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Post by Eto on Sept 24, 2016 13:09:43 GMT
The mercenary had gotten himself far away from the city. He'd left a message at the Manor for Amy; 'To find him on Kara Island' Eto had been a wreck for a couple of weeks. His actions and mood swings far more erratic than they had ever been. (At least since he'd arrived in Nagasaki.) The cloaked mercenary crouched silently among a formation of stone along the beach, staring out into the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The telltale glowing eyes were dimmed, almost to the point that they did not glow.
A slight quiver ran through his fingers. It had been far too long since his oldest friend had contacted him. She wasn't in any of her haunts, nor her newest hideout. Concern ran deep within the fiery redheads core. He'd just almost mended bridges, almost come to terms with his greatest sin. And she was gone. Did swift get her? Was it any of their old enemies come back to haunt them? Zelm, Serath?
Eto looked like a statue, save for his billowing cloak and mane of hair. He hadn't moved since he'd arrived. The island was far enough away from the mainland and city that he'd never have to worry about random strangers or pedestrians. Especially in the unpleasant chill of late fall.
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Post by Prince Amy O'Connor on Sept 24, 2016 14:38:40 GMT
Traveling from the security of her manor was difficult to contemplate. She had found a sense of safety within the familiar walls, as if the brewing chaos of the outside world could not affect her and the ones she gathered around. Somehow, Amy had created a fantasy world, a little bubble of peace where maybe, just maybe, she could actually enjoy the eternity that had been thrust upon her all those years ago. To abandon it, even for a few hours at the call of an ally, made every muscle tense and twitch in invisible agony.
Octavian promised her over and over that he would manage the goings on in her absence, but the depth of her discomfort seemed lost on even her husband. His summer warmth could only permeate so deep before the unforgiving chill of anxiety blocked it out altogether. She allowed him to see her off, passing her silken gloved hand off to the retainer bound to protect her and keep her safe. The promise was exchanged quietly between the two men, words soft but powerful as they gave a nod. Jordan, with shoulders taunt like rope, offered his arm to the Prince with as much respect as he could muster, never daring to look her in the eye.
Standing taller than her husband, with toned muscles akin to that of a farmer, the retainer felt uncomfortable and hard beneath her dainty pianist hands, but she dared not let go. The further they got from the thick wooden door that separated her from her home, the tighter she clung; Jordan was the last little piece of the O'Connor home that she had to cradle, to make her feel like her bubble of paradise had not, in fact, popped. The unwillingness to part with the ghoul made the drive through Nagasaki - already a difficult and anxiety riddled event - nearly unbearable. He shifted awkwardly in his bucket seat, but neither he nor the tiny teenager that broke multiple vehicular laws just to glue herself against his side, bothered trying to form coherent thoughts.
The tense, unforgiving silence did nothing to unknot her shoulders or her back, her posture rigid and perfect as she stared down at the black apholstry. If she avoided looking out of the windows, she could forget that she had willingly trapped herself in the jaws of a steel beast, barreling down the mostly empty back roads, just to answer some call from a mercenary that had, somehow, won her loyalty and companionship. With a fierce shake of her head, silver spilling messily around her face in unkempt loose curls, she fought to swallow her tears. Thinking about it only made it seem all the crazier...
It wasn't until they had made their way just inside the curving land of Kaba Island, tires kicking up nearly white sand to fly through the night, darkened by the clouds that blocked stars and moon alike, that Amy freed herself from the cramped cab, already beginning to fiddle with the seemingly endless straps and buckles that kept her boots firmly attached to her legs. For the sake of the Masquerade, the Prince had allowed Alec to pick her dress for the eve. Upon looking in the mirror, she immediately (and not for the first time) decided that he would never be allowed to choose her wardrobe.
The chestnut brown top, which she hadn't known existed a few measly hours prior, clung to the nearly nonexistent frame that had and covered the gloves she vehemently refused to give up. Alec, brilliant as he was, had even found a way to make those a little less obvious... The comfort, of course, was minimal... There were no ruffles and layers to separate her from the world; the real world, the one that wanted to destroy her and her husband, and all the Kindred she had gathered... It pressed down against her, but try as it might, the Japanese night couldn't hold a candle to the overbearing cold that radiated from the cursed Prince. Bare feet kicking up particles of sand, she gathered the gumption to leave her retainer, and therefore her City, and make her way into the unknown.
