Forums » General Roleplay » This Town is to Die For! (Closed)

"I will, in just a minute," she replies, getting the general idea of what Lisa is saying, "But first.... look, empathy isn't something I'm good at, but that doesn't mean I don't have any or that I don't know how to care. It's a bad situation, but you're doing your best anyway. That, and I actually like you, so just.... I can handle waiting a little longer. You need this more than I need the bandaging."

((Welcome back! Time to get mean.))

The human part of Vincent feels a little guilty for leaving Seeker behind; the wicked creature was fond of it, and it just left her alone to eat then probably die.

But Vincent's human conscious is small and weak; its pleas rarely bother it and it certainly won’t bother it now. Seeker might be more resilient than she’d seemed. And if not, she must have had an excellent last meal. Those shrill screams were music to its ears. Now they've gone, leaving Vincent alone to crave more.

And more it will find; Vincent smells fresh blood, and like a hog to rotting scraps, it’s drawn to that pungent stench.

There! A small, prone form trembling on the asphalt. Liliath, lying in a growing pool of blood. While Vincent’s conscious curls up forgotten in the corner, its black heart somersaults with glee.

It sees her clearly, but she probably can’t see it yet. Vincent crouches, knowing exactly what to do.

In the form of Raven- small and black, with wide yellow eyes and webbing wrapped around its injured shoulder- Vincent sprints toward her. “Little!”

"Raven!"she tried to yell "It hurts , but maybe its good going to heaven . Cause Bella is there to so its good." "I don't wanna stay here , i wanna go home." she said soft "I did forgot to say goodbye to Lisa and Lisa is abetter version of my mommy so." "It is hurting ."she cried

W-What the—!?

Bronze furrowed his brows not in confusion but in disbelief. She should be the one greeting them and not him! His presence might make things more awkward especially with that one lady has tears streaming down her cheeks. Now that he confirmed that she was the other feline that Victi vaguely mentioned, he can't help but feel embarassment for his past actions back at the store. Now he felt frustrated at the fact that he could've helped them in their situation earlier than now, and even more because he knew that he's frustrated because he's overthinking.

The humanoid noticed Raven turn her attention elsewhere with him now completely ignored. Bronze groaned inwardly and sighed, standing up from his low crouch and sliding the rapier back to its scabbard, the toygun still in his left paw. "Hello ladies." Bronze stepped forward away from the shadows and placed his tight paw on his hip.

Without even opening her eyes, though slowly releasing her grip on the Chimera, Victi says softly, "Please find a way to prove that you're not the shapeshifter. I'm not feeling creative right now."

“Shh,” Vincent purrs. It lies by Liliath, looking directly in her eyes. Its face expresses nothing but gentleness, the beast’s true identity hidden as it pretends to comfort the dying child. And she is dying. Blood flows from a pair of stab wounds in her chest and pools around her pale form, staining Vincent’s paws.

“Shh...” it says again. Vincent presses its head against her cheek. Her body...so cold. It smiles. “I’ll tell Lisa goodbye for you, and I’d like to thank you, Little.”

“Thank you for getting yourself killed.” Its smile widens. “Now you won’t be a bother to us anymore.”

"What?" Liliath looked confused "You are not raven , raven isn't mean." "I can see Bella." she said smiling "I don't care you are here , raven is kind so you are not raven. I am going to my sister and thats only what matters." Liliath sighed "I do will miss the real Raven and Lisa but i will see them later." "I will miss my really family." then she closed her eyes and died

Helynah, who leaps to the defensive the moment Bronze makes himself known, levels her trident to his chest and studies him carefully. He seems nervous and more than a little flustered. She doesn’t think he has come to kill anyone, but she also suspects that someone like their current enemy would make an excellent actor.

So she tries to pick up Victi’s creative slack, but soon finds she doesn’t know anything about Bronze the shapeshifter absolutely could not. She opens her mouth to ask one question, only to close it as she thinks of another, then realizes that question wouldn’t work.

She sighs, frustrated. “Just- just tell us why you’re here.” She might have a vague idea of what an imposter might say to that, but again, the monster’s likely much more clever than she is.

The trident pointed at his chest could easily skewer him causing Bronze to gulp and take a step back, his arms in front of him in submission. Oh how the tables have turned. He remembers how he pointed his blade at Raven. This must be what she felt back in that alley. Exasperation.

"I heard the explosion. Quite alarming, really. Followed your scent-trail a while back 'till I confirmed that it led to this place." He explained, scratching the side of his face. He felt like that Helynah and Victi forgot about their first encounter and goodbyes. He decided to continue. "I found a.. well, a cat? In an alley that is. Black fur. Kind of like my ancestor or something. This place is weird so hell if I know." He shrugged, trying to compose relax himself in front of them.

"Yeah, you found Raven, good," Victi replied, suddenly returning to her usual tone and moving to face Bronze, "You seemed disturbed by the whole 'critter that isn't upright thing' before, so hopefully you won't get jumpy about it now. It's like you'd never encountered a normal quadruped before...." Her voice trailed off in thought for a moment.

"Anyway, did I not mention the omnicidal, omnimorphic shapeshifter last time?" she asked, coming back to focus, "Because the whole 'anybody you encounter could be a monster that wants to kill everyone' thing has been kind of a big deal recently. If you'd missed that one, the reminder that the entire town is apparently hostile is probably a good one, too. That explosion was me buying time to avoid suffocating to death in a room that locked itself and started flooding with fumes."

