View source for 2011-09-03 (PostU) Finally, some conflict! (part 1?)

{{Logsummary|
Title=Finally, some conflict! (part 1?)
|Summary=Devi's adventures in counting continue as she crosses paths with Rera in the middle of the cemetery and an interesting fight breaks out. It also has it's fair share of comic relief as Tabitha follows her out there and meets Rera's dog. Ever wonder what a catgirl does when confronted by a dog?
|Who=[[Devi]], [[Rera]], [[Tabitha]]
|Date=September 3, 2011
|Where=Cemetary - Path to Life
|Log=
Cemetary - Path to Life(#2373R)

Several gravestones exist here, none of them are easily readable. The letters on the stones seem to blur when looked upon, as if the spirits beneath the soil want to be left in seclusion.
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They say that the sea always lies calmest before a storm, that the winds' whispering dies upon Gaia's lips in the instants preceding an unleashing of her blessed wrath. True to form, the air hangs motionless and crisp around the graveyard tonight, the bobbing forms of a few dozen fireflies giving the lullsome atmosphere a faintly eldritch air that does nothing to detract from the calm; their path is so sleepy, almost hypnotic. And why not? In a world forged in the turbulent fires of chaos, this place should be a sanctuary.
But where better for a ravaged tear to appear in the fabric of this fragile universe?
Fate is tempted. And rarely does such whim go unindulged.
It begins with a gentle, keening howl, a distant warble splitting the chill of the night just at the fringe of hearing; though soon enough it grows in pitch and volume, becoming a feral funerary wail. Behind the prominence of forgotten gravestones, the shadows gather as though to hold congress, deepening to a series of forbidding black voids. From here the howl seems to come, a few hundred eerie voices raising in perfect unison, some seconds before the veil between realities lifts, bearing an ugly rent suspended some twenty or thirty feet above the stricken, tangled grasses between the graves. The howling stops as soon as it began, cut off with a dull, resonant ring that teases at the ears, heralding the sudden dropping of a form; two forms, in fact...
One is clad in archaic, all-encompassing garb, scarf and raven black hair streaming back from a face that is the only part laid bear to the gloom, a young yet harsh face framing dark, piercing eyes. Beside this strange girl who falls in stoic akimbo, uncontrolled but doing her best to appear entirely the opposite, a more bestial creature also drops - more gracefully, a growl in the back of a canine throat as the gray-furred wolf plummets like an impossibly agile rock. It lands almost noiselessly, which is less than can be said for the girl, who tumbles into an ungainly roll, doing her damnedest to suppress a grunt of pain as she lands hard upon a shoulder and rises in a crouch, gasping with pain she will not allow herself to feel.
"What..." She begins to speak, but trails off with a frown, clutching a gloved hand to her injured joint as she glances sidelong at her companion. As if sharing some silent communication with the beast, she pauses, and sniffs at the air. Her eyes narrow to slits. "No," she amends quietly, glancing toward the nearest gravestone, where the looming shadows drift slowly inward and outward. As though commanded by an intake of breath. "/Where/. And why?" Her question hangs upon the air, as from the outer limits of the graveyard, shadows drift - no, they leap upward, arcing toward the centre as a second scream splits the air; louder and longer than the first. Rera rises to her feet, heavy cloth settling upon her form as she lowers her hand, reaching for the partially concealed sheath of the blade hanging at her lower back. "We're not alone, Shikuru."
Closing like fingers into a fist, the shadows come, screams turning to a disturbing, oscillating laughter.

After the food fed to her by Diablo and the drink and friendship offered to her by Datenshi, along with a shower and a clean set of clothes, Devi's ready to go back out and maybe walk off the food and drink. Sleek, skintight cotton grips her torso, long black fabric reaching down to cover her arms to the palms, hanging onto her thumbs. Baggy jeans with a slightly oversized belt, very American 90's, hang at her hips, her shirt tucked in and taunt. Peeking from under the hems of her crumpled jeans are her big black boots. As standard, she's wearing her long leather trench, the Kanji of Hell sewn onto the back. A bit of a shock, that was, to see something like that on her back, but Devi figures that it means something.{nl}{nl} {nl}Long mesured strides carry Devi's slender frame down Park Road and past the Cemetary gates. Something calls to her though, and slender fingers wrap around the cool shafts of the steely gate. Her pale face presses in to see what's going on.

