Hello, everyone! after dealing with real life and the other nonsense of living, panny and i have decided to bring back war of change. give a round of applause. we’ve worked through all of the information and hopefully improved coherency and cohesion; however, tell us if we missed something. eventually, we’ll announce an event to celebrate the re-opening, so look out for information on that. -RAIDNE, THE HEAD ADMIN
From the moonless night, screams of terror and fear resound, spreading across the world and infecting the masses; however, those sleepless nights occurred years ago. A new era began with the fires of war, and with no end in sight, the residents of Selene Isle trudge through life, basking in the momentary peace. Despite their prayers for continued monotony and peace, a storm brews, stirred to life by the continued presence of Rapture and Wraith. And as we set our sights on the seemingly peace laden isle, we must ask: how shall this tale end?
As the years passed, the number of true pairs increased; however, they continued to live in the shadows, catering to the whims of the mundane. Seven Moons kept watch over them all, instructing them and assisting them, but for many, the attitudes and ideals of the organization were smoldering, suffocating. With Seven Moons and the mundanes, they could not grasp the freedom, the power dangling before their eyes. In the beginning, rebellion was a dream, a fantasy, a figment—developed by the repressed and carried forward due to the nature of humanity. No one expected the call to sound, and no one expected the call to be answered. However, it happened.
The midday hours were a foreign concept for Ket who's schedule demanded her full attention to stiff, preparatory evenings double checking service rooms and arranging for hair and grooming appointments for her high end employees. These were followed by the long nights that stretched themselves into the bleary, off yellow haze of the the big city sunrises, which could only be remedied by the 18 year old dragging herself through the deserted streets to sleep the daylight away. But Ket had come to discover that her business within Synister necessitated more than just this slogging schedule, which was why she found herself very much awake at 13:00 in Selene General Hospital's ICU waiting room.
When Ket was younger, she would have found the idea of cleanliness manifesting a specific and unpleasant scent ridiculous, but her brush with the white washed walls of her hometown's medical center assured her otherwise. It had become an agonizingly familiar smell, one that crept into the worst of her sweat-soaked nightmares and soured daydreams, but having to revisit the stench first hand tipped her into vivid recollection of events more awful than any stray half-formed memory.
But she could not let herself succumb to the bothersome phantom that reeked of disinfectant, and Ket kept her eyes focused on the nurse behind the desk a few paces away from where she sat, feigning interest in the stale tv programming unfolding on the many mounted screens in the room. The woman behind the desk had been skeptical when Ket had first arrived and had scowled at the young Synister over the rims of her thick glasses.
"How do you know the patient, again?"
The person in question was an older employee of Ket's, a male prostitute who went by "Spector" in Amour but who Ket knew as "Elijah Francorve". He was not a popular pick by any means, but still managed to attract enough clients to fill his quota each week. It was his pale, lanky features-- attributes that served as both repellent and deal breaker for various customers-- but his ghostly qualities provided him an air of mystery enticing enough for most patrons to dabble in his bony back and hollowed cheek bones at least once. Even Ket herself found his fragility mildly appealing, but only because the man occupied space as if he did not dare disturb the cosmos; as if he were existing on borrowed time with each movement subtracting from an invisible and ominous timer, heralding his swift and painful extraction from the living.
Perhaps her odd assessment was not far from reality, as the man had fallen into bad company during business hours and had been jumped during a cigarette break the previous night. Ket had been addressing the needs of a high brow client and had not caught wind of the calamity until one of her underlings had told her an ambulance had been called. Flashing lights and sirens were bad for business outside both Amour and Blasphemy, and Ket had wrenched the offending cell away from the customer who'd dialed the emergency services and insisted that the call was a fabrication: a sick and drunken joke.
Amour's reputation secured, she called a taxi for Spector and had him hoisted in and sent to the hospital in white checkers rather than blue and white wails.
"He works for me," she'd wiped a tired tear from her eye, "I need to know if he'll be able to come back in the near future."