"Back to the shapeshifter thing, though, and the bit where we need to make sure it isn't murdering us," she continued, "I hope you understand that we need to check to make sure that... basically any lone person we encounter isn't it. Mind being generous and figuring out how to prove to us that you aren't? I get the feeling that you're not a fan of the 'cut off fur carrying your scent' thing."

She paused for a moment again, before finishing with, "We're pretty sure it can't mimic scent, from other encounters with it."

It tilts its head and lets out a little flustered “hmm...”

How disappointing.

Before the girl finally dies, it climbs onto her shoulder and whispers in her ear. “What do you really know about either of them? I wouldn't be surprisssed to learn they're relieved that they won't have to watch your back anymore.” Before it finishes, Liliath heaves a final sigh and her body stills. Dead. Just like that.

Vincent climbs off of the body and studies the trail of blood she’d left behind. Something else killed her. Not it, and not the town. Those stab wounds were inflicted by some other hand and Vincent it dying to learn who.

Still Raven, it follows the trail, leaving tiny paw prints beside the spatters of blood leading to the store.

Raven, knowing full-well that she’d kind of just tossed Bronze to a trio of paranoid she-wolves, slinks into the evidence room and meets the third-most bizarre creature she’d ever seen.

As she expected, Niskali is a dragon. Or, more like half a dragon? He’s slightly smaller than she expected and bipedal, hunching over some dying embers to roast the leg of- her eyes widen in shock -does that leg belong to Vincent?

She sniffs. What normally carries the sweet scent of nothing now releases the pleasant odor of roasting flesh. Her stomach growls; she hasn’t eaten for over a day, and so she briefly wonders if the dragon would be willing to share.

Focus, Raven.

She does...on the stained, white-ish robes that billow around Niskali’s form. Her sights narrow in on a particular spot where the fabric scrunches around his coiled tail. Raven instinctively crouches and prepares to spring with a waggle of her rear.

She’s going to risk life and limb to meet this brute sooner or later. Might as well make the introduction on her terms, and make it fun.

So she pounces, aiming for the impression of his tail-tip beneath an ocean of fabric.

Lisa, surprisingly calm after witnessing a nervous cat-man step out of the shadows, focuses on wrapping bandages around the worst of Victi's burns.

She'd coiled gauze around Victi's torso and was now reaching for the fox's arm. Then Bronze mentions being led here by a black cat.

The bandages again fall from her hand. "What?"

He flicks his tail up as she lands on it, likely enough to shove her off, but not much else, and lets out a low chuckle.

"If you were the shapeshifter, coming up so silently behind me," his deep, grumbling voice came quietly and gently, "You would have executed me rather than attacking my tail, I suspect. So I am assuming that whoever you are, you are not hostile."

After five or ten seconds, he adds, "I think this is nearly seared enough to be safe to eat. Would you care to share in my spoils? You are light enough that I would doubt you would be taking more than I could spare."

"Really? You're surprised she's being wandering around? Look, I met her in the last day and I'd already be more surprised if she wasn't," Victi says, picking up the bandages to work on her arm herself. They were soft enough not to sting her pads too much, thankfully.

Raven tumbles backward and rolls over, landing on her belly with an "oof!" She huffs and waits, not totally sure what to expect now.

She listens to him explain exactly how he came to the conclusion that she isn't the shapeshifter while rolling her eyes, but her face splits into an ear-to-ear grin when he offers food. "Yes!" She scrambles to her feet, loudly purring.

Then she falls silent and backs away. She doesn't know this guy. He could be evil, but that seems really unlikely. Eh, she might as well pretend not to trust him. That way, if anyone asks, Raven can say that she was careful.

"Wait, who are you?"

Lisa isn't actually that surprised. Raven is the type of creature who'd stick her head in a dragon's mouth to see if it had any flat teeth. Of course, she'd wander around and cause trouble even in a place as dangerous as this.

Lisa's more or less worried about what might have happened to Raven and the child she'd been sent away with. A quick look around reveals that neither one is anywhere in sight. "Where is Raven now, then?"

"Niskali Atsiun, a Warpriest of the goddess her Eminence the Cryu-Dzien," he says in answer, "and you seem suspicious enough of me that perhaps you have encountered the beast from whence this came?" He gestured with the leg as he asked.

He drew his fully collapsed glaive, unfolding the blade and carving off a few strips of meat for the feline while waiting for her answer.

"Fifty kilos says they're having monster leg with the warpriest," Victi says sassily while continuing to wrap the bandage around her arm, "Honestly, it smells pretty good."

Bronze only nodded, crossing his arms as his gaze trailed from Helynah to Victi, who still assumes that he's probably the shapeshifter. What confuses him is that they're quite relaxed to someone who may be their potential doom, or maybe he's being led to a trap where overconfidence would be his killer? "Alright so let me say it straight;" The feline said, raising a paw. "I may be a biped but me as a quadruped is also possible, if not quite uncomfortable. Also, I don't know what omnicidal and omnimorphic is." With a dismissing grunt, he sat on the floor with his arms still closed, his back leaning to the wall behind him with his tail curled up to his lap. "Hell, the only fumes I know is gas, thinner and perfume." The feline murmured as he placed the toygun beside him.

"Anyways, here is how I see things in the shapeshifter's perspective, if he thinks like I do anyways. Victi is recovering from wounds which kind of renders her as unavailable for combat, Helynah can't really attack with a big trident in an enclosed space without hitting you and you." Bronze pointed at the vixen and the other lady he doesn't know that name. "And, well, from what I see, you're all easy to kill as of now. Which uh, I haven't done yet." He gave a sheepish grin, fully knowing the fact that it would either raise suspicions or lower it depends on how they think. "Also, the door's open." He added, his thumb pointed at the wall behind him.