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 Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:15 pm
Scenerio 6: This is for your own good
If there was anything Asteria had really liked about leaving that horrible house, despite the extremely good pay from their job, and returning to the more 'mundane' life of the Inn hopping, it was that she could simply hide in her room all day and eventually Shae would come back and they could talk.
Though the conversation had mostly been about Chess and other card games that Asteria had been 'forcing' herself to learn.
She was pretty good at the Black Jack bit, but not so much at Chess. So they'd been playing that more.
The 'planning ahead' had gotten to her, really.
However, today Asteria had been all but 'forced' out of her room. Not for any particular reason, but she'd simply gone downstairs to pick up a newspaper...
...
Because Kanda had come earlier that morning and stolen away her 'Company' from the last couple of days. Yes, she'd even left Yossarian alone.
He hadn't 'stolen' Shae away, moreso as taken back his 'conversation'. That and between the two evils for 'running errands', as it seemed Asteria had stopped going.. hell, leaving her room even unless it was for extreme reasons.
Which, today, had been in the shape of.... Airship schedules and getting groceries.
Afterall, stubborn woman or not, he'd at least agreed that Asteria shouldn't starve to death hiding in her room all day, and neither should Shae who was forced to be her company.
Kanda had simply taken care of such stuff when he was out looking for distractions, work, and avoiding his grouchy-irritable-as-of-late roomate.
Ugh. Things had just deteriorated lately.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:31 pm
It had been a very strange week in more ways than one.
To start off with, of course, there was the atmosphere. It had been haunting the quartet's quarters like a damp cloud of WOE ever since departing the manor (... which should've been a joyous event by all rights, considering how sick of luxury they all were) and leaving the air thick enough to choke a horse. Hell, it could've probably choked a herd of horses-- and that was more than enough to get to one Shae Elliot Harper.
As neither the instigator nor victim of the unspoken conflict which had dragged itself out for FAR too long, she found it highly uncomfortable to be around... and thusly made an effort to get out and rove the city at any opportunity, spending the whole day in preparation for retaining her 'calm' sanity when the time came for returning and socializing with her roommate.
... Which wasn't to say that she disliked bonding of any sort, but... she was no fool, either.
Asteria had sought her out as company for lack of anything better. It was just that simple. She was desperate for some kind of platonic reassurance in the absence of what she really wanted.
But Shae, in kindness, had entertained her none the less without a word of complaint, taking every day as it came with a practiced smile-- and today was proving to be rather... out of the ordinary so far. Slinking along in his shadow was the closest thing to 'pleasant' she could hope for, and there was a strange comfort in mundane activities like grocery hunting and schedule checks. Hell, it wasn't even that cold out, and with her tweed jacket buttoned and hands shoved in her pockets, she could've almost said she was warm.
Digressing from the day's activities and back to other matters, however, the secondary cause of "strange" that week had been none other than Yossarian-- who was currently semi-upright in bed with his back against the wall, his sword in hand, and his eyes half-lidded in some not-quite-dozing torpor.
He'd been getting noticeably more disgruntled than usual over the past few days... and hardly showed up at all to join the other three (...well, two or sometimes one) for coffee, nor did he even seem to be present come nightfall.
Yes, very strange indeed... And soon to get even stranger, as the sun had already started hanging low, and the light just began to dim.
Time to move again soon.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:46 pm
Of course, she'd made no attempts to go and greet Yossarian with one of her 'good mornings' in order to make conversation, only pausing in her little quest back into hiding to open the door of the adjacent room to give a "Good Night."
Then she was off and back into hiding with her newspaper.
Hmm, something about young women who were going missing, she was surprised they hadn't jumped on that yet. Then again, maybe they had.
Kanda seemed rather intent on his little 'check the flights' bit with the schedule, eventually handing the schedule off to Shae with one hand.
"Talk it over with the woman, but she should head back to her home." he stated flatly. Yes, that's why he'd gone out for the flight plans. To get rid of the 'problem'. Perhaps it was still early enough in her life for her to adjust to the life she'd been living before and to forget about her lusting (or her 'love') for the other mercenary.
It'd be, as Kanda had said, better for her heart anyways. He was sure she'd get over this and settle down with someone anyways.
However, it was in this 'pass the schedule' distraction that allowed for him to have run into someone. A someone who was taller than even him and, with a check...
...
...........
s**t, that guy was tall and... Was he a Koshka-hybrid with REALLY recessive traits or a really hairy mench?
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:15 pm
... "Good Night" ...
