The city looks so pretty...

[Your Mom~]

The city looks so pretty, do you wanna burn it with me?
'Til the skies bleeds ashes and the f*cking skyline crashes
They catch us with matches to ignite the flame
And all the hopes of a youth deemed f*cking insane.
-Hollywood Undead "City"

---

After being discharged from the asylum, nineteen year old Olesya was sent to a halfway house to readjust to normal life. Dr. Edward Twist was the head of the halfway house, a man who specialized in unusual cases of chemical dependency and psychosis. He had heard of this mysterious sociopath Sean Barker and the experiments he'd forced upon a handful of students at PHS #259 a couple years back. However, he hadn't met any of these individuals until Olesya was deposited on his doorstep. The asylum had been able to clean up her self-medicated chemical dependencies, but the heart of the beast was the toxins coursing through her system as a result of the correctional facility experiments. For the next five years, Olesya slowly made improvements, her impulses lessening, her mood improving, her memory returning. Her eyes were even reverting back to their natural hazel, though the unorthodox treatments bleached her hair stark white like had happened to her friends and fellow (former) pillars David Blaze and Emily Santos. Despite the physical alterations, it looked like Olesya's nightmare was coming to an end.

Then Fate happened.

The bombs didn't hit the halfway house directly, but the shockwave destroyed a good portion of the building, injuring a good number of inhabitants. Olesya came away with only surface injuries, though some of her housemates and staff weren't as lucky. She helped those who were hurt, secured parts of the house that hadn't been damaged as severely, and gathered supplies as everything around them fell into chaos. A few weeks after the Fateful day, a couple of men showed up looking for Olesya, they had been sent by "Unfettered" to find her, and bring her "home."

It had been a couple days since the men had come for Olesya. She stood outside the city limits, looking down into the valley. Almost everything was destroyed to some degree: the school, most of the businesses in town, the pier. It was worse than the earthquake that had hit back in her junior year...way worse.

A slight wind tousled her stark white hair, tugging at the edges of her worn white coat, her hands shoved into the pockets. BLAZE was written across the back in what looked like flames. Olesya, now twenty four, narrowed her mismatched eyes, taking in the scene of what had once been her home. Her memories superimposed over the wreckage before her eyes, ghost images flickered over where rubble and skyline met. Though it was all right in front of her like an ugly wound, it was difficult to accept that her city that had once been strong and proud and thriving, was gone. Chaos and destruction were all that remained.

[Delilah A. Black]

Somewhat Fitting Theme Song :“Tumbleweed” by Puscifer.

[/b][/center]

Having finally made it to the outskirts of the city, Delilah would have a quick look around, hand held against her sweat covered brow to shade her eyes as she peered around. Although the day was steadily fading into night, it was no less warm than it had been at noon. That would change, of course, as it always had and always would. Everything changed, as surely as the day lapsed into the night. That was one of the beauties of time; forever moving forward at the behest of no one, dragging the mortal world along with it. Delilah was no different.

The multiple, rope-like scars that adorned her bare arms and shoulders shimmered white where the sun found them, her otherwise porcelain white skin steadily becoming more and more red under the sun. Her black hair clipped against the back of her head, the ends of which were hanging limp in the heat, no longer had the red streaks she had been known for. Though she was still young, it was her eyes that aged her, the eyes of a person who has seen and done too much in their short lives. She was not the only one with these eyes now. Only the bare bones of the mechanic’s old identity were left, entirely replaced with some being no doubt her oldest and closest friends would find somewhat unnerving if could they see her now. She didn’t hold on to that hope, however. She didn’t hold on to much these days, save for her son and the life she was eking out while working with the resistance for the Crows.

Delilah turned around to look at what remained of Los Angeles, the cityscape now laid out before her as she stood upon the rise of a hill. Was it a hill? Looking down at her feet, she saw that her ‘hill’ was actually a piece of what could presumably have been a bridge, warped and bent, covered in dirt, beyond any real recognition of the former purpose it served. She turned her attention again back to the West, surveying the destruction and ruin with a grim acceptance. This was the farthest she had been outside of the city since before the bombs had fallen…this was her first good view of the world as it was now. It filled her with sorrow.

The City of Angels was now the City of Ashes.

Turning away, she started walking back up the slope towards the figure standing a ways off in the distance, a hand on her bowie knife. Anywhere that wasn’t formally controlled by the Crows could be constituted as dangerous territory, especially if it was Barker territory. She wasn’t sure whose land she walked upon now, but a desperate man with a smashed wine bottle was just as dangerous as a soldier in her mind.

But she would not come this far outside of the ‘safe’ land without a reason, and a really good one at that. Another thing Delilah had gained with age had been caution and thus far it had served her well. Behind her, two of her men trudged up the slope silently, the distance between them and home making them edgy and careful. That suited her fine. That’s how she wanted them to behave anyway.