The sight that greets Devi would be almost impossibly unusual in a vast multitude of other realities; and it's truthfully rare even in Rera's homeworld. The clutching circlet of leaping darkness does not move with particularly impressive speed - something sluggish in the motion, though it seems equally unstoppable, much like the spread of normal shadows. It's the sound that strikes as most alarming, though before her eyes - as the mysterious girl stands impassive in the centre, with slender hand upon her kodachi's hilt - the dark shapes become more distinctive, blurring into a collection of forms both humanoid and otherwise.
Anyone possessed of mystical or spiritual senses would feel...
A nagging. A dawning realisation that something is very wrong here. That these things Should Not Be.
It's the sensation Rera herself feels like the searing touch of a hundred thousand pins and needles, running the length of her spine, rending at her neck and the sensitive spot above the sacrum. Were that she allowed herself to be any less stoic, she'd be shaking under the weight of trepidation. Instead, as she slowly turns about, dark gaze running the length of the converging circle of shadows, it's her eyes that may betray her. There's some distance between them, but as they pass across Devi's lurking point, something flashes within. A recognition of something more human than the threat she appears to face, perhaps; but more. A warning. 'Run', her penetrating stare seems to say, in the instant before it cants upward once more.
"The spirits are not restful here," she intones, her voice bold and clear though marked with no particular enthusiasm for the situation; or the task before her. Then her fingers tighten and pull clear from her back, drawing forth the kodachi, spinning it about as she settles back upon her heels. It's all she has time for, before the foremost lunging figures descend upon her, fey wisps a mockery of humanity as they strike out with limbs that seem too frail to hold any true power. Yet one breaks through her evasive motions, landing firm upon the girl's sternum, driving her backward in a wild skid that sends her careering toward those streaming toward her rear. Her eyes are wide now; she's alarmed, lips parting in part gape, part sneer.
"Shikuru!" She calls to the wolf, who is hunkered low now, passing beneath the shade swathe as it moves seemingly as one to follow up on this initial assault. "They have form! /I/ have form! This is..." She hesitates, using the moment's deliberation to also lunge toward the earth, bending like a reed beneath the cackling shadows and dropping to a roll that carries her further from them; and closer, as it happens, to Devi.
A sideglance catches the observer once more. And a frown furrows the Ainu warrior's brow.
Her final words come with the heavy weight of an unwanted epiphany.
"This is real!"

Suddenly, Devi would give her left arm for her katana, but it wasn't cool enough to be transported to Twisted with her. Green eyes widen at the scene, her heart thumping and pounding in her chest. That adrenaline high and Devi could sing like a lark. She bounces on the balls of her feet, the decision arguing in her head. "Ta hell wit it." She jerks open the gate and searches around, finding only a big fat rock. Grinning, she picks it up and lobs it at one of the critters. "Hey, hey Jackass, leave it alone!" Not much help, but she is without weapon, she's working with what she's got.

