock that arm in a straight plain... so he could attempt to deliver a sharp palm strike to the elbow so as to damage it most painfully. The movement was fluid and swift, executed with practiced precision just as was the near instant disengage and sidestep after that didn't leave him open for a touch attack counter. A form of martial combat specifically designed on damage through minimal contact; a martial art to be used against mages.

�I said don't push me bitch." A snarl as those blue eyes blue held the woman with a cold gaze. This wasn't the schmooze, this wasn't even the hunter... this was the monster that lay beneath it all.

More laughter came. Because nothing stung more than condescending laughter rather than explanation. She had done exactly what she wanted, riled him up and let him go. "Sweets, I don't need to feel mighty. I just am naturally." To go with the sarcasm, she blew a breath across her fingernails and buffed them against her shoulder.

"Nah." for a moment she looked sad. Genuinely sad. It wasn't an expression that looked natural on her pretty face. She looked up at him, stone cold sober faced and shook her head. "I wish. I wish I could blame myself. But!" The moment of sadness passed and the cocksure grin slid back into place as easily as it had before. One mask traded for another. "Go ahead and think what you will. Unlike you, my precious view of myself isn't so easily unhinged as yours as to be affected by what you think of me." The more he ranted, the more she grinned. It was the Heckler's blood in her. She couldn't help it. "And trust me, I got mad at her plenty for pushing people away when she thought she was dying. That **** was ****ing retarded. Farrons man, I swear." Man, that eyeroll.

She hadn't, of course, expected him to let her follow through this time and between the weight in the shove and the teetering heels, he had her dead to rights when he caught her by the wrist. That said, it was not the first and it certainly wouldn't be the last time that she would be in such a position and despite herself, she giggled breathily right up until the blow to her elbow. It took more than that to break a hellcat though and the groan she let slip was less pained and more, well, something else. There was no immediate counter, a slow turn of her body bringing her about to face him again as she shook out her arm. "That was kinda weak, not gonna lie. If that's all ya got, then I did that dumb broad a favor by pulling you away from her."

Mach was done talking, done humoring this one. She wasn't listening and he was out of words for her. All that anger he was feeling? It was her fault. She was pushing him and goading him... and were he the hunter he'd have just walked away. Did as his 'hole' had down and given her a cheeky one fingered salute and washed his hands of the whole affair. But she'd dug deeper than that, heckled him too much for an idiot like him to walk away from. Did she just shake off that blow that would have had a regular person howling in pain? That should have been his fourth clue by now to let things lay but then reason and logic had left a good number of '****s' back.

Instead the man just took on an easy stance as he pierced her with his gaze. He noted that sad expression, and a part of him wanted to sympathize but that part could not rise above the maelstrom that howled within him... not anymore but to squeeze out a few words. "Yeah... well, all I gotta blame for this **** is myself." Somber words of cryptic meaning that fell once more beneath the raging tide as the man popped his neck. "Yap, yap, yap, all you do is yap. Like a worthless chihuahua that ****ed a retarded pug. I got your number." He waved her off dismissively. "Take your pissy elsewhere, yeah? I ain't gonna get dragged down to your idiocy so you can beat me with experience." A sharp smirk as he shook his head at her, smug in himself.

Had she known that his ire was directed solely upon her, she might have been satisfied. That he had stopped blaming Serah, even briefly, would have been good enough for her. But of all the things she was, a mind reader she was not. So instead she just relished his anger because no matter how bad she was hurting at the moment, at least someone else had it worse. For once. Darkly she chuckled, still stretching out her arm as her natural inclinations tried to knit the wounded flesh back together. It wasn't that it hadn't fucked her arm up, it had. It was just that she felt so little that such a thing as that kind of pain proved to be exhilarating. A rarity, so to speak.

"Ah! There we go. You finally taking responsibility. Brava." Drably she clapped her hands together. "Oh but you wound me so. I at least have more bite than that." For emphasis, she snapped her teeth at him. Rolling her eyes as well as her shoulders she stepped up to him until she was nearly toe to toe. "You keep talking though. You could have walked away by now, but you haven't. Why, Eli? Unless... some part of you thinks you deserve whatever I wanna do to you..."

The woman was most certainly not a mind reader or she may well have seen that the man never blamed Serah... never truly. For even when he did he could see through it to the true cause of it all... or at very least the cause that he so assumed it to be. But this once dug up the the anger that dwell beneath, unearthed that ugly anger that he had willfully blinded himself to about Serah and what she'd done. If this one's plight was to open his eyes about what an ass he'd been about all of this than the irony was most certainly bitter for what she truly wrought.

At her heckling words the man simply snorted. "And there you go talking again. Take responsibility? For what? I'm curious because apparently the only thing you can hear is your own voice, yeah? Think you've somehow proven a point when all you've done is piss on about a load of bull****." The man was deaf to his own words apparently. Any of that guilt, that acknowledgment of what was true and wasn�t simply twisted in his mind stirred by the heckler that was only making matters worse and worse.

Did he think he deserved nothing more than to be broken and beaten down over and over? Was that even a question given how hard he returned to a self-destructive unlife that others simply saw as him 'moving on' or how he threw himself into danger on a lark? No, she wouldn't understand any of that, and he wouldn't help her. Because in those last words she spoke there was one that just set him off. "YOU DON'T GET TO CALL ME ELI!!!" And with that shrieked yell he threw his weight into a pivot, fist rising in a vicious uppercut aimed for the woman's chin with all the intention of trying to rip her head clean off with that swing. It was a careless attack but no more so than closing so close while prodding so hard at a man that could hold such murder in his gaze.
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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Lilith Anderson
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Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

"I've got a pretty voice, you have to admit. It's no wonder I enjoy talking so much. I'm lovely to listen to. You should hear me sing." she said with a laugh. At this point, she had lost sight of her original point. It had devolved into 'see how angry you can make him' and she was putting on a stellar show. This. This is what she wanted, to push him to the point of making a mistake. To the point of doing something outside of the clean, practiced movements he had shown before. Outside of the thinly veiled control he practiced over every aspect of his life. While he may have tried to pretend he was in self-destruct mode, she thought he wasn't truly until he reached this point.

"I don't get to call you Eli? Would you prefer... what's it... Elitia? Eli-poo? Elikins?" There was the swing. Where languid, slow movements had been only a moment before there was soon a viper's strike. She had pulled him to striking distance and let him explode. As she rocked back enough to avoid the swing, she waited for his throw to surge upwards to an apex at which point she tried to loop both arms around his neck and aimed to jerk him down into a rising knee. One blow, that's all she tried for and if she managed it, she backed off with a grin and her hands up. "That was a lil better."

The man lived his entire life navigating the gray parts of the world. He knew self-destruction came in many different manners that looked many different ways than simply seeing himself bleed. But this mattered little as such thoughts of self-destruction were the furthest things from his conscious mind. Oh no, the only thing that he was consciously thinking about was flooring this bitch or break trying.

He felt the wiffle of air as his punch went array of his target, felt he reach of hands around his neck to draw him forcefully down into her knee. She may have stood his height with her heels but he still had twice if not more the bulk of muscle and the conditioning the use it to stop that jerk... but he didn't. No, he'd happily let himself be dragged down to kiss her knee simply so he had a straight shot to her liver and lowest ribs from that forced position of supplication. It was a swiftly executed attack meant to try and connect while she couldn't get away, even as his world reeled in pain when his nose crushed under the upward jack of her knee. A splatter of blood smeared those marred, rugged features but then he was already seeing red.

"ONLY SHE CAN CALL ME THAT!" Not letting the woman get away he charged after as he closed into a boxer's stance, juking right before coming at her with a devastating straight. This one was a born and raised fighter and he was going to annihilate this woman with his bare hands against everything that screamed at him to back off... and at least shoot her!

Wild laughter burst from her lips with the blows to her torso, sending her stumbling back as she faced him again. "Red's a lovely color on you, I hope you know." Quipping that with a sharklike grin even as her breathing came hard. Nimbly she danced back, prancing from foot to foot with practiced ease. Truly, he would have been better off shooting her. She knew that, at the very least. It was a risk she was willing to take. Not like it'd kill her or anything, it would just hurt like hell. Funny phrase that. Nothing on earth hurts like hell but hell itself.

