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Who: Gabriel & Random Meetings
What: Rogues do what rogues do best. Stalk people.
Where: Valhalla Inn -> Mafaton -> Who knows?
When: Sukkardi the 14th, Ruudary
Warnings: Some zombie gore.

Gabriel had never really expected anything else from this place, so the outrage from the violent scenes shown in the CiDs didn't bother him. Humans were evil, xenophobic assholes. Nothing new there. It just proved that this place was no different from Azeroth, and you could never be safe if you were a little bit different. (Then again, where was the fun in that?) If they acted this way towards the 'xenians', how would they treat the undead?

The fact that he could move almost anywhere unseen was a plus for someone that could be mistaken for someone far too interested in brains (not that he didn't mind a bite or two) but it made things a bit difficult when it came to moving Styx away from Valhalla. He needed to get away from that place and the multitude of confused newcomers, but the skeletal horse wasn't exactly easy to hide.... and it lacked Gabriel's stealthing skills. What kind of place would take such an animal, and how could he find out if he could not speak to people?

So what do you do about something like that? Beat up a guy, steal his clothes and hide yourself, of course! A hoodie was a bit odd for someone used to leather armor, but it covered up his rotted face quite well, especially combined with a scarf. Adding gloves and a baggy pair of pants, he looked fairly incognito. Enough to go out on the streets without hiding in the shadow, invisible for the naked eye... and hopefully he could meet people to wring out information from.

Even if they needed a sharp incentive.

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Shrieky still wasn't quite up to straying too far from the Valhalla Inn. The city seemed almost impossibly large to him, but he was slowly mapping it out in his mind. He knew a route to the river now, and he'd spent the last few days slowly figuring out the streets surrounding the Inn, to try and drive down his chances of getting lost forever and freezing to death out in the cold somewhere.

Right now, he was poking through a second hand store. It had been politely drawn to his attention that beings which lived on land tended to require more than one set of clothes, or they would begin to smell eventually, and that this eventually was approaching sooner rather than later for him. So it was that he found himself slowly sifting through the outside rail of mismatched items of clothing, in search of something appropriate.

Skirts, he was well aware, were not appropriate. Especially since after his conversation with Himli, he was feeling particularly sensitive to the idea of having people accuse him of being a girl or wanting to be a girl, and skirt wearing was definitely not a gender neutral activity. So no matter how many skirts he came across, he was certainly not planning on buying one. Not even if they looked a million times easier to put on than trousers. Which they seriously did.

Pushing past the more masculine looking skirts which he absolutely had not been considering buying, Shrieky cast a dubious eye over the selection of trousers available, which was considerably smaller, and contained an almost infinite amount more buttons than the skirts seemed too. Perhaps somewhere would sell him second hand discount robes? That seemed like a viable option for the masculine man who doesn't care for trousers...

Second hand stores didn't really matter to Gabriel; he preferred to take what he needed and only pay those he expected quality from - such as armor and weapons. But the store seemed empty enough for him to slip in and take a moment to check his CiD and the maps to find his way over to his destination. He didn't like to stop in the middle of the street, since it would draw attention, and alleys... well, he knew from experience that alleys were good places to kill people in.

Unfortunately that meant that he was in Shrieky's way, and he didn't have any intentions of moving.

Initially, Shrieky merely hovered at Gabriel's side, waiting for him to intuitively figure out that he was in the way and that there was a problem with him being in the way, and that he would have to move. After a few minutes of this, and no result, he was forced to begin considering other options. The most tempting solution involved shoving, but he had a feeling that his relative newness to the experience of having legs might put him at something of a disadvantage, should things devolve into any kind of competitive shoving struggle. Sadly, this left him with a far less exciting option.

"You are obstructing my path. Move at once."

Shrieky narrowed his eyes, fixing the figure with a glare. It wasn't really anything personal, he was just defaulting to the assumption that he was dealing with a human here and that being polite would be an undeserved kindness.

He didn't plan to even acknowledge the human hovering near him... it wasn't his problem if the idiot could just go around him. That was, until the disgusting bastard started speaking. Gabriel had to force himself to not just draw a dagger and shove it into that insolent mouth. How dared he speak that way?

