Treasure Trove (Delilah)

[Saul Kelly]

A large creature quietly and cautiously tip-toed past a line of tall grass and rubble, carrying his lanky figure with an air of tentativeness and worry. The man, as his silhouette would reveal him to be, wrung his slender hands, turning his head to ensure he was alone before finalizing his departure from the would-be savannah. The sun crept up from the horizon line, warmly brushing its waxing rays over the ruined cityscape as if it was unaware that there was no one to wake, and that the life of the city had left.

Saul, a man in his mid twenties, stood unsure and barefoot in the middle of the street indecisive about where to go and what to do. Never before having left Rogues territory since he was recruited, or at least not without accompaniment, the blue-eyed not-quite-human was at a loss for what to do. A thick chain was wrapped around his waist over his white T-shirt, a worn crowbar was gripped in his right hand, and a sheathed hunting knife was hooked to the waist of his faded blue jeans. As naive as the boy had proved himself to be- and several Rogues leaders had witnessed firsthand just how naive he could be- even he knew better than to leave unarmed, even if only for a day.

Choosing to go forward, Saul crossed the definitive boarder made by Cherry St. and East Willow, meandering south for a number of blocks until he reached a housing tract midway between Cherry and the Pacific Coast Highway. A moment or two of nervous consideration and flip flopping led to the man lumbering up to the first front door, and with authority he raised his right leg and thrust it forward to kick the door down. Only, though, to have the door not even budge and force the tall man to fall directly onto his ass. How fucking embarrassing. Assured that no one could have possibly have seen it, he brushed himself off and moved to his feet.

Using a better method of thinking, Saul lodged the crowbar into the crook of the door and let himself in, taking his sweet time to stare at the unexplored bounty proudly.

"Yethhhhh."

[Delilah A. Black]

Early morning recon. God, Delilah hated Barker territory. And she was really starting to hate recon...though it did give her time to consider things. The simple mysteries of life, like the spinning of the globe and the stars in the sky, what they really meant in the grand scheme of things. If, light-years away on some tiny terra-formed planet floating around a star, there was a race struggling for it's own survival.

The night embraced her, drawing the mechanic deep within it's chilly cloak. She wore it like a second skin from where she was perched in the shadows of a ventilation shaft on a still standing building. Enveloped completely, blending with the darkness. Comfortable in her civilian clothes-- a black hoodie, sneakers, loose jeans and a form fitting tank top beneath-- but not without the marks of a Crow, her weapons.

There she sat in complete stillness as the night moved on, passively watchful. Her eyes didn't flick about at the slightest movement (a stray cat here, a rodent there), but remained stationary, just as her body did. Her mind turned over whatever thought came across it, picking it apart bit by bit before moving on to the next. To pass the time.

Eventually, the sky began to lighten in the East and Delilah refrained from sighing with relief. Her shift was almost over and she could go back to report her findings of nothing in this neighborhood of Barker's as well. Good. Simple and sweet, the way she liked it. She couldn't wait to go home to bed, so she could--

Wait...

There. Movement, human. She watched the man go up to the door of a house in the street across from her, attempt to kick it open and...fall on his ass. Her brow furrowed in concern for the man; who kicked THAT badly? She watched as he got back up and pried the door open with the crowbar in his hand before stepping inside. Her eyebrows went up. Interesting.

She was still in the shadow of the totally inoperable ventilation shaft as he went in, so unless the man was rather perceptive (or was any kind of aware that he was being watched), she might very well go unnoticed.

Once he was inside, she pulled her legs under her and into a crouch. Moving silently in this position, she would try and stay under the ledge until she made it to the ledge of the roof. Placing one hand on the ledge, Delilah would kick off the ground and use her braced arm to carry her up and over the side. Gripping it tight as gravity turned back on, Delilah would scale her way down the side of the building as swiftly and quietly as she could, grasping ledges and window sills until she could drop to the ground safely and without making a noise.

