The calm before the storm (Open)

[Angelique]

Angelique had to admit, she was impressed. She hadn't thought he had had it in him. He turned his head to look at her as she spoke, and his eyes looked half-asleep and hazy. As she stepped closer to him, though, she saw a kind of awareness enter his eyes and, for the first time, he seemed to really look at her. She made no move about his new knowledge, nor did she let her face twitch from the mask it had taken.

He answered her, short and brief, and then attempted to clean his face. She rolled her eyes and sighed softly. "This is an inn, right? I'm sure they had a bath somewhere" she pointed out. She blinked in surprise when he held out a handful of coins to her. There was absolutely no hesitation in her actions; she took the money. She walked over to her bag and put the coins inside. "Thanks, kid" she said, not turning to him. Chii finally came out, slithering up her body to take his place again with his head beside hers. He hissed softly at her, but she ignored him.

She turned back to him and walked back over. She looked at his face seriously for a moment, wondering what on earth she was going to do with him. While her nature was naturally manipulating and cruel, this boy had just killed someone and, apparently, he was a bit spooked by it. "I'm Angelique" she offered quickly. She didn't expect a name in return; now that he knew what she was, she doubted he was willing to speak with her anymore.

She did not leave his side, however, just in case he collapsed. She didn't have much experience with this kind of thing, but she certainly remembered her first kill. She almost allowed her small-smile-dark-eyes mask to slip as she thought of the sight of Sora's dead body, spread out beside her fire, unharmed but still painfully grotesque. Goosebumps rose on her flesh. Maybe it would have been better if the woman had had wounds on her body.

That reminded her...

Trying to get the memories out of her head, she turned to Iblis's body and said softly, "What are we going to do with him?" She used the term "we" loosely.

[iblisvoidwalker]

(I'm not sure how I got Chii confused as a dog but I extend my apologies for such ignorance)

The women took the coins and placed them in her own inventory, so there was something more to this girl then just looks, not only could she keep complete composure amongst the presence of the dead but it was also not below her to steal from others, then again Irvine wasn't much better. He had taken just as much as she had and he would do it again to, for the code of chivalry didn't matter to Irvine nor did the civilians of Astale, all that was important to him was gaining the combat prowess necessary to liberate his family and carve out a reason for his existence. She offered her name to be Angelique, it was one he had never heard in these lands, but one that was instantly committed to memory, mainly for the reason that she was the only witness to Irvine's first kill. The snake appearing again adding to her mysterious and almost gracefully malicious aura.

"Irvine...Irvine Greyson."

His reply was as equally quiet as the first one for the smallness of his voice was a trait he had been born with as did the majority of his lineage. She then turned her attention to the boy in which Irvine had slain. Iblis...his words and then the way he had just let Irvine kill him, with that smile on his face, what did it mean? What was he trying to convey? It was a question that Irvine would definitely carry with him as he drew the man's katana from his hand and strapped it to his back, he then looked over to Angelique not expecting her to want to stay but giving her some explanation of how she would be kept in the clear

"I will stay here and wait for the guards so as to explain to them what happened. I thank you for the help and if you would like to abstain yourself from this situation there is the door. I plan to spend whatever time I have cleaning the blood off my clothes..."

He felt physically drained from such an experience, not only had he hiked over to this town not making much room for breaks in fear of being re-captured but he only came in to find his house ransacked and the only Inn in town to be attacked by a group of bandits, one of them being slain by Irvine's own hand. He always seemed to get tired when he was stressed out, it helped him think better and more rational, but for now all Irvine was looking forward to was getting to sit down for a while.

[Angelique]

(Haha, it's fine. ;D I don't think I ever specified )

The boy...Irvine's voice was so soft, but she didn't know if that was fright or shock or both or something else entirely. He walked over to Iblis's body and picked up the katana the boy had held. She just watched. He strapped it to his back silently.