"Eto?" Amy cooed, her voice giving a little quiver of uncertainty. Despite the canopy between the trees, the Ventrue felt... exposed. She forced herself to carry on, one foot in front of the other, and looked around with darting eyes of ice blue, trying to capture some kind of Princely confidence and hold it tight to her chest. "E-Eto? You requested my presence, friend. Have I found myself turned around?"
Oh, gosh, no, please do not say... that I am lost...
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Post by Eto on Sept 24, 2016 17:17:55 GMT
Eto heard the approach of the vehicle and didn't give it a second thought, it would be either Amy or a walking corpse. He hoped it was the former. He couldn't safely converse with Amy in her Manor, at least not about the subject that was eating at him like a pack of ravenous beasts. Only the sound of Amy's distress moved the brooding mercenary from his perch on the rocks. She was the only one he wanted to speak too, only one he could speak too about such a delicate subject.
"Amy, you're alright." Eto's voice sounded out through the trees, though crystal clear in tone, there was no missing the pain and concern that saturated not only his voice, but the very way the mercenary carried himself. He trudged through the underbrush. Each step was loud and clear, almost echoing across the island. Normally his entire body moved like a lithe well oiled machine, now it seemed as if his almost ethereal grace had vanished, leaving behind a hollow shell of the mercenary vampire that had entered the city of Nagasaki only a few short weeks prior.
The strength that normally just seemed to move with him had fled with his grace, leaving an almost dead form, moving through the forest gracelessly to stop a few yards from Amy, his black and gold cloak covered in plant matter and foliage from the woods themselves. "We're safe here." His voice was obviously Italian, no hint oh the multitonal tones, or cagey methods that he normally employed. Even his hands seemed to hang almost limply. Eto stood hopelessly before Amy, those normally radiant ruby eyes almost completely dimmed.
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Post by Prince Amy O'Connor on Sept 24, 2016 17:47:27 GMT
Without the obnoxiously tall heels she always wore to mask her rather pathetic height, Amy moved with the unconscious grace of a noble raised during the dark times well before technology swept across the world, her weight almost entirely on the balls of her thin feet. Each step was placed purposefully on soft, wet earth, careful to avoid any leaves or twigs that might crack or crumble and fill the silent air with noise.
Amy stepped carefully over a root that jutted obnoxiously from the earth, threatening to trip a less perceptive individual, just as the slouched frame of her fellow Kindred. The amount of ruckus he made as he approached her felt almost deafening, shattering the emptiness that filled the air like a physical force. She could feel the shards of silence collapsing against the ground all around her like glass raindrops, and the shock of it all froze her emaciated form, one foot still dangling in the air, a few inches above the ground. Every muscle was tensed in preparation, though there was no threat in the way she held herself.
Eto called to her as if afraid she might collapse, even if he seemed to be the one about to succumb. Concern etched across the nearly colorless irises of her eyes, but her features remained unmoving, blue-tinted lips pressed in a thin line of neutrality and brows lowered as if she expected everything that happened, as if she could never be surprised. Yet, like a woman made entirely of the ice that threatened her heart, she remained motionless and poised.
This man wrote to her in a time of desperation, and even if she hadn't been able to see it in the curvature of his scrawl, it was clear when right before her. The part of Amy that existed buried within the Ice Queen, protected by a wall made of the curse and the disconnect, showed itself for a moment in the way her long, thin fingers curled and she finally, after a moment suspended in time, lowered her other foot to the ground. She leaned her shoulders forward ever so slightly, lifting her opposite hand in something she hoped to be akin to a greeting: her palm faced the canopy and the sky beyond, her fingers curled naturally back towards her wrist, and there was no cruelty or negativity to consider. In hopes of solidifying their friendship, she offered the barely-even-Eto a smile.
The curve of her lips was genuine, and kindness worked to soften the harsh lines that made her look so much older than her youthful, eternal age. She moved the same hand again, palm still up, to offer her chill as comfort. She wasn't entirely certain what else she could do for the man, if it was indeed a man that stood before her. "Of course we are, Eto," she purred, voice lilting with the full extent of her Lunarian, European accent, often kept toned down for the sake of the strange Kindred that flocked to Nagasaki. "I know you'd never ask me to meet amongst a threat. We are safe here, you and me..."
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