Fighting Festivities [Social]

She remembered how it was...

Sitting on the branch of a tree, she looked down, through the lanterns, at the crowd of people down below. The light in the realm of darkness was a beautiful sensation. It was a grand festival, and part of her wanted to embrace it forever. She could call this place home. But the world was the home to a girl without a family.

Her tank top remained under the moonlight that seemed to kiss her skin. Both of the moons hung over the sky, something she knew was rare for her short time in the Kingdom of Kai. Her gloved gripped the wood of the tree, begging to stay there forever. Nature was her true home, and not with her mother.

"Maybe." she thought to herself, "Maybe I'll make a friend today."

She looked at the people down below her. She had almost forgotten that this was a celebration around a tournament of beating the crap out of other people.

The young man was done with the registration for the tournament and he walked away from the registration booth. He exhaled softly as he looked around. There wasn’t so much that interested him but then he would have to check out some places and perhaps taste some of the food. The celebration was large and it just did not happen in one place. It was one big celebration that was split in different areas. He seemed to be at the center of it with different sections of the celebration happening on every sides of him. Deciding calmly, he took to his left and continued on this path. As he walked, he wondered if this was the lifestyle of those that resided in this kingdom. The fact that it was night time and the moon did not even seem to move from where it was. The continuous singing and dancing and merriment going on everywhere. He wondered if they never got tired of it but it was plainly written on their faces that they were enjoying it. Since he had gotten to this kingdom, he had seen varieties of creatures but he had not spoken to one of his kind, a human like him. He had come alone all the way from the forgotten isles and had not spoken to anyone like him. The man that had registered him could be classified as half human but his legs and ears did not really confirm him as he complete human.

A trail of bright lanterns could be seen in the distance and another tune, much better than the one from where he was coming could be heard. He advanced towards the place calmly with no thoughts as to what he might find, whatever it was he could check it out. He went on in his black coat, gloves and boat with his gauntlet beneath the long sleeves of the coat. He was not intending to harm anyone, he had only come prepared.

Swinging her feet, several stories above the ground, she wondered who she could find if she adventured. It wasn't that she was shy, nor lazy. She simply could not find a reason to deal with the unknown. The fact that a celebration was about peace, only to be honored by fighting baffled her. Everyone seemed to be laughing, smiling, celebrating and enjoying themselves. But for what reason? Someone died in this celebration every year.

"But you won't leave, will you?" She turned to face the trunk of the tree. Her hand pressed against the wood. "It looks like we'll both be stuck here for a while." She smiled at the tree, wondering if any of them could actually talk back and just remained in silence out of choice. The branches seemed sturdy and old. She could only wonder how a tree could grow without sunlight.

But like her, they must have adapted.

He was hardly called by his name because only few knew him. He never had long conversations with anyone. He could be chatty when he wanted to but for good reasons. He neared the celebration venue but then it was still some good meters away. He took the tree path, hoping to appraoch the venue from behind. The trees were tall and sturdy and he did notice their dark color. The trees had little leafs on them and he supposed that their roots would go really deep into the earth to get water. Since he had arrived in this kingdom the previous day, it had been night all through and not a single ray of sunlight had he seen. If such was the case, constant moonlight, he thought of how the trees had survived. They must have adapted to this style of living and that would have been easy seeing how big they were now. Knowing that all they would ever have was moonlight and probably water, they would have adapted to it from the moment they were planted.

He stopped and raised his head to look at the moon that did not have one specific spot. As Shira moved, it moved. It was common to him, he had noticed this even in his own world but he just decided to look at it again. As the undead brought his head down, his hawk eyes spotted something or someone in the distance. He was certain there was something there and then the dangling legs became visible. The looked so much like those of a human and the black ebony hair gave this person away. What was he or she doing here and not joining the celebration. It was unusual and he seemed curious. Was this person like him, a lone wolf. Living an isolated life.. He wondered if weakness was what kept this person away from other person. He hated to see weak people, they don't deserve to own their own life. The are better off not being on the face of the earth. What have we here, he needed to see. If this is one of those who are classified as weak. Only the strong are worthy of the top, he believes.

