Sweet Sleep Inn ((Under new ownership & Construction))

[CrimsonKlaw]

Sabriel Thurirl

Leon folded his arms in thought for a minute. It had been a while since he had thought about hunter regulations and tendencies.

"If I remember right, they communicate through Close-range Magic Autonomous Communicators, or SMAC for short. Nothing longe range as of yet. So they would have to report back to larger units to get anything substantial to a larger group. As for how large, we tended to work in squads of 3-4, with 3 being the normal amount."

Leon looked at Callisto assuringly.

"Sweetheart, im fairly certain we killed all of them. Even if we didnt, there's no way the storm left the healthy enough to live much afterward. We're alright. Its over. I promise. I dont even think they knew me. Relax."

Leon flopped back onto the bed, sprawling out again.

"Dont make me start calling you sappy nicknames like SugarFins or something. Itll be awkward, and ill keep doing it till you relax a little bit."  

[Sabriel Thurirl]

Callisto Piscis-Piscis
Adventurous Mermaid

"Oh." She said upon hearing that the hunters were dead and wouldn't have been able to convey anything to the others. She was relieved, immediately believing what he said without bothering to question it. She had been too far at the time, really, to pay much attention to where the mage had come from. So she fully trusted that all of them were dead and that after being told about a mermaid, all of them had left without communicating it to any others.

She leaned against the back of her chair, arms folded over the top of it, and sighed again. She smiled to herself, watching him, but thinking about how glad she was that the sudden threat to their lives was over now. Right now, she just wanted to get cleaned up. She was sure she looked less than her best right now, and assumed Leon would want to wash up too. The unexpected new pet name brought her mind to a full stop though.

"Sh...Sugarfins?" She repeated with a giggle, doing her utmost to suppress her laughter. The thought of it was too ridiculous. "I doubt that." She said, thinking he meant that her fins were literally sweet. She got up from her chair and went over to join him on the bed. She leaned down by his side, propped up by one of her arms whilst the other lay over the bandages on his chest.

"Want a taste?" She smiled mischievously, feeling quite playful now that the serious stuff was over. At least as far as anything dangerous, there was more still they hadn't discussed but she could only stand being serious for so long. After all of that she just wanted to play around and continue to live as freely as she desired to.

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Knight Of The Dark Void

 

[CrimsonKlaw]

Sabriel Thurirl

Leon returned her sly expression, turning to his side a bit.

"That depends, I guess. What's the kitchen preparing?"

Leon found himself hypnotized by her eyes again. Something about them was extremely intoxicating. Not to the extent many books had made non-humans look, but enough to keep Leon's attention. The tone in Callisto's voice didn't help the situation either. Whether she meant to or not, to Leon, Callisto's voice came out like a purr. It was obvious she felt quite comfortable around him now, and Leon felt the same about Callisto.

Even though the situation they had just endured was pretty intense, the experience revealed a lot about the two, and had brought them closer both in their relationship as lovers, and in their basic trust of one another.

Leon held Callisto's waist lightly as he laid on his side, feeling her body heat on his. He leaned in, kissing her lightly, yet passionately.  

[Sabriel Thurirl]

Callisto Piscis-Piscis
Adventurous Mermaid

She was all too pleased by his return, feeling content just to have him so close. She closed her eyes as he grew closer and softly kissed him in return. It was difficult not to notice the way he tasted; like blood and salt. It reminded her of a sight she was trying awfully hard to suppress. The image of his body listless, and sinking ever further into the familiar darkness of the ocean. So, she shifted and pulled her face away from his, slipping her arms around him as she did so. Then lay on her back, pulling him in order to get him to be on top of her.

"Leon..." Callisto managed to say, rather breathless from his kisses. She looked up at him for a moment, dark eyes scanning his face and lingering where she knew his mouth was. Her vision was still blurry, but she wanted more than to just see him. More than to just taste him. She wanted to fill all of her thoughts and senses with him. To make herself forget the several awful experiences they'd both had recently. But mostly she just really liked him.

