Crimson Hawk Hotel [Page 26]

Serafina let the adults talk, but as Leon said the word 'axe', her face brightened up. An axe? Like a war axe? That would be so awesome! Surely if she already had the weapon, Papa would start on that training before long. She wasn't at all sure how a war axe and a guitar could be on the same instrument, but surely even Maman would be impressed with the flexibility.

"Really? Is it a strong enough metal to harness magic? I wonder if it could be blessed as well," this was not a normal 8 year old by any means. "Nothing demonic right? That would be bad against a divine blessing?" She could possibly have her mother imbue it for safety then surely Papa would have no concerns. "I've got short swords down but Miss Hono is right, I'm still having a little trouble with anything like a long sword or polearm." The overly large jacket fell from her shoulder as she inspected the instrument thoughtfully, revealing startlingly well defined muscles for an eight year. She moved it back and forth as if to weigh it before passing it back and forth between her arms, a little clumsy but no more than any other with a new weapon, and perhaps better than some. Bubbles for his part just watched the girl curiously then moved about the room looking for any danger; real or parental, ducking his head down as he spotted the father, the one who liked to blame him for his precious girl getting into trouble. Like she needed the help.

But Serafina was oblivious to her friend's distress and marked it up to being in such a crowded room as she looked between the two adults. "I don't think so just need to make sure they aren't an..." she paused reflecting on her next words, "opportunist", saying it precisely and making it clear that it was a word she'd heard an adult say.

~~~

Cel sat rubbing her forehead as she looked at the twins were sleeping peacefully on the nearby bed that was missing an occupant. Her eldest was always the most trouble but also loved quite fiercely by both mother and father due to the circumstances regarding her birth. But she was quite the headache. Finally making sure the twins were in fact asleep and that all the locks on the hotel suite were firmly situated, Cel made her way downstairs with a determined frown. Who knew what she was going to find in this place but dressed as she was in a set of pajamas that were relatively non descript by the normal standard of dress, she stood out in her own way.

"The Bar..." she mused to herself, trying to decide where to go to look for her errant daughter and it wasn't long before she found her talking to the Stadium Healer and ...a musician? Mildly comforted by the ease in which she found her daughter's dragon. Her daughter would not be far, she stayed back for a few moments longer, glancing about for Rayner. So he can see what kind of shenanigans she got into that he never believed. But what she found instead was an even bigger surprise.

Knowing her daughter was safe in the dragon and the healer's care, she took a few steps sideways and tapped on a shoulder that even sitted was at her own shoulder's height. "Excuse me, ...Athan Cole?" she was hesitant and hopeful all at the same time. Athan was one of those who Rayner had lost contact with, but with whom he considered a dear friend. Few people were as large as swordsman.

~~~

Tellus glanced up from their dinner at the man standing in front of their table. "Yes, Rayner?" But then she watched as his eyes got drawn away from their party, to another. "Rayner..." she snapped a few fingers in front of his face as he seemed less in touch with their presence. Glancing over, she saw who they were looking at, and it took her a moment to realize that it wasn't Ra'kar, she was almost certain anyways. Energy was definitely different, but tinted oddly as if by Ra'kar. Possibly the woman had a run in similar to her own with the demoness. It was something she wanted to stay far far away from, no matter what. "The kids tucked in okay? Where's Cel," her anxiety growing as Rayner was silent. "Hey Rayner, want to meet my sister. Her name is Junnikyuu." Glancing around to where her sister had wandered to after their dinner had been served.

*"Axe fighting is not that difficult, although I am not certain that she has the upper-body strength for it yet..."*

“I meant de guitar part, not de ax part…I mean…not ax in de litial sense but…”

He stopped for a second and crossed his arms, Yeah it was a surprise to himself than anyone that Malmosians never got confused by that distinction. Then again, Axe was never slang for an electric guitar where he was from, so he kind of didn’t understand the confusion. His thoughts were slightly interrupted when he heard Serafina attempted to ask him a bevy of the question, about the magical prowess, possible connection to dark magic, etc.

“Whoa, Whoa there lass, yous just said a mouthful.”

Leon chuckled and slid his hands into his pocket, Seemingly more relaxed than he ever was once before. “Well, Ay'm not sure about its magical Prowess maybe yous can discover that myself, Ay know it took to MY Powers very well, but my abilities are based on physical mutation, not magic.” He put his index finger to his chin as if showcasing that he was in thought. “Ay guess it can be used to store magical charges or spells, but one would certainly need ter experiment.”He then snapped his finger, a gleam of joyous curiousity spread across his face. “Well, there is no time like the present, and if yous can weild a polearm this should be easy peasy, It’s is somewhat lighter.”