The unknown would approach the person sitting on the tree to see whoever it is..

"Bless'ed Taalos." She would say, the sound of someone nearing the tree. There was no way he could scale the trunk in a short span of time, nor could he teleport to such a high ground. She knew that.

She would jump to her feet, carefully balancing on the thick branches of the old tree. He seemed to be one to crush aged leaves under his foot without care, and that alone could not ease her.

"You should stop being a creep and say something!" she would call out below her. She already knew the layout of the canopy. But for now, she would busy herself with this.

This celebration was full of ill minded intent for the weak to busy themselves. Everyone here was to enjoy the combatants and the fighting, no matter how slight. Even Kasey would. But unlike the rest, she would not participate in mortal games.

((I hope you two don't mind if I jump in this thread as well.))

An odd pair could be sighted walking through the festivities. One looked normal enough. He was a young man with spiky, green hair and a green coat to match. On his back though one could spot an odd lump in his coat and a couple of yellow ears poking out of his collar. His companion, on the other hand, was likely to raise some eyes. She was basically a five foot-tall humanoid bunny talking to the other nonchalantly about recent events.

"You sure your well enough to do this?" Mouse asked for about the umpteenth time.

"For the last time yes." Malm said annoyed as he was reaching the limit of his patience, "I'm able to move just fine and my chest hasn't pained me at all. So give it a rest already. I literally can not stand spending another day lying on the couch anyways."

Mouse crossed her arms, annoyed at how her worry for him has been treated. "Hmph... Well excuse me for worrying about you. Believe it or not, your not the only one you hurt by nearly dying back there."

"Yes. I know. I probably wouldn't be around now if it weren't for you. I just wish you would calm down a little and trust me. Okay? I'm fine and I'm going to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. So can we just enjoy the festival?"

"You know your a poor liar. Right?"

Shira had almost approached the tree when the person sitting on it flipped and balanced perfectly on the tree branch. He was not surprised afterall he did not walk stealthily. There was no need for that.

"You should stop being a creep and say something!" She said.

Her balance was nice but it wasn't something anybody could not achieve because the tree branch for broad enough to support most people. She stared down at him from above, mud brown eyes visible in the night. Her raven black hair reaching a considerable length and her gloved hands by her side. His head was raised up to where she was the moment she flipped and spoke. He wondered how someone he thought weak could speak to him with such boldness or perhaps she was not as weak as he thought. It was only a matter of time. Everyone who had travelled down to this kingdom that dwelt in eternal night had mainly come for the fighting which would start sooner or later and then skills would speak in place of words.

She looked fairly tall even though he was looking at her from below yet he was not intimidated by her. He floated back to her comment and evaluated it. He was merely approaching her and not being a creep. She had most definitely interpreted his actions wrongly. Ruffles were heard amongst the little leaves below as one hare sprang out of it and made away with another following directly after it. Even the animals seemed to have adapted to this nature as Shira could see the fun they were having. He was a lover of nature and most thing she bore. The only way to determine if she was one of the weak or not was to strike up a conversation.

"I'm heading for the celebration over there but I seem to have stumbled upon you. What have we here..?" Shira would ask in his natural tone.

"Probably another pervert." she thought to herself. She looked at the branches, changing her path. The best way to lose him was to distract him... or was it?

She would run along the branch of the tree to leap onto the next tree, landing higher into the canopy of the darkness. She would zigzag her way in a matter of seconds to jump down upon a roof of one of the buildings in Little Tokyo. It wasn't that much further away, but it was a different environment.

She would run along the balcony and leap from edge to edge, jumping from roof to roof. Even if she was just a girl, she was well versed in acrobatics and quick planning.

"Hey. I wasn't lying at all about that." Malm argued back, "I promise you. I'm not going to die. Not anytime soon at least. I have to much to live for."

"Will you just..." Mouse stopped as she took notice of a woman free-running on top of the buildings in the distance. It almost looked like she was either in a hurry somewhere, or running away from someone. It was kind of hard to tell though.