'Real' isn't truthfully the word Rera would have chosen to use, but multiversal translation has a way of skewing the deeper meanings of an esoteric tongue. Besides, it serves the purpose well enough; and Devi's rock illustrates precisely why, as it strikes what would otherwise appear to be a living shadow with a solid *thunk*, causing the apparition to hiss and recoil. The indistinct form spins around itself as it flies fully eight feet backward, spiralling about only to come up a little larger and bearing an opened maw upon a 'head' that at this point looks at best thirty percent human.
And then it lunges forward, aiming a rather brutal - if deceptively slow and oddly graceful - tackle toward the American woman's midriff. If the forthright blow connects, she'll find it roughly akin to being dealt the same manner of strike by someone less shadowy and more monstrously burly.
Rera, meanwhile, has her gloved hands full with the remaining horde, though her earlier motions have bought her enough space to be prepared for an evasion. Devi's added distraction goes with no thanks for the moment, though a brief, amused sort of a smirk flickers across the raven-haired girl's lips in the moment before she flexes her legs and takes to the air, cutting an acrobatic somersault accompanied by a couple of deft rotations of her form, darting in and around several lashing tendrils of shadebeast before coming around just beneath the rapidly closing rend in Twisted's ever-chaotic skies.
Her blade flashes in the discoloured moonlight, and three vast shadows split asunder, leaving smokelike curls in the wake of the cut as they moan and disapparate. She's breathing harder than might be expected from someone so clearly trained, however, pants escaping her throat as she glares down at her canine companion. Shikuru is lunging in and out of assailants along the ground, throwing in a nip here and a gnash there. But nothing he touches seem to do more than give brief recoil. Perhaps the answer lies in a sudden glow encompassing the airborne girl, starting just above the curve of her breasts, in the crimson bauble suspended around her throat by a simple cord. It pulses in tandem with her outbreaths.
Dark eyes flash to Devi as Rera begins to drop to earth in a crouch, landing upon three points as her free hand plunges down between her bowed legs, pressing firmly to the damp grasses. A brow raises, taking in Devi's attire as though she had all the time in the world; and as though the other female were not under attack herself. After a moment, once more flanked by shadows, Rera offers, "Good to meet you, White Devil."
It doesn't exactly sound friendly. And perhaps a touch sardonic.

Tabitha watches everything from a perch atop one of the posts along the fence surrounding the cemetary. Despite her lowered ears and her tail twitching anxiously behind her, her face is more stoic and placid than anything. She mutters to herself quietly, "Wha' the hell am I supposed ta be doing here? Clearly she doesn't need anyone watchin' out for 'er..." With a heavy sigh she leaps down and quietly makes her way closer to the two as they begin to converse, making sure to keep to the shadows unless absolutely neccessary.

Devi grins, the edges of her mouth reaching furthur up her face then they ought to and she moves. Not like the normal human she boasted to one Servant earlier today, but like she used to. Her eyes glaze over as the shadow passes in front of her, then suddenly, the heel of her boot comes crashing down upon the 'back' of the shadow thingy. As it collapses on the ground, Devi kicks again, toe forwards to where normally, ribs might be. Her head turns towards the girl and her grin holds. "Hello number 6."

Devi's efforts are met with a satisfying pair of impacts, the thing falling still-- or almost still, as it continues to hiss and begins to gyrate, almost oozing against the ground following the hefty thump of her second kick. Rera pays it only cursory heed, turning as Devi greets her to meet the sudden intercession of a pair of darting shadows, their limbs extending outward and lashing like whips, one circling her left upper arm before it is cut free with an upward swing of her blade. The second is met by a flexible high kick, the girl's soft shoe catching it beneath the 'chin' and sending it arcing away into its allies.
Stepping away as Shikuru plunges in to scatter the mass, Rera looks toward Devi once more.
And then Tabitha makes her appearance. Or quite the opposite. Spirit Sense... tingling...
But Rera is too absorbed to spot anything, still inhaling and exhaling rapidly as she moves with quick steps through the gathering morass of shades to carry herself alongside Devi. Her expression shows no particular trust, free arm raised warily to cover the side closest to the devilishly grinning 'White Devil' as the other sweeps the kodachi about until it extends before her. She sights down its length, into the centre of the cackling shadebeasts as they spin about one another, almost dancing in the moist night air.
"I'm not a number," she murmurs, not taking her eyes from her current foe. "I'm an Ainu priestess, and I wonder where an uncivilized creature like you learned our tongue. I suppose it doesn't matter." She shakes her head, glancing down at the stricken form of Devi's opponent, which is attempting to slither away. With a thought, with an outbreath, she mentally dismisses it; and the pulse of her pendant seems to carry the command. It fades into little more than a puff of darkness, before disappearing entirely.
"I don't know what these spirits are, but they must be laid to rest. What is this place?"
A dark eye cants toward the church, showing no recognition whatsoever.