It would seem that Marcus thought he was done with the snake woman’s flirtations today, but what seemed to not be the case, once he attempted to walk off he froze, not moving or wavering at the comments she made. He attempted to speak but only caught his tongue in his mouth. Leon took time away from his current conversation to correct Descant. “Ay was the one who said Ay was surprised you kept up, No offense to yous, Ay'm just simply the best at what I do, can't ye tell?”An uncommon brag on his own right, but one he was not afraid to keep. He belted out a hearty laugh.

Miranda shook her head when asked if she wanted more than what meat she and Silver were already eating; again, she hadn't started off that hungry and it was only the need to put the youngster in his place that kept her continually eating. It's not as if she'd never eaten this much before, or would particularly be overstuffed from it, as Miranda had a reasonably high metabolism and higher when healing from injury, but there was just no reason to gorge on more, you know?

"I'll have water," she instead requested. "Equal to what he's having," she added with a blind point to Vahn. Of course, she wasn't trying to challenge him now, she was just rather thirsty and rather than take any of Vahn's water, she may as well order her own full pitcher.

When that was done, she placed her elbows on the table and hid her mouth behind interlocked fingers, looking between Sierra and Silver. Miranda never quite understood the dynamic Silver had with them until now-- more than friends, these guys may as well be family.

"What?"

Miranda's eyes were on Sierra, her surprised expression having grabbed Miranda's attention, though her own expression remained as nonchalant as ever.

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Lady Sierra Wrote:

Vahn Fah Wrote:

Silver Alexander Wrote:

themightyjello Wrote:

(( Comes crawling up from a dust-covered cellar door, long fingernails and scraggly hair like some creature emerging from a crypt. Time... to post... ))

Last time on THE CRIMSON HAWK...

Vahn Fah Wrote:

> "Someone sent me a letter about a masquerade, and since I have recently been collecting interesting masks it felt like fate was telling me to come..." He blinked slowly, bringing his attention back to the table now, and tilting his head towards Anson. It reminded him of what Sierra and he had discussed atop the roof, the mention of a letter of course. Yet he was also reminded of a certain mask... Not like I have a need for that anymore. He gave another squeeze to Sierra. "Funny you should mention that...I didn't really think people sent letters anymore, ya know?"

Interweaving small bites of his cobbled together sandwich between the sharp responses and quips of those around him at the table, the young man managed to barely finish chewing by the time it was time to fire back a one-liner. The jovial atmosphere at this table was uplifting, but it was also chaos. There was a joke in there somewhere about getting enough fire users together in one room and ending up with an explosive situation, but he still didn't know a thing about the dark-skinned beast woman that was competing against Mr. Alexander so he couldn't be sure that it was a full house.

"Sometimes it feels more surprising that any of that tournament's competitors ever learned to use a phone --"

Silver Alexander Wrote:

> "I mean... HEY YEAH, what gives? I really gotta teach you guys how to use a phone... They can do quite a lot now, you know. Including send mail..."

Miranda Ecks Wrote:

> And afterwards, she asked Anson, " what will you do? What else has Fate written for you? Or any of you, for that matter- what's changed in your lives? What are you doing when we leave the hotel, when this whole affair is over?"

Silver Alexander Wrote:

> He choked down his food and let go of Anson, before briefly rummaging around in the bag at his side to produce the note he had received from Vahn shortly prior to his arrival. Included was one of the many fliers that had been seen about the Hawk advertising the ball. Silver sat it on the table and slid it forward, eyeing the happy couple across from him. > > > > ... > > > > There was a drastic change in the demeanor of the young man who had come to be known for his boundless energy and endless enthusiasm. His voice was solemn, as he stared into the distant bottom of an empty tankard still in his hand. Maybe he was just a sleepy drunk. > > > > "If you hadn't heard, I'm retired from the fighting life... I suppose I'll be going back to my real job..."

Anson laughed a little as the Lady nearly leaped across the table to throttle her ototou, thinking to himself that for all the rumors surrounding this group they really were a warm bunch of individuals who were looking out for each other. It made him feel bad about crashing their reunion like this, knowing that they had so much catching up to do... but he wouldn't stay long. He had other places to be, after all, and someone expecting him who probably already knew that he was here.

"Traveling, probably." The young blonde gave a vague reply to Miranda's question with the hint of a shrug as he did. "I've been looking for something, but I'm not certain what it is. And so I have been traveling and meeting people like yourselves until I find out what it is I am looking for. I've tried a few fighting tournaments, and been to some far away lands. Climbed mountains, and dined with devils..." He poured a glass of water for himself while looking across the table at the Murmillian before continuing. "The world is a big place, and I will be looking for my place in it until Master Jocasta calls for me."

