Double post galore.
Hey, Delor, since people here had stuff they needed to prioritize first, we ended up bunching our ideas into a single text, but yeah, it's Serena we're talking about.
The singing came from here, I'm sure of
it. - Gladstone claimed with a serious tone
We might want to hurry. - added Torvin as he inspected the blood, both old and new at the same time Rykosar arrived, panting from trying to accompany the sprint that Sebastian forced everyone into. - We don't know for sure how much blood whoever is in there has lost already.
Agreed. – continued The Gentleman. – But does anyone have anything we could use as a light?
I have a couple candles? - Sabine offered wearily, staring at the blood and mouth of the cave.
Quickly messing through his pockets, Torvin answered positively before taking out a small flashlight and flicking it on. Despite its size, it was actually, decently powerful.
Let’s go then. – Torvin requested – I’ll stay in the front and see how far this blood trail goes.
With everyone acknowledging the soldier’s claim, they followed him inside.
The cave wasn’t exactly narrow, so everyone had space to walk around in, but the walls were still slightly claustrophobic and the sounds of a mechanical leg stomping the ground periodically didn’t help in easing the already tense atmosphere.
No one talked; tension hung over them, and they all just followed Torvin as he looked for the blood drops that were spilled around the cavern floor. It didn’t go all that deep, but it sure went on for a while. There was probably about seven minutes of walking before any sign of life was given.
Sebastian was out of chocolate.
He started to look worriedly through his pockets until he gave up and cursed to himself in a sigh, grabbing the attention of the others.
Don’t worry. It’s nothing regarding the ghost. – The chocolate-loving man quickly dismissed – It’s just that… I’m out of chocolate.
Poor baby. – Sabine meant to tease, coming out more harsh than she meant. – Eating that much can’t possibly be healthy for you.
If my body couldn’t take it, I would have already had severe health problems by now. - Gladstone retorted in an annoyed, but embarrassed fashion for allowing his problem to get to this point. – There’s no reason for concern, for now.
Then when should we be concerned? – Asked Rykosar
The answer didn’t come immediately, there were mumbles, as if Sebastian was calculating an exact number:
Given how little I’ve been sleeping, I’d say about a couple of hours until I start breaking down.
A few moments of silent walking passed by before George raised a question:
Does anyone have any real suspicions as to who it might be by now?
I still say it’s a spirit. – Sabine claimed, one rubbing her hands which she’d removed the previous night.
Then why could we hear the voice coming from this cave? – The Gentleman retorted – Don’t these imaginary ethereal beings like to stick in one place?
Although with a couple of seconds of hesitation, an answer came from the voodoo queen:
Maybe it’s an echo from what we could hear in the house? Maybe this goes all the way below the place? Or gosh I don’t know more than one?
Then what about the blood? – Prince asked defiantly
Could be a wounded animal that walked in here, cap. This is part of a forest, you know. – she replied in the same tone, the possibility of sacrifice hesitantly popping up in the back of her mind
By the way, Sebastian – Interrupted Torvin, putting an end to the possible discussion between the two. – I’ve been meaning to ask: Do you know if, by any chance, there was any kind of singer between the old members?
The blonde martial artist bobbed his head back slightly, looking at the ceiling of the cavern as he scanned his mind for an answer:
Uh… not that I am aware, no. However, - he still added – from what I managed to gather from Lexel’s leardership, he was a pretty unorganized man er… individual.
Individual? – Inquired Sabine
Well… he doesn’t exactly look like a regular human, or acts like one. Think of a silly cartoon and you pretty much have his style of appearance and behavior. – He explained – But anyways, apparently, it took him more than a month to even announce to the wRHG the addition of two other founding members. A super strong cowboy named Bodacious and a demon kid which, funnily enough, was also named Sebastian. It wouldn’t surprise me that, if there was another member, he just didn’t mention it anywhere. If this leads to nothing though, I could go and check what he left once more; maybe I missed something there as well.
If anyone intended to comment on what Gladstone said, it would have to be delayed until later. The red-headed soldier motioned everyone to stop. Apparently, he heard something: a moan. The group went immediately silent, hoping to hear it once more. And they did.
It was soft, almost like it was afraid of even getting listened, but it was clearly a moan of agony and it wasn’t all that far away, causing the strange group to walk faster.