Tabitha rolls her eyes as she spies on the two, completely ignoring the creatures or even where they might be for lack of caring. She rests only a row or two away from the ladies, leaning against a grave only slightly taller than she is while crouched down into nearly a ball. Somehow this is more comfortable for her than the perch she'd had previously. Oh well, at least she won't have to move much if something should happen. "...this is lame..." she whispers to herself. "...I'll bet he just told me ta come out here ta get rid of me." It's probably true. Diablo's been a bit of a jerk lately.
The dog seems to bother her though. Each time it makes a noise of some kind her ears narrow instinctively. Ugly thing. Maybe one of the creatures will eat it...

Thanks to the love of the dice, Devi does not hear the murmurs of the strange child, and manages only to answer her question. "Worst place for shades. Eh, it's a graveyard."

True enough, Shikuru's not exactly a looker; he's a wild beast, and he behaves like one, spittle around his jagged maw as he twists and swipes through the conglomerate of spirits. They seem to strike at him with far less fury and impact than they have either Rera or Devi, and each time a seeking tendril finds purchase, the wolf merely re-angles and approaches again. It's as though something of a shared nature forbids either to truly damage the other, his actions keeping the shadow-horde at bay; or at least busier than they would otherwise be, at little apparent cost and with little else in the way of a result for the 'good guys'.
Rather more noteworthy is the sudden pause he finds as he leaps momentarily from the swirling mass to land near Tabitha's scanty hiding place. His wet nose twitches, and a low, cautioning growl comes from his throat, animal eyes darting from gravestone to Rera as he less-than-silently communicates his latest finding.
"I guessed that much," the girl replies rather distantly to Devi, her corresponding sideglance bearing an irritated curl of her lower lip, eyes rolling as she immediately looks away. "What is it, Shikuru?" She instead demands rather testily of the wolfhound, keeping her focus not on his insistent form but upon that of her enemy, darting forward to meet the next assault with a tumbling forward roll, kodachi cutting a bright arc around her, lines of energy darting off polished steel and contributing to the buzzsaw effect she has upon the encroaching shadows. Not a single shade-limb penetrates, but a brace more of their number 'die' for their troubles, spitting and frothing into a fading black smear upon the air.
When she straightens upon the other side, she looks through the created gap toward Devi.
"We're not alone," she explains, one shoulder lifting in what might be a vague shrug, somewhat disguised as she settles into a low stance, free hand raising to finger her pendant. The crimson light brightens a touch as it pulses, and the shadowy horde lets loose another warbling scream. They seem to flee from it; an effect which unfortunately carries a thick knot of black humanoid shapes wildly striking in every direction as they roar directly toward Devi D. "I hope this isn't a trick, White Devil."
Shikuru meanwhile, hackles raised, starts to creep around the edge of the gravestone.
Because no canine can resist stalking a wary cat.

Devi almost head rolls as the girl tosses attitude her way. "Look here, number 6, I'm not apperciating your gratitude. Perhaps I should just leave you to this furious mass." Devi's instinct causes her to strike out at the horde, a fist here, a foot there, but ultimately giving herself a wide enough area to jump. Up she goes, having given herself enough push to land in a tree, to which she laughs at this newly discovered speed and strenght. She leans out, a branch supporting her grip and weight. "Good luck with that Heathen 6!" Mockin, ain't she. As Tabitha screams, Devi stares, her muscles tensing in case she needs to go pick a fight with a dog. Even white teeth bare as her lips curl back in an unattractive manner. No fear, this one and with a taste for blood no less.