Gradually, the three Crows would make their way up to the top of the incline towards where the statuesque, white-haired girl was standing. Delilah’s body tensed instinctively, the white hair automatically synonymous with Barker’s experiments that were now roaming the city. She knew this girl was one of them in a sense, but she was from before, from the time of the Correctional Facility. Before that, Delilah and her had been classmates, though they never really had any meaningful contact beyond those classes. Still, she felt a kind of kinship with the girl. They were both survivors of Public High School #259.

Literally.

Now just a meter behind the white haired girl, Delilah stopped. Behind her, the two men she had brought with her had stopped about fifty feet back, waiting in tense silence.

“Olesya?” She inquired, knowing full well whom she was talking to. She smiled, and it added a friendly note to her words. “My name is Delilah Black. You might not remember me, but we used to go to school together,” she paused to lick her dry lips, doubting that would mean anything to the older woman. “I’ve been sent by “Unfettered” to escort you safely back to Long Beach with my associates, Cain and Birch,” she indicated the men behind her with a wave of her hand. Unsure of what else she could say, Delilah waited with one hand resting casually on the hilt of her bowie-knife, eyes flicking from side to side every so often. They were so exposed here that it almost hurt her to think about it.

In the West, the sun would slowly start arching downwards towards the sea.


((OOC: This was way longer than I intended it xD; sorry! I'm full of unessecarily gigantic posts, it seems.

Edit: Also, more liberty taking than I intended....i might be confused on some of the more vague details. If this post isn't 100% with what you had in mind or with what timeline it is (ie. 4-5 months after "Fate" [current time-line], please let me know and I'll make all the nessecary edits. Some of my info here may be non-canon thus far, unless the purpose of Delilah re-finding Olesya after the men found her (and then she left again? maybe? I dunno. You see where my confusion lies).

Credit to Mikeh for pointing this out.))

[Your Mom~]

[OOC: The timeline is fine, as Olesya had been helping out at the halfway house after it happened, and then taking into account how long it took for Unfettered's men to find her and convince her to leave, and the time it took her to travel here...Im thinking that she may have seemed resistant at first, so the messenger's left her with some instructions on how to get to the safer territory that was owned by the Crows. I could see her being like 'Thank you. I have some business to finish here, but I'll come once preparations have been made (as far as food, gear, etc for traveling). Since everything's destroyed, Les would'a mostly traveled by foot, possibly to just give her time to think as well. In short, it works ♥ Edit: I also seem to have the longpost!disease XD]
---

Everything was relatively quiet, too quiet in fact for being the outskirt of a city. Normally you could hear the distant sounds of cars and the occasional train rumbling softly through the air, the faint buzz of life emanating from the lively city below. Now only the mild wind rustling the debris could be heard, the smell of ash and dirt in the air as a reminder of the destruction all around her.

Underneath the wind, Olesya caught the faint sound of footsteps, only a couple sets, not sneaking and not running, it was a casual gait which seemed to indicate a low threat. Her hand curled around the switchblade stiletto in her coat pocket, but otherwise her posture remained relatively relaxed. She didn't have much worth stealing, and a couple years on the streets had hardened Olesya's fighting skills: nothing overly disciplined but she knew a trick or two to incapacitate her opponent, or at least cause enough injury to allow her to escape.

'Olesya?'

The young woman turned her head sharply at the sound of her name, her attention caught as the approaching figure recognized her. Olesya didn't recognize the woman at first, age and circumstance having changed them both from the kids they once were. Of course she noticed the scars on her arms, but then again there weren't many people now who didn't carry the marks of their adversities on them somewhere, so though her eyes flicked over them, they didn't linger for long (she didn't want to be rude after all).

"Delilah." Olesya repeated, playing with the syllables on her tongue, turning to face her. The name sounding vaguely familiar. They had to have had some classes together, a couple of the girl's features sticking out to her now that she had a better look. Had Delilah known her friends? She was associated with Unfettered, had she known Emily and David too? Would she recognize the coat she now wore that had once been David's? The memory of her friends still stung, and for the millionth time she made a silent, quick wish that they were okay, somewhere out there. Maybe Unfettered had managed to find them too, but Olesya wasn't about to hold her breath.

She nodded politely at the associates who had accompanied Delilah, the corners of her mouth twitching upward briefly in a mildly friendly look. It had been along time since Olesya had smiled outright, at least not without a strain of malevolence entwined in it. She struggled for a moment to find an appropriate response to the matter of fact statement, it had been so long since Olesya had interacted with new people and entrusted them that it was difficult to do something other than nod in acceptance. "Sounds...good to me." She managed with the nod, stepping to pick up her pack she'd set down by a deposit of twisted metal and rock and slinging it over her shoulder. It was amazing how a couple years as a crazed loner had nearly destroyed her ability to socialize efficiently. Her stay at the halfway house had helped, but it was apparent that there was a bit of a rift in her ability to interact with other people.

[Delilah A. Black]

"Sounds...good to me."