It didn’t take long before there was a second sign of life: light.
It was really faint, but enough of a light to be noticed around a corner in the darkness of the cave, followed by another moan.
Torvin motioned the clan to stop once more, immediately walking as silently as he could to the edge of the corner, and peeking in before quickly telling everyone to walk in as well.
What everyone saw was a dark-haired woman on the floor, using a travelling bag as a pillow and a sizeable amount of blood under her. She was wearing dark leather armor and appeared to be sleeping, or at least was until the group arrived. The noise caused by all the steps awakened her. It was kind of hard to discern exactly what kind of heritage she had given that noone seemed to have actually seen anyone like her but she did have a pair of incredibly amber eyes and a skin tone a few shades paler than you’d expect; likely due to her blood loss.
At the sight of her five intruders, she still tried to move, but immediately clutched on her abdomen and moaned once more before she collapsed, fainting.
George was first to leap forward, for he cannot stand the sight of a woman in distress while the others approached a little more cautiously. The Gentleman took off his hat and placed it along with Umbra on the ground beside the woman. He immediately checked her pulse:
- She’s still alive guys. [/spoiler]
Watchu gunna do nao?
In other news, I have something I ended up writting that goes into the Random Rambling category.
I decided to have a bit more fun with a character I created for Gladstone's demo.
Google Doc Version -
*giggles* Stop that!
Coming through the elevator that lead t
o the second floor on the ActaSanctorum clan house, a tall and well dressed man with a thick light brown mustache, a pin-stripe suit and a blue tie appeared in an almost festive fashion; umbrella in one hand, serving as a cane and his top hat on the other, catching me doing maintenance on my tonfas lying down on one of the larger old green sofas.
- Good afternoon, Sebastian! – I heard, leading me to immediately jump out of the couch and greet The Gentleman with a welcoming handshake after placing the weapon back on the glass table.
- Good afternoon, Mr. Prince! – I warmly responded to him
- Are you sure you don’t want to get rid of those horrendous sofas? I’m sure I can find you a much better set – George asked, slightly grimacing when he leaned to look at the ugly furniture.
- No, thank you. – I politely dismissed, raising a hand and gesturing negatively – There’s no need for that. I find it to be a sort of homage to its original leader. They’re still comfortable and I don’t want to bother you any further. You’ve already done more than enough. And besides, are you sure you want to take away Rykosar’s bed? There can’t be that many sofas who can handle his weight, don’t you think?
With a noticeable chuckle, the older fellow insisted that he could at least try, but still added:
- By the way, Sebastian, have you been to the lounge this morning? - Curious, I replied negatively, prompting him to continue – Apparently, some hooligan spray painted in magenta a message on the main entrance of the building this morning. I asked around and, thankfully, this seemed to have been a first and hopefully last of these acts of vandalism.
Agreeing with him on the vandalism part, I still asked him about the content of the message, out of curiosity.
George curled his moustache for a couple of seconds as he thought about it:
- If I’m not mistaken… it was: “Where is my cube-spawning knight?”
I froze; my eyes widened, and in that very instant, one of my pixels just appeared right next to me, quickly followed by the other four in a quick succession during the next second. A flashback of my encounter with her crashed onto my mind, focusing mainly on the ambiguous smile she gave me in the end. I didn’t give it much thought at the time, but the more the clock ticked on that matter, the more worried I got. I did a little research on her and found out she had been arrested twice, but managed to escape from custody on both instances: about year after, the first time and 5 months after, the second time. Now, not even 3 months had passed.
I worriedly pressed George for confirmation and any more bits of information that he could possibly have, but it resulted in nothing. That was all he knew.
Nonetheless, I thanked him for bringing the matter to me and explained the situation to him when he asked the reason for my concern.
Her name was Katia, from what I managed to find; 22 years old and Dutch. She has been accused of countless cases of murder and destruction of property however, she doesn’t seem to act with any pattern whatsoever and has been considered a sociopath during her periods of incarceration. As if she wasn’t dangerous enough as it is, she also has in her possession a custom grenade launcher that only works when in her own hands, capable of holding various grenades; both in type and quantity, not to mention that she also has a peculiar pair of boots. According to her, no matter how high, if given enough time to charge, she can both jump to and fall from that point.