Letting her kodachi hang at her side, Rera watches Devi's reaction to the oncoming maelstrom with an enigmatic smile hovering upon her young lips. As she does so, there's a deep, considerate maturity in her eyes that belies such age; though the also-present spark of smug vindictiveness spoils the effect somewhat. When the older, taller woman takes to the air, the Ainu settles her stance comfortably, folding one arm across her midriff as the other hand continues to toy with her pulsing bauble. "Hm," she notes, eyes faintly narrowing.
Shikuru's reaction to Tabitha is similarly nonplussed, her alarmed cries met with a blink of canine eyes, a tip of a canine head, and then the fervent wagging of a canine tail. Wild beast he may be; but he has a mistress, and is not entirely void of domesticated tendencies. Slavering maw parts in what some foolish people would probably deem a smile, though surely a wolf feels no such human emotion? Still, the way he stares at Tabitha the idea that he may be laughing could almost be forgiven...
And he makes absolutely no attempt to get away.
The shadows are meanwhile remarshalling following Devi's flurry of strikes, many of them broken from the morass they have become, orbitting about the graveyard with melancholy wails, a few breaking away further to drift back toward the impassive Rera as the majority prepare to flood toward the tree-perched girl once more. For the first time they move with genuine speed, a time-lapsed extension of an afternoon shade as they rippled through the night air with breathtaking velocity to collide with her bebranched form. Or so it seems. An instant before impact, they slow to a crawl, and a glance at Rera shows the Ainu bearing in a suddenly raised hand the red jewel previously hung about her neck, cord hanging snapped to either side.
"Catch," is all she says, the word cold and unmissably clear even over the shrieks of the shades. Predictably, it's followed by the object cutting a rapid, perfectly aimed trail through the air, its continued pulse parting the slowed mass to beat them to Devi - and if she catches the trinket, if it even scrapes her, she'll find herself immediately consumed by a furious sort of energy. The shadows quicken again, but their approach to Devi will be laboured by an uncertainty that was not there before; and her touch will become anathema to them. Of course, if she betrays her instincts, if she avoids the mysterious girl's gift...
Rera will simply smirk to herself, and begin stalking forward to meet her own incoming threat.

Tabitha continues to flail, her eyes wide with horror at the massive beast with flame for breath breathing down hot coils of death upon her. Somehow, though as the adrenaline starts to fade the beast fades away with it leaving her looking at the ugly dog again. The girl's ears lower again and she hisses at it angrily before standing and dusting herself off. Halfway through she stops what she's doing to look for Devi, finding her now hiding in a tree. Cursing at herself for being so childish she finishes dusting herself off, checks for any lost belongings, and waves. "Eh-heh... fancy seeing ya here." Smooooooth.
Her lack of intrest at the beasts and the ongoing struggle with them is just another sign of how little she's surprised at what happens on Twisted these days. She'd more likely step on one if it showed in her path than try to fight, even if it should be larger than she. Not that she will with that... that DOG in her way. Her eyes glance down and lock on the beast once again. How can something so ugly be allowed to exist?

Devi is not a stupid girl by any means, though she does have her dull moments. The arc of the trinket starts falling just shy of Devi's fingertips. She lunges, slender pale digits curling around the gem, her brain briefly registering the cat-girls safety. The leather trench discarded before the jump and the kanji tattoo burns at her shirt, the strips untaken by the burn slap at the otherwise flawless skin. The seals strain and an inhuman, feral even, roar tears from her chest. Her eyes start glowing faintly as though there was a small light behind them. Her fall becomes less eratic, more mesured and persice. The soft grassy ground of the graveyard almost sighs as her weight slams into it, only two small indentations of her fists, now empty, is the price of gravity. Her movements are not fancy or artful, just strait. No move is wasted as she attacks, the shadow horde melting away, unless they've got speed to match. Regardless, she doesn't slow, attacking one as soon as another falls.

