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Post by blue on May 16, 2017 7:23:30 GMT
For most of his life, Blue had dismissed the idea of training anyone to kill. It was a popular skill, sure, but there were ways of doing it without ruining a child's life and frankly he was uninterested in shoving that legacy on someone else. It would be better to let those skills die with him as they ought to have died with Violet.
He would teach his children to be dangerous. He would teach them how to be feared.
But he would not mold them into tools of killing. He would not give them no other choice.
However. He had not slept in roughly three years and he felt like he was going to die at any second, murdered by a fussy rabbit and twins so young they didn't know how to walk.
So.
He was going to offer the most valuable skill he had in exchange for someone to babysit the kids so he could get four hours of sleep in one sitting.
Of course Blue was not an idiot. He knew that most people who wanted to kill for a living couldn't be trusted and most people who could be trusted would make shit killers. But lucky for all of them the shifter Rosalind had given his E.V. The ability to read people with supernatural ease, and when someone came to meet him and she hid her face in in his jacket he told them to piss off. Likewise, he used his own ability to read people to decide when to chase people off, even when his daughter liked them. With that arrangement it had been almost six months since he started looking for an apprentice and he hadn't found a single person to fill the spot.
Honestly, for as many people eager to cozy up to the Deathstalker as there were you would think one of them was a semi-decent wannabe murderer with a talent for child handling. It wasn't like he was even asking THAT much.
He was spreading rumors and appearing in assorted bars and taverns, only there at the few hours of dusk. He sat in the back with a glass of vodka, a human-form Siri sulking beside him, and a large plate of lettuce on the table that he was carefully feeding to the little girl on his knee one leaf at a time. The oasis was called Redpost and was nestled in the shadow of a Boil mountain, and the saloon was called The Red Duck. Why, he didn't know but it was. The interior was modeled to look like bar in the Spirit – from the point of view of someone who had clearly never been to the Spirit themselves. Silk curtains were draped along the windows, shutting out the rapidly cooling night air and someone had decided to burn too much conflicting incense. As result the place felt muggy and few people were around, only a skinny barmaid flirting with a couple barflies trying to get free drinks and a whole lot of no one that seemed to be paying him any mind.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2017 8:44:06 GMT
How had Xev ended up at the Oasis called Redpost? Well, it was a long story.
Ever since the very close incident were she nearly lost her whole wing, she had learned to be a lot careful. The giant lizard that had saved her life had given her some advice and oddly enough, she had taken it to heart. Sort of. She had been a lot more careful with her thieving and overall scavenging for scraps. It had been hard with her extended wing. Instead of being as bold as she had been, Xev started to become patient. Instead of stealing from merchant stalls, she scoured the resident houses for any open windows at night, or folks so drunk that they were passed out on the side of the roads. She would knab whatever she could, and she was doing much better with her changed routines.
It became almost impossible to steal after a while. The oasis had been small, and people were making less and less mistakes. Less windows would be left open, less drunk people would fall out in the streets. She would hear whispers from those that did see her, and she knew that she had been discovered. The problem was: Xev did not know how to get anywhere else. She would never survive the desert, even if her body had stopped using her muscle as a source of energy. She was still too weak.
One night as she was searching for food, Xev overheard a large drunk man in a tavern. He was speaking obnoxiously loud. She did not even have the need to go inside the tavern.
“Yeah, I’m headin’ to Redpost tomorrow with the family. Got a few shipments to make to a lad there. Better tradin’ anyways. This place gets me no damn coin. Gunna leave in the morn’….” The rest of his conversation did not matter to Xev. Any place would be better than the place that she was stuck.
The young daemon followed the man back to his caravans and snuck into one while a guard was not looking. The trip was long and boring, but there was some food to sustain herself. When the caravans stopped at Redpost, she burst out of the caravan and away from the startled cries of the guards and merchant.