"Eli? But it's your name, Eli. Or do you prefer a nickname because it helps separate who you are from who you want others to think you are? Eli, Eli, Eli." She juked with him, letting the blow graze her cheek and using the opportunity to send a pair of underhanded but crushing blows for his gut. Lineage had made her a brawler by blood, training made her a fighter by dedication. "With a nickname like Mach, I thought you'd be quicker on your feet... unless... oh gods above, did you get that name for your performance in the sack?" Insult his honor, check. Question his intelligence and relationship capability, double check. Question his manhood? Yeah, she just went there too. Gotta cover all of the bases.

A sick feeling washed over him as he felt those blows reverberate through his core, vibrating his very organs which cried bloody murder at the assault. She simply got a cough as he tried to catch those strikes as they went for his core, an elbow each for hers with the aim to try and render that joint inoperable if not downright broken. Truly there had to have been some wish for destruction as he just pressed that attack. A feint, a snap kick aimed for the outside of her knee, another feint, a fake punch meant to bluff for that second snap kick aimed for the same knee again.

Despite being driven by fury and self-loathing the man's muscles still remembered how to fight, how to maim another and take them apart little by little even as he took his own share of knocks. But then the man was augmented specifically for taking a beating which given his history may have explained why he just kept coming against better judgment. Though her continued goading certainly did help in that department!

Of course something else changed once more as she spoke so derisively about even his namesake and what it so meant. Mach as in the speed he went... always a classic explanation he spouted off to others. Hell, he himself even poked fun at his manhood with such a name! But not this one. This one didn't get to dishonor even that name... he wouldn't allow that. He could barely see through the pain and the red that blinded him though his movements retained all their deadly discipline as he snagged something from his pocket and crushed it while punching at the woman�s face, the cantrip going off with a sharp crackle as fingers of electricity whipped at her features and his hand alike. Was he trying to melt her face off? It was a very real possibility at this point. "Shut. Up. You ****ing bitch! Why won't you just shut up!?!"

The Lilith kept pace with him, trading tit for tat as she took far too much masochistic glee in the exchange of blows. A heel of a hand here, an elbow there, the sharp heel of her boot for the bridge of his foot. It was a dance. A beautifully violent destructive dance that she knew all too well. Showing no sign of backing off, she pummeled and kicked with all of the ferocity of the best trained fighters and while he was wearing her body down, the pain only drove her further. The woman would have run herself into the ground if they let her. It was an easy song and dance. Practiced. Playful almost on her part.

That all changed the moment he brought what seemed like magic into play. It stung like a sonuvabitch but didn't mar her features horribly. After all she was mostly glamour when it came to her looks, a figment of what many desired but few could attain. It did piss her off though and she let loose an animalistic snarl and threw a wild backhand for his face. "****ing mages. You bastard." The reprieve was brief and her fury, unleashed as it was, sent her after him with the goal of tackling him to the ground in hopes of seeing how many times in a row she could punch him in the face. It was like the tootsie pop commercials, how many licks does it take to get to the center of Mach's noodle.

The man just absorbed each blow as if it did little harm to him. He just kept coming! But then the reality of things was much more serious as each strike, each preciously placed blow wore on him, slowed him just a little more. He was a piss and vinegar bastard that healed faster than your average bloke, but at the end of the day he was still just a human. There really was only so much punishment he could take before even he'd have to stop... but he seemed quite willing to push that envelope to the very end.

As that lightning etched burns into his flesh he saw the warble of a glamor as that lightning didn't so burn it's mark onto her. That raised even more alarms in the man's mind though what really he took away from such was what ugly was she trying to hide behind all that? And so even though he should have been running he stood his ground as she attempted to tackle him, a retching cough as she attempted to take him down but he dropped his center of gravity so as to keep his footing long enough to try and slam a double fisted hammer blow to the back of her neck. Like a Kirk but far worse.

He'd try it again if he were able to before finally his foot slipped from some of the blood he'd dribbled on the ground earlier, the woman getting her wish to go down with him though it was much less controlled than she probably hoped for. And just as his head bounced off the ground did the man burst into a gulch of laughter, something she said tickling something dark in his humor. "M-Mage!? You ****ing gotta be sh-!" And that was all he was able to get out before she started trying to get the Mach pinata to go pop. But that was really all he was interested in saying as rather than trying to shield his face with his hands they were off doing something else. Something she'd probably not be so privy to if she were really so focused on cracking his noodle.

But even if she was watching for such it was a swift movement that had the man drawing that gun from it's holster, the chamber cycled once more the cold, steel barrel was sent to crack the woman upside the head while he pulled the trigger. But rather than a bang there would be a whir instead, the air around them becoming uncomfortable as the spell charged. She had precisely a few precious seconds to try and get away before that spell collapsed in a pop that sent a wave of potent dispelling energy rippling forth to try and rip apart any magic it crossed... and make anyone hit with it just feel really ill as the spell would play hell with their natural life energy.

She felt the full weight of his fist come down right at the base of her skull. It was enough to make her vision go black and she lashed out blindly, snarling like a wolf with its leg caught in a trap and her fingers curled like claws. Of course, she had no claws, just regular run of the mill fingernails but the swipe had been one of desperation rather than tactical prowess.

When she finally got him down on the ground, she put the length of her legs to good use, straddling him as she rained down punch after punch. Reminiscent of Ralphie snapping and beating the crap out of Farkus in A Christmas Story, she may have even been growling a never ending string of curses. Not like magical curses but rather profanity of several different languages and likely at least a handful of insults about his parentage. When in doubt call the mama out. It gave him more than ample opportunity to pull a fast one on her. While she was an expert at hand to hand, the introduction of something a little heavier than a fist was sure to be a headache of both literal and figurative proportions.

The crack to the side of the head sent her toppling, a growl rumbling in her throat. Sharp ears heard the pull of the trigger and she squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation of something much worse than a punch or a kick. It was worse than that even. See, she had been shot before. She knew how that story went. This, this she had no words for. Disoriented by the blow to the head, she pushed herself to her hands and knees only to be too slow to get away. Despite her loathing of magic, her existence was so reliant on it that as the dispelling energy washed over her, it stripped away the layers of glamour and crumpled her to the ground. While she had no natural life energy to tamper with, it was still enough to take her down. Where plum and pale and black had been before, was no longer. The Lilith, merely a title at the end of the day, found herself stripped bare not in clothing but in face and form. Rather than the nearly six foot tall, buxom leather clad vixen, there was a girl, her hair somewhere between pink and blue, maybe violet in the lacking streetlight. Maybe all of eighteen or nineteen years old with a sleeve of tattoos down one arm and across the small of her back, slightly exposed in her prone position.

She groaned and pressed her hands to the ground to try and push herself up. Her right arm refused to bear the weight and she dropped again. "God. ****ing. Damnit. He's gonna kill me." Let's try that again. A second attempt at rising also failed so she rolled onto her back, chest heaving as she looked up at the sky. "Feel better?"
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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Lilith Anderson
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Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

The words about his parentage only drew even more laughter from the man as she pummeled away at his head, each blow crushing those rugged features a little more thought the occasional blow to his forehead would feel like she was punching a tire rim for how hard and solid it felt. Certainly brought a new meaning to 'hard headed' but then how would she know that he literally had a band of metal implanted around his skull. A nice little rune band for helping prevent possession... and making head butting a rather viable means of attack. Of course all it seemed to be doing now was helping his melon keep from splitting open as the woman so worked to do. This was MUCH worse than the rivulets of blood that oozed from those annoying scratches swiped across his arms from that desperate attack.

Of course the reprieve as he pistol whipped her and blasted her with that spell was taken to gurgle in some air that tasted of the blood that drained down his throat. Blood shot eyes turned to the wo...wait, girl? A pink, blue, urchiny girl with tats and a whole lot of splat. Okay, that had the man blinking to try and focus as that anger drained with the blood that dribbled from his wounds, a groaning grunt as unlike she he was able to soldier forward in the face of all those grievous injuries aided by that ball of fury he just wasn't quite ready to let go of yet.

It was that fury that had the man pointing that caster at the girl's face, right between the eyes as his chest heaved in that rage. The man looked like hell and seemed quite ready to make her observation a reality as his finger quivered over that trigger. He didn't know what was next in that string of cartridges but he knew it was nasty and could probably smear this one. Maybe it wouldn't kill her but maybe it would, and how good it would feel to see her fry to see....

Teeth ground as he reigned in that monster that, his breathing growing ragged as that adrenaline started to wear thin. He collapsed to his side, bleeding and in pain as he gulped in wheezed in air through his broken orifices. "No...." The word sullen in response to her question. "I feel like ****. I just hurt physically now to match..." Falling to his back the man let his caster flop astride now with a muted clatter as he reached to snag a potion from his belt, the ampule snapped and poured in his slack jawed maw. "Who the **** are you....?"

