|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:15 pm
 |
|
|
 |
It started out innocently enough. Amrita had practically set up camp in the Student Council Lounge, waiting for one of her team mates to walk through the door. It didn't matter which one, any of the boils would do - but the trick was whether or not they would actually show up. Scarentines had ended, which typically prompted the beginning of a weeklong 'avoid all Student Council duties' hibernation, but she still held out hope that one of them would drop by the lounge. After all, a lot of them had left personal items here by accident during the fiasco that was running events.
Which reminded her, she still needed to remember to take home that scrapbooking set.
In the end, her hopes had been answered; Alex arrived, but she never found out why. The Patchwork wasted little time in roping the poor Zombie into helping her and, after linking arms with him and tucking a suspiciously pink set of thick papers into her bag, marched off on what seemed like a useless endeavor at first. The hallway to the Haunted House wasn't always so easy to find, after all. But after parading around the school at least twice, some hallways thrice, she finally found it and redirected the both of them.
Which was, sadly, how they ended up at the front doors to the Haunted House. It was also when she tightened her grip on his fleshy arm, determined to keep him at her side.
"Ta-daa...!" She gestured openly with her free arm, sheepishly and hesitantly showing off their destination as if not knowing how it would be received.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:33 pm
|
|
|
|
Alexander had indeed left something behind in the lounge, a notebook that his mom had given him, one filled with ideas for his upcoming wedding, some of which she had wanted him to look over and give his own personal thoughts on. He had taken to carrying it around with him almost everywhere, in case he had a chance to actually sit down and go over it, but during Scarentines Day had gotten far too busy and in the whirlwind of activities had decided to just leave it behind for the time.
But now Scarentines was over, and he was able to get his mind back on track towards graduation and marriage.
At least, that was what he had hoped. He had not been expecting a certain patchwork to be hanging out in the Student Council Lounge, and he most certainly had not at all been expecting her to have a job for him to do, though she was very adamant about the entire thing, despite not actually telling him what it was they needed to do.
But still, he had shuffled along, fairly willingly, though after they had traversed many of the hallways more then once, his low energy was beginning to wane even lower, and his shuffling gait became even more lethargic then usual. That was about when the whining had begun, and the plaintive pleas for her to tell him what they were supposed to be doing that would take them all over the damn school when he could be trying to relax elsewhere.
And then they were in a certain hallway that Alexander recognized, and his back stiffened, and his shuffling steps nearly came to a halt. Amrita had become the recipient of many suspicious, narrowed eyed stares at that point, though his mouth had snapped shut, his lips pursed into a tight line that looked foreign on a face usually split in two by a large grin.
When they had come to a stop at the Haunted House, and she had waved her arm in the air, her other holding on to him tightly as though he might try to flee, he kept silent for just a few moments longer, before finally saying.
"What the Jack are we doing here, Amrita?" There might have been the hint of a growl in his voice.
He had never wanted to come back to this place ever again.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 6:45 am
|
|
|
|
His reaction had not surprised her in the slightest. She was not, however, prepared for just how bad it would have been. He frowned, and she immediately felt guilty; it was something she hadn’t seen since they first met, making it as rare as it was alien. Perhaps she should have waited for someone else? Aymet, maybe? Definitely not Thackery, though. It was too late to take it back now. He was here with her, and she wasn’t about to let him go.
Amrita gave him an apologetic look.
“To find someone to give these to.” She answered as she fished the scarentines out of her bag to give him a glimpse. They disappeared as quickly as they were shown, mostly because she didn’t want to acknowledge them herself.
“Look, Alex, I don’t want to be here either. This is the last place I want to be.” Her grip on his arm tightened. “But some Scarentines for Hunters showed up in the Grams, and as much as I don’t want to give them over, I’m not about to be blamed for not doing it.” She felt strange; on one hand, she was disgusted that some students were friends with them enough to send grams, but on the other hand, she knew that her disgust was hypocritical now.
“Aaand I’m apparently notoriously open about how much I hate them, which is why you’re here! So I have someone that can back me up in case the grams don’t actually get delivered on their end. Plus it’s dangerous in there, and if something goes bad, two is better than one.” She rambled on at him, as if thinking the more she explained the less he’d be angry with her.