She would pad on those quiet little sneakers across the road, sticking to the left as much as she could so that she wouldn't be immediately visible from the door. That is, until she got up to the door itself and peered inside.

The little tacky skull earring dangling from one of her ears would allow her to look into the darkness of the house as if it were brightly lit, looking at what was inside.

If she saw the man who had gone inside as she stood in the doorway, she would grin at him toothily from the threshold. "Good morning~."

If he was deeper inside the house, Delilah would slowly begin her entrance, moving one foot slowly in front of the other as she glanced around corners to look into the house...and find out why the man had broken in, in the first place.

[Saul Kelly]

Oblivious, as he was often found to be, the man continued into the house entirely unaware that there may be a person lurking nearby. With a thundering "HELLOOOOO? the man determined that no one had lived in the residence for a long while, supported further by the offputting layer of filth coating all surfaces in the house.

Upon a closer look, the single level house was clearly built in the 70's or 80's along with the rest of the neighborhood, but may have been remodeled slightly in the last few years. Eggshell white paint clung desperately to the rough stucco on the exterior walls, while the entryway boasted a soft yellow color with a faux-finished wooden chair railing along the walls paired with white linoleum floors. So, so stylish. The house, though he had never been in it before, felt sort of familiar to Saul in an indirect way. It seemed like the kind of home that had been lovingly decorated by the mother, and the only house the kids had ever known, and maybe even the kind of place where people were always welcome and accepted. But then again, maybe the man was just homesick for the first time in a long time.

It had been too many months to count since he had ran from his own obliterated home with the bodies of his family peacefully wounded on the linoleum kitchen floors. Saul liked to think it was the lack of oxygen from the debris in the air that made them fall to the floor. That way they were asleep when the bomb hit the family home, and they never felt a single thing.

But that was the past, he assured himself. He had a new family now. Walking deep within the house, he found his way into the master bedroom, which looked all but untouched save for an unmade bed and an open closet with clothes hanging out as if things had been grabbed in a rush. For several minutes the man hummed to himself as he curiously rummaged through keepsakes, jewelry boxes, drawers, closets, and cabinets in the bedroom, padding around on the soft plushy carpet, still so very unaware that there was someone in the house besides himself.

[Delilah A. Black]

No one was present, not immediately at least, as Delilah slowly made her way into the building. Her knives would go undrawn until she was certain she needed them...and while she was wary (as always), she also thought it odd that the man would make an bee-line for this location without checking any of the other houses nearby...or looking to see if he was being followed, or watched. This was Barker territory, after all.

And she was damned if this wasn't the tackiest house. Or perhaps that was just Delilah's tastes; now she was all cement floors and minimalistic living, but only a few years before she preferred marble, granite and high quality furniture. The house looked like a ghost of some country cottage long forgotten; once quaint and homey, now falling apart and...covered in filth. She shuddered. Was that old food she smelled rotting in the kitchen or was it bodies? Best not to know.

A rustling caused Delilah's head to tilt slightly to the side as she made her way through the mostly intact living room and deeper into the rest of the house, stepping quietly and slowly, testing the floor for give to ensure it wouldn't make a sound.

Following the sounds of movement, the raven haired woman made her way to the master bedroom of the place. Within, she spied a man moving around and looting the room of whatever valuables he could find. She relaxed somewhat; just another scavenger trying to get by.

And yet, she was still curious, though for what reason she couldn't yet fathom why. So, casually, she leaned against the door frame, watching the man intently for a little while before speaking up,

"And just what are you doing with my mothers pearls?"

Because she was having fun, that's why.

[Saul Kelly]

The man jolted upright in a fright before spinning around to face the intruder into the home he had so recently acquires, still clutching the pearls and an assortment of other jewelry. The man's body had tensed up at her voice, eyes wide and for a moment he thought he had walked into trouble.