The "he" in question wasn't the man standing over top of her pointing a caster in her face. No, she had much bigger worries than him and in spite of herself, she snickered. Her arms opened wide, flopped against the ground as she looked up at him. "Do it. I dare you." She said breathlessly. Even when she was down she was ever the antagonist. He would only be expediting what she expected would be a rather unpleasant visit to her abyssal overlords for a tune up and likely more debt piled on to her tab. She was damned if she did, damned if she didn't. Literally damned. Breathing hard, she waited for the end to come, however it may. Her body ached, pleasantly so despite the severity of the beating she had taken, so moving was pretty much out of the question. At least she had gotten one more knock down, drag out fight in.

There were worse ways to go out.

The thump on the ground as he flopped over was not how she saw that ending. She squinted at him through an eye swelling shut and huffed. "Kind of a cheap shot bringing that nerd magic into it. What ever happened to duking it out like real men... er... women... er. Whatever." A foot kicked in his direction lamely but likely didn't come anywhere close to touching him. Even if it did it would have been a brush or a tap, lacking the brute strength she had poured into every blow before. "They call me Lilith, keeper of the second circle of the abyss." It was clear by her inflection that it wasn't what she called herself. "But most everyone just calls me Lil."

The man snorted lazily. "T-thought I was some cheap shot bastard... figured I'd prove you right." A little steam rose from his breath as that poison he poured down his throat took hold, gave him the 'umph' to rise up once more even though he wanted nothing more than to just lie there in his misery, bleeding and broken as he felt. It was the expression that held on what was left of his face as he looked the girl over with his one good eye that hadn't swollen shut from that abuse he'd taken. "Anyway, piss on the bull and you get an ass full of horn. They give that little tidbit out in...n 'not being a jackass school'." Was he still sore about her words? **** yeah he was but more and more the schmooze started to gain control as that hot blood dribbled from his ruined features, those cuts across his arms.

"Abyss'll huh... pretty ****ing weak for a demon..." Oh there was that cheeky grin minus a tooth which he spat out in disdain along with some of the blood that kept trying to drain down his throat. "Sh-shoulda just took the ****ing..." And there was that cockiness though it sounded weak even to his own ears. She may have been the one staring down the barrel of a caster earlier but he was the one that looked defeated at that very moment. Shoving his caster back into it's holster the hunter looked the girl over once before he fished out another ampule which he set on her stomach.

"Mana-X.. will help you gain yer magic back.. quicker... so you can go back to being the bitch you are than... whatever the hell this brat you've become is..." A look to her hair noting that discrepant coloration with a smirk. "Brat with a ****ty sense of style... a little emo aren't you?" Was he poking fun at her? You bet your ass he was. He wasn't dead and so he could make his jokes dammit! Of course he certainly looked worse for it. "So what's your ****ing deal... coming here... pissing on me and calling it rain? This **** wasn't for Serah... sh-she'd not want any fella's ass kicked by some springy bitch. This... this was all your game."

"Well magic's for nerds so you're a ****ing nerd and a cheap shot bastard." She would let him decide which was worse. Lila knew which she thought. Still she laid there, in the middle of Dockside at some ungodly hour, staring up at the sky. "Hey, I'm not into watersports so I've got no idea what the **** you're saying. And I dropped out of school, so sue me. Otherwise might've slept through that lecture." Was she admitting to being a jackass? Likely, even if the words didn't say exactly that.

"Not a demon." She spat that with the disdain that came from a growing amount of hatred for those who held her where they did. "Just... work for them. Or something." Idly she flapped a hand before it dropped to the ground again with a smack and a tiny puff of dust. "I'd have broken you worse that way and you wouldn't even be able to cry about it."

A glance down at her stomach and the ampule he had set down. "Mmh, doubt it. Likely have to go downstairs and let them fix me. Like, seriously, where do you get off doing that ****?" Still she took the ample and forced herself to sit up. Squinting at him through an errant strand of purplish-pinkish-blue, she looked more confused than anything. "****ty sense of..." Her eyes went upwards as he eyed her hair as well and she blinked. "Uh. It's natural, but thanks anyways ***hole." Her fingers kneaded at her elbow, feeling out tendons that were likely torn with a slight wince before she looked back over at him. "Dude, I legit thought you two were still together. What would you think, seeing your friend's significant other trying to pick up some syph-infested slootbag from a bar? I lost it, yeah?" She sucked in a breath and flopped back again. Even her bruises seemed to have bruises. It would be interesting to try to explain to Tor or Cimaron or ****... Andrea. She groaned at the thought. "Where I come from, she's dead, you know. I come here and... she's not. And it's like... I have a chance again and then I see her sad... like, worse than sad and... I see red. I'm not gonna apologize for that."

The man snorted as she kept calling him a nerd for using magic. There was an odd bit of irony to that since were it not for his hunter's license the man would probably be an uneducated thug running as some enforcer for a gang or mob or something back where he came from. Instead he was dying thanks to his life choices and not a thing to do about it but grin and bare it. At least he was comfortable for it but that just made the humor of it all the more dark. As she spoke on about water sports the man just smirked again. "Oh? Tried it than if you know you don't like it?" Oh he was being a cheeky bastard!

Watching her as she spoke about her ties to demons the man simply snorted, particularly at that bit about breaking him worse. "Hardly... if I know you were a demon you'd have tasted caster far sooner. S-Seen red, but I ain't that stupid to go after a demon with my meat hooks." A roll of shoulder that he obviously regretted as it stopped well short of a full circle. So it became a sort of lame shrug which even that he was sort of ashamed at seeing what really had been kicking his ass earlier. At least they were demon touched, that made things better, right? Ask his pride tomorrow because right now the answer was a pretty resounding no.

As she sat up and looked at that ampule he just sort of snorted as he looked away. "'S who I am... beat my ass and I'll still try to fix you up if... if maybe you might have a slight point." A mild growl at that admission but right now he just felt to damned tired to care about pride anymore. "But yeah, ****ty sense of it. ****ty sense also says I can probably see most that damage fixed if you want... sans the need of demons. I know a doc that specializes in weird and arcane. Could least get you going well enough by.... probably. **** all I know the hell you are but..." And he shrugged leaving that offer out there.

And as she spoke about him and Serah the man just let his gaze fall to the street which he still dribbled blood on occasionally. As she spoke about them being together and her seeing red and all the that he simply waved it off with bloodied knuckled hands. "Is a good instinct... jus'.. jus' don't let Ser know. She ain't so keen on that balls to the walls for a friend ****..." A mirthless smirk at that thought before he shook his head, the bleeding having already stopped thanks to the power of his regen formulae. "Well, a good instinct if you didn't go and get your ass beat afterwards..." And there was that somewhat toothy grin though this lost it's levity as he pondered her words.

"Yeah... well, I saw her die... h-held her in my arms when she..." The man swallowed as he held back. He was most certainly not going to let this bitch see him cry.... never hear the end of it he was sure! "But you�re right... that feeling doesn't go away... it's murder. And it just breaks you more the more time you have together... that... That I've seen too..." His expression was hollow as he spoke, the look of a man broken in the past... and what may well have been an integral part of that monster that drove him so hard to fight... and to rush so readily to his potential end. "I... I don't... I can't put her through that... not for me.... and I think she doesn't want to see that either.. Yeah, you say she did it all for me but... I just don't buy that. Not fully..." Falling silent for a bit he stared at this hands before looking the girl in the eyes. "So, you come from the same doomed world they came from?"
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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Lilith Anderson
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Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:24 pm
Location: Twilight Isle

Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

So he was a dying nerd. Even better. She on the other hand came by her magical ability naturally and still didn't use it. Snorting, she tipped a smarmy smirk his way then patted her pockets down. "I'm a try-sexual. I'll try almost anything once. But not furries. That's on the no list, always. ****. My smokes fried when you killed me." He hadn't actually killed her, after all she was already technically dead. But he had killed her glamour which was about the same in her eyes.

"If you knew then don't insult me by lumping me in with them." She said dryly. To his credit, the girl didn't feel pain for the most part. It was easy to beat the crap out of someone when you couldn't feel what they were doing to you in return. Even glamourless this held true. Otherwise, yeah, he pretty much got into it with what amounted to a teenaged brawling duelist. One of the best, sure, but still.