The nurse had rolled her eyes, but begrudgingly agreed to let her see him. Of course, Ket's visit was far from concerned; she needed faces and names of attackers so that she could ensure they'd end up as bodies on tomorrow's news reports. Until then, she was stuck anxious and exhausted in the non-stinking waiting room, her eyes now wandering to the other inhabitants with little interest apart from vicious curiosity.
""Those that want to live free cannot be bound by the rules of the world...they must live by their own."
Today was visiting day for Raz as he came to the Selene Hospital to visit his mother who had been looking pretty good despite her disease. Raz had been in the room with her for some time maybe ten or so minutes laughing and telling her about the bartending business, the type of people he had served and the stories he had heard from many of the "normal" people there. His mother had been in such high spirits since he came to see her which had made him happy in a sense.
Today he wouldn't be wearing the normal hoodie and pants, instead he wore a black jacket and grey shirt with black pants and shoes. Trying to look like a normal civilian instead of a member of wraith he tucked his dog tags into the shirt and jacket before he had walked into the hospital so that people couldn't recognize him as such.
His mother had asked him how was he eating and did he take care of his things which he simply responded with," Yeah everything is going well mom...after all i am not a little kid anymore so cut me some slack," the laughter shared between the two of them made the day all the better. One of the nurses came in and alerted him that his mother's treatments were about to begin and he could come back in a couple of hours.
Smiling he would stand up and give his mother a kiss on the cheek before putting his sunglasses on and walking out of the room to head to the waiting room to see what time his mother would be through. After speaking to several of the nurses he could only assume that he would be waiting for what seemed like two or three hours. Taking a seat he would lurch forward and clasp his hands together as he looked around slowly.
Waiting rooms by design were intended to maintain a steady trickle of individuals moving between shifts of terrified stillness in the less than comfortable seating and bouts of unnecessary pacing in and out of the room. Ket, still bored by the subtitled television screens, had made a game of pin pointing which the occupants around her were bridging the gaps between these two states of hospital being; her latest quarry an older woman who's left leg shook every so often. Beside the woman lay a knock off handbag and Ket couldn't help but nod approvingly at the faux lavish the woman maintained. She was about to tell her this when a man who looked closer to Ket's age skulked into the room.
He was dressed in dark clothing, his face dipping into a concerned expression despite the sunglasses that concealed his eyes. Ket felt her own mouth slip into a little half frown as he selected a chair nearby; praying he wasn't the type to strike up a conversation about whatever loved one he had come to visit. With a distracted sigh, she glanced quickly at the nurse behind the counter and prayed to her own good fortune that she would be allowed an audience with Spector soon.
There was a muffled buzzing sound and the woman with the bag leapt to her feet, digging frantically in her purse for her cell. Once she'd found it, she rushed from the room, her voice dropping into a fraught whisper.
"There goes my distraction," she muttered and surveyed one of the oak wood end tables for potential magazines.
The family of three that had been camped out on the other end of the waiting room were hailed by a scrawny male attendant and disappeared into the swing of the ominous double doors leading further into the ICU.
"Lucky bastards," she said, peeling a brittle strip of nail polish off her pinky finger, "Family pass and all."
Now it was only her, the man, and a woman in her mid-thirties who was napping across three seats near the largest window in the room. Ket picked at her nail again and then dropped her hand into her lap with a frustrated twist of her mouth,
"Hey, what're you in for?"she waved her hand in front of her distorted reflection in the dark glasses, pissed she had to resort to this to keep herself awake.
""Those that want to live free cannot be bound by the rules of the world...they must live by their own."
The area inside of the waiting room was rather small in numbers and held very little to do besides read or talk to someone which was out of the question especially in places like this. you would never really know who you were talking to unless you tried to extend the conversation, but that was exactly what Raz did not need at the moment...unless of course the conversation was that good enough to get a few responses from him.