“All we gotta do is go in, find a hunter, pass them off, and leave. Simple, quick, easy. Like rippling off a leech. You can even leave the talking and everything to me!” The patchwork continued to stare up at him, looking as apologetic as she could manage and hoped he wouldn’t bail on her now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:15 pm
|
|
|
|
His gaze dropped down to the bag she held as she used her free hand to pull out very familiar paper, the color of the scarentines grams they themselves had given to the students of the school. However, it had been Amrita's idea, and her job to take care of, so the presence of any addressed to hunters of all things came as quite a surprise, and a shock to the zomboil, who's eyes first widened, and then narrowed into a glare.
"You should have burned them." His voice sounded much more rough then usual, a hint of a growl in his tone, as he wrenched his arm away from her, either forcing her to let go or to let his arm come off in her's, whatever worked to put distance between himself and those disgusting cards she had kept concealed. "Didn't you think that maybe this was something the entire student council should have weighed in on?"
He of course, knew he was just being petty. Angry because he himself didn't have the best of relations with the hunters. He had gone out of his way many times to find the Haunted House, to fight with hunters, to sink his teeth into them and laugh at their own horrified expressions. In a way he had thought that it would make him feel better. They had, after all, taken his bonded away from him, tagged him, and ultimately had been the reason the two had broken up for several months, as nothing Alexander did to try and help could repair the broken trust of their relationship.
But that was all in the past, now, and the zomboil had been hoping to move on from it all. There hadn't been any big blow outs between hunters and the students of Amity in quite some time. Things had been quiet. Yin was still tagged, but he thought that maybe the hunters had forgotten about him, that they could still lead normal a normal life and unlife together, graduate, get married, get away from all of this and start on a family.
But it would always be in the back of his head, what those humans had done, what they were capable of doing to others.
But at her explanation for why he needed to be there with her, he gave her an incredulous look, then lifted a hand to run back through his hair, messing it up quite more thoroughly as he spoke. "Depending on who we come across, you might have chosen a bad partner." He was curious as to what Amrita had done to make herself so notorious, but Alex himself wasn't exactly in many hunters good books either.
And then all he could offer her was a deadpan stare as she continued to ramble, finally holding up his hand to cut her off, though keeping himself silent for several long moments before finally speaking, his voice clipped. "Fine. But it better be quick, Amrita, and if they try anything on either of us, I'm not holding myself back. I will try to take them out." Because one less hunter in the world was a world much improved, in his opinion.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:36 pm
|
|
|
|
Amrita let him tear his arm free, but she didn't relax; she would bolt after him should he choose to flee, because she couldn't do this alone.
"I wanted to." Burning the papers would have made her very, very happy. "But what if they found out they didn't get delivered? They'd come to us about it, and I'm not going to lie to our own kind." Hunters, though, she would always lie through her teeth. "I know how a vote would have gone. I'm delivering them, you're just here to prove that I did." She levelled a stare at him as he silenced her, watching him as he mulled it over, and understood what was going through his mind: the kidnapping, the tag, the suffering over the years. She understood it, and very much so. The more she dwelled on it the more unwelcome memories returned, and the darker her stare became.
"No, I chose the perfect partner." She said, her voice gaining a hard edge. "I was there too, you know. With Yin. They kidnapped me, too. They tagged me, too. I had to deliver Israfel's jacket and last words to his boilfriend, who, though he was my friend before, immediately stopped associating with me because of it. He blamed me, as much as I blame myself. I also watched Aleria get weaponized not too long ago, and I know I failed her too." Venom seeped into her voice, every word drawn forth from a well of pure hatred.
"So don't you dare think, for even a second, that I am happy with this. That I want to be here. I'm doing that I think is right, and if it means delivering stupid cards to the enemy, then so be it. My conscience is clear." Her gaze never wavered from his, her eye narrowed, and let her words hang in the air for a moment or two before patting the bag at her side.
"Besides, I wrote down their names, and the Hunter's names. I'm watching them. I'm not about to happen to Aleria happen to anyone else." She growled the last few words out, and then, quite suddenly, laughed a very bitter laugh.