The woman would likely notice upon seeing his face, that something was slightly off about Saul. The man's ears were pointed in an inhuman way, and as he spoke an array of animalistic teeth would become visible to her. A long scar ran from his left nostril down to his upper lip and a connected yet more jagged one ran down the left side of his bottom lip. Through the boy's septum was a thick silver ring, and striking blue eyes gave the raven-haired woman a once over.

"I wath planning on shoving them up my ath" he retorted with a slight sneer, and he hoped it would be apparent he wasn't serious. Pearls would not make good anal beads. Relaxing his body slightly the man cocked a questioning eyebrow at the girl before continuing about his business going through the possessions in the room, never taking an eye off her.

"You shouldn't thneak up on people, y'know. Not cool at all." A playful and toothy smile was shot at Delilah as he walked past her into the bedroom next to the master, and it became instantly evident that the room had belonged to a teenage girl. A pink and swirly bedspread and a littering of flowy clothes were contained in the dwelling along with a desk that had abandoned technology sitting hopefully on it. A no longer functional laptop, a broken iPhone, and a digital camera sat lonely on the surface. Picking up the camera, Saul turned it on and started flipping through pictures before asking genuinely "Are thethe really your mom'th pearlth?" and pulling the jewelry out of his ass pocket.

[Delilah A. Black]

As the young man turned around as she startled him, she was equally startled by his appearance. The elfin ears, the pointed carnivores fangs, the facial scars. Interesting. Very interesting...a rogue Experiment of some sort, perhaps? She couldn't think of any other reason for his appearance off the top of her head...

...or maybe, before the apocalypse, he was into facial surgery and went to a cheap doctor? Possible. Less so, but still possible.

"I wath planning on shoving them up my ath"

Delilah grinned, chuckling softly. At least he had a sense of humour. She would continue to watch him as he watched her, still very much interested in his personage. Watching his movements, what he picked and what he didn't. Catalouging. He seemed to want to see and touch everything. Though whether this stemmed from an innate curiosity, a sense of over-preparedness relative to survival, or just simple greed, she couldn't tell.

"You shouldn't thneak up on people, y'know. Not cool at all."

Delilah would move slightly out of the man's way as he walked past, arching an eyebrow at his smile (the teeth were very unsettling...and a little cool), watching as he moved to the adjacent bedroom...and shamelessly started going through what appeared to once have been the belongings of a teenage girl. "You ought not leave yourself so wide open," she replied smoothly, not moving from her spot and content to gaze at him from over her shoulder. Also, it was WAY too easy to sneak up on people. "I might not be as friendly as I look," still, the man seemed quite confident, all things considered. She tilted her head slightly to the side.

"Nope, they're free game. Felt like a fun thing to say," she shrugged. If she ever happened across her mother's jewelry, she would throw it in the storm drain. To spite her. And also because the mechanic had absolutely ZERO time for jewelry.

Idle curiosity, on the other hand, was much more easy to fall into.

"So, what brings you to Barker territory? Looking for anything in particular?"

[Saul Kelly]

The man laughed a little at the notion of her wanting to harm him. Even if she really did, he didn't really feel like fighting at the moment and instead put the array of necklaces and rings he had found in the jewelry box on himself. Making his way over to the large mirrored door of the closet, Saul examined his new additions to his wardrobe, cackling gleefully at how absolutely ridiculous he looked. Turning back to the woman, he jokingly asked "Tho, how do I look?"

Rummaging through the rest of the room and finding nothing else of interest, the tall man plopped down onto the twin bed, his legs dangling off of the end as he continued to flip through the pictures on the digital camera, a grin twitching at the corners of his lips as he saw embarrassing party photos, ugly 'selfies', pictures of who he could only assume was the girl's boyfriend. All the photos were things Saul forgot people did in the before times.

"I'unno. I got bored and thought I'd go out and eckthplore the area. Been month-th thinthe I wath here latht. I figured I might find thome neat time capthulth." he shrugged, pocketing the camera while moving to the bathroom, dropping any pills and first aid-type things he could locate into his pockets before moving on to the kitchen, looking back to make sure the girl was still there.