"Will I what?" Malm asked still waiting for Mouse's response.

"Just forget about it." She said as she began to head off towards the direction the woman seemed to be heading.

"Where are you going?"

"I want to check something out real quick." Was all she said as she continued walking.

Malm just stood there dumbfounded. First she was about to chew him out. Now she's running off to who knows where. He got the feeling he'll never truly understand his companion.

"Well I guess we should go after her." He said with a sigh to Phos before taking off himself, yelling, "Wait up!"

..And then it was confirmed, a weakling she was..

The girl took off at what seemed to be her top speeds. She was pretty fast but Shira could well match her. She moved and stepped on tree branches as Shira would follow closely behind her. He seemed more curious about the way she behaved. First, she spoke up to him with such confidence and now she had turned her back and had started running. The two acts did not piece up and that was the more reason he wanted to catch up with her.

She descended unto a roof top and Shira would still on her tail. Anyone watching them would think it was a predator and prey issue but curiosity what the thing that was driving Shira. He hated weak people, yea but in this case he did not have any intentions to hurt her. He just wanted to know why she did what she did.

Shira would break off to a roof top on the left and sprint forward while turning to the right in an arc manner to appear before the lady and probably bring her to a halt. "Why are you running after speaking up so boldly?" Shira would question.

It's impossible for you to be that close behind me. You'd have to scale a large ass tree, then make your way up all the branches just to get to her. So unless you can teleport, or move at 50m/s you need to rethink your post.

She would take a leap from the roof only to fall with her hands reaching for the moons. She would grab hold of a wire that held up a line of lanterns. With a tug and help from gravity, she swung herself above the streets to the opposite side to avoid her stalker. She would land on another building, only to be on the third story balcony. She would leap from a place to the top of a merchant's tent to slide her way down. She would make her way inside to find the wares of a well known arms dealer...

"He's probably some sex crazed rapist." she thought to herself. She could handle them, she just didn't have the time to deal with some person who found her mind too appealing. But she was better to play around in unfamiliar streets with a few familiar faces. After all, Rovin was someone who she knew of. They never really talked, but she did run a few jobs for him a long time ago. Might as well stop by and check out his wares just in case she needed to behead another man.

"Well this is just great..." Mouse said as she looked around the rooftops, trying to find out where the woman she just saw earlier had disappeared too.

Malm, who just managed to catch up to her, was taking the quick second to catch his breath."What's just great?" He then decided to ask, not knowing the reason at all why Mouse took off like she did.

"The woman I saw running on the rooftops. She just disappeared." Mouse answered with a sigh as there was no sign where Kasey could have gone.

"A woman on the rooftops? Why did you have to chase someone like that?"

"Call it a mix of curiosity, intuition, and worry." Mouse stated with a small shrug, "Not that it matters much now anyways. She's probably fine. And it also helps I wanted to come to section of the city anyways. There's actually a arms dealer around here I wanted to check out."

"Ohh... So you did come all the way out here for work stuff after all, and here I thought we'd actually get a decent days vacation."

Mouse wanted to say something, but choose to keep her mouth shut and gave a small shrug instead. She was already pretty upset with the mage as is, she had no need to make it worse. The last she honestly wanted was to punch him right in the stomach so soon after he recovered.. Yet it was proving to be a very tempting thing to do.

Instead she began leading the way to the arms dealer. Hopefully he'll have what she's looking for. Or, if not, have some type of clue to where she can find it.

There was a nice distance between shira and the lady but it was not something he could not handle. He trailed behind her, trying not to lose her from his line of sight. She was good with moving flexibly in the environment like it was her own but that would not stop the unknown from his chase.

From a good distance, Shira saw her slide down the line of one of the lanterns and pushed unto the opposite side of the street. She continued and tried to lose Shira but the young man's eyesight were like those of a hawk. Her presence locked in his memory. Shira came to a stop with a thought springing up in his mind.