Too bad the sun was still up when the caravans arrived, and there were no canopies or tarps within site to protect her from the sun. One of her parents was a sanguine vampire, which made her more susceptible to the sun than most other daemons save nosferatu vampires. As she sprinted down the street, she could feel her skin burn and bubble with blisters in just the thirty seconds she was exposed.
There was a tavern up ahead. Oh gods it was to far! She was going to burn to death before she could reach it! Almost all of her body was exposed, save the bindings that covered her chest and the fur that covered her legs. The entrance was only twenty or so feet away, but it felt like a lifetime before she finally burst through the entrance and fell onto the floor, panting from the exertion.
Most of the chatter in the tavern stopped as everyone looked at what the commotion was. A few sneered with disgust at the sight of her skinny, frail body and severely burned arms, shoulders, and neck. After a moment, everyone returned to their conversations. It was not unusually for people to burst through the door, especially if they were drunk.
It felt like a blessing to be out from the sun’s exposure though. Xev took a moment for herself, allowing her breathing and heartrate to calm before she bothered standing up on her feet. Everything ached from the fall and burns. Her wing was still injured and useless for the time being, but she took a moment to study her surroundings.
There was nothing unusual about it. Though she was young, Xev had been to plenty of taverns in her short life time. It was not as busy as it would be later that night, but something caught her eye. A woman sulking in the back was sitting with a man who seemed to be feeding a small gremlin in his lap. She had no clue who the man was, but the woman….something about her seemed so familiar.
All the noise in the room seemed to be drowned out as she approached the woman with her head cocked to the side. There was something off about her……..where had Xev…?
“HOLY SHIT TITS!” She extended her good wing at the woman, only a few feet away from her, and pointed a finger. “You’re the giant lizard lady that saved my ass!”
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Post by blue on May 18, 2017 10:57:28 GMT
E.V. Made a happy burbling noise as Blue found a small white berry in the salad platter, and he broke it in half before he held it out for her. The toddler squeaked in delight and Siri curled her lip but before she could open her mouth Blue said, “if you say anything mean to her I will stab you in the throat.”
Siri clicked her teeth loudly as she huffed. “It's not like she can understand me,” she said tersely in common. The dragoness folded her arms and sank further back against the wall as she glared daggers at nothing in particular.
“If you give my kid a complex-”
“Hey, you're the one who swears around her all the time.”
Of the three only Elyna-Violeta looked up when the door burst open, her eyes wide and curious at the small humanoid slumped on the floor. She waved her chubby hands at her but when she opened her mouth to tell her parents another crushed cactus fruit was popped into her mouth and she was suddenly distracted with chewing. She kept her eyes glues to the stranger – the first daemon she had ever seen in her life and she was far too young to find the stranger wanting. The toddler burbled happily at the daemon and juice ran down her little round chin. As a result, she was the only one of the three not surprised by the sudden exclamation of shit tits.
Gold and blue sets of eyes locked on Xev, one reserved and one openly hostile.
After a breath Siri's crescent pupils rotated around her iris before she relaxed again. “Dragon. And didn't you die?” She hadn't really put any thought into what happened to the girl after she ate the would-be cannibal but she hadn't really looked like she was going to live much longer.
Blue glanced between the two of them as he popped a new leaf of lettuce in E.V.'s mouth.
“Y'u kno' this kid?” Blue asked, finally speaking in common too.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2017 19:58:27 GMT
Xev wasn’t sure what she had been thinking. This was supposed to be a new place with new faces. She was supposed to start completely over and have new places and people to steal from. Instead of keeping her mouth shut though, she just had to exclaim her presence to the huge ass dragon shifter that could easily pluck her and eat her for dinner. It was too late to turn back now. And who was the dude? Her lover? And she seriously had a baby? Was she even sane enough to be a mother? Xev made sure to keep that comment to herself.