Her hands, on his back, traced along his sides until they were at his shoulders. She slipped them beneath the collar of his jacket and pushed them down over his arms to expose his bare skin. Bare except for those pesky bandages... She could tell, even with her vision still recovering, that he wanted the same thing right now. So she smiled, pushing negative thoughts away, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I really love you, you know?" It was the first time she'd said as much outright, having preferred alternate ways of expressing the same feeling until now. She grinned, biting her lower lip a bit as her mood again started to shift back to a playful one. She was excited by how freely he was letting her touch and be close to him right now. It was enough that she could force away more negative thoughts, instead returning to living in the moment with him.

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Knight Of The Dark Void

 

[CrimsonKlaw]

Sabriel Thurirl

Leon obeyed her hand's touch, wanting to be even closer.

~In the evening~

Leon stirred a bit, and woke up slowly, sitting up. He was pleased to find the room was in disarray, but not obliterated like last time. The curtains had fallen down again, and there were chairs scattered around the span of the room. Leon attempted to get off the bed to investigate more closely, but was greeted by excruciating pain. It seemed as though they may have gone a little crazier than last time, but part of that could have been their injuries. He laid back down next to Callisto with a groggy sounding moan of pain. He laid there for a minute before opening his eyes for a minute and smiling at the woman next to him.

"Evening...Sugarfin."

The name was terribly corny and not a good nickname whatsoever, but Leon found it a little funny based on her first reaction.  

[Sabriel Thurirl]

Callisto Piscis-Piscis
Adventurous Mermaid

Callisto awoke from a light sleep at the sound of his groans. She opened her eyes, blinking a bit as they felt a bit dry. She'd fallen asleep, half-way curled up but facing his direction. She looked at him rather sleepily, not moving otherwise as she slowly processed what was going on. The return of Sugarfins made her snicker and she playfully shoved his arm. "Morning, Stud Muffin." She said lightheartedly, the blissful smile on her face making it clear that she was happy to joke around with him.

She felt more energetic than he looked, even after all of their passionate bonding. It barely even registered with her that her vision was now completely back to normal. Instead she shoved him again, trying to keep her strength in check as she did so. Although she wondered how much of it he could handle, as this time he seemed to have become stronger. She didn't have the aches and pains that he did right now, for the most part. The sole remaining injury she had from the fight being a shallow cut from the self-carved wound on her arm and some light bruises from him.

Callisto sat up, gave him a kiss on the check, then hopped out of bed. She stumbled a bit, once again met with a bit of numbness in her legs and hips, but recovered quickly. She started over towards the bathroom. He'd eased her fears away, so now she thought of getting on with their plans. There were adventures to be had! Hunters be damned! She stopped short of the bathroom door and looked back at him. She could see that he had a few scratches and bruises on him. But what was most obvious was that he looked to be pretty tired.

"Oh, Snuggle Butt... You're lookin' awfully tempting over there. You'd better get up now, or else!" She smiled mischievously, happy to use any of the dozen or so embarrassing pet names she'd heard couples using with one another on the surface. Then went into the bathroom to get cleaned up.

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Knight Of The Dark Void

 

[CrimsonKlaw]

Sabriel Thurirl

Leon gave a slightly unamused, sleepy groan at the use of the 'snugglebutt' nickname, but couldn't help smiling. As Callisto went to clean up, Leon decided to change his bandages. He took off the ones currently in place, with no traces of blood or residual pain. The doctor did a great job.

Leon made the choice to leave the bandages off, seeing the condition had no gotten better. For a minute, Leon debated joining Callisto in the shower, but chose not to, as they had just had plenty of bonding time, and he didn't want to be clingy. He took a moment to repair the damage done to the room, though admittedly, it wasn't hard to fix.

Outside, the sun was going down, reminding him that they had slept through the majority of the day. He had lost a day of training, but something told him Callisto would be unhappy with him if he tried while just getting out of the medical treatments.  

[Sabriel Thurirl]

Callisto Piscis-Piscis
Adventurous Mermaid

After a short while Callisto came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around herself. Normally, she wouldn't care about walking around naked. It didn't matter to her, although she knew that plenty of people didn't like it when she did. But she'd decided to cover up just for the sake of doing something different.. although fighting a bunch of strangers to the death while nude did play a part.

Her wavy, dark grey hair was now damp and tangle free. Instead of braiding it she'd left it loose, the ends of it long enough to reach her thighs. She noticed that the room was back in order and frowned a bit. She hadn't gotten a good look and thought that it would be funny to see just how destructive they'd been this time. As she started walking over to her bag, she noticed that Leon was in the same direction as her bag. But with his back turned to her. She grinned, getting an idea and sneakily crept up behind him.