Delilah nodded with her, noting her two-tone eyes and her reservation, marks of what she had endure in the last few years. Was it awkward? Yes, but they would get past it. They’d managed to get past many things larger and more serious than a little social uncertainty.

The mechanic offered Olesya a smile and turned to walk towards her men, both of whom remained tense. Delilah caught the blooming look of interest in Birch’s face and frowned at him until it went away. I’ll have to keep an eye on him, she thought of the former actor as he reluctantly put away his charms, though not without some measure of fondness. The lech.

The scruffy, overly pierced gentleman on the left with the unstyled Mohawk stepped forward, holding the tire iron in his hand loosely. “Do you want Birch and I to take the lead?” he rumbled, his voice rough from dehydration.

“If you wouldn’t mind, Cain.” she agreed, inclining her head a few degrees.

He nodded abruptly and turned on his heel, strutting down the slope back the way they came, Birch not far behind.

Delilah walked behind them slowly, turning her head to look at Olesya, “We’ll be walking for most of the way, unfortunately… we’re pretty far outside of what can be considered ‘safe’ territory and I’d really rather not draw any unnecessary attention to us. Some of the roads around here are too narrow for a car or bike anyway.” As she walked, Delilah shrugged her pack off her shoulder and began rummaging through it. “Do you have anything to cover your head? White hair tends to make the locals nervous…” she mentioned, pulling out a fresh bread roll to hand to Olesya if she wanted it. If not, she would wrap it back up in the napkin she got it from and tuck it back in her bag.

((ooc: lol short post XD Work is a little crazy today.))

[Your Mom~]

Olesya noticed the one man smirking at her, the smirk wiped from his face with a look from Delilah. She couldn't tell what exactly was unspokenly exchanged between the two of them, but it certainly communicated the dominance of Delilah over the other two men. When the second addressed her, asking if they should take the lead, it was clear that Delilah had some sort of power in whatever organization Unfettered was involved with. She appeared to be very strong and exuded confidence in a way that Olesya admired. It was the kind of person Olesya had aimed to be, before everything fell out beneath her feet.

She took the roll thankfully from Delilah, holding it between her teeth as she dug into a pocket of her bag for a bandana. She pulled out the black square of cloth, folded it in a triangle and tied it around her head, tying the ends together behind her head and tucking her hair up to hide it from view. She pulled the roll from her mouth, having taken a bite and chewed thoughtfully.

"Why does it make them nervous?"

She asked, only having encountered a handful of white haired youths in her life. Unfettered, Emily, David (who she was certain had dyed his hair back at some point, her memory was fuzzy), and now herself. And there was a boy in an underground fight she'd gotten into, but she had long forgotten his name. Not everyone from the correctional facility had this side effect, the chemicals effected each individual differently, as it had originally changed her eye color instead.

[Delilah A. Black]

"Why does it make them nervous?"

The mechanic grimaced as she thought about it. “You and the other students that were taken to the Correctional Facility were just the beginning. After we broke you guys out, Barker went into overdrive and made himself an army of Experiments and put the world in the state that it’s currently in. People with white hair are running all over the place right now…admittedly, not all Experiments have white hair and not all people with white hair are necessarily Experiments, nor are they necessarily on Barker’s side…but the fact that they –could–be is what’s putting people on edge,” she chuckled at the irony and peered up at the fading sun, checking the time with a wistful expression. “I guess in some ways, the world hasn’t changed at all.”

Humanity’s perpetual fear of the unknown was one of the few lasting features of civilization. More often than not, it was that same fear that kept them alive, kept them moving, even if only because they feared death and what happened after (if there was an after). The instinct ingrained within all people to avoid and fear death had never been so prevalent. This was universally accepted…but give people information, just a smattering of knowledge to go with that fear, and it will drive them mad. Such was the case of people with white hair – a rare and unnatural trait in nature to begin with–being targeted simply for having white hair.

Which, in reality, was quite unusual given the amount of people who weren’t experiments who had white hair. “Unfettered”, Oliver, Rem, just to name the ones she knew of…Stu even had naturally white hair underneath all the dye, now that she thought about it.

“We have company~,” Birch called back to the two women in a sing song voice.

Delilah looked up sharply at the charmingly grinning man, following the direction of the spear he was gesturing with. Five hundred meters (roughly a third of a mile) ahead and just off to the right, a group of seven…no, eight people stood by the side of what remained of the road, waiting. Frowning, Delilah quickly caught up with Cain and Birch, who had kept walking forward.

“Orders?” Cain spoke out of the corner of his mouth, facing resolutely forward.

She was silent for a moment as they continued forward, assessing. The people didn’t look threatening, but that by no means meant that they weren’t. “Three possibilities; Loyal’s to Barker scouting for more ‘recruits’, bandits looking to take our supplies, or roving group of civilians in need of some form of assistance.”

“—who later turn out to be bandits and try to kill us.”

“Hush.”

“If they're the latter…?”

