tampered | Log, Completed

Tia was headed there for a different reason. A certain monk was to deliver the left-over bones of their sacrificial lamb...she had quite a few uses for the remains herself. She ambled around the fountain, watching the waters...

Eventually, she came across the 'shady corner' the pup had mentioned...out of curiosity, Tia Dalma sauntered over to inspect it.

Vash was rather surprised at how morose he was over the dog's leaving. Why? It wasn't like he'd had many dealings with the creature. But its presence had become strangely... endearing.

But that wasn't the main reason he was going to the fountain. He wanted to be around people for a while. And he really wanted to see how Autor was doing for himself. Vash really did worry about him... And how they were going to go about getting his emotions back.

Doumeki had spotted the shady corner only moments after the strange woman had, and he raised an eyebrow as he headed over towards it. Spotting Vash about halfway over there, he inclined his head in greeting.

Vash waved pleasantly as he drew closer.

"Nice night for a walk!" he said brightly. "You're Doumeki, right? It's nice to meet you in person!" He noted the woman and turned to her with a smile. "Ah, and you must be Miss Tia! It's nice to meet you too!"

Tia looked at the young man...she skirted around the shady place and tilted her head, peering into it.

...Odd. Nothing extraordinary about it. Just a black space.

She smiled widely to Vash, inclining her head. "Vash. It be nice ta see ye fin'lee."

Doumeki nodded to the strange woman, apparently named Miss Tia, in acknowledgement, before striding past the two and into the shady spot, finding a nice area against the wall and sliding down into a sitting position, crossing his legs indian-style.

Riou wandered over to the area near the fountain where others were gathering. The famous shady corner, was it? He carefully toed at the shadows lying across the ground and, finding that his foot wasn't immediately sucked in or eaten, he settled down in a likely spot and began unpacking the food all around him.

Riou was rather weakened still from the battle on that curse day, but a short trip to the fountain, with an even shorter sidetrip to the vendors at the square, couldn't hurt. Being unconscious for those many days, he had missed quite a bit of what had been happening recently, but it really wouldn't do to have the puppy's infamous stalker not show up for his sending off party, would it?

Lemon cake, check. Random assortment of dinner purchased from the closest food seller -- something called 'el grande taco salad supremo' and various side dishes he couldn't identify-- check. Some neon yellow beverage with bubbles(it was really drinkable, right?)-- check.

And now to find a certain shady corner he had been hearing so much about...

Autor wandered over to the fountain, a blank look on his face. If his heart was intact, he would feel uncomfortable, coming back to the place that where he had seen the vision that started his current mess...

But it wasn't, and so, he didn't particularly feel anything when he wandered over to the fountain.
Well...one thing. An odd ache as he listened to the ticking sound in the City...but as he approached the shady corner, he saw some familiar faces and that feeling slowly subsided.

Vash. Doumeki. With them...he wasn't lonely.

"Ah, you too, ma'am!" Vash said to Tia cheerfully. "It's always nice to meet people in person, you know?"

Vash caught a glimpse of Autor approaching and excused himself before hurrying over to greet the boy.

"Hi, Autor!" he said, noting the emptiness in Autor's eyes. It was heartbreaking to see someone who had once been so lively reduced to... this. It just wasn't fair. And even though Vash knew that asking this was practically pointless, he did anyway... "How are you doing?

"Hi," Autor responded. He knew that was the appropriate response. He couldn't quite remember to the appropriate response to the second question, however..."How am I doing what?"

Doumeki was settling back into the shady corner, beginning to see why Adrastus had liked it so much. It was...calm here. Peaceful.

He glanced over as Autor neared as well, and he lifted a hand, alerting the other of his presence. "Oi."

"Doumeki." Autor walked over to the shady corner, his boots clacking against the path in time with the faint tick-tock tick-tock of the City's clock. To say he 'liked' that the ticking noise had become so faint when he was with these people would be incorrect...but it contributed to that ache going away, and he knew that was good.

He stopped on the border of the shade, looking at the corner. "This is what we're protecting?"

He - per chance, popular opinion and regional poll, it had become a he - found the area entirely too populated for either personal taste or vague consideration.

...but there was lemon cake involved, and lemon cake always would be: all crumbs, all thick, all memory, and a d r a s t u s does no think; he feels, consumes, selects, and power lies as much in the abstract as in the particular, if never convincingly. Transition -- too much thought for the dog they took him.

He was living in the past tense, now. He had to remember that. Incarnation was an awkward thing, like glass: one saw shades, colour, reflection. No real thing there, and only one form? Absurd.

He took the puppy one, apparently so much more endearing. Innocently, he also materialized rather close to lemon. Not quite as innocently - but all demonic creations of utmost doom could pretend - he tilted his head rather so and whined in begging.