“I guess I should be dead. I dunno. I figured my shit out. Learned how to not get caught a lot easier after how fucking close I was to be eaten. Was a bit challenging with an injured wing but I made due. Fuckers started getting smart tho’, so I had to go somewhere else.” She at the man with the baby in his hand. He had a rugged look about him. Both the woman and man, even from a first glance, seemed like people to not fuck with. “Who is he?” She spoke directly to the man. “Are you a giant man-destroying lizard too? Are you like…a who family of ‘em?!” She couldn’t help but speak with such excitement. This was so cool!
Of course Xev was ready to bolt if she needed to. She trusted no one, not even for a moment, and did not doubt that the lady would try to eat her if Xev annoyed her again. It was just..nice to talk to someone, if only for a moment. She reached up with her right wing and scratched behind her large, right ear. Of all the patrons in the pub, she seemed to stick out the most.
She looked down at the burns on the back of her arms and made a cringe-like facial expression. It would take a while for them to heal. At least she didn’t burn to death. “Ya know I never really thought much of shifters till I ran into ya and you killed that man,” she stated to the woman. “Only ones I ever met were like that man; pathetic, annoying, and mangy. Like me I guess.” She laughed at her one snide remark to herself. “But you were just like ‘RAWWR’ and his face was like ‘OH SHIT’ and then he became mincemeat.” Xev had replayed the scene in her head over and over again. If she had that much power, Xev would never let anyone treat her like garbage ever again.
“Are you like a traveler, big lizard lady? I came here to get away from familiar faces but here you are.” Gods, she hoped the lady wasn’t like…some sort of snitch. What if Xev had to find another oasis again?! She got lucky last time. The next time would be more difficult. She would not last half a day in the desert sun.
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Post by blue on May 21, 2017 7:40:24 GMT
“Huh. Not bad for a mammal,” Siri said. She was distant and unsure what to do with the runt, and her eyed kept darting wildly around. She didn't think she wanted to tell the thing to piss off but she wasn't overly interested in letting it hang around. Siri glanced over its head at Blue but he shrugged and made a jerking motion with his head in the thing's direction. So he didn't know what to do about her either. “I ran into it a few weeks ago – I ate a guy who was trying to eat her.”
“Oh. That's . . . nice?” Blue gave her an incredulous look and she shot it back at him two fold, and gestured wildly between herself and the runt to indicate that no she didn't know what was going on so what the fuck was she supposed to do about this?
E.V. liked her, though. The bunny was making little burbling noises and she waved her pudgy little arms in the direction of the strange fluffy girl. “Ah baba!” She babbled, clumsily attempting to say the word 'bat',“you baba!”
“Hush now,” Blue said softy. Of course she would like some random stray Siri had found. “I'm Blue. An' I'm a lizard too som'times bu' no' a dragon. An' we aren't . . . exac'ly family.”
“We have a couple kids, though,” Siri said, “not this one. She has a different mother.” E.V. made a happy burble in agreement and Blue casually lifted her off his lap and set her on the bench between them. She was more than able to sit up and balance herself and she set her chin on the table to stare at this new person with owl eyes. So far as she was concerned Siri WAS her mother – her real one had been dead for some time and her memory had faded to ash long since. And despite Siri's insisted indifference when E.V. grabbed her hand she closed her own gently around it.
“Ar' y'u a daemon, then?” Blue asked, noticing her burns for the first time.
“He was too stringy, I got his arm stuck between my teeth,” Siri said at the same time, “I've eaten better.” She ran her tongue over her teeth again and a discontented rumble came up from her chest.
After a pause she set her free arm on the table and rested her chin on her palm. “I guess I used to be, but I've stuck to the Boil for some time now. In case you forgot, I have pretty fucking big wings, it's not like it's hard to get around.”
“Hey, you're a mammal,” Siri suddenly said, “do you know how to take care of baby mammals?” Blue kicked her under the table and Siri, missing his point entirely added, “cause we need a babysitter and this guy-” she jerked her thumb in Blue's direction before she put her head on her hand again “-can teach you how to fight. Looks like you need it.”