As the first few people that were in the room left, Raz slowly watched them leave from the area and behind the double doors without saying much, but he knew that eventually the room would become riddled with silence and awkward stares as he could feel a couple of eyes on him yet he wouldn't look from his current position. Feeling like he should have brought someone with him, Raz was contemplating on reaching into his pocket and calling someone to come up to the hospital just to keep him company, but as fate would have it he would not need it.
Through the black visage of his sunglasses he would see a hand waving in front of him and then the voice of a single female as he snapped out of his small trance and blinked. Looking over to the source of the hand he would slide the sunglasses into his hair and look to her with his amber eyes before speaking," Here to see a relative of mine, and hello to you as well. So what are you here for?," not knowing if she was here to see someone or just get something checked out, he would turn so that she had his full attention for the time that the two were talking.
Ket watched the fluorescents reflected in the dark glasses blur and expand as the man tipped his shades to the top of his head. She'd expected the accessory was hiding either evidence of a nasty hangover or the gold rimmed blues of a black eye bruise, but the stranger's face was free of any trauma or discomfort. An unfortunate twist considering she'd been banking on whatever was ailing him to direct the coarse of their conversation, but, no, it seemed she'd gotten stuck with some bleeding heart, no name to entertain her while she waited, regrettably awake.
With a martyred sigh, Ket approached this facial nakedness as an opening to take in the man's features. After all, escorts and prostitutes were in constant demand and she knew there were more than a few people who'd be willing to take extra cash for simple sexual favors. He was fit enough at first glance and their was a leathery, wildness to the line of his jaw and the tautness of his skin that made him look confident regardless of his actual self value. The ears and tail were an obvious red flag-- virgins hadn't been in season since Ket'd taken over Amour and she already had a few waiting in the wings who did menial, noncommittal jobs to stave off unemployment-- but the golden eyes could turn his animal appendages into a niche.
Amber eyes like a cat, she thought, or a wolf. Would call him "Wild Thing", mmm, maybe "Wildling" and book him early hours for the younger crowd. They'd eat the shit up--
So immersed was she in her assessment that she nearly forgot that she'd engaged the bright-eyed stranger in conversation. She stretched out her good leg, as if smoothing over the blatant silence from her end of the discourse, and then said,
"One of my employees got beaten half to death," with the casual indifference of someone explaining why they thought a lawn ornament was out of place in their yards, "I've got to see if I can get any information out of him, but this corperate-family-members-only bullshit is kind of getting in the way."
She snapped her fingers impatiently in the direction of the desk nurse and then rapped twice on the metallic leg brace.
"Betcha thought I was in here for this beauty, but you were wrong of course," she tossed her head at the absurdity of the scenario and then pointed her pinky at him, "That was judgmental of you."
Tracing a tiny broken heart in the air above the man's head, she sighed and closed her eyes; letting the silence slip between them. His employability was the natural, effortless sort that escorts hoped to imitate, but he was clearly hiding some moral code beneath his outer, marketable layers. Ket cracked open her right eye, bored again,
"What family member? Brother,"the word came like a curse but Ket did not mind the slip, "Sister, parent, or other?"
""Those that want to live free cannot be bound by the rules of the world...they must live by their own."
The awkward silence between the two caused Raz to momentarily take in a moment to access the person who he was talking to so that he not only had a few key points on her, but also seeing if there was an alternate reason she was here. His eyes while keeping their casual glance managed to scan over the young woman in front of him until he caught a simple glimpse of her leg which posed the question of what had happened, but simply asking it without a proper initiation would spell his doom or maybe something a bit more violent.
Seeing that she was here on the account of one of her employees sake made him wonder just what she had did for a living. With the thought of what she could be doing as an occupation he would glance over to the nurse before nodding," Ahh...makes sense considering that the nurses here tend to take their jobs a little too seriously...although i'm pretty sure you can sneak back there with a little effort ne? Nurses may be smart, but a little deceptive work can easily put them in there place," there wasn't a smile on his face, but one could easily tell that he would have a little fun with that thought if he had a reason to.
A small look of guilt appeared on his face as he expressed a brief chuckle before looking back to her," Honestly it was a first guess, but i know better than to make a single assumption based on looks. That could lead to either death or a more violent ending..," he had the chance to ask about the leg brace and even went as far as to formulate the question in a way that wouldn't get him slapped but in the end he would have allowed the question to die down.
Raz blinked for a moment as he looked over to the double doors that he walked out of and tapped his fingers on his left leg slowly before answering her," Mother actually... although its weird being up here and waiting for a bit. So..you have me curious about something you mentioned earlier. You said your employee was in here which makes me wonder....what exactly do you do as a job?," it may have been a bit of a personal question, but the curiosity of Raz knew almost no bounds.
She scratched the back of her head in the most noncommittal manner possible; glancing up at the nearest screen, identifying the cartoon playing silently, and then dismissing the visual entertainment with a slight shrug.
"Nurses aren't so bad, it's hospital policy that pisses me off. They'd probably have faster recovering patients if they let more people into see the real hopeless ones," she laughed, first at her own brilliance and then at the violent misfortunes of the cartoon's antagonist, "The suicide rate in terminals would probably go down to and, let me tell you, hospitals get into a lot of trouble for patients killing themselves ahead of schedule."
Here she simulated tying a standard slipknot and mimed winding it around the neck of a male nurse who'd entered from the opposite set of double doors. When the man turned, she pulled at the invisible rope and looked mildly disappointed that the game had failed to effect reality. She threw the pantomimed object over her shoulder and then laughed again.
Part of her was slightly nettled that the leathery stranger hadn't been more impacted by her leg and, in an attempt to ground their distanced "relationship", rapped on the metal again; pounding out a lively beat and feeling the cattle prod hidden inside press further into her skin.
"Well, I'm not disturbed by curiosity," she half leapt to her feet, almost slipping on one of the dull magazines she'd discarded earlier during the wait, and spread her fingers in mock presentation of the leg-brace, "Here you have a useless piece of skin and bone. Given to me in my childhood by a little tumble down my marble stairs."
She clapped for her efforts and then sank back down into the chair, shaking the buzzing energy from the action into her arms and out through her fingertips. Then Ket extended her left hand in delayed greeting and flashed her best employer grin,
"I'm Ket, and I can't say I'm pleased to meet you because I'd prefer not to be here at the moment,"she withdrew the gesture before the man could actually touch her and tilted forward in the uncomfortable hospital seating, "Because, getting to that other invasive question you posed, I have to work nights. Which means I'm up all night signing off on exchanges, addressing my nonphysical staffers, and, you know," her smile widened into a wicked smirk, "Selling sex to the waiting masses."
""Those that want to live free cannot be bound by the rules of the world...they must live by their own."
She wasn't too far off from the truth considering that it was mostly a first come, first serve type of deal here unless you were actually one the verge of death then you get all of the attention or of course if you were rich. The policies didn't make sense, but he didn't want to make a scene or anything on them so he simply listened to what the young woman had to say. He was actually intrigued on the fact that she knew more about how the hospital worked seeing that she wasn't even a nurse," You do have a point...but seeing as it would take more than a couple of people to show that one truth...," he paused for a moment to try and get his words together fully before speaking again," although its a shitty policy its save a couple of lives," his eyes however went over to one of the nurses that had walked past him, the amber hues studying her for a moment before falling back onto his company.
Raz chuckled slightly as he looked down to the brace and observed it for a moment. His eyes taking in the sight of it before looking up to her," Is it fixable by any chance? Excuse my ignorance on this matter, but was there any way to correct the break during that time?," he didn't want to pry which would be one of Raz's more awkward traits, but then again his curiosity was going to get the best of him anyways.
Raz was going to reach for the hand and grab it, but stopped once she pulled it back and chuckled lightly at the small joke," My name is Razimel or Raz for short," giving her the small round of his name would be best considering most could not even pronounce his last name let alone sound it out correctly. His question had finally been asked as he blinked for a moment then shifted his hands onto the table," I see...So you do that for a living. Huh, well that sounds pretty interesting. I guess since you answered one for me i can give you something in exchange," taking a small break in his sentence he would continue to speak," I have two different jobs, one being a bartender and another being a fighter of sorts...lets just say i get paid to beat the living shit out of people and enjoy it," of course with someone as smart as her around she would know what he had meant.
"Is it fixable by any chance? Excuse my ignorance on this matter, but was there any way to correct the break during that time?"
Despite herself, Ket's thoughts drifted away from the present; spinning back through years of progress and plotting until she found herself folded in hospital sheets, sprouting iv drips from her left arm. There was some anonymous, translucent fluid running through her that kept the pain of her tumble at bay and her thoughts floating farther and farther away. Through the blurred sounds and muffled surroundings she could hear her parents and the doctors shouting--
She crossed her pliable leg and grounded herself in the reality of this hospital and the job she had to do. It was futile to wander through her fuzzy recollections of the incident, hoping for some other revelation to open itself up to her in these sour, nostalgic moments.
"Multiple fractures in both legs. The non-clunky one," she gestured to what many had called "her good leg, as if these two limbs were in competition with each other to decide their competence, "Healed properly on the first set, it's not strong enough for me to run a marathon but it also doesn't require a special metal bubble either. The lovely, bedazzled one," she brought her palm down with a hollow "smack" on the leg brace and grinned, "This one got infected, healed wrong, had to be re-fractured and got infected again until the damage was irreparable. Just bad luck, really, or incompetent doctors. Either way," she stretched her arms towards the fluorescents and yawned wide, "I end up with a bum leg and a pink brace."
The double doors swung open again, and Ket's gaze followed the same male nurse as he passed through the waiting room with three manila folders tucked under his right arm. The nurse at the counter had popped open an iced drink in a glass bottle and was engrossed with an app game on her phone. The left corner of Ket's mouth ticked up slightly and she met eyes with Raz.
"Underground fighter, eh?" the light above her flickered suddenly, "Well, Raz, I got a proposal for you but the kicker is you can't say 'no' immediately. Things like this," her eyes traveled around the room again, "You've got to give the opportunity to settle and digest."
She leaned towards him suddenly,
"Follow me, Raz, because I've got a job for you."
Again she rose to her feet and began a nonchalant path towards the limited access doors. She did not pause or look back to see if the stranger had chosen to follow, and slipped into the hallway.
tagged: Razimel Garadox notes: gonna get this thing a little more mobil.
""Those that want to live free cannot be bound by the rules of the world...they must live by their own."
Raz listened carefully as his hands rested on the table and his eyes on her while the words slipped from her mouth and into his ears. As each sentence flowed into his mind he couldn't help but wonder what caused this spiral of events to occur that had taken away the gift of two good pairs of legs. On one hand she still had a fully functional leg, but on the other she would always be forced into a wheelchair of cast of some sort to get around. This thought made Raz a little unsettled but he wouldn't pry into her personal past nor show pity...some people didn't like that and he was unsure if Jaq here would respond to that very well.
Seeing as she wasn't too surprised about him being an underground fighter he would smile and nod," Its something i love to do with my time besides serve drinks," although he would stop his sentence short when she mentioned a proposal. Ordinarily he would wait to hear the full terms and conditions before taking on any task whether it was a "Favor" or a "Job". Seeing as he couldn't say no right off the bat only meant that this was something good or something that would get him a favor in the future which he would always accept either way.
Standing up he would slip his sunglasses back onto his face as he slipped from the table and slowly followed behind Jaq to the doors where he would slip behind them and walk closely behind her. In his mind it seemed weird for a moment,but he kept his cool and spoke," So what is this proposal you have for me? I don't usually turn down such an interesting thing unless it means its not interesting of course," falling back into silence he did the only thing he could do...smile and wait.