With both hands she firmly smacked his butt and shouted. "Gotcha!" Then hurried away to pick up her bag, laughing victoriously all the while.

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Knight Of The Dark Void

 

[CrimsonKlaw]

Sabriel Thurirl

Leon jumped when Callisto actually spanked him. He whirled around in response, to do it back. However, she was already out of range.

"You'd better be careful, babe. I'll do it back."

He smiled, and shook his head before putting his clothes back on. He would need to buy new clothes, but he wasn't a fan of the idea of spending even more money. Leon was distracted from his thoughts upon seeing Callisto with her hair down. It was rather attractive to him.

"Your hair actually looks really pretty like that, Callisto. I kind of like it."

Leon walked over to the table, sitting down, starting to write a response note to the woman who had fixed their room.  

[Sabriel Thurirl]

Callisto Piscis-Piscis
Adventurous Mermaid

Callisto turned towards him, hands up in the air. With a playful smile she grabbed the air, mimicking what she might do next time. "Gotta be faster than that!" She said teasingly, pleased with her small victory over someone who'd proven themselves to be faster than she was on land. She winked, then pulled her dress out of her bag to get dressed.

She left the towel on the floor and once dressed went over to the opposite side of the table. She started going through her belongings, one by one setting them on the table in front of her. One of the items was one of Leon's shirts, the one she'd torn. It was repaired for the most part, just needed more material to be finished. Everything was there, along with her coin purse and its contents. She was glad she hadn't brought it all with her as searching the ocean floor for it would be tedious.

As she put it away she noticed that he was writing something. "What're you doing?" She asked curiously even as she continued to watch him with the letter. She finally saw the original and immediately her mood soured. "What? How is it this much? I fixed it, it just needed paint..." She took another look at the room, searching her memories for the damage that'd been there before. She couldn't recall anything else that needed much work, unless she'd missed something. Still, the cost was too much.

She didn't see specifics so what had everything this woman was claiming to have done, cost on its own? She looked over to Leon, placing the note down where he'd had it. "I'll deal with this. It's my fault anyway..." She picked up her coin purse and tied it to her hip. It looked like it was kind of late in the day for it but she was determined to settle things. She was annoyed with herself for having gotten so violent, as most of the damage done had been due to her being a little too... reckless. Even if he did like it.

She bit her lower lip, half-paying attention to her surroundings as she thought about going back to that den of magic-users to find out about the bill.. "Leon. What did it cost at the clinic? She only gave me questions so she gave you the bill, right?" She wanted to settle her debts before getting new supplies. If she could find out from Leon, she wouldn't have to go and ask at the clinic. If he'd somehow paid the bill there she could just pay him back for it. She waited expectantly, hoping that he'd asked for a receipt before they left.

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Knight Of The Dark Void

 

[CrimsonKlaw]

Sabriel Thurirl

Leon shook his head.

"It honestly wasn't much, Callisto. I have money saved up for emergencies like that. And I hate to dwell on what happened right after getting past it, but there's a more pressing matter to deal with."

Leon looked at his scar again, tracing it a little.

"We weren't prepared. The storm aside, The magic users were a serious problem. from a fighter's point of view, I say we have two options: either learn magic to increase our abilities, or train even harder. Regardless of us getting rid of the hunters, the guild they are with are sure to notice they are gone at some point or another. And if there are mages even a bit more skilled at their disposal, to put it frankly, we would be as good as dead..."

Leon's face, oddly enough, was not one of concern, or anxiety. Instead, the look was one of intrigue, and excited curiosity. Unfortunately, this got the better of him, and he began thinking out loud.

"Could Callisto master Tae-Kwon-Do that fast? No...she grappled me last time....what about Systema? Oh, wait! Sambo! That'd be perfect! and what about magic? Maybe I should invest time in elemental magic?"  