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2017 7:26:45 GMT
Xev was unsure how to respond to the lizard woman’s comment, “Not bad for a mammal.” Even though she turned into a giant lizard, wasn’t her human form mammal too? That is what she assumed. Xev did not really know about that kind of stuff since it was not important when she was running around the streets trying to steal food. All the mattered was if the people she stole from were smart, fast, and/or dangerous.
While the woman was speaking to the woman, Xev looked at the cute baby he held. She was looking and waving at Xev and she couldn’t help but grin. She had seen babies around, but usually dead or dumped in the side of the streets for dead. This was the first time she had seen a live baby in a long, long time. Xev took a step forward cocked her head at the young one. She giggled and whispered, “Hello!” to the baby before the man told her to hush. Ugh.
“Um, what does baba mean?” she inquired. Xev was sure it was just blabbering, but she really had no idea what infants were capable of. Again, she had no experience and very, very minimal exposure to them. “Wait, you have more? Are they cute too?” It was…weird and a little uncomfortable to talk to these two old people. She avoided talking to people her own age when she could, much less adults. They were just too...too….moral or rule driven, or not rule/moral driven enough. They were also annoying, calling her a brat, telling her she shouldn’t do this or shouldn’t do that. The woman had saved her life, whether she really meant to or not, and Xev was a little grateful for it. She had no desire to die, and now she was curious about their children. She wondered what they looked like…. And didn’t people get angry at kids that were not their own? Wasn’t that a thing? Maybe it was different for this almost family-thing going on. Not that it was her business.
“Ar' y'u a daemon, then?”
Xev snapped back from the questions buzzing around in her head and looked at the man with a confused look. What the hell was he saying? “What?” she responded. Right as she asked that, she put two and two together and realized what he had asked. “Oh. Yes I am. I came from Spirit trying to er, get away from some fucking asshole. And well, I had no idea this place was nuthin’ but fucking sun all the time until I got here.” She shrugged. It was still better than being surrounded by that slaver’s lackies.
Since she was a little more positive that the woman was not going to eat her, Xev scooted a few steps closer to the group and plopped onto the floor. Damn, she was tired. It’d been a long day, everything hurt, and well, maybe it was nice to see some sort of familiar face even if that face was…well…bitchy.
The woman mentioned babysitting out of the blue and Xev did a double take. She scrunched her face up from confusion and looked from her, to the man, down to the baby, then back to her. “What the fuck? Where did that come from? You don’t even know me and you want me to take care of your kids?” There as not much to her, but still….this just seemed so sudden and oddly convenient.
Xev’s confusion turned into uncertainty, then to suspicion. She scooted back a little bit and debated about getting up and bolting for the door. Why would the lady ask some strange young daemon girl to watch her and the man’s kids? And teach her to fight? Why the fuck would they do that for her?
There was no point in keeping the questions to herself. She tensed up and asked, “Why the fuck would you choose me to do something like that? I mean I think your kid is adorable and cute. But what makes you think I’d be trustworthy for that? I’m a fucking urchin from the fucking slums. I ain’t ever hurt anyone but still…” This was just…weird. Maybe it really would be best to just leave. She moved around uncomfortably while in debate about it.
But she was curious. If the man could fight…would he really teach her if she just said yes, she would watch their kids? Would it really be that hard to take care of them? Xev had no experience or idea what all that entailed, but she imagined it would be something along the lines of making sure they did not get into any trouble or something like that. The woman had volunteered the man though. Xev wanted to hear what he had to say first and if he even had the same agenda. “I mean I guess I could watch ‘em for ya but…well.” Xev shrugged, “I don’t trust you. I don’t know you. Hell, I only met ya once. What’s stoppin’ you from doing to me what ya did to that man.”