“Give them what we can and point them in the direction of our area. That's the best we can do right now.”

“And if they’re either of the former?”

In answer, the leather sheath sighed as Delilah drew her bowie knife, holding it against her arm with the butt of the hilt pointing down. Birch grinned in response while Cain only curtly nodded his head, returning his attention to the foreground.

She looked over at Olesya out of the corner of her eye. “Would you prefer we run or if we fight?” She asked in a low, serious voice.

[Your Mom~]

Barker was still at large? Olesya shouldn't have been surprised that he had gone (even more) crazy and made himself an army...that was his intended purpose to begin with. To think that he had caused all of this destruction made her pale slightly, Barker was a man not to be messed with.

At Delilah's words, Olesya shook her bandana covered head slightly, a soft bitter-laced laugh escaping as she took another bite of the roll. People were idiots. They were like sheep or better yet lemmings, stampeding and jumping off cliffs because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Being a young, white middle class female, Olesya had never experienced any sort of discrimination or fear first hand, so it would be interesting to see how this would all play out. A small part of her reveled in the idea, her interest piqued at the idea of having additional ammo to mess with people's heads. She tried to suppress that idea, however, as she was attempting to turn over a new leaf.

Mismatched eyes flicked upward as one of the men called back to them in a sing-song voice that there were people up ahead. She took another really big bite of her roll, wanting to be finished with it before coming in contact with the unidentified individuals ahead. They were outnumbered two to one, but Olesya had faced those sorts of odds before, it wasn't impossible.

She quickened her pace to keep up with Delilah as she reached her men. She frowned, narrowing her eyes slightly to try and make out the individuals who were slowly getting closer as they continued to walk toward them. She looked over to Delilah, pausing for a second before breaking out into a grin.

"I don't know about you, but it's been a while since I've gotten my hands dirty." She noted casually, popping the rest of the roll into her mouth.

[Tobias Ross]

Tobias sighed as he walked through the back alleys and side streets of Los Angeles, silently mourning the state of the once beautiful city. How he had wished to have visited the city just once for pleasure while it was still great, but he never had a chance because of his work. The city was now the City of Fallen Angels and even though torn asunder, it could rise from the ashes. His motorcycle was useless in the fallen city and was subsequently let at his place in Orange County. His brilliant idea of exploring the fallen city had landed him lost in it and now he was wandering with a purpose.

Great job, idiot. You are wandering the city for the second day now. All you thought to bring was your knives, cigarettes, Zippo, and a flask of whiskey. Real smart.

Sighing once more as slipping into another alley and finding it blocked off by a huge pile of rubble, Tobias eyed it and decided that it would be too unstable to climb over. Rather than risk being buried under it as it collapses, he would have to risk being attacked while on the road. That was a lesser danger compared to being buried. Backtracking would take too much time and he would rather actually start making progress out of the city.

Taking the alley to his left, Tobias walked out onto the main road near him and was surprised to see a rather large group of people near him. Only about a hundred or so yards from him, the people were stationed on the side of the road. Mentally counting them and watching them for any signs of aggression, Tobias decided to risk the the possibility of an attack. Externally showing no aggression and projecting a calm appearance, he approached the group of people at a leisurely pace. His blades were hidden on his person and were only going to be a last resort.

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah grinned back at Olesya, pleased but a little worried nonetheless. She was fairly certain that a certain white haired German would be most unimpressed if they came back with Barker troops on their heels or, worse, without Olesya. Come to think of it, who knew what Kiyoshi would do, too? The fact that she couldn’t even venture a guess worried her.

The four were quickly approaching the group of eight and Delilah stopped thinking about things, clearing her mind. In a few steps, she went from a broad grin to a flat, emotionless face, very nearly masklike, mentally reciting the poem that was written on her left shoulder (which was now quite sun burnt). She didn’t remove her eyes from the group that waited only a short distance ahead of them, suspicious. She wasn’t disappointed; out of the abandoned gas station behind the group and the destroyed underpass on the opposite side, seventeen more people hurried over to the original eight, standing with them, blocking the road. All appeared to have some sort of blunt instrument in their hands, though Delilah could tell a few carried knives and were perhaps skilled at using them.

“Disappointing,” Birch quipped, “I had secretly hoped that they were only particularly pushy barely-legal Girl Scouts with a penchant for attractive men in their late twenties. I could use a box of thin mints right about now,” he sighed wistfully.

“Fuck…” Hissed Cain. Delilah watched as he tensed aggressively, his shoulders hunched, a slight hitch in his step. She could not suppress a smile, noting the differences between Birch’s relaxed gait and Cain’s stiff one. She made a mental note to teach them how to walk properly later. Now, however, only ten feet separated them and the large group before them. They came to a halt and stood in silence for a moment. Cain turned his head ever so slightly to look at Delilah and she nodded her head.

