[PvP] - Wicked Ink - Zac/Needle

[endejester]

Returning to the Haunted House wasn’t one of his first choices, but he didn’t really want to wish an encounter with the shadow… thing on anyone else either. So, here he was again, weapon at the ready and hugging the walls as he listened, trying to make sure he heard ‘it’ coming this time.

He didn’t have a note for it, nothing like the one that it had sent Hunter Mimsy, not yet.
He rubbed gently at his chest, remembering that last moment he recalled from when he’d been here before.

“You can bloody do this, you can do this, alright?”
He was a hunter after all; hunters handled this kind of thing.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"I have every faith that you will accomplish your task at hand." Came a smooth, monotone female voice from somewhere behind him. Turning would find a ghoul standing behind him, all pale skin, tattoos and blue fabric. Her arms bore many sharp-looking (And in a few cases, bloody) needles impaled right through her flesh, and a mask donned her face; the gaping black eye holes of the mask seemed focused on him, as if honing in on something.

But, more importantly, despite the monotone voice, she had the slightest smile on her ghostly blue lips.

"Do you know if this is the way to the library?" She asked suddenly in the same smooth, even tone that carried only the slightest change at the end, to indicate a question. Her head tilted almost curiously; but an easy glance around would suggest that, no, they probably weren't near a library at all. In fact, the room around them looked like a kitchen that hadn't been used in years.  

[endejester]

She certainly earned a jump out of him, He spun enough to point his blade at her, though there was a fine tremble in his hands when he faced her, blinking several times as he realized that it was not the same shadowy horror he’d ‘faced’ before, if you could even refer to it as such given his condition at the finish.

Not that the fact they were different made him trust the perforated woman any more than the last creature he’d met, especially seeing as some of the needles were bloodied already.

Her question though, that just seemed odd.

“I… um… I don’t think so.” He said after a cautious moment. “It, ah, this just seems like, well like a kitchen.”

He didn’t lower the blade, but neither did he swing it either. He didn’t want to start something he couldn’t finish, even if he was debating if ‘a good offence’ really was the ‘best defense’.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

She didn't seem to notice the blade pointing at her, nor the way it remained that way, though it trembled a little bit.

"Kitchen?" The woman repeated, her lips drawing into the faintest of frowns as her voice gave way to hints of confusion. "How strange, I was so sure..." Her impaled arms lifted to place purple, ink stained hands on her hips, her posture sliding to place a little more weight on one leg.

"Well, no matter." She held this for a moment, before she resumed her initial pose; resting, arms limp at her side, weight evenly distributed. "Why were you giving yourself a..." She paused, her head tilting just a little once more, going still as she searched for a word. "Umm...What is it called...a...'prep talk'?"  

[endejester]

“…Pep, its called a pep talk.” He said slowly, watching her with a growing suspicion that she was, well, blind.
“Can you, I mean, this may sound rude but do you have, um, eyes?” He asked cautiously. Yes…he was avoiding answering her question a bit, but he didn’t want to come off as an easy mark to her… it, ghoul.

{Be nice} Emilina scolded in his head. {Maybe help her find the library, remember the ghoul you met with that Ever fellow?}

//Yeah yeah…I hear you, I always hear you.//


“If you don’t.. Stab me in the back or whatever, maybe I can help you find the library?”

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"That is it! My gratitude. Pep Talk!" The smooth monotone of her voice broke just a bit, to be incredibly pleased with herself at getting it almost right. His question had her interest piqued, but physically, she didn't move.

"I possess them, yes." This boil was interesting; it was such a strange thing to ask! "Is this question a new social convention?" Hope seeped into her voice; she did love learning about social conventions!

"I will not hug you, if that is what you mean." She couldn't think of another way she could stab him in the back; though the phrase seemed familiar, she was pretty sure that she heard it from TV somewhere. "And I would appreciate the help, ah...?" It donned on her then, that she had no idea who she was even talking to.  

[endejester]

“Zac.” He offered, still cautious and not his full name, he had some superstition that offering up his ‘true’ name might actually offer them power over him.

“Sure, hugging would probably be a bit uncomfortable too no offence… I’m just… you’re not flat out, trying to kill me like the last ‘person’ I met in here.”

He gave a nervous glance around, flicking back to her almost as quickly as he tried to judge where the library might be.

“I don’t um… I’m not too familiar with the inside of this house I admit.”

“I asked about the eyes because um… well it sort of looks like that mask is …stitched on, like, through your um…” he waved his hand vaguely at his own eyes.
“Wanted to know if I should offer you my hand too… still sort of debating that.”  