"You're the worst ass kicker ever. You're not supposed to patch your foes up afterwards. That's how they come after you again and then you get caught monologuing and it's all downhill from there." She might be feeling the ache by that point, each movement a sluggish reminder that her ties to the real world were stronger than she wanted to remember. Nothing like almost dying to remember you're alive. Ish. "I don't mind the hurt, trust me. Good reminder I'm not invincible."

When she spoke of a chance with Serah again, it wasn't in the same sense that Mach and Serah had been together. After all, that would have been beyond weird. It was a chance at putting a broken family back together, that's what had ****ed her up so badly. But she couldn't put that into words so the explanation sat ungiven. "Oh she'd kick my ass if she knew about this. But I'd do it all again in a heartbeat if I had to." She muttered.

Tipping a look back to him, she sighed. "She died and then she came back. You got her back. And it still hurts like hell regardless, doesn't it? I got Sieg back... briefly. But it wasn't the same. Not in the least." Man she needed a cigarette or maybe a bottle of something strong. Real talk wasn't her thing. She shook her head, warding off the thoughts that came with the subject. "She'll put herself through it for you regardless. It's who she is. Sunshine smile while she's dying inside. Damn stubborn girl." Lila shook her head and set the ampule aside. "No... not exactly. It's... it's complicated. And science. And alternate timelines. I come from a Rhydin where Serah never made it and where my mom... uh... hnnnnngh. Where her sister drank herself to death afterwards."

The man smirked at her moxy. "You sure you weren't a product of the hunter's academy..." A wry grin as she spoke about being try-sexual. He was going to have to remember that one! Fit him and most hunters to a strange T really. Watching as she patted about for smokes the man just sighed as he pulled out his own. They were crinkled and bent but whose fault was that! Popping one up he'd take it between his lips... and the tuck the pack away. What an ***hole! Dragging out his lighter he'd light up with a lazy drag, his expression souring as he already felt the filter moisten with the blood from his split lit.

But that didn't stop him from enjoying that little cancer stick as he listened to her complain about things. "Yeah, well, never know for sure until teeth and fireballs come out." A wry tone as he took a drag off his smoke, blood stained blue eyes blue ticking off as she spoke about patching up your enemies. He couldn't help the painful chuckle as she spoke about monologuing villains. This girl had to have met a hunter before! She just hit upon so many tenants of their culture... ****ty tenets, sure, but tenets none the less. "Yeah, well, then I'd kick your ass again. I got plenty of ****ty tricks up my sleeve. Age and ruthless cunning will always beat out youth and vigor. Even ****ty vigor like yours" A lazy glance to the girl as he smirked though he could understand the 'not feeling invincible' bit. What was a hunter if not a human given power beyond their kin.

"Yeah, well, offer still stands. Sounds like you'd rather not be so under the thumb of.... whatever abyssal lord owns your ass. Can at least help a little in that regard.... if you want. Because I'm such a fine ****ing citizen like that." And with that he snorted in ill humor, another drag taken of his smoke as he just listened to her tale. Another life, a Serah that didn't make it. It was a thought that made him cringe inwardly at how close that reality came to pass here. Of course as she spoke about Serah in such a way the man just shook his head. "And that's why I can't put her through that. Because she would stick with it even if it killed her. But she gets out now, then she's spared that. Spared the real ****ty grand prize for her loyalty where she loses me anyway. Yeah, she'll do it now... but as the ***hole that broke her heart? The friend that pushed her to happiness? That's a far... far less damaging road to walk. Yeah, I got her back... and it hurts... but if I didn't..." He fell silent, his expression somber as he tried not to think too much on that thought.

It would be at this point that he'd finally pull that pack back out and pop one of the ****ed up cigs out for the girl. "Wait... mom... sister..." His bell still rang from how many times it got pounded into the ground but even a dense bastard like he could put that together. "You one of Claire's grown brats?" This warranted a painful tick of swollen brow at the girl as he considered this. "****.. I'm gonna have to make sure she disciplines the **** outta yer assess when you're young." His tone mocking though perhaps holding a touch of truth to it as he moved to pull out his lighter in the case that she took his offered cigarette. Delinquency of a minor? The man had been smoking since he was thirteen.... what right did he have to deny this one the chance to kill themselves by cancer?

"Told you, I'm too cool for that ****." If looks could kill, she would have dropped him right then and there. Middle of a nic-fit and he had the audacity... well, it shouldn't have surprised her. "I mean... fireballs I can manage..." Her palm turned upward, a glimmer of flame dancing about from fingertip to fingertip. That was without her glamour even, and a little bit thanks to the red opal that rested against her sternum beneath her shirt currently. "And you would not. Because next time, I'd be aware that you're the ***hole that would bring a gun to a fist fight. I'd be ready because you played your hand." Ha! That's what her expression said. A big ol' Ha, I got you. Talk of her so called owner dampened that look though, a haughty frown settling in its place.

"He'll find out regardless. I already owe him enough... what's a little more. Maybe he can give me a nicer rack next go around." Not that the first had been bad in the least, but she always felt improvements could be made. "Plus, I'd rather owe Tor more than add someone else to the list of debts." Switching gears and putting that behind her, she shook her head. "No, you don't get it dude. She'll put herself through that no matter what. It's like... just how she is. Girl cares too much. She'd be smarter if she didn't. And on top of it, you'll have her hating you or at least trying to find it in that big heart of hers to hate you when she knows she can't but should."

She scrunched her nose and made a face but still took one of the offered cigarettes. A little bit of FireStar's help lit it, negating the need for his lighter. "Not one from here. I don't... I never happened here. My Rhydin isn't this Rhydin and I can't go back to that one. Trust me, I tried." Both in life and in death. It hadn't worked on either. Inhaling deeply, she found the calm settling instantly. "Listen. If you talk to Serah, don't tell her about that part. She doesn't need to know who I am. They're better off believing I'm gone. I can just be Lilith as far as they're concerned."

There was a mild gaze as he noted that little bit of magic as it hopped merrily from fingertip to fingertip. His expression was mild even as she spoke with such gumption and gall with her 'ha!' expression getting the flattest of gazes. That, at very least, told him that she hadn't really dealt too much with hunters at least... so she may well be very unpleasantly surprised at just how deep the bag of dick was that he could pull out to use! Rather than tip off on that he simply just snorted unimpressed. �I only did that because you were pushing my buttons like a kid in a button factory. You want to fight me mono a mono you don't piss me off. Seriously, you're gonna get yourself blown to.. er, heaven.. you talk smack like that to everyone." Did he think she may have been a sharped tongue person to everyone she met? Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt.

A wry little grin pulled on him as she spoke about getting her glamor repaired with 'improvements.' �Maybe ask for a perkier ass too if you're making requests for magical plastic surgery." Offered in a sardonic manner though that may have been more that he wasn't really feeling like poking fun at whatever situation had her indebted to a demon. �But sure, whatever." And finally a little shrug. The offer never taken off the table but he'd not push the issue. Though what she moved off to didn't exactly have him thrilled to take on. �I... I know how she is... or thought I did. But still..." His ruined features twisted some as he fell silent in contemplation, a drag taken from that smoke as he mulled over his thoughts rationally. �I don't think I can buy into that. Not fully. Not after... well... at very least, I'm not sure I'm what she wants or needs... not truly... not..." That cigarette was milled about as he fell silent in thought once again.

He was likely the only hunter she had ever dealt with but what he was or who he was likely had little sway over what she would say or do. As far as she was concerned everyone out there was a giant asshole. The only difference was how bad each one smelled. She rolled her eyes a bit and took a drag from the cigarette. Oh that was delightful. "Ah, you say that. But the better thing to ask would be if I care." There was a wink that followed. Did she talk that way to anyone and everyone? Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt.

"Hey now. I had a phenomenal ass, thank you very much." Twisting a little in how she sat, she tried to get a look at her own rump. Not the easiest task all things considered, but she wasn't lacking in that category by all means. Sitting back correctly, she quieted for likely the first time in their whole conversation, content to add to their collective cloud of smoke at least for a little while. "**** doesn't make sense when it comes to what we actually want, what we actually need, and what we perceive we want and think we need. But I'm done beating a dead horse. I should probably... hnngh. Do something. I don't ****ing know." She sucked in a long drag and exhaled smoke with purse of her lips. "Look, I know you're in a ****ed up place right now, I'm sure, just try not to make things worse than they've gotta be."