Lady Sierra Wrote:

> themightyjello Wrote: > > themightyjello Wrote: > > > "I was also asked to meet an old friend here, so it may just be a lucky coincidence. If you believe in luck, that is." > > > > > "Really?" She said picking up a fresh tankard and raising it to her lips, taking a long swig before continuing, "It seems to be quite the occasion for such meetings!" She grinned playfully as she took in the table and winked at Miranda and Silver, before looking back to the blond young man. > > > > "Anybody we would know?" She asked, taking another long drink.

"Probably," he answered, halfway through taking another bite of his sandwich. His eyes were half closed from opening his mouth so wide, but he still managed to somehow smile even wider as he thought about the answer to the question. "Sir Black seems to know everyone, so I wouldn't be surprised if he had made friends or enemies with all of you. If your suspicions are true --" Anson motioned to Miranda when he spoke, "-- and Heaven or Hell is coming around again, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason he called me here. That man has an unhealthy habit of having a hand in everyone's cookie jar."

Psychofish Wrote:

v-v Wrote:

> Crimson Hawk: Bar ~ Sunset

Ryugi Kazamaru Wrote:

HonoRaven Wrote:

There were worse things than hangovers. Tiny razor blades stripping the skin from your body layer by layer was one, having molten glass poured slowly over your body was another. Losing your wallet one drunken evening spent screaming at the sky and philosophizing at a dashboard? Worse than a hangover for sure and embarrassing to boot. But when it's you and you're the one experiencing the hangover and inevitable painful sober thoughts that accompany it you're not really thinking of those things. No one wakes up with a hangover and says "well, I could be starving right now." They instead say "blargh" followed at times by exactly why they weren't starving in the first place.

Thankfully there are folk cures to hangovers which worked better or worse depending on your belief on the matter and the power of science. One of those was drinking more in a kind of salted earth tactic that was only successful if you kept the drink down. Cypher had already given up on most other kinds of hangover cures in favor of this last. All it took was finding a bar after all and that wallet that you may or may not have lost. Thankfully he had both and it was to the bar he stumbled towards after perhaps foolishly agreeing to one of the V's proposals.

What had he been thinking? The Aelf trumped slowly and carefully down the stairs from the hotels upper floors to the inner bar with this thought in mind, trying to work out exactly when he'd become suicidal, or atleast a masochist. He wasn't a fighter. He wasn't much of anything anymore, so what in the name of Hoem had possessed him to agree to be in the biggest fighting tournament on Gaia? Video's of the extreme violence were available from pretty much anywhere and articles abounded online about the various competitors and their proclivities. While some of them had been able to escape the public eye there was a greater number of them whose activities had kept them at the forefront of the news, and these were people he was willing to get in an enclosed space with?

It wasn't feelings of apprehension that made him question his decision, still dressed in yesterdays clothes and smelling like an alley behind the cities worst pub, but a kind of confused wonderment. If it wasn't for the difficulty in making mind magic work right he'd have guessed the slime had managed some bullshit wooji nonsense on him.

But no. He'd done it. No one to blame but himself.

The decor largely went unnoticed, rich carpets and tiled floors trod in the direction of voices, beautiful paintings of prior visitors or locations around Gaia passed unnoticed and unappreciated until they at last gave way to the relatively open space of the bar area. The amount of people was not a deterrent but just an obstacle to be overcome.

" Oh feth."

Was that the ******** slime? Was it a woman now? Why did it bring the surfboard down here? Cypher found his feet leading him in the direction of the slime, some dude in armor, and....some other dude. Hadn't there been a red head with them a second ago? Pretty sure there had been, and now his feet were faltering not even halfway across the bar. He wasn't in anyones way after all, and maybe they hadn't notice him yet? But why in the hell would he run? His goal was the bar, V hadn't been bad company and maybe iron man wouldn't be either, so why not just move on. One hand came up to run through his long, copper colored hair and push it away from his face as the aelf made the decision to just continue on and deal with it.

" Oy, you're hogging the bar."

He gave the surfboard a gentle shove after crossing the intervening space, not so much making space as making his presence aware. While V would probably recognize him, Rance would not and he wouldn't be impressed or possibly even disappointed with what he saw. Cyphers once white shirt was now stained and crumpled like it'd been slept in, his pants dusty from lack of cleaning and also stained although it was hard to tell on black. Mostly he just looked like the embodiment of tired and hungover and with his hair long and clearly unwashed, clinging in strands now out of his face, he also looked like the king of underachievers.