"Why are you here, if I can athk?" Opening the cabinets, it looked like the family had cleared out the canned goods on the way out of town, and Saul refused to open the refrigerator and let the decay out of containment.

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah would watch with great interest as he laughed and pulled on all of the jewelry. There was something decidedly unhinged about the man and it wasn't just the lisp.

"Tho, how do I look?"

"Faaabulous, dah-ling," she purred with an arched eyebrow, amused. He looked rather eclectic, actually, what with his odd facial appearance and his way of speaking. She was leaning more towards the 'greed' and 'curiosity' reasoning for his being here.

Blue eyes stayed steady as she watched him unabashedly, taking note of how he flipped through the digital camera without so much as a second thought, though there was likely not to be anything of value on it. Maybe he was looking for nudes? Hard to know. Not that she cared either way. It was just...interesting.

"I'unno. I got bored and thought I'd go out and eckthplore the area. Been month-th thinthe I wath here latht. I figured I might find thome neat time capthulth."

Still keenly following his progress around the house, silent, watchful, now almost assured on her suspicions as to why he was here....but then he looked to the bathroom and started pulling medical supplies and she tilted her head further to the side. Huh. Not an odd thing to be going for, but he didn't go there as an afterthought. Her strode after him to the kitchen

"Why are you here, if I can athk?"

A small smile lit her features, "Well, that's a question that has a lot of answers. Basically, I'm here on behalf of my gang to scout Barker territory for any people in need or signs of massing an army. This place is very quiet, or it was until I noticed you from across the street. Really, you brought me here.

"And I've yet to decide if you're with Barker or against him,"

Her head was still tilted slightly to the side as she stood in the entrance to the kitchen. He might be an Experiment (he looked like one) but he acted like a survivor. He also appeared to have a home somewhere (why not just remain here, if it was so useful for him? PLUS he said hew as bored) and, though collecting medical supplies wasn't unusual for a survivor, it pointed towards a greater good.

She leveled her gaze at him, waiting for his answer.

[Saul Kelly]

"I'm neither for nor agaitht that prick" he snorted looking back at her from the open and abandoned pantry "An' I'm definitely not in need." Saul giggled a little bit at the girl's suspicions. Initially, when he sought out a gang to join in Long Beach, he had looked to fight against Barker and to do the greater good. It was the only option he could see and the only one he would participate in. At least, until he became a Rogue, who were for the most part unaffected by Barker's forces. If anything, they made a game of exterminating patrols and experiments who neared the territory, along with anyone else who was too weak to become a Rogue.

Sauntering over to the living room Saul plopped himself onto the rug in front of a bookcase that he began to shuffle through, collecting anything he or his friends might want. A bible he knew Allen would probably cry in excitement over, a picture book of space Jaq might enjoy if he could grasp the idea, and for himself he found a book on African animals. Looking to Delilah he gestured with his hands, inviting her to look through the small collection as well.

"Fighting him won't bring back my family, y'know? Like, I don't really feel like bothering with it."

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah just continued to watch Saul with her head tilted slightly to the side, as though studying a foreign animal outside its natural habitat. Which sort of was what Saul was, though she wasn't aware of it. And his words were calm and rational and he didn't seem afraid of her, which was...good? Bad? Unwise? She couldn't decide. She had already made it plain, though; she would be a threat if she needed to be.

For now, her eye had caught the bookshelf and as he waved her over, she strode towards it at his invitation. Remaining standing, she glanced through the titles at the top there, ticking off a mental list inside her mind.

"Fighting him won't bring back my family, y'know? Like, I don't really feel like bothering with it."