Doumeki had only nodded to Autor's question, but his head jerked over at the sound of a small whine. A frown appeared, a slight show of confusion. What---?

"...Adrastus?" he ventured, for once seeming unsure.

Vash watched Autor walk over to Doumeki when a small, and rather cute little dog attracted his attention. As it whined plaintively, Vash stooped down and smiled at it kindly.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, thinking nothing of the little creature's sudden appearance. He jerked at Doumeki's guess. This couldn't be... Could it?

u M

On his back and idle, the roll sudden. Shake the head - how many heads did this form allegedly have, again ? - ah well, a limb and head would have to suffice, if hopefully the appendage not overly frail.

Eyes blinked their red, tail entered a reasonable swing... there. Rhythm - rhyme -there he went.

Another whine, nose trembling softly. His tummy itched.

Doumeki let out a low chuckle as he watched the puppy.

"...you want lemon cake?" he asked.

Autor felt an odd, empty feeling when he saw the dog. There were feelings there, somewhere, when he saw it...but he didn't have any names for these feelings.

Oh well. That didn't really matter. What did matter is he didn't feel lonely when he looked at the dog, and only slightly guilty when he did. That, at least, was good.

Autor stayed at his post in the corner, careful to keep guard, and watched as Doumeki interacted with it. Should he go over to it...?

Note to eternal, quite vehemently awesome self: hUman s aR e bAd wITH h i nTs .

...his eyes closed, opened, closed anew. There was a certain stupour in carnality, and his stature made sleep so inviting. Courteous.

The voice rough, summoned. By his nature, lacking in vocal chords, and the immitation hardly subtle. " e Mo."

Doumeki looked midly amused at that. "Emo. I suppose I should take that as a yes." The sentance was said with a slight hint of amusement as the archer retrieved a peice of the cake Riou had brought and set it on a napkin, placing it in front of the puppy.

He looked at it. Looked at it. Looked at it.

...a problem.

Never quite in carnal form when consumption had occurred in the past. Oh dear.

"er," - snap, tilt, was that an important bone that just broke? - "a d r a s t u s jUs t heR e to p iCk u p CA ke -- "

"You're not staying?"

The words tumbled out of Autor's mouth before he had a chance to think. He jumped to his feet and walked over to the puppy, crouching down and looking it in the eyes. "Stay. Stay and eat."

((OOC: Sorry about that. XD;;))

Vash watched the exchange with a small smile. Adrastus may not have planned on it, but he had become quite popular with at least a few of the City's residents.

"He might not be able to stay," Vash told Autor gently. "Can you stay a while, Adrastus?"

Doumeki glanced up as Autor neared, and he blinked at the other boy's statement, then turned his attention to Vash, before turning it back on the puppy. Eh. How ironic. The little (or not so little, as it were) guy had taken his eye, had taken things from so many other people, and yet...

Here they were, asking him to stay.

Even Doumeki would admit, if prodded enough, that he did not want Adrastus to leave. However, he was severely less vocal then his comrads, so he settled for a nod of agreement. Yes. Please stay.

[ooc: adding Vash!mun’s post cause lj is lame-o]

He pawed in a rather - er - distinct manner. Had he known what is was, a first assessement would have led him to the private belief that truly now, the London bridge? Rather proud of this particular fall.

The fruit decorum fell prey to gravitation. The cream stumbled - cursed molecules and their varying resistance to canine cuteness - on the tip of the nose. And the crust quite suddenly imploded.

...oOp s.

" a d r a s t u s . . . nO t a muSEd ."

Riou had, he rather supposed, perhaps been hoping to see the cerberus dog one last time when he had decided to join the little impromptu gathering at the shady corner near the fountains. Hoping, perhaps, but not really expecting.

He certainly hadn't been expecting Adrastus to suddenly materialize in front of him. Out of no where. In cute puppy dog form. Begging for scraps.

"Gah!" he said eloquently and stared as Vash, Doumeki, and even eventually Autor interacted with the guest of honor.

And then, no... he was not going to laugh at the animal collector of doom, no matter how cute and adorable the puppy may look with cake on it's nose...

Doumeki watched with interest as the puppy pawed at the cake. What was---His eyes widened as the cake suddenly seemed to impode upon itself. Huh. Well that was interesting. He reached over, gently wiping away the cream on the dog's nose with a napkin before he reached over to the cake, cutting the puppy another slice. "You need a mouth to eat this with." he explained, as he set it down in front of the red-eyed animal-shaped creature. "And a digestive tract to go with it. Unless you can just absorb it once it's inside your mouth."

Vash propped his chin up on his hand and watched Adrastus and Doumeki placidly. The two beings seemed to share a certain understanding. Vash couldn't help but wonder if whatever or whomever had sent Adrastus had expected the creature to become so entwined with a few of the citizens.