He looked back to the group with a deep frown, stepping forward. “Move aside. We’re just passing through.” Though he could hardly be considered rude, it was his tone which harboured a heavy amount of threat behind his words that spoke of their intentions. The way he held the tire iron in his left hand lended to what he had meant.

Move.

Or else.

Of the group of twenty five before them, one laughed humourlessly and stepped forward. He appeared to be around thirty years of age, rather muscular, although balding and losing his teeth. A baseball bat swung to and fro from his right hand. It was stained with blood. “Gotta say, I don’t like your tone, boy, but you seem to be in a hurry, so I’ll make it pretty simple for ya. Give us your shit and maybe one of them girls with ya, and you can walk out of here.” He looked over Cain’s shoulder at Delilah and Olesya and nodded approvingly. “Maybe both, but I’d prefer the tall thing with the blonde hair myself. I like ‘em petite.” he grinned, showing his yellow, rotting teeth.

“Oh, these two?” Birch, who could obviously not help himself, gestured to the two girls behind him. “Lesbians, actually. Carpet cleaners, beaver eaters, sworn off men and all that...at least, they should have after getting a good look at that…you would call that a face, right?”

The group in front of them rustled and muttered restlessly. The man who had confronted them narrowed his eyes and advanced a step, gripping the baseball bat tightly now. “What?!”

“Mm? Oh, yes, I called you ugly,” he said in a matter of fact sort of way, nodding eagerly. “I mean really, do you bathe in piss? And your teeth! Is, by chance, their unsightly stain a sign of your sexual…appetite?” He grinned broadly and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Birch…” Delilah warned, watching as the faces around her fell from confident to furious. On her right, Cain sighed heavily. The former actor ignored them both and pressed on with gusto, reveling in the growing redness of the man’s face and the blue vein that had started throbbing loudly on his head.

“—Well, I have to say that the evidence seems to point in that direction, what with you gallivanting about with a large group of men in your company! What would your mother say, good man? Oh, wait, I might know, one moment,” he coughed and then resumed speaking, his voice now at a considerably higher pitch with the rattle of an elderly woman, “‘Ohhh, yeeees, son, ohhh it’s sooo good when you eat my shit, ooooh yeaaaah ohh’—”

The man’s enraged yell as he ran forward with his weapon raised abruptly cut off Birch’s…performance, if it could be called that. Birch immediately engaged him with his spear, resuming his incessant taunting with a gleeful laugh. He appeared as though he were some mad sort of demon who, for the life of him, would not shut up.

Delilah only had a moment to speculate on that before the crowd surged towards them with a cry. Cain had already rushed forward and slammed one of these men in the face with his tire iron, breaking his jaw with a snap. Her face a mask of stone, she stepped forward to meet them, taking care to remain close to Olesya in case anything should happen.

Two men rushed her with their steel pipes raised, the one nearest her bringing it down towards her head. She jumped to the outside of his reach, knife flashing as she brought the edge down on the side of his upper arm. He had only just begun to howl in pain when Delilah drew her second knife – her tanto – and stabbed him in the side of the neck. She lifted her hand away, leaving him choking and proceeded to stab him through the ribs on his right hand side, ensuring that she hit the liver, a lung and a kidney. As he began to fall backward, Delilah grasped her tanto and twisted it, ripping it forward out of the man’s neck with a gush of blood as well as his severed esophagus and trachea.

Turning her head to the side, she saw that the second man was now behind her, swinging his pipe towards the side of her head. Taken by surprise, Delilah ducked and rolled towards him, coming up on his legs. She planted her tanto quickly in his thigh and rolled out of the way of him bearing down on her head. Now on his left side, she slashed the man’s leg with the serrated edge of her bowie knife along the back of his knee. As he began to crumple on this leg, Delilah reached forward and grabbed her tanto, ripping it out of his leg and drawing the edge hard across his belly, slicing it open. With a strangled cry, he slumped, struggling to hold his guts in. Delilah leapt to her feet and proceeded to stab him three times in the neck. Before he could fall forward, she had already leapt on her third assailant, slashing his eyes with the tanto and then stabbing him in the back of the head in the brain stem as she made her way back to Olesya, the fray having separated them somewhat. She cast a look around quickly for the two men she had brought with her, and was pleased to not have to look far.

Birch was still mercilessly taunting the man from before, playing with him as he kept him at bay with some tricky bo work. Around him lay four men bleeding out of wounds from the spear he had stabbed them with. Cain covered his back, swinging the tire iron wildly, his sallow face contorted with fury. She allowed herself a small smile and hurried forward to Olesya, who appeared to be holding her own just fine from Delilah’s perspective. She moved to cover Olesya’s back, much as Cain was covering Birch.

A man hurtled towards her from behind, a surprise she had not been expecting. He grabbed her around the middle, pinning her arms to her sides as he heaved her off her feet in a tight bear hug. Snarling, Delilah struggled, kicking out hard with her legs to dislodge herself from him. He pedaled backwards, surprised by the forces of her kicks and his grip loosened. She twisted in his arms and lifted her right hand, driving her tanto into the space between his collarbone on the left side. He dropped her almost immediately, but not before another man with a crude two-by-four came up on the other side of her and brought his weapon down hard on her arm.