[Enoh Love]

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Zac." The ghoul dipped into a deep bow, enough to make her long hair slide over her shoulders. "My name is Needle." She supplied, because it was only right to do so.

"Oh, no, I can remove my mask if I need to." Yet she made no move to prove this, nor did she offer. Only her boilfriend and sister got to see her unmasked face; it was how she was raised.

Though his reasoning behind the whole back stab comment was a bit of a concern to her. Someone had flat out tried to kill him? Why? It seemed unnecessary, unless there was a reason behind it. Perhaps they simply enjoyed the kill? That was, sadly, not a better thought. A little more understanding, but not comforting.

"Unless you plan to bring harm to those I love, then I do not see a reason to attack you." She mused, figuring that was a good enough answer, though not too long after he had mentioned his hand. Her first thought? She had two - and sometimes four, if Muka was around - she didn't need his, thank you - but then, thankfully, she realized why he had said such a thing.

"Oh. I do not have spikes in my hand...and I am very good at taking an arm without puncturing!" She seemed rather proud of herself about this.  

[endejester]

“Not… so long as you don’t like… try and invade the island, try and kill me or my loved ones, or… well no yeah that about covers it short of ‘please don’t mutilate me either’, but that seems a fair mutual agreement.”

He cautiously drew back his weapon and offered a hand instead.

{See? Treat some of us nicely and we’ll do the same, utterly reasonable} Remiel chided him in the back of his mind.
//Bet you didn’t look akin to a porcupine though//

“Um, shall we then?” he offered and tipped his head slightly, finally focusing on the fact she had tattoos, monsters had tattoos. “Huh…. Nice ink.” He said, and a moment later wondered if that was actually ‘ink’ or maybe some people in monsterland were just born with that kind of patterning…. s**t.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

Needle only smiled. She made no promises about the mutilation part, only because of her arms. It was a sad fact of her life, and besides, under the right circumstances? She liked doing it.

This time, she seemed to register the movement, but instead of reacting right away she merely took a step closer. It brought into focus the shadow of his arm, and allowed her to get a better judgement of where his hand actually was; though, sadly, she still had to grope for it. Her purple hand reached out, gently brushing the air until she felt his fingers, and without a second thought she threaded them together. Her hands were cold as death, and by comparison, his burned her palm.

"You are positively burning!" She exclaimed in the same smooth near-monotone, her cold thumb running over his skin over the novelty of the feeling. Not even Muka was this warm! Bix, too.. How fascinating!

Her thoughts were dragged from their differences in temperature by his compliment. She didn't even have to think about what slang Ink meant. She simply knew.

"Why thank you! I did them myself." Though her posture was already impeccable, she seemed to straighten a little more at the idea. "Well, except the ones on my back. Those are the work of my sister." She leaned her shoulder forward to let him see the way they extended back and disappeared under her clothes. "Do you have any?"
 

[endejester]

“Am I? Oh…uh… sorry, maybe I’ve got a bit of a temperature after my last run in.” he apologized, though her own skin was cold, startlingly so but maybe that was a monster thing. He tried not to shiver.

“Yes actually!” He said and showed her his latest first; it was at least easier to show without stripping.
“Most of them are a bit hard to show off without um... shedding some layers.”

He showed her the newest one he’d done himself, a manta ray in tribal style on his forearm just under the elbow, there was a style of band that wrapped all the way around which had been a trick to do on himself.

“Did this one myself.” He said showing it off. “And some of the work on my legs, hips were my teacher, so was most of my shoulder and chest. He tapped his right shoulder, though there was a coat and a t-shirt in the way of really showing them off.

“I’ve done a lot for other people though.” He added.  

[Enoh Love]

For the first time since they ran into each other, Needle seemed to focus entirely. She zeroed in on the tattoo as it became visible from under his jacket, and even went as far as to stop walking entirely to admire the inks that were being shown to her.

Then, without an ounce of humility, she said a single word:

"Strip."  

[endejester]

“Uh…. Pardon?” he blinked hesitantly, letting the sleeve fall back over the freshest of his tattoos.

“Seriously mate?”

The –focus- she had all the sudden was, alarming, how much did he want to fight a monster with needle-arms.  

[Enoh Love]

"Please?" Needle asked as politely as possible. "I will do it too, if you prefer!"  

[endejester]

His mouth opened, and then shut, opened again with a similar result as he fished for words.

“… W… Why do you want me to…” He stammered.

“I mean when you said burning you meant like, skin temperature right?” He added, the trouble she’d had with diction at the start giving him pause.