Vash certainly hadn't seen it coming.

"I certainly hope you can eat it somehow," he murmured. "It'd be just plain mean if all this was just dangled in front of you and you couldn't do anything with it."

How odd, Autor thought to himself. At least, he thought it was odd...he wasn't sure. But it seemed like most people knew how to eat something. Even heartless ones.

He lowered himself down to sit on the ground in front of Adrastus and watched silently, observing and trying to figure it out. Honestly, he didn't particularly care, but...at the same time...there was some side of him that wanted to observe. And so he adjusted his glasses and watched.

Well, clearly he was intended to eat this. Clearly.

After prolonged deliberation, a cautious lick on his nose and the required exaggeration to enlargen the tongue until it safely reached right down and deep on that iiiiiiiiitch behind his left ear, he concluded that Standard Antichrist Training had failed to prepare him for the unique circumstance of - dare he think it? - unaided survival.

Note to self the second: sE e cuSTOm e r se Rv ic e foR r e fUN d .

With some agitation, he left the cake be, then regarded them all quite sullenly. Su re - yoU ca n ea t it.

Skeptically, and not devoid of canine love and affection and pray-m a s t e r -smack-them sympathy, he yawned at length. " a d r a s t u s mIght re Tu r N . Le sS e mO. Ba d witH. ca Ke. s h ady spOt be GOo d sha dy sp ot ye S ? F eW be ATs."

Doumeki watched, slight amusement showing on his face as the puppy's tongue elongated to scratch a spot behind his ear before retracting. Well, if the dog had an itch, why hadn't he just asked?

The archer reached out and scratched behind the puppy's left ear, raising an eyebrow at Adrastus's next statement.

"It's a good shady spot." he agreed. "We'll guard it until you get back."

Riou stared at the tongue elongation(was he still trying to eat or...?) and... all right, he'd been wondering for awhile.

"What is 'emo'?" he asked the others, as asking Adrastus directly probably wouldn't be too enlightening.

"I think quite a few of us will be looking forward to your return," Vash said, nodding in response to Doumeki's assurance. "And you're right, this is a good spot."

Vash paused and made a heart shape with both hands.

"Remember, there are lots of ways to make heart signs," he said, recalling their last conversation on the Network with a smile.

A smell, that smell.

Mother of Bones, She of All Sorrows. Come for him, perhaps? Close. Too close. The time of dues had come, and now all had been said, all done. Time to leave. Time to follow.

Back on his feet - paddling. There was weight in walk, and so he shed the puppy form with striking haste. Didn't expect the cold. Such a fuss over flesh, really. Humans needed an upgrade - the shadows formed about and around with convincing promptness: a master's call, if nothing else. Whether Adrastus' own, or his master's, the question was one both irrelevant and unbidden.

No one talked ill of master. Failing omen. He was shadow anew now, several phases of existence trying to wage themselves. The shadow of a horse, of an inverted pen, a tree and a pentagram. Anything, really, such whims.

" dU e i s duE. " A sentence. A principle. Something lost. "mA ke no duEs. Wo rse caN sti lL coME." A title of a shadow tentacle - see? No head. Much better. Less restrictive. "Bai-bYe."

And as arrived, so gone.

...and damn him to all seven hells if the lemon cake'd not executed a firm disappearing act along with him, too.

Doumeki only watched as the puppy padded off, fading into the shadows. The warning was listened to and heard. The archer didn't bother to lift a hand in farewell; it probably wouldn't be seen. And then the presence of the dog was gone completely.

As was, Doumeki quickly noticed, the presence of the lemon cake. He blinked once; twice, before a small, almost inperceptable smile appeared on his face, and he settled back against the wall, legs folded, nodding once to each of the others surrounding him before he closed his eyes.

".........hitsuzen." he stated once, a murmur, almost completely to himself before he allowed his mind to slip away, moving into metitation. Now was a good time for it. He had a lot to think about, and meditation was the best way he knew to deal with it.

Vash stood up and watched after the puppy as it departed.

"Bye-bye, Adrastus," he said quietly. He looked down at Doumeki and returned his nod before turning his gaze to Autor. Loneliness. Vash supposed that in the long run, it was good that the boy had that emotion back...

But Vash and loneliness were old friends, and he knew how heavy it could be. He only hoped a departure like this wouldn't be too hard on Autor.

Riou gave a low whistle as Adrastus disappeared back into shadows. If his entrance had been impressive, than that exit...

Well, he was rather glad he'd stopped for the lemon cake afterall. (Not that he'd ever actually gotten to taste any of it through this whole time.) And so Riou turned his attention to the neglected other portions of dinner...

Log, Completed

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject