| Skeletons in the Closet | ||
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| Summary: In a tale featuring two people suffering physical loss at the cost of knowledge, Sun resurfaces after her encounter with Oblivion and Johnny has an intimate encounter with the pavement. Is a cherry fiz-wiz worth the price of finally seeing eye to eye?    |
Putting the wastelands behind you and traveling east from the city center brings you closer to the bay. The air smells better, the temperature is cooler, and occasionally a seagull passes overhead. It's no surprise that the main government of Twisted has been set up here. On the Northern side of the street the Pantheon called the Town Hall rests beside the local clinic. The opposite side of the street sits a convenience store known as the 24*7, and along the side of it is the sandy path that takes you to Zeku-Kari beach. Johnny makes his way out of the 24*7 with a cherry fiz-wiz in one hand and a half-eaten burrito in the other. The look on his face as he swallows isn't a happy one. "...the ones at the UR are better." The idea that he had to walk past the Usual to get here doesn't occur to him, nor the fact that he paid for something he can get for free somewhere else. His stomach was growling too much after Sun's coffee for him to care. Dissatisfied he chucks the burrito into a trashcan with a solemn look on his face before turning down the street back towards Twisted with a slurp from his frozen beverage. For the injured dragon lurking down the street, everything is standing still. The car that just turned the corner down the street from the 24/7 has the rear tires slightly raised off the ground in reaction to a bump; the mother of the family heading toward the beach is paused in mid-scolding, her finger angrily pointing with the fingertip hovering less than an inch from her son's face. A woman is stopped in the middle of the open doorway to the 24/7, paused in her trek to obtain her own fiz-wiz. The discarded burrito is hovering just inside of the trashcan, even as its previous owner moves away. Of course, that's all just what the dragoness sees. To everyone else, nothing is different. Sun spots Johnny, and figures he'll do for a bit of assistance home. Slipping down into her humanoid form, Sul Uv do faal Hez Lok stumbles over to her acquaintance, frozen in time as he is...and promptly slumps to the ground right in front of his feet, despite the fact that he is walking. And then, time goes back to normal. Unfortunately for Johnny, this means that a wounded dragon-woman has suddenly appeared right at his feet as he is walking, making for a large tripping hazard. Her left wing is badly injured, with part of the tip burnt off, a torn wing membrane, and several tatters and broken bones. The rest of her has a few burns, though nothing as serious as her wing. Johnny's metal-plated boots are sure to hurt as one comes kicking full force into her leg just before the maniac goes tumbling face-first towards the pavement over her. He manages to catch himself with his hands, but not before letting go of the cup, which hits the ground standing - forcing the beverage to come flying out directly in his face. Attempting to flail instinctively, Johnny lurches backwards adding a knee to the damage his boot would have done, and landing sideways on the pavement with his head cracking against the street itself with a sickening thud. A car swerves to avoid what they think is the maniac falling into traffic and a combination of screaming, cursing, and honking can be heard as it drives out of sight. Where is it going? Well that way leads into the wastelands currently. Serves them right for not stopping. Johnny lays silently for a moment, one leg twitching behind him before he launches his head up off the pavement with a gasp. Half of his head looks smashed thanks to the cherry fiz-wiz dripping from his hair. He blinks in confusion before violently flailing to try and find something to wipe the mess of his head. "OHGOD!!!" Mid-panic attack he stops and spins his head towards Sun, slinging the beverage in his hair from the movement. "Oh! Hi Sun!" He stares a moment then looks down at himself. "Did I fall asleep again?" Are you okay? Do you need help? No, his first reaction is to assume he fell asleep. Typical. In place of a painful groan, an inhuman growl comes from Sun as Johnny kicks her and then knees her, though it quickly turns into a complaining Dragoness. "Motherfucking DICK BUTT." Well, that's an interesting vocabulary. She remains in her spot for a moment, before slowly raising up. "No, you didn't fall asleep." She rubs at her leg, frowning. "Why the fuck do you wear metal boots? God damn that smarts." She scowls over at her injured wing. Blue eyes turn toward Johnny. "Found Oblivion. Or he found me..." She crosses her arms, going silent for a long moment, glaring at Johnny's empty fiz-wiz cup. Scraping what he can out of his hair, Johnny frowns at Sun's update. Pulling up one of his feet to lean on his knee he gestures down at his boots and the shiny metal plates adorning them. "What? They look fucking cool!" Using his knee to push off of he rises to his feet, peeling off his black gloves and throwing them directly into the trash before pulling another pair out of a pocket somewhere. It's only after he goes through the effort of putting these on does he offer a hand to help Sun to her feet as well. "I've never been overly fond of him. He tries too hard to make himself look crazy." Grinning he adds a moment later, "Crazy has to be earned." "I'm a fucking moron. Well, I /was/ a fucking moron. He made a deal with me, to give me back my memories. I stupidly made it. It's a pretty bad one." Sun sighs, shaking her head and taking Johnny's offered hand, gingerly raising to her feet. "I remember...pretty much everything. I think. I'm not sure." She dusts herself off, before glaring at her wings. After a moment, they seem to shrink, and in the meanwhile Sun lets out another growl, cringing the entire while until her wings and tail are gone. Now, she looks banged up, and her shoulder blade has a pretty nasty looking mark on it. With a sigh, she rolls her shoulder. "I remember Sam." She turns to peer