How was it that such a grand and tragic irony could fit so neatly into two little words?
There was no answer from the other side of the door when she said it, however, merely a few dragging minutes of silence to assure that the hallway's "traffic" had cleared out before finally peeling himself from off the mattress edge (the covers were still neat and undisturbed) and slipping out, soundlessly, into the approaching pre-black dusk.
It was just the same routine he'd followed for days before, wandering off to God Only Knew Where and sure to return before sunrise.
Perhaps to think.
Perhaps to work.
Perhaps to do other nefarious things.
... It was anybody's guess.
"A-Ah, yes Sir." While Shae had already suspected the motives behind the schedule hunting, to actually hear him saying such things was... But no, she told herself; Aster obviously wasn't the sort of individual with proper 'qualifications' for the mercenary field and, no matter how unfortunate or sad it was, this would be the best thing for her. "I'll... make certain to encourage her properly, then..."
She'd tucked the precious folded paper into one of her many inner pockets (next to where Del had been secured, as per the usual fail-safe to keep poor Kanda's face from being run into), and looked up from her fiddling just in time to see--
Oh good lord that was one enormous (and HAIRY) ... person. Mench? Koshka? She couldn't actually tell, but...
"Oh, ah... please excuse us..." But still she jumped in with the usual polite 'appeasement' gestures, forcing a sheepish little smile. "We meant no disrespect by our error..."
Huh, funny, she usually wasn't quite that quick to smooth things over either-- but then again, the people they ran across didn't usually give off such a... thoroughly unsettling vibe.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:35 pm
Kanda glanced up at the male who was leering down at him with such a smoldering expression, frowning at him, one hand seeming to go instinctively to the sword at his side, as though he'd already gotten the same feeling that had prompted Shae to apologies so quickly.
Intent to cause harm.
It also prompted Kanda to side step, putting himself between the beastly looking...... BEING and his companion. It was ironically Yossarian-like (when Yossarian and his given 'female to protect' were doing more than... having sparing greetings passed between them) of him to do so as well, carefully drawing the sword, with sheath attached, to take care to not kill what could have been a misread intent.
The sudden lashing of an arm which, unfortunately, smashed the sheath of his blade (and cracked the hilt, s**t!) and sent both him sliding back (but not fast enough to have caused him to accidentally crack a certain someone's ribs, as he'd absorbed most of the shock), but caused him to awkwardly cough up a few flecks of blood.
s**t, what the hell was this guy?
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:56 pm
Oh... not good.
Not good not good THIS WAS NOT GOOD AT ALL.
The sudden speed and ferocity of the stranger's blow was enough to earn a choked squeak of horror from Shae who, as if compelled by some pathetic survival instinct, had backstepped and planted her feet just in time to stabilize before Kanda half-fell back against her and...
Neither that cough nor the sickly crackshatterSMASH sound of SOMETHING on his weapon breaking (s**t, she couldn't see much of what had just happened) boded well in the slightest. Cheap blows with trash bins aside, she'd never seen him looking so disadvantaged before--
But she took action the moment she felt he'd gotten his footing back (and maybe she'd even given him a little forward counter-shove), trying to put a few feet of space between herself and the warring parties to at least try and eliminate that immediate 'protect female' burden.
Oh how she hated being useless and terrified-- but at least she was intelligent about it.
A-And really, there was no need to worry because... because Sir had just suffered an unlucky blow and would overthrow the brute easily, right?
Right?...
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:28 pm
Right.
Hell, gripless or not, Kanda was more than happy to pick up the very end of the blade of his weapon, holding it firmly in one hand feeling the awkward shape of the blade alone while, not sharp, digging into his palm.
Chances it'd be rubbed raw? Extremely high.
Chances he'd care? Not too much.
Kanda had a tendancy to not care a lot, prompting doing a once around to make sure that he hadn't accidentally taken out Shae (well, she seemed alright where she was), before he moved to start his counter assault.
Oh the results of said 'counter result' probably weren't pretty from any observer's point of view.
The fact that neither 'participant' was commenting at all also said a lot. In fact, it could have been inferred that the stranger was unable to talk. He sure absorbed a lot more trauma than Kanda did, though.
Which was prooven when his blade (perhaps due to it's already horrible state) did little more than break skin and some muscle...
...
But then the man twisted his arm...
SNAPCRUNCH
HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
He'd felt that. It was what he got for not letting go.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:54 pm
... Oh, god, arms were absolutely not meant for bending that way.
