Taurus
Please do us a favor and shut up?" requests Leilani, gritting her teeth. I'm very thankful for that, because Caprice is actually trying to drag me into an argument she's having with Sagittaria. Their chins are tilted up, Sagittaria has propped her hands on her hips, and Caprice is one second away from jabbing a finger in Sagittaria's face to prove her point. While berating Sagittaria and trying to cajole me into the argument in the same breath.
Nope. You're sisters, you fight each other. I don't get involved. I may be biased towards Caprice, but that does not mean I will have to face Sagittaria's formidable wrath as the Holy Shipper and bane of our existences.
"I agree," Gemi joins in and Ari wordlessly raises a hand with an eager nod.
Carina's fighting with Scorpio, which is a rare occurrence, as the two Darktales usually get along well. Carina's eyes are narrowed dangerously to cyan slits as she presses her forefinger to Scorpio's chest, hissing from between her gritted teeth. I consider how much guts Scorpio must have, not turning tail and running as fast as he can away from his little sister. That's grounds for respect.
Vienna glares at Leilani before stating, "We should go to a library."
"Oh yeah, Miss Know–It–All, I thought you knew everything?" Leo looks as if he's questioning her sanity. Which we all know is very questionable.
"Oh, shut up," Vienna snaps irritably, lacing her fingers together and clasping her hands at her stomach, "They might have computers there. We've been out of touch with the world for ... four days? I think the best way to find out more about the Corrupted is by using technology."
I second her, "Agreed. And shut your face, Leo." It's not my fault. I do hate him. And Vienna is one of the people I can tentatively call a friend. Our friendship may be based on our shared hatred of Leo, but ... well.
"Shut your face." Sagittaria spits, glaring at me and jumping to the defense of Leo, as usual. I glare back, not backing down to a mere fifteen-year-old pyromaniac with bloodred hair. Actually, on further consideration, backing down might have been wise.
"Shut your –" I counter, halfway done before Caprice snaps authoritatively, "Shut up, you idiots!"
Ari takes the stage as quickly as he can, before Caprice can open her mouth again. "We should find a newspaper stand too. So, we can find that both in a city, and where are we?" He turns to Vienna, who crosses her arms and snorts.
"I may be the only one who's paid attention to our lessons, but I did not learn every inch of each world. I assume we're somewhere in the harpy kingdom. Craineian." She shrugs elegantly and it strikes me that she's become kind of sassy in this span of time.
Leilani looks almost admiringly at her sister.
"And if you expect I know where the nearest city is —" she snorts and rolls her eyes.
"We were hoping you knew that, actually," Leo says, his voice laden with sarcasm as he glares at Vienna, who matches his glare evenly.
"Oh, shut up, you morons," Caprice sniffs as she tries to bring the conversation back on topic, but Leilani, who hates Caprice as much as Caprice hates her, interrupts. "Don't speak like that to my sister."
Caprice treats her to a royal glare; Vienna's lips twist as if she's just swallowed a lemon as she says, "Your sister doesn't need you to protect her, in case you didn't notice. Or was it me who got thrown into a tree?"
"You might need ice for that burn," Sagittaria laughs quietly but in delight. Even I have to stifle a smirk, since uptight Vienna would never bite back like that. Not even to Leo, probably because she had no idea how unless she spent a week in close confines with us.
After scuffling a lot, after Nia sang a little more, after Sagittaria and Caprice death glared each other into oblivion, after Ari threatened Gemi's life and Nia floored him with a single kick, Leilani managed to restore order.
This is shocking, but I guess we now know that she definitely belongs in the Alpha Squad. We've walked far too much, and in an hour we're complaining and dragging our feet, but there is something that completely awakens us, slamming into the rock at an incredibly high speed, sending chunks of stone flying.
We all jump back; we've just barely begun to develop the survival instinct all of us so clearly lack. Nia trips into me and I step away, letting her fall to the ground. She shoots me a scowl and I allow myself a smirk. I can tolerate her, but I never liked her. Never will.
"Shut up and don't move," Miasma whispers slowly and Caprice's face seems very affronted. With a contemptuous snort, Aquaria wraps her arm around Caprice's neck in a light chokehold and claps a hand to Caprice's mouth. Caprice wriggles, but she can't escape her wraithlike sister.
I glimpse something big and dark. And feathery ... is it a harpy? This looks a lot like a place a harpy would live in. I notice Miasma sighing, twisting her lips into a sour smile as the harpy rises. They are a harpy; jet–black skin veined with thin silver lines, a tall stature. A loose white linen robe hangs off the harpy's thin frame. Feathered wings, colored an obsidian–black that shines like oil in the hot sun, hang limply from their back. The face is sharp, pointed, and the short, straight hair that is chopped chin–length — it's a startling white. Amber eyes droop half–closed.
And yet there are many things wrong with this harpy. For one, the wings are missing a lot of feathers ... I can't tell if some of them are pinion feathers. And the silver veins? They're cuts bleeding silver blood.
I step back. Harpies don't have silver blood. Angels have silver blood. I turn to Vienna to see if she knows about this, and I catch a glimpse at Miasma's face, her expression doesn't change as she pulls out a knife with surprising speed and hurls it at the harpy hybrid. It buries itself into the harpy's chest; they don't have time to scream.
Scorpio
That was — that was — you killed someone!" Leilani says in shock. Miasma's voice is devoid of all emotion as she answers. "Someone is a harpy–angel hybrid. Ethereal–Celestial kids don't ... turn out well ... with some exceptions. I just put it out of its suffering."