So marked by the self-declared priestess' flung trinket, Devi's path of destruction seems so assured as to be destined, her fists and feet wearing a substantial swathe through the howling shades. Her very touch is enough, each heavy impact only adding insult to injury, flinging the discontented apparitions backward before they burst into fading dust. Others crumple around Devi before drifting into the void, coating her momentarily in tumbling torrents of darkness, through which she bursts majestically into her next attack...
The gem never stops pulsing in rhythm with Rera's outbreaths, which quicken again as she disposes of her own assailants, sweeping her kodachi outward almost nonchalantly but for the betrayal of her lungs. Three rapid, rising and falling slashes bear them each asunder, until she comes to a halt not a dozen feet from the rampaging Devi as she finishes her side of the battle. The final shadow takes longer to fade than those that fell before, curling around an outflung fist, loosing a drawn-out, creaking groan as inhuman mockeries of eyes, black-within-black-within-black, find Devi's with a pitiful stare.
A look toward Rera will catch the stern Ainu in a moment's contemplation, head lowered, raven bangs falling around her face as dark eyes remain momentarily closed. A silent prayer lies upon her lips, no sound emerging from mimed words, as at her breast she holds her kodachi point down, hands gripping together upon the hilt in some esoteric hand signal. When her eyes open, the sardonic smirk flicks back to her lips. The kodachi is lowered and sheathed, and the opposite set of digits extend, cupping in the air.
"You have something of mine," she says quietly, brows lifting as she can't resist adding, "White Devil."
A short distance away, Shikuru unleashes a low whine and looks up at Tabitha, before abruptly leaping upward, paws pressing to the gravestone as he attempts to press his wet muzzle against the poor catgirl. If he can even get close, he'll have a good, long snuffle, keeping amber eyes affixed upward. There's an intelligence in them that mirrors Rera's own, though if truth be told he's probably the calmer and more mature...
Whilst being a slavering, feral horror. Work that one out.
"You fight well, but it seems you keep strange company. What manner of thing is that?"

Tabitha watches the fight with mild intrest. She must admit she's impressed, but left feeling even more out of place. Why was she told to come out here? Surely Diablo must have expected something like this if he claims he knows her? At least, she tells herself, no one seems too intrested in-"GYAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" More flailing and screaming as the beast draws closer. As the disgustingly cold slime drools from it's mouth and snout onto her clothing and flesh, her skin crawls. Her brain tells her that surely this foul saliva will disolve her skin if something isn't done quicky. She tries in vain to push it away without thinking, her mouth once more echoing the random chant of "GETAWAYGETAWAYGETITAWAY!!!" Trying to retreat without looking she tumbles once again, giving the beast ample ability to slobber over any portion of her it chooses as she kicks and screams childishly. She'll be having nightmares about this for months...

Devi's mouth moves silently through some litany, falling silent as she stands over the last agressor. She sneers, her eyes fading out of that glow, and spits on the last critter as it fades away. Devi's aura becomes that of a fury, her mouth starting to chant again, as she strides pointedly towards Rera. Her hawk-like gaze locks onto Rera's face and without warning, the gem is cast defiantly towards Rera's forehead. Without a break in stride, she turns and moves towards Tabitha and the dog thing. Stepping behind Taitha, Devi roughly picks her up by the back shoulders of her shirt, depositing the cat-girl behind herself and turning back around. Devi stares at the wolf, eyes hard like emeralds. Thin lips continue moving with no sound to accompany them. She may not have the strenght that she carried before from the gem, but her attitude presents itself as though she did.

For someone so acrobatically-inclined, Rera seems to possess all the speed and grace of an elephant as Devi hurls her trinket back toward her. It catches her clean in the forehead, leaving an angry mark in the wake of a lazy crimson pulse, as it rebounds from pale Oriental flesh to bounce to a halt in the damp grass underfoot. The Ainu does not move an inch, washing the blaze of pain from her mind as she slowly bats her eyes. A couple of moments later, her head cants faintly to one side in tandem with that of her canine companion, stopped from his exploratory (and rather gross) snuffling by Devi's intervention.
"Hm," Rera notes again, rather privately, becoming the first of the pair to turn her attention away as she bends to scoop up her pendant, idly draping it against her breast and reaching back to retie a knot in the snapped cord. A glance takes in Devi's defensive posturing around the catgirl, as Rera wanders up behind - placing the pair between she and Shikuru, who begins to prowl slowly back and forth. His mistress merely lifts a hand, seeming about to place a hand upon Tabitha's shoulder before reconsidering. Slowly, she pulls her fingertips away, letting them alight instead upon the hilt of her sheathed kodachi.
"Thank you for your assistance," she offers in a clipped, formal tone to the more human of the other pair. Another look takes in the attire of both, a mental footnote made before Rera turns upon her soft-clad heels and starts to slip away through the resettling calm of the graveyard. A firefly, come out from hiding, dips past her cheek, and she takes as little heed of this as she does now anything but her destination; the gate out. Her wolf remains behind, at least until it hears her voice call back, "Come, Shikuru."
And then he too begins to slink away, sparing just one last cursory sniff toward Devi and Tabitha both. That... truly seems to be it. Unless prevented, they'll fade into the night as though they were never there. For one newly arrived to a place of which she can have no comprehension, with a thousand questions surely upon her mind - and one blazing most bright - the mysterious priestess has made no real effort to communicate. That could be a first in any multiverse. It seems there are still some things to be called strange, even here.

