Requiem of Depravity

Elsa sighed and leaned back in her chair, quietly listening to what everyone had to say. They had quite the ensemble, she thought, although she felt a bit weaker due to her inability to use her Art. She'll just have to go to the front lines and fight. She thought of the two that were absent, Tundra and Dragon, the last two she'd expect to be late. Especially considering how quickly the rest of them had arrived. She shrugged in response to Naeova's proposal; they needed the rest anyway, since some of them came from quite a ways. And rest was always welcome, especially when the Old Gods could strike at any moment.

She watched as Naeova and Ester go off on their own and sighed, opting to stay with the group for now. She'll check on Maria later on and maybe explore the area in the morning if she manages to wake before anyone else. But for now, she'll just converse with the rest of them.

 

"I'd love to actually get to sleep on something soft for the first time in weeks. I'm going to pounce on the chance to sleep early, so I'll catch the rest of you in the morning." With a quick wave and a muttering of good night, Izi picked up the rest of his equipment and wandered off to an empty room. He lay his bow and sword against the wall and closed the door behind him. He stripped off his shirt and coat and lay them over a chair that was sitting in the corner. His boots came off next and were put at the foot of the bed. A quick look around the room confirmed that everything was where it needed to be and slipped his dagger under his pillow. Assassination in the night was one thing the bandit hunter had learned to counter quite well over his career. The Old Gods may already have fanatic cult followers just waiting to cut the throats of the descendents in the night. Sleep came easily to Izi that night, as it does every time he gets to sleep in a decent bed. The best part was that this bed didn't have bugs.

Izi dreamed that night. He sat in the heart of a volcano, hovering inches over the belching magma. Across from him sat his ancestor, the one that had helped to defeat the Old Gods. No words were exchanged, they merely stared at each other. Nothing needed to be said. Izi knew his job already, and only hoped that he could live up to his ancestor's expectations.

 

Akasha

After all the introductions have taken place and everyone became aware of each others' abilities I went ahead and booked a room from the innkeeper. Once that was done Aedin retired for the night while I decided to stay up for a bit longer. After asking for the way to the rooftop I ascended the staircase that the innkeeper pointed to. The deserts had very clear skies during the night, when the land wasn't being ravaged by sandstorms. During these nights I could get a clear view of the moon in all its beauty and eventually it became a habit of mine to sit outside the balcony in my room and watch the moon for a while before I went to sleep. It seemed that the clouds tonight were few and far between so I would probably be able to get a good view of the moon as well.

When I reached the rooftop there was already someone there. One of the females that had been talking with them earlier, another descendant. She seemed to be deep in thought as I approached her silently from behind and seated myself beside her then turning to face her. "Good evening Miss. Mind if I join you?" I greeted her and paused for a moment before asking, "You seem troubled, care to talk about it?"

 

Elsa sighed as she watched the giant and the twins take their leave. "Well, so much for socializing." She moved to sit across from Naeova, leaning back in her chair. She ordered some food and sat in silence for a while. "...So what was that all about?" she finally asked, referring to the way he had greeted Ester. "Do you know her or something? I mean, it's odd to greet a stranger that way." In all honesty, it didn't really bother her: she just wanted to start up some small talk. Even if it was with this guy, who she deemed too odd to even try to understand.

 

Esther listened to the night's sounds: the soft hum of the wind blowing, the chimes of bells ringing in the distance, and plods of feet from travelers that did not have time to stop and rest. She thought back to that encounter in the dining room. She liked it, but she didn't quite like the suddenness nor the boldness tongue move. Who did he think he was? She knew for a.fact that Naeova did not own her, nor did they have a relationship other than just being two descendants. She sighed and kept staring into the rabbit I'm the sky. But would she contest to.him if he were go do that again? Probably not... She really liked his scent... It seemed to melt her will away. She didn't know what she was to do. She knew that she couldn't simply let him roll over her, but at this rate... She didn't know what she was going to do...