"I have no qualms with ripping off their faces, if they look hostile. If they die, we'll just try to deliver them to someone else. I just want to deliver the cards, I don't care about them." Amrita shrugged, then tapped her chest. "Just be sure to take off their pendant, so they can't port back and get medical help." It was all the advice she was going to give for now, as she opened the door to the haunted house.
"Let's get this over with."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:58 pm
|
|
|
|
Alex could have lied to his own kind easily, if it meant saving them from their own idiotic selves. Befriending hunters. Writing scarentine's cards for them like it was perfectly sane and normal to do so. It made no sense to the zomboil, who was nothing but hurt and offended by the very notion that anybody would think for a second that it was okay to do such a thing. It just made No. Damned. Sense.
But he didn't want this to turn into an argument of who had been wronged more, or who had more enemies on the other side of the portal. Alexander knew that what Amrita and the others had faced was beyond horrible, and he hated himself every single day for not getting there sooner, for not being able to stop what had happened even though he had tried. He had become Medea's initiate, the first, to get her to help him in that time. He was bound to her service for a lifetime to repay that particular debt, and he would do it gratefully, though it would never change the fact that they had just been a little too late, to save the one named Israfel from becoming a weapon, however willingly he had gone, or to save the others from being tagged, from becoming nothing more then the hunters walking eyes and ears, their personal play things, weapons of a different sense.
"I didn't say you were happy about this. I said that I haven't exactly made a great impression on many of the hunters, though I'm sure I did at least make a lasting one." He bared his teeth, finally smiling but with a feral and still quite angry edge too it. "Depending on who we run into, that isn't exactly going to work in our favor. Some day, you will have to tell me what you did to make yourself so famous in the hunters eyes." His tone was lightening up just slightly, and he sighed again, both hands rubbing through his hair this time.
"Okay, yes, lets just get this the jack over with so I can get back to planning an unlife that hopefully involves a scarily ever after."
He didn't know who this Aleria was that she spoke of, but knowing the hunters were still taking more of them, only grated on his nerves further and made him want to do this less and less.
"I'll have to get those names off of you myself. Three eyes are better then one." He muttered, while shuffling after her, a little more speed to his stride then usual as he made his way up to the door.
"Good. Glad we're at least on the same page about something."
He only hesitated for a moment before he scooted his way through the door and to whatever lay on the other side.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 5:47 pm
|
|
|
|
Her piece said, she started to relax. Her angry began to melt away, and she was able to return to the headspace where the now was present, and her rage was tucked away in a thorny box in the back of her mind.
"As long as you're less notorious than I am, we should be okay." The patchwork managed to grin. When he asked to be let in on her history with them, she felt the cold grip of nerves. Her history with the hunters went deep, but not all of them knew that she was their attacker. Her tag may have been gone, but she was stll incredibly hesitant when it came to telling anyone what she really was, and by association what she was capable of. "What's there to tell? I got tagged, I got angry, and I took it out on them. A lot of them. Made lots of friends, spent a lot of time with the nurse for my troubles, and here we are." She gestured openly with both arms. Well, lately she had skipped the nurse and just gone to her room to heal on her own, but Alex didn't need to know that: she wasn't lying, she was simply omitting.
"You'll get your scarily ever after, Alex. You and Yin deserve it." Especially since they managed to stay together through all this. It was impressive, and the patchwork was rooting for them.
"Four." Amrita corrected with a small chuckle. "Both my eyes work." How they both worked when one seemed to be nothing more than a totally empty eye socket was never explained. "But yes, I'd be happy to give the list to you when we get back. After the grams are delivered." It was important to add that part, especially with both their histories out in the open.
The door to the Haunted house closed behind them, and she inhaled deeply, and exhaled slowly. "Okay, we'll be okay, all we - err, I - have to do is hand them the papers, and leave. Easy as that. Think we should start singing to get their attention?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:01 pm
|
|
|
|
The zomboils grin widened, though it's usual spark of happiness was still gone, his looks for once quite dark indeed. "Well I'm honestly glad to hear that you went after them for what they did to you. Better then just sitting back and accepting it, in my opinion. I went after them myself, but I doubt I'm quite so notorious as you. All I really managed to do was get my a** kicked several times, though I did manage to sink my teeth into a few, and one might have believed he was actually going to turn into a zombie because of it. I was too weak to fight them then but...maybe now." He flexed his skeletal hand, remembering that dark time, when he had Yin had been split up and the zomboil felt like he had nothing left to lose by going after those that had caused him so much pain. He had gotten his head beaten into a pulp for his efforts, as well as losing an eye, and taking an arrow through the throat. But now he was stronger, and now he felt like he actually might stand a chance against them.