[Sabriel Thurirl]

Callisto Piscis-Piscis
Adventurous Mermaid

She frowned softly, clutching the back of the chair which she was standing behind. It sounded like he'd paid for them, but she wanted to insist on paying for herself. Unless it was a gift, she was determined to pay for it and this sort of thing she didn't think of in that way. As much as she hated the idea of going back there... She was about to tell him as much when he brought up the hunters again. At first she was utterly confused by what he'd said, the words caught in her throat as she put it together.

"Elemental?.. Wait--You said that it was over." She repeated, having only put aside her concerns about the hunters earlier after he'd said as much. "Now you want to learn more magic? But we both survived. This island is protected--right? So how is it our problem if more hunters come? Why are you talking like we should be ready to fight all the time, anywhere we go? You said that they wouldn't have been able to communicate with one another about us. They didn't recognize you either, right? So why would we be attacked here?" She had more questions than answers and was starting to believe that once again, her plans to explore the rest of the island would be put on hold.

"Why do you think we'll be attacked again at all? Wouldn't any hunter go after someone they know is more powerful? Do either of us look like we'd fetch a good price or something?" She was genuinely confused. But more than that she just wanted this matter to be settled. If she wasn't known to them to be a mermaid, and he wasn't known as being a Soul of Focus user with a notorious record as a hunter, she didn't understand why they'd be targeted again while on this island.

Her eyes followed his hand, looking from his face to his scar as she spoke. She'd finally seen what the bandages had been covering. Did he get that during the fight? Were they really so outmatched then? If more hunters came, would he fight them too? Even if they didn't have to? Was this also because of the lives he'd snuffed out? Was this outcome he was trying to plan ahead for the answer he'd been seeking?

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Knight Of The Dark Void

 

[CrimsonKlaw]

Sabriel Thurirl

((I'M ALIVE!!!! I had a big vacation, and moved back to college. Sorry for going quiet. I didn't really have time for Gaia.))

"Callisto, something I learned a long time ago is that you should take every experience, and use it to prepare, success, or not. Thats...just kind of my thought process most of the time. Always be ready. But..."

Leon sat back down, breathing out a sigh.

"You're probably right. Given the circumstances, I'm seriously overthinking. With the situation we were in, and how poorly outfitted they were, maybe I should back off a bit."

Leon decided to take the subject away from their ordeal, as there was no use in dwelling on it.

"So...is there any chance I'll get to meet your family and friends?"  

[Sabriel Thurirl]

Callisto Piscis-Piscis
Adventurous Mermaid

Callisto's brow furrowed as she took in his words, spirits falling as she started to consider things a bit more seriously. At least, she was trying to. It was quite difficult for her to make the effort as what she wanted to do (and usually did) was pretty much the opposite of being prepared. So when he asked about her family she was easily distracted. Her surprise showed on her face and shifted to a rather nervous and almost guilty-looking smile.

"My... My family..?" She followed this statement with a nervous laugh. Was there any way to say it that wouldn't be a downer? She wanted to lighten the mood up a bit. There'd been enough negative stuff lately. With a tense sigh and a straightening of her posture she decided to just answer bluntly. She didn't have the patience to speak like a politician and it would feel like she was trying to lie anyway. "Um... Well, hopefully not. I think they'd like you, long as they don't find out you were a hunter... It's more like I'd be in trouble for... What's the expression? 'Jumping the shark'?"

"I don't think my parents have ever been to the surface. But you've met some of my friends already. The people here are so friendly!" She paused with a small smile, partly wondering what the expression she'd been looking for was. At least she'd made some friends on the surface which he could meet. Some he already had, since she considered every nice-seeming person she met to be a friend.

Knight Of The Dark Void

 

[CrimsonKlaw]

Sabriel Thurirl

"True. Hmmm...Oh! Remember when I told you I had friends from my old dojang? Maybe I should invite Falnave to visit? She can be a little cold with new people, but she was my best friend. Well, until I met you."

Leon had a hard time focusing on matters other than fighting at times. He tried his best to be loving and kind, but he couldn't help that training was a majority of his life. Even when talking of friends, most of his best stories were of the dojang, or on missions for his master at the very same dojang.

"Actually, maybe that's not the best idea..."

Leon was trying to think of ways the two could bond. They were close, yes, but it was mainly...intimate matters...that they had experience in together. Leon thought for a moment, then a smile crept across his face.

"Hey, wait! Why don't you teach me about the customs and language from where you come from? I'd love to learn."