Instead, he glances up from his CiD and bares his teeth in a sickening grin. Combined with how the rotted flesh and skin tore slightly around his mouth and the teeth protruding through his cheeks, it was... not pretty.

"Keep your mouth shut if you want to keep that tongue, human."

There wasn't any getting around the fact that Shrieky's initial response to recognizing that he was being addressed by a walking corpse was abject shock. He wasn't unaccustommed to corpses, of course. People fell from battlements, jumped from battlements, were pushed from battlements, and finding their semi-decayed bodies in the moat was a rare but entertaining treat for him! He'd had one particularly robust corpse around for nearly a month, and dragging it up to the surface and making it poke it's head over the edge of the drawbridge from time to time (to traumatize knights and horses alike) had been a fine way for him to pass the time.

Still, the thing with corpses was... they didn't tend to sass you back when you told them to move, so this was a little strange to say the least.

Priorities though. There was a much more severe problem here than the presence of a gristly sentient corpse threatening to remove his tongue,

"Don't call me human!"

His voice rose a few octaves with his ire, the noise of it enough of a disturbance for the little old lady behind the counter to shoot them both a stern look.

Gabriel makes a half-growl, glaring at Shrieky with his empty eyesockets. The little old lady's look is completely ignored, and he takes a step forward into the offending man's space. There's a rather strong odor of rotted flesh and embalming fluid, enhanced by the fact that he was ripping his cheeks in anger. A cockroach falls out from the hood, apparently ditching its hiding place due to sheer survival instinct.

"Shut your fucking mouth. I don't care what you are, but if you give me trouble, I will tear you open and strangle you with your own bowels."

The sound of that man's voice was irritating enough. Gabriel didn't need problems to go with it. Still holding his CiD, the walking corpse sticks his other bone-fingered hand in his pocket. Keeping his daggers strapped to his legs, the rogue knew he could incapacitate this idiot and stealth away. But that was a last resort.

Shrieky frowns. This encounter is quickly escalating into strange and slightly disgusting areas. He steps back automatically as the corpse steps forward into his space, without even really thinking about it.

"Why would I give you trouble? You're the one calling people humans and threatening to injure them and blocking the way to the clothes rack, I think if one of us was trying to distribute trouble, then it's fairly obvious which one of us that would be."

At this point, his natural instinct to argue vehemently and cause trouble has been trumped by his desire not to be disemboweled, so instead Shrieky distracts himself by studying the rotting face of the figure before him. Although it's clearly not the important part of this situation, he does find himself fixating slightly on the inevitable problems that this must pose.

"Also, sorry, could I ask... is there some way for your cheeks to heal, eventually?"

Gabriel growls again, reaching out to push Shrieky away so that he can leave. The man's second comment stuns him a bit, though. Why would someone like the living even give a damn? Glancing at the man, the undead rogue touches one torn cheek with an annoyed look.

"They'll be fine." He mutters bitterly, even though it was a lie. To fix up this mess, he needed needle and thread to fix the rips. That... or a nice meal.

Eying Shrieky once more, Gabriel's eye sockets focus on the strange man's skin. A pound of flesh or two should fix it right up. "Unless you want to help."

Shrieky pauses, tilting his head slightly and bringing a hand up to his chin thoughtfully. He certainly didn't owe any help to the menacing undead, and once Gabriel left, he'd likely forget all about him and his disturbingly open cheeks. Right at this moment, however, he couldn't escape the thought that having large holes in your cheeks would make it extremely hard to drink liquids (which he was quickly learning was essential).

"I would like to help." He hesitates, realizing that this is a complete reversal of his earlier tone and may require some explanation, "I feel as though I may have been somewhat rude to you, thus prompting your threats against my life. Also, your gaping cheeks bother me and I wish for them to be repaired."

Gabriel's demeanor changes a bit at that, and he seems to relax more, as if this 'apology' has placated his bitter, pincushion attitude. He pulls up the hood of his shirt more to hide his face from the employees in the shop.