"We all deserve it, Amrita. You deserve one too." He made his way into the house, and waited for her to join him before answering her again.
"Fffft, nice. When I only had one eye, that was it. No being able to see out of an empty eye socket for me." It was only a little surprising to find out she actually wasn't half blind. Some things in Halloween you just accepted for how they were.
The door clicked shut behind them, and they were left in a room that, for all intents and purposes, appeared quite normal, if quite a bit dusty and dank. Shrugging his shoulders, instead of singing, he simply shouted, hands shoving into his jean's pockets.
"HEY JACKHOLES! ANY OF YOU IN HERE?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:34 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:38 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 9:44 am
|
|
|
|
"Hey, at least you tried. It's the thought that counts." The Patchwork pat the boil's arm. "-And I'm sure you gave 'em hell. They can be pretty gullible, you know? I love that about them." Her smile turned into a vicious grin, and she stretched her arms out in front of herself. Playing with the Hunters was fun, though trying to make them destroy themselves was undoubtedly even moreso.
"Oh, I'm not sure about that." It was nice to hear that she deserved her ever after too, but the more she thought about it, she still felt it was out of her reach. Her near-suicidal attacks on the Hunters - and her subsequent weeks in the infirmary or in her bed - had put a great strain on nearly all of her relationships. She was only starting to realize that now, as her head began to clear and the realization of what she had done was setting in. "I don't have anyone to spend it with, anyway." She admitted, almost sadly. "But, maybe one day! I'm still young, I can hope." Though Emrys' words still haunted her; she had, after all, willingly given up a whole future n her quest to remove her tag.
Oh. That's right! Alex was here, she could tell him about her tag, so he could tell Yin! The words almost formed on her lips, almost, but a different realization stopped it. She had no idea what the crippling pain would entail, and she didn't want to jump the gun in the off chance it really was horrifically unbearable.
"That must have sucked." Losing sight in one eye didn't sound appealing in the slightest, especially with the threats they were under every day, but he seemed to be okay now, at any rate. Alex's shout was met with silence, though Rita still craned her head to listen in the off chance they just didn't reply.
"Guess not." She sighed, disappointed that the Hunters wouldn't just come running. "Guess that means we've got to find them!" The ghoul straightened, squaring her shoulders as if preparing for some great, stressful thing. So she made her way towards the next door, opening it without even attempting to be stealthy, and listened. "Hey." She looked over at Alex, waving him closer. "I hear voices." She told him, craning her head to listen in. "Two." They weren't close enough to hear what they were saying, but the voices were enough. They echoed properly, so she at least hoped she hadn't imagined them.
"Hello?" The ghoul called into the room, holding onto the strap of her sidebag for something to fidget with. Experience had taught her that pretending she was nervous seemed to put the Hunters into a false sense of security. It was a tactic she had applied often, and she was good at it; it was easy to remember how to be a nervous little ghoul when you spent your whole unlife being the nervous little girl.
"Is anyone there? Preferably of the Hunter variety?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 6:00 pm
|
|
|
|
His shouting did no good, and he nodded towards Amrita with a sigh. "Ya, I guess. More walking." He visibly grimaced, lifting a hand to run through his hair as they continued on, his feet dragging so that she either needed to stick with his incredibly slow, amble of a pace or go on ahead. It was her choice, really, but he wasn't about to speed up anytime soon.
But then she was waving him closer, and he finally picked up his pace to make it to her side, head tilting as he reached her, listening. Yes, definitely voices, but of hunters, or somebody else? He knew that horsemen might enter the house in hopes of finding a fight, or that other students might have accidentally wandered into this place, not knowing any better.
He let Amrita do the calling out this time, frowning a little as he continued to listen. "I hope it is them. I just want to get the jack out of here." He muttered to himself, glancing behind instinctively to make sure that they weren't going to find themselves suddenly surrounded.
He had a wedding to plan, after all. It wouldn't do to end up kidnapped and worrying his fiance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