at Johnny, guaging his reaction to this news. Johnny raises an eyebrow, keeping it raised through the whole show and keeping the expression as she comments on Samantha. "...huh." That's an informative response. "...then I'm sorry. It's my fault." NNY puts his hands in his pockets and frowns. "I should have been watching. I shouldn't have taken her to see Tabitha." Anyone else would have probably asked about the cost of her memories, but Johnny just assumes the physical damage was the price - one he would have paid as well. The maniac doesn't say anything else, instead turning to face the street and stare at the black pavement as though expecting it to open up and eat him. Stretching her arms above her head, Sun seems to be fairly okay, for the most part. She'll recover. She seems more angry than upset about her injured wing, it stands to reason that she'll heal fairly well. "It's...ugh. It's all in the past." She rubs at her leg, then the small of her back. "He asked for the most important thing to me." She frowns. "Fruit of mine own loins, all of that fun shit." She puffs her cheeks out. "He wants to take my daughter, Raven." There's a choking sound as Johnny nearly collapses onto the sidewalk. He's not over-reacting, he's reacting genuinely. "YOU AND SAMMY HAD A KID?!?" True to his nickname the maniac draws his dagger, his body instantly turning black and his pupils blanking out into a solid white. "I'LL KILL HIM!!!" The darkness burns off of the edges of his form like black flames. This is going to end well. The mottled mollusc comes meandering around the corner, cheerfully proceeding down the sidewalk in no special hurry. Ren slinks through a couple salsa steps (complete with folds in the muscle of the fins that might look vaguely like legs and an arm draped in loose clothing) before sliding into a brief raised-'arm' twirl. Fortunately those passing by are also sufficiently nimble- to avoid the cloak of suspended water. But seeing someone cloaked in black flames brings Ren to an abrupt halt. On one hand, that is a very drastic misunderstanding of the situation. On the other hand, this could be very advantageous to her. But it could also turn against her in the long run. "N...no. Not Sam and I's daughter. After Sam...after I finally did my grieving, I got with Bran...Lonewolf. He and I had a daughter." She swallows. "And Oblivion wants her." She shakes her head, and begins trudging in the general direction of her home. She pauses as she spots Serenity, and raises a hand with a slight frown. The black flames pretty much instantly subside as Sun explains herself. Johnny still stands there, slightly hunched over and ready to go as the rest of it sinks in. He shakes his head slowly and puts away the dagger. "...after you did your..." He stares a moment accusingly and then just shakes his head again. In the end, he simply sighs. "Whatever." It's only then that he notices Serenity's approach and nods towards her. "Dammit. Y'know she's gonna start thinking I'm insane at this rate!" He grins manically at his own joke, looks to see Sun's reaction, and then goes back to frowning. Yep. That was kind of a mood killer. Serenity raises a 'hand' (extruded from a fin) to Sun in return. Ren frowns and eyes Johnny warily for a few moments, then ripples closer to them. Rather than approach directly, Ren crosses to the other side of the street and approaches by slipping between other pedestrians along the storefronts on the opposite side of the street from Johnny and Sun. Coming closer, Ren regards Sun with more of a concerned expression. The woman frowns at Johnny, shaking her head once he puts his dagger away. "You really ought to be more careful with that thing." As Ren approaches, Sun waves to her. "Yeah, this is aftermath from going up against that asshole back on the beach. You get out of there okay?" She straightens a little, rubbing at her lower back once more. Inclining her head toward them, she addresses the two, "He kicked my ass pretty badly when I tried to retaliate." Then to Johnny, "If you still want to kill him, you're more than welcome to. Just make sure he's given back all of my memories first, yeah? I feel distrustful of his motives. I'd hate for him to die before I know for a fact that I remember everything..." Serenity crosses the street, looking between Johnny and Sun. Ren flows over to 'stand' on the opposite side of Sun from Johnny. "I did get out in one piece, thanks to you," Ren replies, extending a fin edge toward Sun's injuries but without touching. Serenity looks uncomfortable at Sun's continued remark to Johnny. Johnny may get lumped in with the good guys, but only when it interests him to do so - as his current lack of interest in Sun's words illustrates. The maniac simply crosses his arms and looks away as she speaks, not really at anything in particular and trying hard not to make eye contact with either woman. Frowning again as Sun tries to explain things, the maniac mutters quietly, "...yeah. Well... I need to go take a shower." He points at the matted hair stuck to the side of his head. "I'll catch up with you later or something." Almost looking disappointed, Johnny darts off towards the wastelands - vanishing into the crowd the second the view of him is lost behind someone. Sun frowns after Johnny, shaking her head. "Dick." She sighs, and turns, trudging toward the middle of town, with her home as the destination. She doesn't seem to care either way if Serenity follows or not...though considering the fact that she looks like she just got into a pretty bad fight, can one really blame her? Serenity regards Johnny with a puzzled expression as he looks away and mutters. Ren leans to look around Sun as he takes off, offering him a parting nod. Then Ren turns to notice Sun departing too and ripples quickly to catch up with her. "Considering what I've seen, that's almost a compliment," Ren hisses, patting her arm lightly. (Ren's residue might even have an eventual analgesic effect on account of the salicylates, but non-too-clean saltwater is probably not very good for broken skin.) "I do have to thank you again for protecting me. Will you be all right?" | |
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