The man snorted as she spoke so cavalier about the number of ****s she gave about things. She was refreshingly blunt if not in the being thrown into a frozen lake sort of way. Taking another drag the man's grin grew just a little as he tilted to help her check out the goods. Now that was an appraising look from a screwed up face on the mend if ever there was such! "It's decent, I'll give it that. Could use more sculpt though, just saying." And now it was his turn to wink cheekily as he straightened himself from his lean, returning simply to polluting the city just a little more with this one as they sat like albatross in middle of the curb.

As the girl spoke philosophically about wants and needs the man simply listened, mulling over everything as he nursed that cigarette. Of course her words that almost seemed like concern did garner a mild smirk. "Thanks... I think." Another drag before he let it out in a long, weary sigh which accompanied the pops and cracks as he stretched setting everything back into place with but a mild wince. "I'll try. Try to do right by me and her... I just. Yeah.... not sure what that really is at the moment." Taking one last drag he retired that tired soldier by pinching the burning ember out with his fingers. "You going to go do something? What, piss off some other random stranger?" A wry little wink as he grinned at the girl.

"Tch. More than decent. I do my squats thank you very much." With Andrea. The girlfriend she hadn't seen in days. Not girlfriend, no. Friend, that was a girl. Sorta. And the gym that she hadn't stopped by in days either. Crap. Dockside had seen worse than two beat to hell brawlers on the side of the street. Now that they weren't yelling at each other, people weren't even really staring anymore.

"Yeah. You're welcome or something. I also do tarot cards and palm readings on Fridays." Drably. AKA, her advice wasn't one to take at face value. Who was she to offer any sort of guidance in life. "Right is entirely subjective. Not saying ya gotta do right. Just try not to make things worse. There's a difference between being a saint and being a ****face." Pinned between middle and ring finger, she freed her cigarette and scrubbed the opposite hand over her face, casting an aside look his way just briefly. "That isn't that bad of a plan is it? Nah, but going home just... ngh. I've got Ser's old loft but have a, ah, friend staying there. Sorta. Sometimes. I don't know. There's issues and I think she's mad at me for, um." she cleared her throat a bit, "ruining her house. Or something. So yeah, pissing off random strangers is the next best thing."
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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Lilith Anderson
Proven Adventurer
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Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:24 pm
Location: Twilight Isle

Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

A haughty little smirk escaped the man as the girl preened about her assets. "I reserve right of judgment without a squeeze test. Especially with magic augmentation at play. You see this...this is all natural hunk." He was starting to point to his rugged features before remembering the better of that and aimed the attention to his scrappers physique. Hey, just because she had been beating on him earlier for trying to pick up some floozy didn't mean he couldn't still be a cheeky bastard to her! The man obviously had many strange quirks and faults.

Of course that humor simply rolled on as the girl seemed keen of jokes herself, the man's expression wry as he snagged another cigarette for himself. "****face is a pretty subjective thing and from what I understand you just had to be pious and die a ****ty death to be a saint. Nah, I mean.... ****... I don't know." The man sighed obviously tired of thinking. This was the whole point of him going to find himself some company tonight was so he didn't have to think about things. So he could escape that rats nest of thoughts plagued him with no easy answers. "Do what's best... or as best as I can. Ahg... whatever, nothing doing tonight except maybe drink something numbing." This said as he prodded his split lips with his tongue realigning them so as they could heal.

Shifting a blue eyed blue gaze to the girl the man nodded mildly. "Huh, so you're the one that got that place. Always sorta wondered about that. You see a... well, somewhat hunky, dark haired boy poking around there you make sure to knock him out and drag him to Serah. She... she's got questions for him." Something about talking about that just seemed to grate on the man as was evidenced by the tension in his tone though he shook this off with the flick of that lighter which brought that next cigarette to life. "Ruined their home? What you do, burn it down?" A mild chuckle escaped him at that thought. Why not? Everyone�s place was burning down lately, right? And a few tree's too with his help.

"Maybe if my ass didn't hurt so bad right now I'd let you." she said with a snort. As a matter of fact, all of her hurt from head to toe. It was a nice feeling though, different from the norm. She usually had to push herself through six or seven fights in the Outback in a row to get that kind of residual ache.

"****face is about as subjective as "right" is." she said, air quoting the word with a crook of her fingers. His talk of saints dying ****ty deaths had her laughing ironically. It was a mirthless laugh though, lacking true humor. "Then where the **** is my canonization or whatever the hell they call it?" With a groan she pushed herself forward onto her knees and slowly got to her feet. She offered a hand out. "Get up. I owe you a drink."

"Yeah, it's a nice little place. Didn't really use it much until recently. And I haven't seen Kaleb since he was last hanging around with Serah forever ago. Demon blooded something or other, don't expect him to come around with any sort of reliable frequency." She rolled her eyes a bit, clearly expressing her disdain for her so called "kind". His question about what happened to Apple's house had her shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Ah, something like that."

The man smirked dryly and offered a little shrug. "**** up a cute enough girl beating my head into the ground and now I don't get to squeeze their ass. I really do have the ****tiest of luck." He'd almost laugh at that if the general sentiment didn't ring uncomfortably true. He really had been the empty victor of far too many fights as of recent. So instead he simply took a drag off his smoke as he shrugged. "Story of my life. But plus, I can still eat solid foods, not always the case after such little tussles..." The way he said that made it rather difficult to tell whether he was joking or not on that account. He did lead an interesting enough life for such to have been true!

As she found some dark humor in his talk of canonization the man couldn't help but catch some unspoken meaning to that which clicked with a few other things said. Glancing to the offered hand there was a part of him that wanted to smack it away... but then there was the other part of him that said he was getting too old to take so many licks. That part was his abused body which inevitably won out over pride as he took the hand to help himself up. "So what, you some sort of undead then? Not zombie. Too willful to be a servant. Too smart to be a ghoul. FAR two hard fisted to be an ephemeral." Each role rattled off with hardly a blink from the man as he stood with a mild groan, popping a few vertebrae with a mist of steam leaving his lips as he did so.

But then as she said that name the man sort of fell quiet, his jaw clenching some as he bit back what words may have come up in relation to that one. And here he thought he'd bled all that vitriol out but alas he seemed to keep reserves. Taking a drag from his cig to calm his nerves he nodded mildly. "So you're dead and demon blood bound?" Putting together what he could as he looked back to the bar they had just brawled out in front of. "You think he'll serve us or we better off going somewhere else that won't have to scrub my blood off the sidewalk out front?" An honest question since, really, he'd come to this place on a lark after all.

Of course when she started to shift about at his one question those blues shifted a sidelong glance to the girl. "'Something like that'? Burning places down doesn't really fall into the 'something like that' category of things, yeah? What you do, fell asleep and drop your ciggy on the carpet?"

"Them's the breaks, yeah?" She snickered and twisted her torso left and right, trying to realign her back. That was a bad idea. Wincing, she sucked in a breath of air and poked tenderly at her ribs. She was going to feel that in the morning. Lovely. "Overrated, really. So long as you aren't opposed to drinking bourbon with a straw, you can still do just fine even with your jaw wired shut." Not that she was speaking from experience. Maybe.

Registering his brief hesitation, she almost took the hand back in that smooth "fix my hair and pretend I didn't do that" way, but he took it and she helped haul him up to his feet. Her grip was true, no dumping him on his ass. Though it was tempting of course. "I'm... not exactly sure what I am, to be honest. Tor's not been real forthcoming and Hell's weird. It's usually better to not ask and just kinda go with the flow of Styx, ya know?" Snickering at the terrible joke, she tucked her hands into her pockets.

Glazing over the tension that rippled along his jawline, she shrugged a bit. "Best as I can tell... some sort of imprint of what I was. Long of the short, I may have taken a six story swandive, spent some time seeking absolution, got tired of the humidity and decided to make a name for myself instead. Rubbed elbows with the right people, bought myself a pass." At a steep cost, sure. But nothing quite compared to the view of Rhydin's night sky after a century in the underrealms. "I've got a better place around the corner. Cheaper, stronger." And an open tab. Which is easily a determining factor for her. As she started along the sidewalk, she tried to shrug off the question before decided against bull****ting the man. "No, I walked into her house and set it on fire. But, to my credit, it was not a healthy place for her to be." Because that's a mitigating factor. "And before you ask, no." No, she did not do what he might be thinking of asking her if she did it. Whatever that may be.

The man gave a mild look as she worked on realigning her back and torso, a note as she poked at her ribs. "You heal at an increased rate or regen? Because if not you may wanna get some of that looked over or set back to place. I could give it a whirl but you might get snippy if I'm getting too many kicks with my hands all over you and making you cringe in pain." That could have come across as very suggestive and sexual though the blunt manner which he said that it was probably evident that he meant he'd get a kick out of causing her a little more pain. Hey, he could still hear his bell tinging occasionally thanks to how well she took advantage of his momentary lack of self-preservation.