"Oh, really? You have been very rude, so this is obviously your fault." Ripping off a chunk of flesh from this idiot wouldn't be too difficult, but the question was if the screaming and crying would be worth it. He preferred to do such acts somewhere dark and hidden, where nobody would find the body afterwards. (Because really, who would leave the snack alive? They could tattle.)

Shrieky might be prepared to make a token almost apology, but he's not going to encourage any more piling of the blame onto him than is entirely necessary. "I don't think that someone's cheeks tearing open is a foreseeable consequence of rudeness. It's not entirely my fault."

Still, the holes in his cheeks are disturbing, and Shrieky doesn't want to be distracted by reminders that he started this brief, upsetting argument. "So what can I do to help? Do you require bandages? Or... a needle and thread?" Because really, looking at the damage, he can't think of anything else that could hold the pieces of this man's face closed correctly.

He chuckles, shaking his head a little bit. This kid was hilarious. So easily ticked off, and it seemed like Gabriel could poke his buttons freely. Watching Shrieky, his eyes narrow a bit in thought. No, it would be too much of a hassle to deal with a body right now. A pity, though. He would have enjoyed to see how much pain this loud idiot could take.

"Heh. Needle and thread would work, but the best remedy is a meal."

Didn't mean he couldn't just verbally freak out this sorry sonofabitch, though.

It's probably for the best that Gabriel doesn't attempt to eat Shrieky. Even at the best of times he was fairly annoying, but this was nothing compared to the volume and pitch that his voice could achieve when under serious stress.

The comment about needing a meal doesn't immediately strike Shrieky as particularly threatening, because really, who doesn't need to eat at some point? It doesn't seem unreasonable to him that food would be important to restoring damaged tissue, and he doesn't have any specific reason to assume that what this particular creature survives off is the flesh of the living.

"A meal? I could buy you something to eat, if that would help?" Even as he says this though, a problem is occurring to him, "but won't it... won't food just fall out of your cheeks when you try to chew it?"

His words make Gabriel laugh, and it's a rather dark and mad cackle that escapes from the rotting man. Grinning widely, he shakes his head at the poor, delusional kid. Whatever this boy was, he sure seemed like a naive fool in the rogues non-existent eyes.

"Oh, you poor, confused living creature." He steps closer, baring all of those green-tinted teeth surrounded by dry, ripped flesh. "Nothing you could buy would satisfy someone like me."

He glances down at Shrieky's midsection. "A few pounds of your guts, however..."

As the walking corpse steps forward, Shrieky retreats a step automatically. He's not afraid exactly? He's just wary of being advanced on, and the tone of the laugh he just heard isn't exactly soothing.

His eyes widen when Gabriel mentions his guts, and without thinking, his hand drops down to cover his abdomen, as if doing so would protect the contents from harm, "If that's the help that you want from me then I rescind my offer!"

His voice has crept up in pitch and volume once more, and now the little old lady behind the counter is watching them closely, waiting to see if there's trouble to come from this.

When Jay passed the man with the covered face, he'd noticed something...a bit off about him, and it piqued his curiosity enough to make him pause. The street was uncrowded, and Jay decided, after a moment's thought, to flick his tongue out and get a taste of the air. No one would notice, and it would allow him to perceive better what was so strange about this man. With a flick of a temporarily forked tongue, Jay tasted...death. Decay. Enough to make him gag on it audibly. The face had been hidden from view, but not Jay's sense of taste.

Gabriel was always a very observant man, a must in his line of work. So the gag had him on edge at once, fingers digging in to the baggy pants to grasp at the daggers he had tied around his legs. Turning slowly, the sickly yellow glow of his eyes was hard to miss when he didn't look straight down at his feet.

Since the street wasn't too full of people, it was easy to single out where the sound had come from. The question was if the human was going to make trouble.

[The yellow eyes surprised Jay, as did the very dead looking skin around them, and his eyes went wide, but he said nothing for a moment. However, his expression was no longer one of disgust, but surprise and wonderment, like it was some strange occurrence that he'd, quite simply, never seen before. Then, in a low voice he said,]

So that's why you tasted--I mean smelled. Smelled so bad. No offense.