She shrugs, doesn't bother to retrieve the knife, and keeps walking along the cliff edge. We just stand there for a second. Caprice doesn't look too bothered by the murder; she continues walking with Miasma, and Aquaria follows, not even casting a glance at the corpse. Even Sagittaria follows them. Carina stares at the body, looks up at me, sighs. "Miasma is right, as much as I hate to admit it ..." she says quietly.
After Leilani broke into a fit of sobbing, Vienna, who remained composed, slapped Leilani across the cheek. Gemi objected and — surprise of all surprises — they got into a fight. Vienna has become a lot more confrontational, too. That fight got Nia, Leo, and Ari involved and they actually started yelling at each other. Nia, the tiny, short weirdo, backhanded Ari so hard I swear I heard his head snap back.
Now we're walking again and the sun is beating down, but it's getting noticeably dimmer. Right. Nighttime. Wonder where we'll sleep.
In front of me walks the youngest Deadpool sister. Sagittaria's fingers absentmindedly find their way to the back of her head where she pulls her wild hair into a ponytail and makes a twitching movement; she normally has a rubberband on her wrist, but it isn't there. With a huff, Sagittaria lets go of her.
Carina viciously stabs an elbow into my ribs and I nearly yelp, turning to see a crafty smirk spreading across her face. "And now you're staring at the other Deadpool. Good job, Scorps."
I raise an eyebrow. I have long learned to not question Carina. You just don't. Unless you're Pisces. Who she tolerates. But she does call him a moron with surprising regularity. I mean, she calls everyone she likes a moron. Totally normal. But who am I to judge?
"Now staring ahead is suspicious. What, are you turning paranoid?" I snap.
Carina rolls her eyes. "Oh, that is so rich, coming from you, who single–handedly —"
"Shut up, Carina," I grimace and act as if that was nothing, and then add the little bit that I shouldn't because it prolongs the conversation. "That was ... four years ago."
"Two —" Carina says. "If I recall correctly, you were fourteen, not twelve, and that does make a difference."
"And how?" I say icily, in a tone that clearly warns her to drop this.
"Perhaps," suggests Carina sweetly, leaning in to speak quietly in my ear, "because if you were twelve, you might not have been such an idiot. I remember you were more logical at twelve. For reasons. You'll notice I quoted Caprice Deadpool. Let's just summarize this, the reasons were that you had a—"
And she stops talking. Mostly because I have just been saved by Taurus stopping dead in his tracks and Carina slamming into him.
I now owe Taurus. How long can I go without owing anyone?
At the front of the line, Miasma says grimly, "I see trouble."
Trouble comes in the forms of another mosquito–like creature. It scuttles up towards us and Sagittaria raises her hands, twin globes of fire flickering to life above her palms. Miasma relaxes, pulling out another knife almost leisurely, parting her lips as if to say something; and a smaller creature emerges from the shadow of a cliff, following the mosquito thing. It looks like a large bull, thick and strong; and it's on fire. Flames ripple along its flanks, like a flowing river. Its face and most bodily features are consumed by the fire, impossible to pick out any details. But its horns are long, curving straight up, and the color of bone. The tips of the horns are stained with a brown substance that I imagine could be blood.
Miasma presses her lips together. "Run."
Because we've all been standing there, gawping at the creature unashamedly like we haven't survived attempts on our lives. I'd like to stop there and ask, How did we, the idiots, even survive?
So we do, tripping as we sprint away from this creature. Miasma twists her wrist, the knife spinning in a circle as it catches the mosquito creature's attention. It seems to be very dim–witted. The ram creature, however, pursues us.
And it is fast. Miasma looks on in terror — is it? It's only a tiny twist in her facial expression, but her expression has changed — as it trots towards us. Like it's just out for a walk.
I swerve towards the edge of the cliff, and I don't notice until my foot hits the ground and it crumbles away; I balance dangerously on one foot before plunging down, off the edge.
But I don't fall far until something catches me from above. Something with wings. I look up and I wince. Because I'm staring into the dark chocolate brown eyes of Nia. And from her back stretch large, feathery wings. Lavender wings.
Nia has wings. Since when did Nia Airia have wings?
She smiles, baring sharp teeth. "Thou shalt not ask, for thou shalt not receive answers."
Yeah, that's Nia. That's not a copycat. That's the insane midget.
She drops suddenly as the ram creature lunges for her, but it isn't for that reason. She is literally, actually falling. Probably because her wings have just given out.
I feel the pain as I land on my back on what's probably a ledge with a hard whoof as the breath's knocked out of my lungs.
Nia rolls off me and I stare at the ledge jutting out of a crevice in the stone. The walls of the crevice seem to be scratched up, long scrapes slashing across each other; I might guess it was purposefully put as tally marks, but they're absolutely unreadable.
Nia follows my gaze. "You found something else to stare at!"
That happens to refer to my ability to not blink for a long time when I'm zoned out. And I do not appreciate that reference. I consider pushing her off the ledge, when it comes to my mind that I might need her to get off this thing.
I think I've forgotten something.
Oh, yes. I now owe someone my life. Again.
I've done artbreeders of everyone. Everyone except Ari. Why? I'm lazy, okay? I'll get to that. Meanwhile, can we just applaud Leo for surviving his two archenemies? Because as far as I've seen, nobody else -- wait. Oh, wait. Caprice hates everyone and it is very mutual. Alright. Can we applaud Caprice now, too?
Caprice, with one archenemy and three other enemies. And I am not counting her sisters. So if I do, that makes five. Good job, Caprice! You're well on your way to having a bloody accident. *claps*