Of course at her mention of sucking down a liquid diet the man actually chuckled a mirthful laugh albeit the humor he found was rather dark. "Nurses don't approve of you trying that diet, believe me. Especially while inpatient." His shrug was dismissive of how terrible that may have sounded but then it was likely clear that the man was sort of apathetic to his own health. Letting her take the lead he'd follow along, nursing his cigarette as blue eyes blue wandered. His expression turned sly as she made that little joke, a grin finding him if only briefly in turn with her own humor. "Huh, sounds.... complicated. Kinda makes me glad to know that once I kick it that�s it. No eternal paradise or damnation, just a return to the flow of the universe. Makes it easier to avoid pacts with 'the right people' which in my experience tend to be the really ****ing wrong ones." Another little shrug as he just filled bits of what she said, future questions if ever they spoke again after this one particularly strange encounter.

Another drag, another lazy plume of smoke and the man would slow just a hair as she told him straight up what she did. "Not a healthy place huh.... enough so to require the fire and brimstone treatment. That's... pretty bad." Brows knit a little but this news didn't seem to sway him much as he continued along beside her. Of course he had been formulating a thought when she so happened to cut him off at the head. "No... so not Serah's place huh?" The question posed anyway just to watch for a response in case she were lying for a tired sigh escaped him. "Damnit. N-not that you didn't burn it down. More just... that still leaves me with nothing to go on." Taking another drag off his smoke to prevent from sighing when he'd see the bar come into view he'd move to open and hold the door for the multi colored haired girl.

"Usually. When I haven't been knocked with whatever the hell you hit me with. But I don't feel too much of it anyways, takes a lot to make me scream." A beat. "In pain, that is." She said with a pointed glare at him. It was tinged with the barest of smirks and a minor afterthought. "Hnn, careful, I might like that." With an arm tucked against her side to protect both the arm and the ribcage, she turned one of Dockside's corners and nodded ahead to the vaguely glowing neon that announced their destination. As divey as dive bars got, it wasn't packed at this hour and the door wasn't manned by any sort of security like some of the rowdier taverns in the area were.

"See that's your mistake, isn't that what AMAs are for?" Not that she knew personally but if there was one thing she valued above the rest, it was her right to self-determination. The more she thought about it, she couldn't think of the last time she had let an actual doctor see here. It set her pondering, the silence broken up by the sound of her shoes against pavement. "You luck out then. I had been hoping that the end would be the end. But you make your own hell and I guess my own involved all sorts of weird ass ****." It certainly wasn't anything at all like that of her mother's home world. No, Rhydin was a totally different beast. He caught the door before she could and with a shrug, she slid past and into the dim lit tavern.

"Think of it as a shrine to the past. I was doing her a favor. But I'm not so sure she sees it that way." Lil had come to terms with it, or so she told herself. Truthfully she was still a little salty over the whole thing. Her heart had been in the right place but her execution wasn't appreciated. Weaving past tables and up to the bar with an upnod to the grizzled tender behind the counter, she set an elbow to the counter and shook her head at Mach. "Nah and I'm not sure who did it either. Seems I set off all sorts of little firebugs. That half demon girl and her warehouses, those assholes and their flaming baseballs, whoever the hell set the homeless shelter on fire was a real dick though. Not cool." The tender brought over a bottle and two glasses, leaving them there for self serve purposes. She wasted no time filling them up with a slosh of the bottle. One was claimed while the other was nudged his direction.
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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Lilith Anderson
Proven Adventurer
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Posts: 226
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:24 pm
Location: Twilight Isle

Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

The hunters smirk was wry at that pointed glare. "Well, maybe activities for a little later. See if ol' Mach can make you scream." Cheeky as hell grin offered to the woman along with wink for her pointed glare. The man really did seem Machiavellian in some of his mannerisms - a born troublemaker through and through. Lifting his fingers to his nose he'd finally set to adjusting it back to shape through a quick series of tugs and jerks that were done silently save the pop and crackle of cartilage. This absence of sound also included breathless he whined and groaned as he essentially performed walking plastic surgery upon himself! Finishing with a few ragged breaths the man dabbed away what tears may have risen from the procedure.

Of course her speaking about AMA's while he was doing self-repair did bringing a sharp smirk to the man at the irony of it all. "Yeah, sure, but you can only be so ****ed up before they call in a shrink to claim you incompetent so as they can keep you longer. And anyway, only so much I can do for myself without needing some assistance. The better option is to get fixed and then escape when no one's looking. Did that to Claire's pocket doc once... think that guy still wants to deck me... but that may more be in response to me socking him one." His expression thinned as he thought about that, a note taken of just how far they were from that clinic.

Slipping along behind the girl, Mach took in his surroundings as they approached the bar. It certainly said something that as ****ed up as he looked Mach didn't draw a second glance from anybody. Great. Rather than dwelling on this though he simply went with the flow. "Ah.. Good intentioned but yeah, most folks don't like getting their past torn away from them, even if it is for their own good." Taking another drag of his cigarette he offered the girl a sympathetic pat on the shoulder... very light mind since he had gotten all Kirk on her earlier. "She might though with time. Time dulls the ache of familiarity after all." Taking an easy lean against the bar he let his cobalt gaze settle on the girl as she spoke about all the firestarter. Half demon, baseballers, homeless shelter... it seemed a lot of **** had been going down that the schmooze had only been keep a mild interest in. "Hmm... great. And here I was hoping for something to go off of."

A tired sigh escaped him with a shrug. "Suppose that's my own 'shrine to the past'.... " And with those words a sharp smirk escaped him.. "But sadly it started out burnt.... not sure where to go from there." A shrug as he took up the indicated glass. He raised a toast to Lilith for a moment before he slammed back the glass in one go, a content sigh escaping him. "So she's hanging out at your place now then I take it... the 'thing that makes picking fights with strangers' seem better?"

Though she rolled her eyes, there was a hint of a smirk at the corners of her mouth. "Yeah, if you get lucky." She said wryly. As he readjusted his nose, she leaned toward him with a macabre sort of awe, lifting a hand to gingerly touch at the realigned flesh. "Well ****, that wasn't half bad doing that on the fly." Lil said without any sarcasm. It was a wonder the girl was capable of such a thing but sure enough, it was spoken with only genuine intent.

"Well, sure, but if you're bigger, stronger, faster, and smarter, to hell with competence. Sure having an accomplice helps. Someone who doesn't give a **** about anything but sticking it to the Man." Whoever the Man was. It was a vague enough all encompassing term but it worked. A thin brow quirked slowly and she stared at him in disbelief. "You laid Doc out? You're lucky he didn't knock your ass out. Used to box, pro level, didja know? Real tough bastard. But gotta be to work for the Caelums, I guess." She shrugged a bit. Angling herself to the bar, she took up her glass and sloshed the liquid a bit.

"Time dulls, yeah. What a joke that. It doesn't heal it though. And then before you can even stop it, you step into a moment and something as simple as a smell, a place, a glimpse of a stranger passing by... and it all comes back. It's like getting hit with a mack truck. I should have known better to think I could have fixed it like I did. Heh. That I could fix anything." Tipping the glass back, she gulped down its contents and went to refill both glasses while a dull warmth settled in her stomach. "You really think she's gonna want you to be the one to try and figure it out? Considering where you two stand right now... ain't that rubbing salt in fresh wounds for both of you?" It was spoken gently if bluntly.

"Yeah, I offered my place up... but that was before she knew what I had done. Don't think I've seen her in a few days and honestly, what's the point, you know? We aren't... like... a thing, so why the **** am I worrying about it." Another shake of her head as she eyed the liquid in her tumbler, contemplating. "I'm not made for this ****. Being two dimensional and singularly minded is way easier." She'll drink to that. Down the hatch it went.

"Lucky huh? Well ****..." A lazy smirk escaped him at that saying. The joke was obvious given the sort of luck the man had been having right on up to tonight�s escapades. When those fingers brushed upon that realigned flesh the man hissed ever so slightly. "I'm well practiced putting bits back in place quickly and by myself. Problem with regenerative powers... they'll mend right up whether you're ****ed up or proper... and if they do so ****ed up, well..." A gesture made of fist punching into the palm of his hand indicating quite simply what all that entailed. "So yeah, I ain't half shabby fixing folks."