So he knew. And he saw. But tasted? That was new. Gabriel drags down his hood a bit more, covering up the glow of those empty sockets. It seemed he had the kid's full attention, which also made it impossible for him to disappear into the shadows and turn invisible. He would need a distraction to make that happen.

"Not a word." Gabriel mutters under his breath, just low enough for Jay to hear. "If you give me trouble..." He left the threat hanging, though his raspy voice didn't hide his annoyance and mild disgust.

"I won't," he whispered back, "I promise I won't. You just caught me by surprise, that's all."

He paused and considered for a moment. He suspected this zombie...or whatever, would be far less angry if he knew that Jay had his own secrets to hide, but he did want to keep his secret. Still, if it created a mutual understanding, it could be advantageous, and it wasn't like he didn't have his own blackmail to keep things from spiraling out of control.

"I have my own secrets, I've just got a fancier trick for hiding them." He'd just test the waters for now, see how things went.

Gabriel frowns, still ready to grab his daggers. The kid seemed spooked, but he didn't scream or draw attention. Yet. Continuing to glare at Jay, the undead man takes a step closer in an avoiding circle. Something was a bit off about this, and the rogue preferred his anonymity.

"Tch. Good for you, then. Some of us have to make due." It was simple banter, nothing special other than throwing a hook to see how far this kid was going to take this.

Strange, how similar they reacted.

"Sorry," he whispered. He paused, considering again whether it would be wise to reveal information to a stranger, but he realized that it would be very unlikely that someone like this would even associate with anyone who would cause Jay any trouble. After all, a garuda would not likely want to hold a conversation with a decaying corpse, and it didn't seem like this man had much interaction with humans.

Then, after glancing around nervously again in case anyone was around to hear and confirming that no one was, Jay whispered very, very quietly. "If it makes you feel better, normally what you are doing wouldn't be as effective if I tried it. Normally I'm a naga."

That... actually sets him off course for a moment. In Azeroth, naga were quite striking and not even slightly human in their appearance. This boy looked nothing like them. Then again, Gabriel had heard about species-changing artifacts in his world. If the 'naga' had anything like that...

"Oh, really..." His mouth twists a bit into a grin. "You're less scaly than I expected."

Moving even closer, the undead rogue glances over Jay, looking for anything like an orb or a medallion. Anything that could be changing the boy's appearance magically.

"I'm usually a bit scalier than this."

In his own world, nagas in their natural form didn't look terribly human either, after all. They were very large snakes capable of taking on human shape or human features as necessary. However, while no artifacts were needed for this, there was a stainless steel ring on Jay's pinky finger that he always wore which could be mistaken for such an artifact. As the undead creature moved nearer, Jay watched him closely, gauging his movements. As long as he was simply examining Jay for chinks in his guise, that would be fine, but since this encounter had been uneasy so far, he wanted to keep a close eye on this stranger.

Hm. How curious. Gabriel's hollow gaze focus on the ring for just a moment, and then the sickly yellow glow is redirected towards Jay once more. He appeared fully human, as far as the undead man could see. No flaws. Just odd glasses and clothing, but that seemed to be the norm here.

"Very impressive..." He hisses, leaning even closer. "Just how to you achieve this?"

Gabriel reaches out his hand, trying to place his rotted, bone-tipped fingers on Jay's shoulder to make sure that he was solid.

Jay's skin crawled as the undead creature leaned far too close for comfort. He heard the question, but didn't answer right away, distracted by the fingers reaching toward him. Jumping back with a startled hiss, Jay quickly evaded the touch. He may be a 'freak' as well in his natural state, and he may be fine with a wide variety of creatures that may normally be considered terrifying, but there was something about being touched by a living corpse that he couldn't handle.

"Magic," he answered. "I don't really know how to explain it, it's just something nagas in my world learn to do in my world at an early age so that we can survive in the human world. As long as we are conscious, we can will ourselves to take on human form, but it's not something I could teach to someone who isn't a naga."

He chuckles a bit at the way Jay jumped back, and removes his hand in a placating gesture. Gabriel enjoyed freaking people out, but at the moment his sadism was overruled by his curiosity.