Tabitha goes limp as she's picked up by her collar and set aside like she where a child. It takes her a moment of blinking in confusion before her sanity starts to creep back in and she shudders violently in disgust. After flailing a bit in an attempt to get the drool off of her she turns around towards Devi again watching in slight amazement as she stares down the beast that attacked her. "Th-thank you... *sniffle* I-I think it was gonna eat me." Her eyes frightenly close to tears stare at the beast until it starts to finally move away, it's parting sniff causing her to yelp involuntarily. Don't worry, she'll be beating herself up over this later. Some adventurer she's turned out to be.

Devi follows after the girl and her pup, the litany giving way to sound. Clear tones ring across the hallowed land as her voice rises. "Come back here, 6!" Devi strides forward, seeminly content to follow the new person. Her head leans back to Tabitha. "Your welcome, come on, we're going to meet the neighbors." She flashes a playful grin at Tabs and continues forward. "Come on, heathen! So eager to drag someone into a fight, only to doubt help from a stranger, then walk away! Some place important to be, or are you just leaving so you can try for another night to pull that stick out of your ass?" Ho ho ho, look who's got balls.

Rera does stop when commanded; or at least, near enough. It takes several seconds before she drifts to a halt, not adjusting her feet from where they fall in mid-step, giving the distinct and unshakeable impression that she will resume walking as and when she pleases. Shikuru halts in perfect tandem, though unlike the girl he actually turns around, watching with those intelligent amber eyes as his mistress seems to survey the pair only with the set line of back and shoulders. A slight twist of her head does nothing but suggest attentiveness, the twin sweep of her raven hair preventing her gaze from penetrating backward.
"You don't doubt strangers?" She queries with quite open, and scathing, disbelief edging her hard tone. It's left to hang in the air for a moment or two, either until the silence becomes uncomfortable or until Devi opens her mouth to respond - at which precise instant Rera resumes speaking with firm authority. "I couldn't see your spirit; the truth of your intent was closed to me. But my tamasai," here she flicks her hand up, a single digit extending to tap the bauble about her neck, "Never lies. Your intentions were pure enough. And your friend..."
A smirk darts across her lips, slowly she inhales and exhales, a sly laugh causing a tremor in the latter.
"Harmless, isn't she? And no, I have nowhere to be. I can tell easily enough I've left my home. I can't even feel myself; we've been parted from one another. All I have are my memories, and a future to be sliced from this place. By your bizarre garb, and your devil's skin, I judge I've travelled far to the west. I don't know how this happened, but I'll find out for myself. The 'stick' in my 'ass'," the punctuation is quite audible, as is the sardonic half-grin that viciously twists her mouth, "Has never let me down yet. It stays."
Shikuru hunkers down suddenly, muzzle placed over paws, his look almost pouty as it affixes upon Tabitha.
Rera bends slightly, reaching down with her fingertips to ruffle the thick fur about the wolf's neck.
"Now, are we free to go, or do you have more questions, White One?"