Just then, she heard a feminine voice behind her. Without turning to see who it was, she decided to guess the voice's owner. It wasn't Elsa, so it had to have been Akasha, one of the sand twins. "Sure, feel free to join me. I like watching the moon pass by me at night as well. It reminds me of our place down here. As for trouble... well, there is one thing, but I'm not sure if.I am quite ready to speak about it just yet. My apologies." She patted the spot next to her and continued to lay there, only staring at the celestial satellite.

 

Akasha

I seated myself beside the woman and made myself comfortable. She did indeed have something troubling her, however since she didn't want to share it then it would be pointless to press any further. We all have things we don't want to talk about, no one is exempt from that fact. "It's quite alright, you don't have to say anything you don't want to." I spoke, "As my brother would often say, 'the most inefficient way to know a man's secrets is to pry them out.'" Then I paused for a moment and giggled. I didn't quote my brother very often, it was odd that I decided to do it now. I turned my head back up to glance at the sky, at the beautiful moon. "But you know, leaving problems unsolved causes stress and anxiety, which can be dangerous if you let them build up. So even if you don't want to tell me do try to find someone to talk to." I gave the woman a small smile before turning back once again to look at the moon.

 

Esther listened to the woman's words and considered them carefully. She knew that Akasha was speaking truth, and so she made sure that she made every detail stick. She also kept replaying that scene between Naeova and herself, and she couldn't get it out of her head. It bothered her to no extent, but she couldn't really do anything about it. She sighed and thought for a moment. Did she want to go back in that cramped building where she would wake up the next morning feeling absolutely awful. "Thank you for your concern... I am tempted to stay out here... It is much less restricting out here than it is in there... Would you stay with me, or would you rather stay in a room with your brother?"

 

Akasha

I was taken aback by the woman's question and turned my head to face her. She wanted me to stay out on the roof with her for the night. I wasn't sure if she was serious about this, she had to be kidding right? Out on the rooftop where we were out in the open very vulnerable. But if she refused the woman probably won't be sleeping in a room anyway, and it was far more dangerous to leave her out here alone. "Alright, I'll stay out here with you." I nodded after a brief moment of silence, "I'm sure my brother wouldn't mind. It's not like we're attached at the hip or anything." I giggled a bit at my own words, imagining if Aedin and I had shared a body. What an odd experience that would be.

 

"Maybe just a little bit," Elsa said when he spoke of his plan backfiring. She picked at her food a little bit, the awkwardness of silence playing with her nerves. Then Naeova brought up the subject of having a leader and she shrugged. "Having a leader would be useful for organization and such, but as to who should be it, I haven't the foggiest." She rested her hand on her stomach. "I don't think that I'm fit to lead in my current condition, and I don't know the others well enough to say anything about them." They were all still strangers to her still; perhaps choosing a leader could come later, when they have a chance to learn more about each other. "But if someone were to step up, they could be our leader temporarily and we can see how they do."

 

(Time for the incredibly late joining post as I forced Coddy to delay this for a year.)
"'T-This... this list is just..."

A few hours before the events at the inn transpired, a blonde man of average height and build stood in the middle of the small, rural Thyellan hamlet. His hair was trimmed to a medium-short length, and his clothes were well insulated for the consistent cold that plagued the region. A dark navy blue mantle was draped over his shoulders, held together in the middle with thin pieces of thread. The rest of the outfit was baggy, but very bland and unappealing like most others in a village like this, only sporting a thick shirt that matched his mantle and black pants tucked inside a pair of generic leather boots. The only interesting piece on his person was the strange folded contraption tied to the sash on his waist. Spines were adorned on it's two metallic parts, with a string tied in between the two ends of it. 

"When I said, 'I'm going around the stalls today, is there anything you want?' I did not mean everything you could hypothetically want in 'yer entire lifetime!" he said in a rural accent to the long list that is almost touching his feet. "Aw shucks, how do I even get half of these? I ain't able to feed a family of ducks, and how would I find a statue of a mute priestess? How can you even tell?"