Taking a drag off his smoke he simply smirked as the girl spoke about sticking it to the man. It was entertaining on several different levels given the schmoozes punky past and the fact that, in some circles, he was 'the man,' "Nah, hospitals got sheer numbers on their sides. Can't put up much struggle against ten folks strapping your ass to a gurney. And I didn't 'lay him out'.... I did clock him a good one though. Got me a nice double barrel of sleepy drugs in the butt for that one." He shrugged mildly, the info about the man being a boxer simply filed away as 'stuff you should probably keep in mind before hitting someone again.' Hey, at very least the doc didn't sucker punch patients back!

And as the woman moved on to the topic of time and wounds she'd find a sympathetic nod from the man that knew all to well of such. Happy for the refill he'd tip another salute to the punk and her sage words. "True enough... just puts distance between things... but they still shine like a beacon at the ****tiest of times. But distance can be a blessing... makes that beacon a little fainter each time... gets you used to the ache. And then... well, it's not so bad as it once was... or least you hope." Tipping back that second belt without much adieu he settled back for a third. "But that doesn't mean you can't do stuff to try and fix things. No one's powerless to try and affect some sort of change small as it can be... least that's my view on things... most things. Some things are just there and all you can do is deal." A thinning of that mild expression as he thought on that, a drag taken from his cig and let loose in a lazy billow.

His gaze wandered over those visible tattoos taking them in now that they weren't trying to pummel his head into the ground as he listened to Lilith speak. "That's why she's not privy to this. Just my investigation because... because I want to know what happened. Maybe it is salting the wounds but I think you've seen by now I kind of like the pain... helps me keep my head on straight and out of the clouds... usually." A little shrug as he took another drag off his smoke, a circle puffed out in lazy manner. Those last words that she had would have the man casting a dubious look to the woman while he was trying to launch a smaller ring through the first. "Why? Because you care. Sort of like beating the ass of your friends ex because he hurt your friend. Hate to break it to you but I don't think you're so 'two dimensional' as you hope. And I don't figure you can be such either."

One shoulder bobbed a tight shrug as she snickered. In life, she had known all about healing incorrectly and the perils of doing so. But much like many things in life, it all came down to just how many F's she gave and whether they outweighed the trouble. "Nah, but like that's straight. Most of the time, you see someone realign and they get looking like Matt Simon busted their face in."

"Ten to one sounds like a party." she said dryly. The girl wouldn't have stood a chance but she had also done a good enough job of flying under the radar that it never came down to such a scenario. "Bet you liked gettin' one in the ass." Immature snickering followed of course as she refilled her own glass. Doc, of course, didn't get paid to accost patients. Thankfully. For all parties involved.

"At the ****tiest times. You aren't kidding." she snorted. It had pushed Andrea away to the point that Lilith's folly could cost her everything she had built over the past year. Just like that, the gust of wind that blew over the house of cards. "Sometimes there comes a point where you have to decide if you're doing more harm than good. And it feels like each time I think I'm helping, I'm actually making things worse. But whatever. This isn't a Poor Me party. We're drinking." Speaking of, she made sure the refills kept coming, the bottle's liquid level steadily dropping. From the left wrist all the way up beneath her shirt, a winding path of black ink etched out an intricate and continuous piece unbroken by unnecessary blank skin ( http://tinyurl.com/zj4fh7l ) .

"I'm not so worried about your pain, no offense. But I do worry that you poking around might make things worse for her, you know? Nothing against you." She said, only to have her words prove his point. Groaning into her glass, she drank it down a bit slower this time around. It helped dull the pain, internal and external alike. "Then I guess I have to settle for fumbling through three dimensionalism and trying to maintain some semblance of... broken give-a-damn. ****'s messy otherwise. Not worth it."

"Doing more harm than good huh..." His tone was drab as he repeated those words as if to examine them in the smoky air before him. Another drag, another knock back of that burning amber. The schmooze certainly seemed keen to assist in draining that bottle of volume as they conversed on the very edge of what was uncomfortable for the both of the them to deal with. "Suppose we're both guilty of that little sin." A little wink for the girl as he threw back another belt of that liquor, a content sigh leaving him even as the cuts to his lips burned under the touch of the alcohol. "But then we just gotta keep doing what we can. Fumble forward, stupid and ****ed as we can. Cause yeah, ain't no amount of pity parties gonna do squat to improve things."

Taking another belt of that liquor the man couldn't help but smirk as the girl spoke so frank of her disregard for him. "None taken. But I gotta wonder how exactly you figure me poking around what arson burnt down her place would make things worse for her?" A sidelong glance as he asked this question, watching the woman and her response."Especially if I don't really make her privy to what I'm doing... just sort of seeking answers for myself since... well..." Words once more abandoned him as he found himself still rather sore talking about 'the good times' with the pink haired one now after all that was said in the heat of anguish and rage fueled misery earlier. Something about all that raised some serious doubts in the man that weighed on him heavily.

Though as she spoke about shambling along with 'giving a damn'-ness the man couldn't help but chuckle, his expression smoothing over once more. "Guess you will, but seems your hearts in the right place... totally checking in case I have to put a wooden stake through it, you know how that goes." A cheeky wink and grin for the woman s he held his glass out for her to toast. "To trying not to mess things up too much worse, yeah?" It wasn't a very hopeful sort of toast but then Mach didn't venture that either of them were the most hopeful of folks at the moment.

Whether Lilith shared in that toast or not the man seemed content to push forward as he motioned to her sleeve of ink. "That mean anything in particular or was it just 'something cool' to do as a rebellious youth?"
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
User avatar
Lilith Anderson
Proven Adventurer
Proven Adventurer
Posts: 226
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:24 pm
Location: Twilight Isle

Re: Mutually Assured Destruction (Dec 2015)

Post by Lilith Anderson »

"Yeah, something like that." Her tone flat to go with the lather, rinse, and repeat of the glass refills. Typically she just drank straight from the bottle but company meant acting civilized at least for a little while. "Ha, add it to the list, I guess. Fumble forward." she repeated thoughtfully, clucking her tongue against the back of her teeth. The motion once would have brought the clack of metal but that was another life. It wasn't nearly as satisfying that time around. "That's about the best way to describe it, I suppose."

Sucking in an unnecessary breath, she held it then exhaled through a string of semi-coherent explanation. "Because she runs the risk of havin' to see your ugly mug 'round her place." It was all she offered and snickering bubbled forth after the pseudo-insult, one hand rising to shove back through her hair. It did little tame the mane of violet, the blue and pink giving a sort of royal pastel fade in the dim bar light.

"Heart? What heart." The hand that had just pushed through her hair dropped slightly to rap knuckles against her sternum. "About as hollow as your head." With a wry grin, she topped her glass off and lofted it in response to his toast. "Aye and illegitimi non carborundum." Drawing the glass to her lips, she dumped it back and swallowed, her lips popping at the tail end. A hazel eyed gaze fell downward to her arm, the opposite hand tugging at her sleeve to pull it upwards as best as she could. "Little of column A, little of column B. Drew most of it myself... figured I couldn't keep much of my art with me thanks to uh, less than consistent living quarters, why not carry it with me always." She pulled at her collar, exposing a spread of ink across the flesh there before swiveling her barstool and slinking the hem of shirt upwards to expose her lower back. "Goes over the shoulder, down across the back, along the right hip and down to my ankle. Knew a guy that'd do it for, mmh, fair trade really. So why not right?" The etching of ink was one of the few things we seemed legitimately proud of when the guise of Lilith the Usurper had been ripped away to expose the girl beneath.

"So is life. A big joke of a carnival and then you die..." A lazy look to the woman that turned a little sheepish as he remembered his company. "You hope. Honestly, don't think I've done anything remotely close to what has happened to you. Cheers on that uniqueness... and sorry all the same." It was hard to tell whether the man was trying to be glib or comforting as he threw back those shots while puffing away on his cigarette living for his vices. Of course as the girl suddenly unloaded about why he shouldn't go digging into things he simply offered a little shrug. "It's not really 'her place' anymore. Just sort of a pile of ash on the beach really... she... she won't see me about it too much though. Not much for me to glean. And anyway, we... we said we wanted to still be friends. She'll... she'll still see this ugly mug occasionally... well, maybe once it becomes a handsome one again..." Because the man knew that it would only concern the woman if she saw him all beat to hell as he was now. She did have a big heart, even if she saw him as little more as a burden at the moment.