The Gentleman seemed rather displeased with what I said, and he didn’t seem to want to hide it either, especially after I told him what she looked like, expressing his discontent at the fact that such a woman resorted to an unnecessary act of vandalism to get a message across. After a sigh though, he did make himself available to help me if necessary... and so did Sabine.
From the looks of it, she heard everything from the corridor and I just didn’t notice, claiming I needed someone to keep watch on me whenever I left the clan house.
I answered with a kind smile, moving my hands to aid me in demonstrating my gratefulness:
- Sabine, I really appreciate the concern, I really do, but I can take care of myself. There’s no need to put anyone else through any more danger than they already are by being in this system.
- But what if she sneaks up to you without you noticing? – she questioned, annoyed
- I’ve been taught how to react in situations like those. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.
- What if she blows you up from a distance?
- And how’s having someone with me at that time put me in any less danger? If anything, you’d just be needlessly putting another person in risk of painful and horrible mass dismemberment.
The look on the voodoo queen was not a pleased one, but after insisting once more that I would be fine, she resigned to it. Or at least I thought so. During the next two days, every time I tried leaving the clan house, someone would go out of their way to accompany me, but denied all accusations that Sabine was the one who asked them to do this, unless of course it was herself. Suffice to say, I didn’t really believe them.
It took me a while to finally be able to leave the house alone. I was grateful for their concern, but I really didn’t want them to have to deal with anyone they didn’t have to.
I was going to a candy store near the lounge, wearing a long and warm dark jacket as I walked down a surprisingly empty street. It was cold outside, temperature barely in the positive Celsius, but it shouldn’t be enough to force everyone to stay at home.
- Peek-a-boo! – And suddenly, I had a knife right in front of my throat and a woman basically piggyback riding me.
Surprised, I instinctively twisted my body after grabbing the knife hand, trying to project whatever jumped me to the ground and control it by the arm. It didn’t seem to be of any success though.
The body let itself slide, releasing the grip on my waist at the right time to gracefully land in front of me, but without escaping my grip. It revealed a blonde woman with a tanned skin and a blue bandana covering most of her hair, contrasting with her white sweater and the dark baggy jeans used to hide her jumping boots. On her back, there was also a familiar looking grenade launcher.
Katia.
- No, no, no! – she lightly scolded with a pout, the same way a mother would do to a small child who wasn’t old enough to know any better – I can’t let you throw me! – her tone then turned quieter, creepier, more threatening as her smile grew wider – We wouldn’t want that cut getting bigger, now would we?
Only then did I realize that under my chin, I had a small cut which was just now starting to drop a thin line of red cells, making their way down my neck and slowly giving me a slight burning sensation. It must have been made when I tried to get her off me.
- What do you want, Katia? – I asked, trying to keep calm and avoid having her do something stupid.
She tilted her head slightly, smiling and curious:
- Mm? You know my name? Oh, I feel so special! – she half shouted, rolling her eyes and pretending she was swooning from me before locking her gaze back into mine, curious – Tell me, what else do you know about me?
- You’re dodging the question. – I now scolded as I tried to take her by surprise and remove the knife. However, she seemed to be prepared, so I only managed to nudge her hand away slightly. She was surprisingly strong.
- Ah, ah, ah! Nooooope dot avi! – She scolded once more – Don’t be such a party pooper! Fine, I’ll tell you. I came here to see you.
- How touching. – I couldn’t help but add before I felt a gun on the back of my head.
- And to show you my new boyfriend. – Two armed people. This could be bad. – Now, if you don’t want that beautiful cranium of yours to start having new eye sockets, let go of my hand and turn around.
In no position to fight back without getting shanked, shot or both, I complied, seeing the knife right in front of my throat once again while I did as she asked.
The man she spoke of was a tall, dark-skinned adult; slightly buff in appearance with big shoulders and a dark and neatly combed hair, as well as a pair of deep brown eyes. Despite his outward appearance (dark blue baggy jeans, white sneakers, a comfortable black sweater with a white acronym in it that I couldn’t decipher the meaning of and a small necklace that I barely noticed tucked under it), there was something in the way he was looking at me and how nervous he was that made me think that something wasn’t entirely right in him. Not accounting the fact that he was dating a sociopath