"Irvine" she repeated, and inclined her head to him slightly. She could tell by his actions and words that he expected her to leave, but she remained. If he were looking at her, he would see her face a smooth mask, but her eyes a whirling storm of mixed emotions.

She was currently arguing very heatedly with herself. Maybe we should help him... Why would we? Well, he just killed a person, for one thing. You know what that does to a person So? I've killed before. Who helped me, huh? Yeah, look how well you turned out. Shut up. Anyway, it would be a waste of perfectly good time Just do it. You forgot to tell me why Because you have a heart, idiot You sure about that?

"Don't ask how, but I'm pretty sure I have some clothes that might fit you" It was truly amazing what people would give you when they had no money left to buy your magic. She hadn't accepted that couple's child (what would she do with such a thing? Eat it?), but she had taken their clothes easily enough. She had been planning to turn them into a blanket or something, but then, well...this happened. "You can find someplace to change into them...we can dispose of the dirty ones somewhere. They're pretty much beyond saving now...unless you want to keep them that way. I can never understand you fighter types" Trying to keep some semblance of sanity and personality, she crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him.

[iblisvoidwalker]

There was something about this girl that was different then most, For one he had expected her to remain tough, vigilant and overly-rational in this situation and take her leave to avoid confrontation with the guards, yet she didn't, he decided to help and through her own methods planned to help Irvine out to some degree by provided new clothing, however referring to him as a fighter-type she could see that this was a bit out of her character and was trying to cover that up with cold remarks. Irvine may have been a fighter-type but he was no grunt.

He nodded and accepted the clothes generously and would head off upstairs to to wash off as she suggested leaving behind his share of the coins at the table he had been sitting at. He would remain in the washroom for about 15 minutes, washing himself as best as he could and going off on tangents of thought revolving around life, death and the one who caused death. Performing a simple role reversal he put himself in the shoes of those guards, visualizing what it would have been like to believe that everything was going exactly as planned only to suddenly and abruptly lose ones life. But what continually seemed to appear in Irvine was a sense of neutrality towards death. He couldn't find any sympathy for the goons being slain by his blade, or Iblis who had thrown himself into Irvine's blade, the humans were so illogical and disgusting that he almost felt good about thinning their numbers a bit. But from all he had learned from his time, such thoughts were wrong and evil or so said his parents, which was why he had never touched on the darkness that seemed to clutch at his heart but be repulsed by a tiny gathering of light in the core of his heart. He brought his palm to his forehead and closed his eyes, there was so much to juggle in his life that it was hard to sort out what needed to be done, how to do it and the results of such actions.

He would appear again down the stairs donned in the clothes that Angelique had given him (they did fit well as she predicted) to see that surprisingly she was still there perhaps the villagers he had overheard were wrong in their negative responses towards her, she was human after all. The guards had still yet to arrive which meant he was alone with this girl, whom he barely knew and had no idea what to say, a confused look came on his face as her presence distracted him from what had happened just a while ago.

[Angelique]

Irvine took the clothes and retreated upstairs to wash. Angelique watched after him for just a moment before she turned to look at the bodies. They were spread around the inn like broken toys thrown to the bottom of a toy chest, and the blood spatters were everywhere. She pondered moving them or something, but that would just put unnecessary blood on her hands...literally. The last thing she wanted was to have a troop of guards come in here to see her standing over several dead bodies covered in blood. They hated her enough as it was, and would look for any excuse to take her in. So, she just stepped over them and walked across the room to retrieve her second bag, slinging it over her shoulder nonchalantly.

And now she had time to kill. She sighed loudly, and leaned against the counter. Chii was silent, not that he usually had much to say anyway. There was no one left in the Inn, unless there were some stragglers upstairs, but it was too quiet for that to be a reliable theory. She got up quickly and walked over to the first body. Feeling dirty, she tried to find anything on him of value. "I'm a sick, sick person" she murmured, and turned away from the corpse, nauseated. She went back to the counter. She tried to count up how much money she had gotten from Irvine when he had taken it off of the body, but even the thrill of getting only slightly richer couldn't stave off the boredom...or the sudden terror.