Tabitha blinks as Devi suggests she follow along and after a second's hesitation she follows. It's easier than sneaking around in the shadows after all. Her tail swooshes behind her as she quietly darts ahead, stopping only if Devi stops and hopefully keeping distance between herself and the beast by staying behind her. As Rera stops to respond to Devi's comments the catgirl's ears narrow and she's unable to keep herself from yelling out "HARMLESS!?!?" She draws out the black bladed dagger Diablo insisted she carry and holds it a moment, ready to scream protest before remembering this isn't her fight. With an unsatisfied sigh she twirls the dagger in one hand a moment before resheathing it. Instead she focuses on that dammed dog, her eyes burning daggers of hate through it's skull as if it would make any difference.

Devi says, "Is this how people are in your world? Does that mean that the stick is genetic? Please, give me a reason to tear unknowing into your race of peoples." She stops short of the girl and her dog. "Does rudeness come so easily to you then, enough to afford you confidence that not only do you know everything but that in this strange land we've found ourselves uprooted into, that your gods and spirit alone will protect you against the unknown savagry that may or may not lie in front of you?" Devi takes a deep breath in, thinking that perhaps that is her longest question yet and doesn't stop. "Would you so bet on your ignorance that your life is forfit to merely satisfy a bravdo that cannot yet mesure the lenght of it's very exsistance?" How's that for a question.

The catgirl's outburst does have some effect upon Rera, and it's one she would probably consider to be flattering; as she actually turns around, at least twisting from the hip to level a dark-eyed stare upon Tabitha. Seeming to consider the cried word, she mulls it over before delivering a curt bob of her head, turning back in a nonchalant manner before finalizing her deliberations. "Almost harmless," she wryly amends her earlier statement, reaching to once more pet Shikuru before she starts to step slowly away.
Devi's long-winded questioning catches the leisurely retreat of her back, and it's not until the seemingly endless barrage comes to a halt that Rera herself does also, folding her arms across her chest and staring up at the unfamiliar, stricken skies of Twisted. The night air feels uncomfortable, she notes, too stagnant and warm; it must be summer here. Her thoughts slip back to the other issue at hand, and lazily she replies.
"I don't bet on my ignorance, but I do trust in the Kamui - and in my blade, and in myself." Each is enunciated with greater confidence, as though in some way she does rank her weapon and herself above the spirits she proclaims to honour and worship. "Don't mistake it for arrogance. Without oneself to trust in, a person has nothing, so foremost trust must be placed in the self for victory to be found. Even for understanding to be attained. What do you have, what do you /truly hold/ but who you are? If you can answer me that with anything but riddles, you are a wiser woman than I will ever be. Of course..."
Gently she turns about, the heavy cloth of her garments flapping against her small body.
An eyebrow curves upward, her expression otherwise unreadable; no emotion conveyed but in her words.
"If that you are, then you would not need me to tell you a thing. You wouldn't be asking questions. I'll admit, Devil, that I admire your courage and your manner. I admire the way you fight. Part of me even admires your little friend for standing up for herself in spite of everything. But I don't need you. I've said my thanks; what more do /you/ need? Hm." She smiles, as if toying with an idea, before starting to turn away once more. Shikuru rises and starts to move before she does, paws patting through the damp grass. "Perhaps, after all, it's not me that is truly the target of your questions."
That's left to lie on the breeze left by her passing, as she quickens her step to a stride. She's moving rapidly, yet somehow does not appear to be actually rushing. And her parting addition comes out positively laconic.
"Goodnight, White Devil. Stay strong, won't you?"

Devi doesn't stop the girl again, but the rage that's lit her veins is still burning out of her system. "FUCK YOU." She screams and spits again, only to notice the back of her shirt. "What the hell happened?"

Tabitha winces at Devi's scream, only half-heartedly paying attention as she starts investigating her clothing. Something that serves to remind her of the state of her own. "Oh god... it soaked my shirt." With a dance of disgust she whines and holds her arms out to the side like she's afraid to touch herself. "I... uh... I think I need to go change my clothes and take a shower." The girl's tail flicks anxiously behind her. "Thank you again for your help. I-I should be going." While she's still yet to explain why she was following Devi, it's clear she has no intention of sticking around long enough to do so. She does wait to see what is said back to her first before running away however.
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