Delilah cried out as the wood snagged her elbow and brought the limb down jarringly, dislocating her right arm from its socket. Blind with pain, she struck out at the side of the man’s neck with her bowie knife but missed, catching him on the chest. Before he could counter, Delilah advanced as she turned the knife over in her hand and stabbed him five times in the stomach, twisting her body as she pulled out the last time and ripping the blade free of its fleshy prison. Before he could scream, she slipped around him and slammed the blade into the side of his neck, just behind the larynx and shoved the blade forward and out, ripping his neck open and causing him to bleed down into his lungs.

Ignoring the pain that seemed to twist at her muscles, Delilah continued forwards to Olesya, slipping in behind her with her bowie knife held along the flat of her left arm.

((OOC::
IC Time elapsed since battle started : 3-4 minutes.
Delilah’s Kills so far : 5
Birch’s Kills so far : 5
Cain’s Kills so far : 4

Remaining : 11
Delilah is injured and unable to use her right hand. Tanto is currently lodged in a dead man’s heart. Cain and Birch suffering from minor cuts and contusions.

Posting order is now Olesya, Tobias, Delilah.))

[Your Mom~]

Olesya assumed a deadpan expression as they approached the group of individuals. She wasn't entirely surprised when another mass of men came out of the abandoned gas station, raising the total to twenty five. Olesya quirked a slender white eyebrow, but otherwise her expression remained carefully neutral.

When Birch started in on the 'leader' of the gang, it took a decent amount of self control to keep from laughing, or at least smirking. Sure it was juvenile, and would cause some trouble, but Olesya often used taunting to destabilize her opponent. Most people let their emotions get away from them, and fought with their anger, making them erratic and stupid. Les took advantage of this flaw, pissing offer opponent and striking in the openings they leave in their idiocy. It was probably what Birch aimed to do, prodding at the man's insecurities until he was blinded by rage.

The herd attacked, raising their variety of weapons with gusto. Most appeared to be untrained, having just picked up some scrap metal from the side of the road somewhere. Olesya pulled her stiletto from her pocket, flicking it open with a deft movement. It had been a while since she'd drawn blood, but fighting was like riding a bicycle...you could never truly forget.

Birch kept with the haggard ringleader, Cain and Delilah dispatching those who got too close to them. Two guys rounded on Olesya, one of them licking their lips suggestively. Ugh.. Olesya grimaced inside, repulsed by her assailants. The one on the left swung a crowbar at her head, but his swing was too wide, allowing her to simply duck under it, coming up and slicing her knife up beneath his arm, cutting him across the armpit. The man wailed in pain, the crowbar slipping from his fingers. She planted her right foot, aiming a high kick at his face while he was distracted, dislocating his jaw. The second man came in with a two by four, aiming a swing at her stomach. She tensed her abdomen to absorb the blow, grabbing the beam and pulling it toward her, and subsequently the assailant. He jerked forward, and she brought her head forward to collide with his in a headbutt. She then pushed back on the board roughly, the end closest to him jabbing him in the stomach. The man fell backward to the ground, Olesya stomping on his throat to knock him out.

She didn't realize how separated she'd gotten from Delilah until the young woman returned to her side, looking a ltitle roughed up but not too worse for the wear. She moved to cover Delilah's back, but was assailed by a large man who wielded nothing but his brick sized fists. She ducked the first swing, taking the second to the side of the head. Stars erupted in Olesya's vision, but she blinked them away fiercely, curling into a ball and rolling between the man's wide stance. Uncurling quickly, she slashed his Achille's tendons in one wide sweep. Howling, the man fell to his knees, Olesya elbowing him in the back of the head to help him on the way down.

She looked back in time to see Delilah get hit with the two by four. "Shit." Delilah seemed to retaliate well enough, jabbing her knife wherever it could find purchase again and again. Olesya rushed over as Delilah made her way to her, now effectively covering each other's backs.

"You alright?" She asked, taking a quick count of opponents left in play. Both Birch and Cain had taken down their fair share, and Delilah had left a trail of agony behind her. It looked like this gang of vagabonds had no idea who they were dealing with.

---
Incapacitated: 3
Outright Kills: 0

Olesya has a concussion, and a few minor scrapes and bruises.

[Tobias Ross]

Seeing the group grow to a larger one and them attacking a smaller group, Tobias knew what was before him. Bullies, thugs, and raiders. A couple broke off from the group and approached him with weapons drawn and he could see from their faces that they considered him easy prey. This scum really pissed him off. It was one thing to hunt others for food, but everything must be used. To wasted anything was an insult to those creatures that gave their lives to sustain yours. He allowed them to surround him and brought his hands down to his side as he silently judged them to measure their abilities and strengths. One jumped forward and before the smelly thug could even swing, he was dangling in the air within Tobias' hand that was attached to his throat.