Despite her expectations, no guards had shown up yet. She wondered if the thugs' threats went beyond the walls of the Inn. She jumped at the slightest sound, expecting to hear the gruff voices and see them breaking down the door at every moment. She suddenly found herself longing for Irvine to come back down, so the waiting wasn't so...murderous. She felt like she was going to die of suspense.

And so he came. His footsteps prShe looked up as Irvine came down the stairs. She felt satisfied when she saw that her guess that the clothes would fit him was correct. As he got closer, his face grew more and more confused, as if he was unsure about what to do. Well...that was great. She really didn't know what to do either. She either was being careful not to offend someone or trying to seduce them into buying one of her trinkets. This whole "helping someone" thing was really quite new to her, and she didn't know if she liked it or not.

"Well you're clean now" she stated. "Do you feel better?" Her voice halted and caught a bit as she asked the question, but she got it out somehow.

[iblisvoidwalker]

Irvine shrugged at her basic inquiry, from his point of view he had been forced out of a life of easy farming to that of a slave only to narrowly escape, lose the people he loved and then come back to his home town and be forced to kill people, and the only thing that was there to comfort her was his mysterious girl, who seemed neither two far of one alignment and seemed void of any motive except for the heat of the moment. What was she expecting from him aside from giving her part of the gold and a free pass away from the guards, which she had seemingly turned for some reason or another.

"I don't mean to seem ungrateful for your help but its just...You barely know me and I barely know you and yet you want to stay here where I am most certainly going to be arrested, you even made profit off of this situation and yet you stay...."

He turns his back away from her and towards the front counter, speaking quietly yet in an extremely calculating sense.

"You don't need to worry about me breaking down or anything, I may not have killed anyone before, but these people won't be the only one. I have longed for a life away from the simplicity of being a farm-hand...never had the mind for it, always wanted something more I suppose. Anyway now I have it, I plan to be a knight so that I can learn the way of the sword and then..."

He stopped there, remembering that this was a random person he was explaining his motives to, she had no reason to care and Irvine never liked talking about himself too much. He thought he could hear footsteps in the distance of guards approaching but that could also be his overly-paranoid self that seemed to consume his decisions whenever he was in a stressful environment.

[Angelique]

Angelique listened to all of Irvin'es words with a straight face, but inside, she was screaming at herself, "HE HAS A POINT!! WHY IN THE WORLD ARE WE HELPING THIS LITTLE BOY!!” But she ignored that voice and just shrugged. "Couldn't tell you why either, kid" she admitted, her voice still cold. She had to admire his perseverance and obvious devotion to his goal, which he had just so kindly spilled out to her in stunning detail. "Well, since we're being honest here," she drawled, rolling her eyes, "I'm more likely to get arrested in this situation, kid. Sure, you've got the sword but I..." Her grin became almost sadistic at this point. "I have both the motivation and the criminal record going for me"

She was speaking true on all accounts. So really…she should split. She turned slightly, her eyes surveying the room with an appraising eye. In spite of herself, she looked for anything that she might use later as merchandise but, as she suspected, there was nothing. This quick action took just a moment and she turned back to Irvine and had just opened her mouth to bid him farewell when she became aware of the footsteps outside of the inn and noticed the shadows beneath the door.

Just as the information clicked in her head, the doors to the Inn burst open and it slipped her mind. Stupid knights she thought bitterly and turned to look at them. She folded her arms over her chest. She turned to meet the newcomers, her face once again a blank mask. The smile, which had lost its predatory edge at some point, vanished in an instant and her eyes flashed with aggression.

And indeed, it was the guards.

"Hello, officer" she said softly. "And to what do I owe this pleasure?" She spoke as if Irvine was not even there and, indeed, the boy almost dropped out of her thoughts entirely as she tried to come up with a way to escape this situation alive and in one piece.