Pressing her forefinger to her lips, Ket ignored that man's question and continued down the hall, skirting around a duo of scrub-and-mask clad employees coming from the opposite direction. She wasn't concerned about confrontation at this point; once you made it past reception most nurses, surgeons, and doctors were too wrapped up in their own schedules to care about visitors' intentions. And as long as you didn't appear too suspicious or engage in reckless activities openly, they were glad to ignore you altogether.
Ket kept her focus, though, not out of fear but purest speed reading of the various name plaques slid into the plastic holders outside various patient rooms. She was trying to remember Spector's real name, which she had used thousands of times since her initial inheritance of Amour. Perhaps it was the hospital getting to her; forcing her to mentally regurgitate the unhappy visions of her childhood.
She could almost hear Aubert's voice in her own head-- his sharp tongue slicing the distances of time and growth between them to tell her she was worthless and stupid and ugly and--
"In here," she managed, the spark of recognition flaring inside her mind as she saw "Elijah Francorve" on one of the flimsy nameplates.
The room was a single, with the bed sectioned off from a row of three, semi-plush chairs by a thin, faded robin's egg blue curtain. On the other side of the clothe, Ket could hear the tempered "blips" of the monitors and vitals machines. Taking in a deep breath of reassurance, as if she could crush the thought of her brother with the force of her lungs, Ket brushed past the curtain and found herself standing over Spector's bed.
"Hello, Elijah," she motioned for Raz to follow, "I'm here to get some dirty details out of you."
The older man's eyes flicked open. Ket could tell he was heavily medicated by the glassy quality in his gaze, but it was obvious he recognized her as fear touched his features for a split second. Ket smiled and gestured behind her towards the other man,
"You've got some explaining to get to, Elijah, so I can get this fellow behind me to the real fun part of this exercise: hunting down whatever beeffucks you've been cutting coke with behind Amour," she grabbed the bedridden man by the collar of his gown, pressing her own slightly upturned nose against his own pointed one, "If you make it quick and cut the bullshit, I won't have to get this guy," she gestured to Raz again, "To warm up for his mercenary huntings on you. After all, I'm paying him top rates. Probably fifteen thousand for even being here with me today."
She smiled and glanced back at the stranger, searching his expression as to whether he would be willing to accept her business.
tagged: Razimel Garadox notes: sorry if this is rushed otz otz
""Those that want to live free cannot be bound by the rules of the world...they must live by their own."
With his initial question shot down, Raz returned a near silent demenor as he followed closely behind Ket and was simply along for the ride as his hands slipped into his pockets and remained the cool and silent type until he was needed to speak. Being back here in the ICU or wherever they were at made it seem like he was playing secret agent and had to get some sort of item without being caught although once he turned and looked at the doctors he didn't think to kindly to the childish idea.
She was looking for something or rather someone, his eyes could tell that much as he watched her look at the name plaqces on each wall before signaling that she had found the one she was looking for. Shrugging he would walk in slowly before leaning on the half opened door and watched her walk over to her worker. Whoever she was made this man even in his medicated state look scared shitless as his eyes met hers and she jacked him up, the small display making Raz close the door behind him slowly without a peep and leaned against it waiting for his role in all of this.
Now that he knew his role thanks to Ket here revealing it to him, he was instantly wondering what the pay rate was going to be for doing something without a contract nor any reason to help her. Hell he didn't say no to her so he merely slipped off his sunglasses and looked to the man with a simple blank stare. Raz eyes were actually in a hunting mode before the number fifteen thousand slipped from Ket's mouth, and from that moment it was only an expression you would get from one that would not hesitate to put you six feet under.
With those numbers alone he reached into his pockets and flicked a simple throwing knife out, and with expert precision he threw it directly between the man's legs near his genitals. A broad smile appeared on his face as he stepped forward and held another one, throwing it up and down in the air knowing the next one was definitely going to hit somewhere...but nowhere deadly yet.