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Post by blue on May 24, 2017 10:55:34 GMT
Blue stared at Siri in mounting frustration before he hunched back in his seat, resigned to the fact that he was going to have to deal with a small child who was not his own. “Baba probably means y'u,” Blue said. With a giggle, E.V. waved her arms in a sloppy imitation of wing movements and repeated the word, excited now that everyone was saying her word back to her. Blue just set a leaf in her hand and let her chow down on it at her own pace. “Why don' y'u sleep indoors during th' day th'n travel at night? Those burns look terrible.”
Then Siri opened her mouth and Blue groaned, lowering his head into his palm and closing his eyes in frustration. Bur Siri was either oblivious or apathetic and she grinned wide.
“Yeah! I don't want to take care of those brats and he's not good at it.” Blue groaned something that sounded a lot like 'Siri please stop' but he was ignored. “Evie here's got an ability to read people. If she didn't like you then I'd have told you to piss off already but she likes you. And besides, you sound like you're desperate and desperate people always want to learn how to fight. Right, Blue?”
“I hate you,” he said under his breath.
“Right!” Siri smiled brightly at her own logic, and she dismissed Xev's worry with a irritated grown and a roll of her eyes. “That's it, isn't it? There's nothing to stop me from ripping you to shreds. You saw how big I am. I could encase you – and probably this whole oasis – in ice if I wanted to too. But I haven't and I won't.” She snapped her clawed fingers in front of Xev's nose. “Besides you really don't loo ike you can make it on your own for very much longer.”
Blue finally looked up, and he stared at the daemon girl with weary golden eyes. “Loo', I'm sorry abou' her. If you wan' I c'n just give y'u money for y'u're dinner an y'u c'n be on y'u're way.”
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2017 21:22:44 GMT
Xev looked at the gross, blistering buns on the back of her arms and shrugged. “I don’t normally walk around in the sun. I’m not that fucking dumb. I was just hitching a ride on some dude’s caravan for like a day and had to make a bolt for it when he stopped before he found me. I ain’t strong enough to fend people off yet. All I got is a nasty bite.” She didn’t mention how she stayed awake through part of the day so that she could find better moments on when to steal food from people.
The woman continued to talk and the man seemed somewhat annoyed or…indifferent(?) about it, but Xev was preoccupied with watching the little baby. She was so…cute? Cute! Adorable. Did the kid really like her? Why were babies so impractical? It knew nothing about her. Even if it had the ability to read people and could make decision like that, why Xev? This was all so confusing. In her mind, babies were just tiny adults. Or that was her initial belief at least. She wasn’t so sure now.
Xev jumped a little when the lizard lady snapped her fingers in front of her nose. Oops. Xev had drowned out some of what she had said…oh well. Couldn’t have been that important, right? Though she was still skeptical, the young daemon did like the sound of what was being offered. She frowned at the woman when she made the remark that Xev would not last much longer, and a part of almost retaliated but jumping up from the floor and screaming about how yes, she could make it. Part of her wanted to just stomp out of the bar (well, maybe not that since it was still very bright outside) out of spite. Xev was sure that would accomplish nothing though. Ugh. Why did adults always have to look down on her?
She crossed her arms and puffer out her cheeks, looking off to the side with a pout and grumbled, “I’m doing just fine. Everything just sucks at the moment.”
Finally, the man spoke again and offered her money for dinner if she wanted to leave. Now that was a tempting offer Xev could get behind! She turned her head and looked at the man with a peaked curiosity, no longer looking like she was pouting. It would be nice to have a nice meal and to just go do what she’s always done but…if the man was willing to offer her that, then maybe the lizard lady’s offer was genuine.
“I dunno…..I would like to know how to fight…” she admitted, breaking eye contact again and looking off to the side. It almost felt like defeat, admitting such a thing. She’d been on the streets for so long, taught herself so much all by herself. Now that a possible opportunity to not have to go through all of that was there, she was hesitant and felt weak and exposed. She shuffled her weight around uncomfortably; gods, everything hurt! Her arms, her injured wing, even her stomach ached from a lack of food and anxiety. “It’d be nice to not have to run away from people like a little bitch anymore…”
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