With a sigh of frustration, his day finally began; he darted to various stalls like a blue blur, piling on various items inside his arms. This went on until the sun was replaced with the moon in the sky, and most villagers have retreated to their homes. Eventually, his progress was brought to an abrupt end as he crashes into a mountain of a man. All the objects he gathered soared into the air, food items rolling across the ground and clay sculptures of aquatic fowls shattered on impact. The pile of blue rags scurried up to his feet, scrambling to collect the loot from his day's shopping spree.

"Gosh darn it! I can't believe this happened!" he cried out. "My apologies mister! I-" His speech was cut off abruptly as the man lifted him off the ground by the back of his collar. "'Ey! What's the big idear!? I said I was sorry!"

"Esteban Brooks," the voice of the intimidating ape of a man caused his ears to ring. "Ya know how long it took me to find ye, you slippery little eel!? I still want that thousand you owe me!"

"Thousand!? What thousand!?" whined the man apparently named Esteban.

"Don't play dumb you sniveling twit! You 'misplaced' our entire caravan's cargo! Now I'm going to 'misplace' all the organs in your body if you don't pay it back!"

The muscular man winds his arm up, tossing the pathetic Esteban through the window of the establishment, sliding across one of the patron's tables and flopping onto the wooden boards. "Don't yew come back until you have my money!" he threatened, before turning around and taking the items the blue-clad villager dropped on the ground. "And I'll take this as compensation!" 

A few minutes of intense pain and humiliation later, Esteban managed to pry himself off the floor. He looked around the tavern, dazed and confused before shaking himself off. When he looked up, he realized he had landed into near a man with wild black hair conversing with a woman. He faced the shattered window he entered from, scratching the back of his head as he spoke, "Don't tell me I'm gunna have to pay the tavern owner too..."

 

The sound of shattering glass made Elsa jumped to her and she pulled up her cloak to protect herself from stray glass shards and whatever or whoever caused it to break. She reached towards her cutlass but stopped as she watched the blond man slid across the table, making her food fall to the ground. He laid in pain for a while and Elsa blinked in confusion, trying to process what the hell happened just then. She noticed Naeova's gaze and realized what he must have been thinking. Was he really...? She didn't have a headache or anything, but maybe it just had to do with his sudden appearance. "Talk about a dramatic entrance," she muttered, before looking over the man. He seemed rather...unremarkable, compared to the Descendants she had already met. Then again, one shouldn't judge a book by its cover. "Are you okay? You're not hurt or anything?" Her tone was suddenly very soft, like a mother talking to a child.

 

Despite his seemingly unphased demeanor, the amber-eyed country bumpkin had surges of pain coursing throughout his body. Getting thrown through a window was the last thing he expected to happen on his ordinary day; normally he'd just be sitting at the table with his sister, and now he's sitting on shards of glass, after sliding across a table. The strange man he eyed moments ago was kind enough to pull him to his feet, and the girl he was conversing with earlier expressed concern over his predicament.

"Oh, I'm right as rain, ma'am... I think. If that metaphor has something ta' do with shards of glass penetrating 'ma backside like a hailstorm..." Esteban replied before turning to the man that assisted him. "Oh, and thank ya kindly, mister." 

Something seemed off about the ebony haired man, with how little of a reaction he had to this serious of events. Welp, I guess I'd at least warrant some interest if I go flyin' through 'dem windows out of the blue... but his response was still kinda underwhelmin', he mentally noted. At least the woman that was with him looked fairly sane, having the exact opposite reaction her companion had.

His gaze moved from the pair he was conversing with, seeing the awkward stares of the bar patrons as his head scanned the room. He tried to remain vigilant to the presence of more people expecting recompense for antics that were out of his control; it would be just his luck to have his debts constantly piled upon him.