Even without the horrifying visual though, just the sound of that horrible crunching POP was enough to drop the bottom right out of her stomach (as if it hadn't already) and leave her three shades paler than she'd been the moment previous.
No this wasn't good at all and now it was getting worse-- but what what she capable of doing?! She obviously didn't have a chance against him in physical combat if Kanda was being mangled like a rag doll, but... dammit, she couldn't just stand there now and WATCH IT HAPPEN IN FRONT OF HER EITHER.
Something, something, SOMETHING-- come on, there had to be a solution that her brain wasn't catching--
... Hnn, there was a pretty nasty looking 'point' there in the wreckage of the sheath. That might...
B-But could she?...
Was she capable?.......
Was it foolish?......................
But with her 'partner's' arm (his SWORD ARM at that) all busted to hell there wasn't a moment to stop and hesitate... so she threw her reservations out the window and went for it-- or rather dove for it, more or less skidding down on one knee to catch the shrapnel in her hand and go straight for the one thing she knew might make an impact and maybe, just maybe, give the hopeless cause a miniscule chance-- or at least a fleeting distraction.
... Sure it was suicidal, but... even the strongest men could only strength train their eye muscles so far, right?
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:03 pm
His arm changed several shades rather quickly, his hand having instinctively released his blade, which made a sharp 'clang' on the ground as he instinctively reeled back, the arm shifting, bone rubbing against each other, and causing that 'OH GOD, OH GOD' painful pinched nerve pain to streak up his entire arm.
Which earned another hiss (obviously more painful than anything else he'd toughed it out through) before a quick breath forced him to 'calm' himself and do another visual sweep around.
Just in time to see Shae.
Guess that leaves me to cover.
At least he had enough pain tolerance to keep himself from throwing himself on the ground to panic. The sooner this one was dealt with, the sooner he could stop listening to shrieking females and get his arm dealt with.
Damn public place.
Ah well, at least the ruffian was watching him as the threat, Prompting Kanda to hold onto the lower-half of his broken limb and go into irregular foot-movements.
The more distracting the better.
And the beastly being was eating it up. Good.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:32 pm
She'd breached the point of no return now, already having closed in, picked up her makeshift 'weapon' of choice and... hell, even Sir was throwing his shoulder (or his arm, oh god how horrible that must've felt) into the frantic ploy as a source of distraction for the towering Mench-Koshka-Wookie-Monster... thing. Or whatever the hell it was.
Yes, it. That was a good, impersonal word for something she'd just lunged at with more than just intent to harm, using every scraggly, pathetic ounce of strength in her to jump up and more or less latch onto his shirt with her free hand and...
(Oh, this was like a bad flashback to that fellow from the aircraft.)
... And force the other to to plunge her jagged little 'weapon' straight into his eye socket (or hell, whatever vulnerable facial region she could peg) as hard and deep as she could before, as if compelled (again) by some awful instinct of desperate self preservation, ripping out out and going for the other one.
She only had a second to get her blows in before he retaliated and snapped her in half, so... best to make it count as much as possible.
Funny how adrenaline could help a person tune out even the most FRANTIC of screaming around them too, geez.
Not that one could blame the general public for getting a bit... freaked out at spontaneous street gore, of course.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:11 pm
Kanda, while any other 'normal' person would have winced, found himself watching intently as Shae dug the shard of metalic-wood like shard into the larger being, taking this as a moment to shout a firm 'HEAD'S UP' before practically barrel-rolling the beastly man's legs out from underneath him.
Unfortunately not in time for him to floor the man with an earth-shaking 'THUNK' (Shard still in his eye, OW) before he'd whipped his head back into Shae's chest.
Hard.
Probably hard enough to have given Kanda a good bruise or cracked a rib.
Damn, this beastly being was going to be the end of them... or at least he could have been if it hadn't been for all of the blood seeping out all around his face. However, Kanda took a moment to look to Shae to check for her mental status.
"Am I to presume you need assurance?" he inquired, offering her his good hand to get off of the being, before rolling him over (quite a feat, he'd probably needed a hand) so he could go through the man's pockets.
"He was after us in particular, there has to be something on him to prompt such."
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:13 am
Of all the ways by which a being might retaliate, and all the places for that bleeding skull to slam up against... Oh, Karma was just a little too cruel sometimes, wasn't it?
The blow was more than enough to cause a 'good bruise' or 'crack a rib', and there was a little 'crunch' of something giving under her jacket, but it didn't really sound quite right for some reason. None the less, any reaction to it was disguised under the little choke of surprise (... was it?) as her bloody-faced 'victim' pitched over, and she found herself more or less sitting atop the chest of a cor...