Millie yawned slightly with boredom as this meeting was taking FAR longer than expected. It must have been three hours as they were discussing exactly what was going on inside the walls of their bank. However, her boss had asked her to be here. So it was of the utmost importance that she was there to take notes on the laptop that she had been given.

However, her attention was focused elsewhere as she was examining a local page regarding the name Narlo’gothuli. Her bright green eyes scanned each word carefully as she was no longer taking note of the meeting at hand. A small smile formed on her red matted lips as she continued to look at the screen curiously.

“Miss Manson? Did you find it funny that we are losing the Miller account to the Gambino Bank of Gaia?” An older male executive questioned curiously towards her as he caught notice of her inattentive gaze. Blinking three times, the blonde woman looked around the large oak table as she suddenly realized that she had been caught.

“Not at all… I just remembered that uh…” As the woman fumbled about she quickly noticed her phone began to buzz on the table. Quickly grabbing a hold of it with her dark blue manicured nails the woman took notice of the words on the screen.

Hey trouble. Awfully quiet on your end. Did you fall asleep or get thrown out by security? I'm coming back upstairs either way.

Quickly, the blonde secretary quickly responded as she turned over to the other blonde man that was sitting beside her. This, of course, was her boss, Mr. Richardson.

Just out and about with Smelly-butt. But this is boring. So, wanna go ******** some bitches up and get hammered

“I don’t mean to have to cause this meeting to run short. But Mr. Richardson, I do believe that we have a meeting with the Aekea & Red Ace: Auto & More account in about 20 minutes. And if we don’t hurry, you will be late.” Clicking on the keys, the woman proceeded to write a multitude of notes which merely consisted of the word butts over and over again on the screen in her word document that she had open.

See you soon.

~

Izette stood outside the Crimson Hawk’s bar as she stretched in a multitude of ways as she adjusted back to her original body. Her traditional black bob seemed to still have traces of blonde tips as well as her nails were still manicured with blue. She always hated shifting back to her original self, especially seeing as Millie Manson was super boring. And what was worse was that she made her wear a suit.

Now, instead of her straight edge outfit that came with being Millie Mason, Izette was wearing a turtleneck that cut off just above her belly button to flash off what appeared to be a piercing. She was covering something up that seemed to be higher. Although both Melech and Izzy knew that there was an ugly wound that was growing black, that was something that she wasn’t going to bother Ryke with. And to top the look of the punker decided to sport black skinny jeans, her combat boots, and a black leather jacket. Even her eyepatch seemed to be up to par as it had a small skull over it so that she wasn’t overcompensating.

“Ugh…I could kill for a cigarette right now. Or like twelve. That meeting was way too long. Bunch of yuppies talking numbers and s**t." The punker groaned and whined as she continued to wait for Zandra to show up. It was only a matter of time before she made her appearance.

Melech Dawntreader Wrote:

Sins of an Angel Wrote:

Crimson Hawk: Bar ~ Sunset

Tei Kae Wrote:

Trexasle Wrote:

Raven blinked chaotic orange eyes at the player, took another pull from her bottle and then looked back at the girl "If you intend to leave this place with the man, you had best tell your parents where you are going."

The elemental was curious about who the child's parents were, she still had the nagging feeling that something to the girls features was familiar, but she wasn't about to become the new babysitter, besides, her bottle was getting way too close to empty for this to remain amusing much longer... and she had told Two and Rance that she would be right back. sweatdrop

With a little wave of farewell Hono'o turned on her heel and headed back towards her new teammates, taking a few steps before she could clearly see the new arrival.. at least his back... she knew that hair!

Vodka making this reunion an amusing thing, instead of apprehensive. Raven grinned and bounced back to the bar, appearing in a burst of red and green sparkles sitting on the bar top itself, so that she could look the aelf right in the eyes with a child like grin of joy. "Long time no see!"

Eternal Dirge Wrote:

v-v Wrote:

Ryugi Kazamaru Wrote:

Clash walked into the Crimson Hawk bar and restaurant with his member in his hand. "I am not fruity in my white tee, tootie in my white tee, I want a female and not a man in my white tee!" He wore black, thigh high shoes with white soles and lots of buckles on them, a steel plated headband, metal bracers and a gold chain necklace with a pendant attached to it. He held a katana of Masamune make in his right hand. "Man am I fired up!" he exclaimed as he walked onto the premises. "Now if I can just find some teammates for the fighting tournament I will be all set."