"Ah... such a pity." The rogue was not certain he fully believed the boy, but he would accept this answer for now. After all, he did not know this version of naga or what their abilities were.

Backing off a bit, he hid his frightening hand over the fabric of his shirt again. "But lucky for you, hmm? I assume people are not too fond of giant snakes."

"Yeah. Baedal's so different from home so I don't know what would happen or if people would even care if they saw me for what I truly was, but I don't want to take that risk. It's one thing for humans to accept a cute fairy girl, but I think they'd be a bit more wary if they knew I was a large, venomous snake. Back home, revealing your true form would probably be deadly."

And that was why humans often no longer believed in nagas, though all the same it would be dangerous. Humans weren't exactly hesitant when it came to killing dangerous snakes, or most weren't, anyway. Jay wasn't bitter about it, by any means, it wasn't like it was a regular issue since nagas quite simply didn't let humans know what they were, and humans were quite content to ignore any oddities in order to live in ignorance. The 'probably' was in there because this was an assumption, never tested. Unlike the garuda, they did not seek out his kind to kill them.

"Heh. Then you and I have something in common." Gabriel says, nodding to the rest of the people passing by. The people seemed to be occupied with their own lives, not knowing that there was a zombie and a snake standing among them. Even the xenian people seemed to blend in among the humans - at least in Gabriel's mind.

"You think someone like me would be accepted among these living fools?" He chuckles slightly, but it is surprisingly dry and bitter. "No. It is just like home. Humans rule, and what they fear, they destroy."

Just like in that video that had leaked over the CiDs.

"Yeah...good thing I didn't drop my cover when I saw Megan walking around freely, then. There are far more non-humans than where I come from, so I have wondered if there were too many for humans to have to 'just destroy' reaction. Wasn't willing to test it, though."

He was glad he wasn't when he saw the events over the CiD, but he hadn't really understood those, or why they happened, or the background...and that was what scared him most. Without understanding why it happened, how could he prevent it from happening to him one day?

The fact of the matter remains that Anna wouldn't spend time in Mafaton if she didn't have to, if it weren't utterly, shamefully necessary as the only source of Vitae that could be called anything like satisfying. Baedal's knowledge of its "cruorvore" population took away so many options; vampire "groupies" (wasn't that the slang what they were called?) were repetitive, easy -- nothing like the thrill of anything she could have justifiably called hunting. It could be worse, she reminds herself bitterly. The other option for a society without a full Masquerade was of course that she be hunted herself, and killed. The city had already come frighteningly close to that happening.

It is easier to hear the Huntress's opinions with the Beast full and content. Once the skeletal horse would have been an object of horror and distaste, but her mind has shifted some since then and now, when she notices it, she is intensely curious. Well an approach won't hurt -- not her, at least.

"Your mount is a wondrous creature." She doesn't notice anything of note about the man holding the bridle. Indeed, he strikes her as disappointingly dull-looking.

The undead horse swivels a rotted ear in Anna's direction, stomping a hoof against the ground. It doesn't seem threatening, though... just an acknowledge of company. Gabriel, on the other hand, heeds the warning and tenses up, pulling on his hood a bit more to cover up. He'd imagined that the damn beast was going to draw attention, but that didn't mean he'd be happy about it.

"It is a mean of transportation, nothing more." His raspy, raw voice was neutral for once, not interested in looking for trouble. The hand holding Styx's reins was thankfully covered up by a glove, and if he stayed close enough to the horse, his scent of rot and death might seem to come from the mount rather than himself.

Taking Styx to Mafaton had been a good idea, though. It drew less attention here than in more 'human' places, and he was fairly sure he'd heard something about a stable. All he needed now was to find the damn place and put the skeletal horse there... where it was both safe and away from prying eyes.

Like this woman's.

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I was certain that I did these tags >>;

Late tags are like late birthday presents! Always a welcome surprise \o/

=D

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Flyside? If that wouldn't make sense, then anywhere else would work

Flyside is good =P

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I thought I did these taaags

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haha I never saw this AWKWARD - still very up for things, though!

sdfdsfdsf me too, I just thought I tagged this already