There was no need to go on. If he did catch up with her, it would only drawn unwanted attention. He did get a good look at her and he never forgot a face.. "Till we meet again, ebony eyed girl..." he said under his breath as he turned and made away from where he stood..

"I'll take one of these."

She pointed to a weapon that remained on its own stand. It was eerie, familiar, yet new at all the same time. She reached out to the blade, her hand on the hilt of it. She turned to face the man named Rovin, He nodded, allowing her to take it up. In her hands, she could feel the stories of the blade enter her own soul. Oddly enough, she felt as if she crafted this very weapon, yet at the same time she knew nothing about it.

She held it in her hand, mesmerized by the material. It was thick, strong, and cold like steel, yet it was as light as wood. Something about it made it seem weightless... but why?

The two companions walked through the festival in search of this arms dealer that Mouse had spoke about. Malm wasn't exactly one for arms dealers, but he was sure Mouse had a good reason to speak to this one. Perhaps it has something to do with that pet project of hers. He couldn't think of any other reasons why she would need to speak with such a guy. At least, unless he happened to be a book enthusiast too.

They eventually came upon where the arms dealer had set up shop to see that he was already helping out another customer. One that Mouse recognized to be the girl she saw earlier. So it seemed she had found some safety. Though the question in her head now was why this girl needed weapons.

"Excuse me. If you have a moment, I'd like to talk to you about something." She said to Rovin as she returned her attention back to the business at hands.

The man slowly looked up from a helm he was polishing. He looked at the Rabbitdog. "I can only hope this conversation is worth the coin." he would say. He'd glance over at the boy who was with her, then back at the creature. From the corner of his eye he watched the girl toy with the weapon. But it was of no concern to him at that moment.

"I've never seen anything like this." She thought to herself. Something about it seemed to bring back memories of a past life, or even a part of her future. There was something definitely sealed in this simple weapon.

"... and stop playing around with it. I don't need you breaking something again." Rovin would say turning slightly in the girl's direction. Yet his eyes were trained on the animal. He could feel a hunter's spirit.

Mouse glanced over at the girl as she was told to stop playing with the weapon before returning her attention back to Rovin. "It might be. Depends if you have what I need or not." She told him plainly, "Also. I would appreciate it if you stop staring at me like that. I understand the fact that I might look unusually to you, but that's not exactly a good excuse to stare at a woman like that."

She then pulled out a piece of paper and placed it on the counter. On it was a sketch of a peculiar crossbow. "Now I've heard rumors that you have this particular weapon, or at least, know where it's at. Is it true?"

"It's not often I find otherkin in my shop." he smiled, hiding his true story behind his own guise. He would look down at the paper, only to see the schematics for a weapon. It was comforting to know his craftswork was being noticed, however he held the fear of industrialization in the back of his mind. "The depends if you have the coin."

She would turn around, holding the sword down at her side. She looked at the boy and animal with curious eyes. It was as if her weapon spoke to her in that moment. It seemed to have life. But she knew it was all false. Weapons did not have souls, nor mouths to speak with. It was nothing more than a sword made by another blacksmith. However perhaps with enchantments she could have her blade speak. "I don't know who they are." she thought to herself. "I've never seen them before in my life..."

She looked at them, her mind racing with the unknown. ".. then why do I know his name is Malm?"

((Just to note, as I realized I didn't mention this earlier. The crossbow she's looking for now is one of three which the parts of her soon to be new crossbow was split up from, and probably doesn't need to be said, but it's up to you whether he actually has it or not.))

"I have the coin as long as you have the merchandise. Now then. Can I see the goods, or do you not have it in stock?" She asked straight-face. Mouse has been a merchant for years and knows how to get to the point when she needs to.

Malm looked over at the woman as she looked at them. "Uhh... Hello there. Is everything alright?" He asked as he scratched the back of his head. He wasn't use to being stared at like that, and it was honestly starting to make him feel uncomfortable. Now that he would ever say anything about it out loud.