Tightening his grip and twisting his hand, he destroyed the man's larynx and trachea. Though impressive, terrifying, and extremely effective at destroying other fighters' will to continue; it was time consuming and left one open to attack. It was all he could do to avoid the attack coming from his side from completely slashing open his throat. The knife cut through the flesh of his throat and his immediate response upon feeling the bite of the blade was to lean back and away from it, minimalizing the damage to a slice that was deep in the left side of his neck and a thin line across his throat that began to bleed down onto his clothes and chest. Snaking his head forward and biting down on the arm that cut him, his fangs slide easily into the man's arm and the thug begins to scream as well as panic. They had just wokened the beast.

Slamming a hand into the knife wielder's nose and crushing it up into his brain, Tobias let go of his grip with his mouth and opened his mouth to let the flesh and blood drop out of it that had unfortunately stayed. He caught the knife as it dropped from lifeless fingers. Stepping into the punch that was sent at him, he put his forehead in the way and was rewarded by a scream of pain as he felt the man's fingers break against his skull. As the thug cradled his hand, Tobias disappeared from his sight and all the thug felt was a growing numbness from his chest. As the man looked down, the knife his friend had been using was planted directly in his chest, piercing his heart.

Springing forth with a cold anger forming within him, Tobias flew into the back of the group and set about to cause chaos. He stepped down on the back of the knee of a tire iron wielding thug and snapped his neck with his hands. They had cut him and breathing hurt. They would pay. The wound to his throat would be repayed to them.

OOC: Three dead.

Injuries: Wounded throat.

Tobias will have difficulty talking due to the wound.

[Delilah A. Black]

“You alright?”
Delilah lifted her good shoulder in an amicable shrug and winced. Christ, even that hurt. “Nothing too serious,” she panted, sliding her feet around as three men wielding a baseball bat, a broken glass bottle and a knife started towards them in separate directions. “Not as bad as these guys anyway.”

She lunged forward at the knife wielder, who immediately made a cut towards her injured arm. She leaned back out of the way, letting his momentum swing his arm to the outside. Delilah rushed in, pressing the straight edge of her knife against the back of his forearm and shoved it, leaving a deep cut where the knife connected. He howled in pain, dropping his knife, and the mechanic slid her blade between his ribs and into his liver. She tore her knife free, flipped the blade around in her hand and spiked the tip down into the hollow of his throat. Planting a foot on his chest, she pushed him backwards, sliding the knife out of his neck with ease.

She spun on her heel, looking around for Birch and Cain. Birch, now with a large bloody cut high on his left shoulder, was standing over the corpse of the supposed ‘leader’ of this group of people, shouting obscenities. Cain shouted something to him and Birch broke away from his task and they took off after the remaining two people who were headed to…another pile of bodies? Confusion lined Delilah’s face. By her count, there should have been eight, now seven left. But there were three bodies just over the small rise of hill. She watched as Birch threw his spear into the torso of one of the fleeing men, killing him. Faintly, Delilah realized she could see the outline of another person standing in the mess around him.

Looks like we might have more company,[/i] she thought grimly.

Turning away, she turned her attention back over to where Olesya would be, running behind the opponent with the broken wine bottle and driving her knife into the back of his knee, leaving the opportunity to finish him off to Olesya. She took a glance around herself after, to see if there were any more surprises coming their way and, seeing no one, relaxed. The air reeked of warm copper and sweat, and looking down at herself, she could ascertain that at least part of that was coming from her. Her arms were coated in blood, her clothes splashed with it. She looked at the dead that surrounded her and let the grim mask fall from her face, leaving her looking on with a slightly sorrowful expression. Delilah flicked the blood and gore off of her blade and sheathed it. Bending down at the knees, she retrieved her tanto from the heart of the man she had left it in, ridding it of blood in much the same matter before replacing it in the wooden scabbard at her side. She glanced around again, her eyes hard and watering from the pain in her shoulder.

“Watashi wa kenri o motte iru.”
<I have the right.>[/i]

Relaxing, Delilah hobbled back over to Olesya with a small smile. “That takes care of that.” She peered around the white haired woman at Birch and Cain who were approaching the unknown man she had noticed before. “…or maybe not.”

-----------------------

Birch pulled his spear free from the back of the thug, grinning. “WELP, that was certainly more of a work out than I expected. That’s seven for me! How many did you get, Cain?...Cain?” Birch looked to his left, watching the man a little ways ahead of them take down the last thug who ran at him. He glanced sideways at Cain. “Friend or foe?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Cain grunted, tightening his grip on the tire iron as he strode up to meet the red-haired man so as to appear non threatening. He would stop a few feet in front of him, Birch on his heels. The former actor gave a low whistle at the bodies that lay around, one with a knife sticking out of his chest. “Reminds me of M’lady…” he said in a low, slightly awed voice.