Taking another drag off his smoke the man let it slip from him in a smirk as she spoke about her heart and his head. "So you're saying you've got a big heart beating behind your breasts huh?" A little leer at that before he broke into a cackle with a waggle of brow to boot. Clinking that glass he let that cackle roll into a smirk. "Illegitimi non carborundum... sounds about right... got a similar saying back where I come from but it adds a few more folks to the list than just bastards." Tossing back his own glass he'd let out a hiss as that warmth finally started to ease the aches and pains of his body just a little. There was a pause as he let his gaze take in all that ink as it was shown, his gaze appraising but not in a creeper sort of fashion. "Huh, you're pretty talented. I, on the other hand, can **** up a stick figure." A lazy roll of shoulders as he admired more of the work. "Any plans to continue on the other side? Seems you got a fair bit more canvas left to use." A wry little smile as he killed off that second smoke, the but ground out into a nearby ashtray as he focused on nursing his drink now rather than taking it in shots.

"Sounds like a ****ty sorta cycle to be in..." Though even as those words left the man's lips he couldn't help to chuckle at the irony of someone like him saying them. "Guess whoever gets off can tell the other how it's like on the greener side of the fence and ****, yeah?" And that grin that curled on him was full on cocky, his lip no longer of fear for spitting thanks to the beating he'd received. Even in such a short amount of time he looked to have been well along the path to healing up, at least a week or so in rather than the scant hour it may well have been. Taking another nursing sip of his drink the man nearly choked as her logic train seemed to derail and kill everyone on board via a punch to the face. He just blinked at her before a chuckling shake of head took hold. "That's some bit of logic there. You offering to keep me ugly? Not sure you'd survive that!" A sly wink as he finished the amount of liquor in his glass off in a go before holding it out for another... only to be greeted with the girl moving off from civility. "Oi!" Without even a thought for his safety he'd snag the bottle from the demon bound so as to drain it down directly himself. "But yeah... I know how it goes. Maybe... maybe I'm just deluding myself in that hope that it might be true... I don't know. It's just ****ed up no matter how I look at it." Another swig was taken before he offered the bottle back, his expression contemplative.

Listening as she took jabs at him while trying to be understanding it made the man sort of marvel just what sort of life he lead where he could start out a meeting getting his ass beat by a person only to be drinking with them and trading life advice with them by the end of the night. It was the sort of thing that made the man wonder about himself and his place in the world, wonder about how why he tried so hard to follow norms when he always seemed the very definition of abnormal. "Few? So there's others?" A sly grin at that as he nodded to her words, his expression growing stoic of the talk of yet another with time ephemeral to affect changes to the world. "Hmm.. well, it certainly seems fitting. Beautiful but unbalanced, incomplete but whole in it's meaning..." His smile was gentle as he spoke those words before a grin pulled upon him. "Shame it won't be finished but suppose that's something to be seen. Life is a bitch... never know what'll it throw at you." Another dry smirk before he shook his head mildly, popping his neck. "Course I could just be rambling... think the pain and the alcohol's finally starting to catch up to me." A lazy smirk as he pushed off from that lean, instantly regretting it as he groaned softly.

Letting his own gaze wander about the near empty bar he'd let his attention return back to the girl as she moved, speaking of his many options. "Dignity.... hah, I think I bled that out in front of that other bar when a punk was bouncing my head off the ground. So that offer of joining you in that room... I gotta ask two things. You gonna punch me in the face if I do.... and would we be taking a bottle of alcohol with us?" He spoke this with all the trappings of seriousness though coy mirth played behind the cobalt blues.

"Kinda like being stuck in a revolving door, yeah? Good luck getting out." She cracked a grin, wry and self-deprecating. Long ago had she resigned herself to the cycle. It made it easier to enjoy the ride if you didn't fight it. While she played it off well, she felt as though her bruises had bruises, each motion bringing a twinge of pain somewhere. That said, it didn't bother her, a welcome break in the monotony of feeling nothing at all. Smirking, she let him take the bottle off her hands, she faded into a quiet laugh and shrugged, leaving the logic train well into the realm of Whatthehellville. Population: 2. "I'll bring a bigger stick to beat ya with next time. Maybe if I do a better job, she won't even recognize you. Just be like 'Who's this weirdo hanging around my burnt down house?' and you can be like 'I dunno!'." Her laughter lifted.

Was she surprised to find the night have brought them there over a bottle of what was it, bourbon or something of the sort? Not so much. In a go with the flow sort of life, stranger things had happened and there was something to be said for making nice with someone who had her on her back with nowhere to run. Something about friends being close and enemies closer. Maybe. Or it just kept life interesting, either way. "Yeah, rumor has it I'm an expert button pusher." she deadpanned, upending her tumbler and setting it upside down on the bar. "Carpe diem, yolo, whatever else kids these days call seizing the day, that's the **** you gotta do. Finish what you can when you can because there's no guarantee for tomorrow man, none at all." She chuckled and swept a blue tinged strand of pink over the crest of an ear. "But I suppose you know that pretty well, huh."

Two fingers lifted to signal the barkeep down and the old man began moseying on down the way. "Oh good, so I did get the rest of it knocked out of you. I wasn't sure." She broke her conversation with the hunter to briefly address the keep, getting a bottle for the road. No glasses. Mostly because they never returned and there was no reason to add broken glassware to her so called tab. "That should answer your second question." She said as she strangled the new bottle by the neck and pulled away half a step from the bar. "As to the first? Didn't think that was your thing but hey, if you want more, only if you ask real nicely." There was that grin blooming to life again, ear to ear in its teasing spread. Swinging the bottle loosely at her side, she backed off from the bar fully, turned on her heel and started for the narrow staircase that led to the handful of rooms on the level above.

The schmooze couldn't help but feel a certain kinship to this one: broken, jaded, world weary, and beautifully masked as they were. They were a lot of traits that he so saw in himself though maybe drawn to the extreme, twisted by whatever past lead her to the limbo which she currently lived. An intriguing problem though one the man was sure he'd not be cracking any time soon.... and certainly not without bleeding a fair bit more to do so. Such was always the price to pay when one made deals with internals. Smirking at her words the man all but broke into a full on laugh as she laid out her future plans for him. "Let's not get too carried away now yeah? My handsome mug's one of the few redeeming features I have!" A cheeky grin curled upon him at that. "We'll reserve that for plan B..." And with a wink his laughter only grew despite how it pained him so to do so.

Setting his own glass down upended for the evening the man simply smirked as she spoke so cavalierly. He really was the sort to just let bygones be bygones, a trait that was both admirable and aggravating in equal measure to others. He didn't see this one as a friend or enemy yet, she was simply another broken soul looking to feel something more than that which was pushed on them by their lot in life. If that more was the aches and pains of a good fight, the pull of heartstrings, or the stirring of passions it was all simply a means of flipping the one fingered salute to fate, of declaring that they were there. A chuckle left the man as she deadpanned that response, an innocent all his own crossing those colored features. "Truly? I'd have never guessed...." That bright eyed innocence lasted but only a few scant moments before the man broke into a dry chuckle as she spoke so about the many different ways of saying to seize the day.... and referring to kids doing such when she was little more than that herself in comparison to the hunter.... physically speaking at least. "Kick the pricks, lick the slits, and make merry when you can is how it's put where I come from but yeah, I get it."

Blue eyes blue watched that exchange between the purply haired one and the barkeep, another bottle produced as she cut a saucy turn for the stairs. He'd smirk lazily as she seemed so proud of the idea about beating his dignity out of him like stuffing from a toy. But as she spoke once more teasing him with that vibrant grin and playful words that seemed so alien just an hour past the man couldn't help but rise to the challenge. Moving up behind her there was a definite grab for her pert derriere so as he could attempt to give it a few firm, assessing squeezes without so much as a how do! Was it foolish to attempt such when she was armed with a glass bottle? Certainly, but then the man was feeling quiet the ass about many a thing right now so what was a little more? Granted he could get in his molestation the man would nod solemnly as his expression took on a dead as deadpan manner all his own. "Hmm.... yes, I think I do have to concede that this is a fine ass." That expression held for a full few ticks of the heart before a pie eating grin pulled across those features. "Maybe we'll start with setting things back in place and see where that leads, yeah? Did say I would try to make you scream if given half the opportunity." Oh his grin was cheery as he followed along even in the face of the slight shake of head from the barkeep that kept a professionally uncaring expression on his features.



[[A million thanks to Mach's player for the scene!]]
Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said "Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me."

~Ray Lamontagne-Empty
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