Her brain drew the 'safety' line before she think any further over it, immediately reminding her that she didn't even know 'its' name, and 'it' had outright attacked them in the middle of the street without provocation and, most compellingly of all, she'd only acted in Sir's defense. Protecting someone was "proper" justification, righ--
"Huh? Oh, ah... t-thank you..."" Immediately snapping out of the little downward thought-spiral with a flinch (oh that twinge of discomfort she felt didn't bode well) and forcing the closest to a calm face she could, nodding sheepishly before she accepted that hand (... even if she didn't necessarily "need" the help in getting off the victim) to help roll hi-- ... it over and (oh it made her nauseous to think about) "loot" the body for any clues.
But who would be after them? Disgruntled relatives of dead pirates? The grieving family of The Russian Blue?...
"..." It was the left trouser pocket that finally yielded some clue, shakily withdrawing a folded piece of paper with some messily written notes on it about...
About Kanda. It was all in sloppy bullet form, just little scratches of things like 'appearance' and 'hairstyle' and 'places sighted' and... Oh, wow, Shae and Aster's names were there too in the side margin-- but that was almost an afterthought, of sorts.
Was this a hit list or something?
And ugh, did she faintly hear hollerings of "Constable!" in the background? Had someone flagged down the authorities?
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:33 am
Well s**t, he didn't exactly want to be sat down and interrogated by any real authority figures at that point in time.
Instead he made a 'grin and bear it' (or 'scowl and bear it') face while practically shoving the severed portions of bone back together in something resembling a 'patched job', before seizing the blade of his sword from the ground (Oh lord, he even seemed to give the shattered pieces of the sheath and handle a woeful frown).
"We're moving."
Also known as 'keep what you have, now we're booking it'.
Alas it was such that Kanda didn't know just the shape that Shae was in from behind reverse-headbutted in the chest. Nor that all hell was going to break loose for the next month because of the meeting that had just taken place.
No, he was going to interrogate the one person who's name hadn't been on that list.
At least, only after he had his arm casted up (more or less just the given area of it, refusing to submit to a full-arm cast) and had returned to the Inn. Then all that was required was waiting.
"Let me see that."
It was more of a request (for once) than an order, Kanda holding out his good arm (oh how pathetic he must have looked) to take it.
Frankly, he wanted to see how detailed the information on the group was.
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:59 am
Just how he could manage force-resetting his own bones without crying out fainting was completely beyond Shae, but she couldn't dwell on injuries (of any sort) at the moment, stealing a glance behind her just in time to see the distant blur of a uniform and turning tail to get the hell out of there.
Police interrogation was the last thing either of them needed right now, to say the very least.
Her steps were hurried, but at the same time, a little lagging behind him as they went, fighting the (rather DESPERATE) growing urge to reach up and feel a spot above her ribs where something was stinging and other things were aching and obviously not right and...
Again with the brain block there. She couldn't worry about that just yet. Not while they were still in danger of too many things.
"... H... Here, Sir." Obedient as always (even it it had sounded less stern than usual), she relinquished the note as soon as he'd asked for it, trying not to wince when she got yet another eyeful of that arm. Oh that looked horrifying. They needed to find a cl...
... Clinic. Or something to get that 'fixed' properly. The thought of such a white-washed and bleach-saturated environment was another of those things she didn't need right then (it almost made her heart skip a beat), but leaving such a horrific injury untreated wasn't an option.
She'd just 'grin and bear it' too, huh.
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:47 pm
Once the drive to 'Run like hell' was gone, Kanda finally took the time to look over the paper, looking at his re-bloodied coat with a frown, before unzipping it and, after turning it inside out, throwing it over his shoulder while using his good arm to look over the list.
He seemed to be the 'main target' in this case, a note next to his name as 'Strongest of the three, hurt him and show we can', next to Shae's a 'Seemingly the one with the least amount of emotional attachment to the insurgent' and then next to Asteria's a 'Harming her may do the most damage, but seen very little, need more data' note.
"Dammit..."
It seemed as though, without realizing it, Kanda had all but saved Asteria from harm by making her a hermit. But why were only he, Shae, and the other woman on this li-.
...........
.....
"What the hell did he get himself into without telling us?"
Afterall, with the list passed back to Shae, it would be easy for her to probably reach the same conclusion as Kanda had.
Yossarian had pissed someone off. There was nothing else that could explain the three of them and not him being targetted. But by what?
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