Cain stood in silence as he looked up and down at the ma, noticing the cut on his throat. He raised a pierced eyebrow.“You should probably get that patched up,” he rumbled.

“Yanno, that’s not a bad idea…this cut stings like a motherfucker,” Birch said, gingerly touching the wound on his shoulder.

“Not YOU, idiot.” Cain sighed, giving the man an apologetic look. “Him.” [/size]

((OOC:
Count before my post : 5 remaining
Count after my post : 0 (or 2, depending on what Olesya and Tobias do.

Edit:

SPOILER: Click to show

Delilah's words (“Watashi wa kenri o motte iru." <I have the right>) are what samurai used to say when they killed someone. Others would say a little prayer for the departed souls whilst hacking the body to peices. I took the tame approach.

Her use of "watashi wa" here is deliberate, as the Japanese tend to infer theya re speaking about themselves. Watashi wa specifically means 'I' as in, myself and no other, this is who I am. This is a very firm way of saying "this is MY right".

Just for clarity~.

))

[Tobias Ross]

Dropping the fourth person in his hands onto the ground lifeless, Tobias scanned the area for more targets and only found those few that had more bite than the others near him. Watching warily at those who approached him, the beast within him raged and strained to break free to attack them. Unfortunately for it, Tobias knew how to restrain it and keep it locked up. The monster needed to be civilized to survive, not mindless. Touching the wound and probing it with his fingers, Tobias assessed the damaged sustained to his throat and the side effects became apparent. He was without a voice for a while till it healed. Not once when he was examining his throat did he show any trace of pain nor did he with what he did next.

Taking out his flask and pouring a little bit of the whiskey down his neck, the highly alcoholic liquid spread a burning sensation through the wound as it cleaned the wound. It wouldn't be right to saw that he didn't feel pain, it was more that he had gotten used to feeling it and didn't care to show it unless he must. Pocketing the flask, Tobias turned fully toward those near him and let his awareness fade a little bit. He would attempt it once more to be civil.

Pulling off his fedora with his left hand and putting his right arm behind his back, Tobias executed a formal bow with his left arm crossing his chest. He was a bit ragged and his clothes bloody, but a gentleman nonetheless he was. Rising back up and deftly twirling the hat in his hand before returning it on top of his head, Tobias smiled disarmingly. His mouth was filled with sharpened fangs and the blood around his mouth could give the wrong impression, though he hoped for the opposite. It had been a bit of dental surgery to get his teeth like such and it was a foolish expenditure when he was younger, yet he had grown fond of the changes he had made since his youth.

I would rather not have to fight right now. My good clothes are ruined and they do need to be repaired after a thorough wash.

[Delilah A. Black]

Birch and Cain watched as the man with the great bloody gash in his neck bowed formally to them. They exchanged a quick glance and visibly relaxed. Clearly this man wasn’t in the mood to continue fighting. Just as well, they could just—

Then he smiled.

While Cain’s eyes only widened a smidge, Birch openly gaped in what might have been a peculiar mixture of horror and awe. White teeth, filed to points, covered in blood. Both stared, trying to decide what to make of the smile and the meaning behind it.

But Birch’s insatiable need to talk got the better of him before it could get awkward.

“DUDE, ARE YOU A VAMPIRE OR SOMETHING?”

“BIRCH.”

“YOU DON’T SPARKLE RIGHT?”

“BIRCH.[/B]”[/color]

“MAYBE YOU’RE A CANNIBAL? THAT SEEMS MORE LIKELY. FLESH CAN BE YUMMY, AMIRITE? ‘TASTY BANDITS’, NOW PART OF A BALANCED BREAK—GACK!”

Cain reached out and firmly grasped his companion by the throat, cutting off the rambling tirade spewing from the handsome man’s lips by pushing the lymph nodes together on the underside of his jawhinges. Cain sighed and gave the man an apologetic smile as Birch thrashed in apparent pain.

“Glad to see you’re mostly alright, then. I’m Cain Howard and this idiot is Birch Valiant.” he gave the blonde man a firm shake that served no other purpose than making Birch produce a garbled, strangling sound and pull and agonized face. He jerked his head behind him to the two women now walking towards them. “We’re headed to the Crows’ territory. If you’re interested, you could come with us.”

[/size]

[Tobias Ross]

As one of the men began to ramble, Tobias felt a mixture of amusement and a bit of anger as he listened to the babbling. Taking a swig from his flask, Tobias swirled the alcohol around in his mouth to remove the blood. Spitting out the liquid and listening to the introduction, he nodded to indicate his agreement in following them into another area. Hopefully he would be able to recognize the area and go from there home.

That man's mouth might send him to an early grave. At least his partner is there to turn things away from killing him.

Tobias motioned for them to lead and that he would bring up the rear.

OOC: Sorry for the short post. Figured that at the very least I should start working on the oldest threads I am in. Working off a tablet is a bit difficult. Lol