Figured as much. That's why I left it so open. XD

"We have it in stock." the man said, "But I didn't bring it all with me to Kai just for the Iron Fist Tournament." He smiled, knowing fully of his own inventory and skills. He could easily make it then and there, but that wasn't his personality. After all, he was half-orc...

"Malm..." her voice was quiet and soft as she looked at the both of them. She could feel the memories of another person enter her own mind. It was all from that sword. But why? She looked at the two customers and sprinted past them out of the shop with her new weapon in hand. There was something definitely mysterious about this kingdom, as well as this land.

((Uhh... Just to be clear. This crossbow is meant to be a one of a kind thing. He shouldn't be able to just craft the crossbow she's looking for.))

"Well that's a shame. I guess I'll just have to track you down later then." She said with a shrug, feigning disinterest. She wonder for a second if it really wasn't in his stock as of right now, and if it really wasn't, where would it be. Perhaps something she should look into later in case this deal ends up going sour.

Malm tilted his head as he wrapped his brain on who this girl could be. "I'm sorry, but do I know you. I'm afraid I can't say that I remember meeting you before." Malm asked, feeling a little guilty. She apparently knew her name, and he had no recollection of anyone mentioning in front of her before. Nor did he believe that he was anywhere near that famous for someone to just recognize him like that.

He's just bluffing. He won't really have anything.

"Hmph." he scoffed at them, as if they wasted their time, when he was really the one wasting theirs. He was a cunning shopkeep who stayed in wealth for his webs of lies. He was a man of Bosco, and with his thieves anything was in his reach for the right cost. He didn't care if he made a sale. He would get their money somehow.

"I... uh..." she blushed, embarrassed that she even uttered the name. She could try to explain that the sword gave her this information. It wasn't like it could reveal the information of others. But it felt like he was an old friend. Could it be that the sword was the one that knew them? Could it have been using her to contact him? "My name is Kasey." she said shyly, holding out her right hand to the man. She wasn't sure what to do.

"Uhh... Nice to meet you. I guess?" Malm answered uneasily as he shook her hand. She didn't really answer his question and wasn't quite sure if that was meant to be one or not.

His eyes then looked over to see the sword that she was holding. There was something familiar about them, but Malm couldn't quite remember. Great. This was going to bother him all day. Was this just his memory being completely off today, or is this just sort of de'javu he's experiencing.

Mouse turned away as she was finished with her conversation with this man. She didn't knew quite what, but she knew there was something off about him. It almost seemed like they were cut from the same clothe. In fact she might even earn some respect for the man if she didn't also feel like he was planning to rip her off. Well she'll see.

"Dragon Fang!" Malm then suddenly blurted out as he finally remembered where he saw blades like those before. "That looks like the same exact swords they had at Dragon Fang before it disbanded. Can I see?"

"Uhh..." She held out the weapon, a little confused on the situation. But if he knew something about that weapon and why it started to tell her things, then that was what she needed. She looked at the weapon questionably. Rovin had given it to her as a reward for her work a few weeks back. She rarely left Bosco as well as Bravos, but with the new world, she felt the need to explore.

"We should move outside so we don't piss off Rovin." she spoke, handing the weapon to the mage. She wasn't sure if she could trust him, but info was info was info.

"The girl's right. Let's leave before we're thrown out." Mouse advised.

Malm grabbed a hold of the blade before nodding in agreement. "Alright then." With that the group left the shop.

Once they were all outside, Malm took a second to look at the blade. He then took a quick practice swing with it (careful to swing away from where anyone was at). "Just as I thought." He said with a smile on his face, "It's an Ironwood sword. I haven't seen one of these in years. Can't say I know where you got it from, but I will say you should take good care of it. If fact there's only one person I know of who can make swords like these. Though I believe I'm getting ahead of myself."

Satisfied with his analysis, he handed the blade back to the girl. It did make him wonder where she could have gotten such a blade though. Could she possibly be an acquaintance of Kaseki? It would explain how she knew his name, and why she doesn't seem willing to explain why she knew him?

Well there was one quick way to find out.

"No chance you know someone named Kaseki, do you? He's about this tall and kind of looks like some type of grim reaper."