 

The sound of breaking glass reached all the way to Izi's room and startled him out of his dream. With a growl he decided to get up and see what exactly had happened. He wasn't happy though; he hated being woken up. After getting dressed he grabbed his sword and walked back out to where he had met the rest of the descendents earlier. "'Ey! Who in the bloody 'ell woke me up?" Izi shouted at the top of his lungs. A deeper silence gripped the room as just about everyone pointed towards a man being helped up by Naeova and Elsa. Seeing the cause of being woken up calmed Izi down a little bit, and the fact that it was likely no fault of the boy's calmed him even more.

He walked over the group of three before speaking to the new man. "You alright there mate? Sorry for shouting by the way. I just don't like being woken up." A thought came up from the back of Izi's mind as he looked the man over, and decided it was true. This man was more than likely a descendent, despite his meager appearance. All that the descendent of Volcano could think of now was who this new man could be descended from. Hopefully they'd all find out soon.

 

Elsa shuddered, startled by the Volcano descendant's booming voice. "Shut it, Holloway! The poor guy's injured, for fuck's sake! No need to scare him!" She sighed in irritation. Izi was already frightening enough, with his immense size. "Bloody hell." She looked over the injured man, trying to assess how bad his wounds were without getting awkwardly close. "We should patch him up. It would be bad if his wounds got infected." Especially if he really turned out to be a descendent. "My name is Elsa Naunet. May I ask how you managed to end up in this...predicament?" She was being much softer and much more formal than she usually was, and it was very noticeable in her tone of voice.

 

Esther listened to the sound of shattering glass below her. Was this another coincidence? Why were strange things happening on the day of the gathering? We're the Old Gods already out to destroy them? Had they already known that they were going to band together? What was going to happen to herself and Akasha? She stood and raced down the stairs. She desperately hoped that nothing bad had happened... She looked in the now broken window of the inn. She noticed a new person torn to shreds by the shattered glass. The others were gathered around the person, so she stepped inside and had a closer look. It seemed to be a large man who had (leaped?) through the window. Small lacerations were everywhere on his skin. She knelt to him. The man was profusely bleeding from the sheer amount of cuts he had gotten. "Who is this man?"

 

Esther went with Naeova and the new strange man to the back room Naeova had purchased. She wasn't quite sure what to say to him, seeing that he was hurt and that she didn't even know his name... She looked from Naeova to the other and back, not sure what to do. Finally, Naeova directed Esther to attempt to heal the strange man. She nodded towards the Mist descendant and walked over towards the casualty. "Apologies for my distant behavior in the lobby. I was a bit frazzled, you see. My name is Esther, the descendant of Life. Pleased to meet you. And what is your name, before I begin?

 

Before the poor sap knew anything, Esteban was thrown into the middle of a chaotic series of events. First, his ear drums were shattered (again,) by a very loud man from upstairs. He confused this person for the tavern's owner at first, but that theory was turned on it's head by the man's abrupt change in demeanor. The kind woman from earlier reprimanded the newcomer, but before he could answer her inquiry he was immediately gestured to move into another room by the black haired man. There was another woman who accompanied him, that he remembered briefly seeing before being escorted into the room.

The befuddled blonde man took a few moments to regain his composure. It was a good few minutes before he even registered the question by the one who goes by the name Esther.  

"Ummm... Esteban," he stated nervously, still in a state of disbelief from what occurred. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by 'Descendant of Life,' missy. Why's everyone making such a big deal over me? I'm just an ordinary feller, I ain't nothin' special... well, my sister is, in like, the head. She's all apathetic and unresponsive to everything. The only thingamajig I have is this-."

After the shock wore off, the end of his babbling was met by the recurring pain from the shards lodged in various places on his body. He recoiled from the sudden discomfort, but most of the feeling of pain has subsided. The sheer force of that ape's throw was enough to knock over elephants like they were dominos. 

"A-Also... what do you mean 'Before I begin?' Are you going to operate on me or somethin'? I'm already in quite a bit of pain; I'd have to be nose deep in some alcohol before I'm ready for that kinda stuff."