She bobbed her head, agreeing. Sort of. "Not a lot of people are as honest about it as you are. If you don't want to fight, you don't have to. S'probably better that way. Easier. " she sounded a little wistful, as though part of her wished that she could have that life. But she knew that was a waste of her talents, and so she fought the good fight. She didn't regret it, but it wasn't the easy path, either. As she spoke, she would continue to look over the shelves, hopping from book title to book title. I have that one, that one, that one, that one, that one, that--ooooh~, Dante's Inferno!

She pulled a large volume off the shelf and opened it to a random page, grinning as she started to read. "Sweet, I haven't read this one in AGES."

[Saul Kelly]

Another snort. While Saul didn't have to fight Barker and his solders, the boy most certainly had to fight his fellow Rogues, for initiation if not for fun or to establish dominance. Bored of looking at the bookcase, Saul let his body fall backwards onto the plush rug in a relaxed flop as he examined his findings for this location. Rolling onto his back, Saul pushed himself up and off the floor, padding to the front door with authority before shouting to the girl behind him.

"Come on, let'th go!" Parading back out the door into the less sheltered section of Barker territory, Saul remained oblivious and uncaring to the dangers of the world as he strutted into the streets, deciding what to do next with his day. It was his day, free of the territory and of all of the shittiness and boredom he experienced daily. Today he would do THINGS.

Flashing a grin back to Delilah if she chose to follow him, Saul ran on ahead, having spotted a small park a block down the road from them. Climbing on top of the big toy, the boy stood tall on the structure as he surveyed the ruins proudly, his own personal version of King of the Mountain. Listening in the quiet for a moment and hearing little more than the rustling of trees and caws of crows, the man screeched his best screech and watched with joy as the birds flew out of the trees and further away.

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah flipped breezily through the book in her hands as Saul picked over his treasures, more than happy with find. Oliver was forever needing new stories and she had already read him 'Treasure Island' and '20, 000 Leagues' about a million times each; not that ether of those books should be read to a five year old child, but this was also the boy who insisted she read him 'Faust' when he was three. If she could just remember enough of it...--

"Come on, let'th go!"

She looked over her shoulder as the young man with pointed ears started striding out the door. Reluctantly, Delilah put the book back on the shelf and followed after him, hand drifting to the hilt of her knife out of habit as she checked the corner (WHYDIDN'THECHECKTHECORNERS D: [/I]). She would walk calmly behind him, as he barreled on ahead to a park, smiling as he took off. Was it just her, or did the boy not really seem to get out too much? She would take a seat on the swing as he screamed his dominance at the nearby crows, causing them to take wing. She laughed, shaking her head as she lightly started to pump her legs, causing the thing to start moving.

"Whheeeeee[/i]

"So, we know why I'm out here,"[/color] she called over to him as the swing started to pick up speed. Oh, the nostalgia...the last time she was on swings was probably when she was twelve. More than ten years ago. Now she felt absurdly old.

"What about you? I'm getting an almost 'Ferris Buller's Day Off' vibe from you."[/size]

[Saul Kelly]

Bored with scaring the birds, the boy swung down to a horizontal bar and threw his legs over it to hang upside down. Rocking forward and back for awhile, Saul scrunched his nose up, clearly confused by Delilah's observation.

"What'th that? It thoundth like a bad thing." Frowning, he ran the words through his head again. Nope, never heard of a 'Ferris Bueller' or his day off. The boy swung pensively for a moment before dropping down and flopping down onto the swing adjacent to the girl's, too large to comfortably sit in the narrow seat. Soon, he too was high in the air, able to survey the area with ease, and still he saw nothing but an empty park and his temporary traveling companion.

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah laughed to herself, not actually a fan of the movie. "It was a bad thing." She could have thought of a MILLION better things to do than take a Ferrari for a joy ride. I mean Ferrari? Seriously? Pshaw. Lamborghini was where it was at.

Anyway.

Her swinging was almost parallel to the bar now and as her momentum drew her backwards, Delilah tucked her legs up to the plastic seat, and pushed off with her feet, launching herself towards the bar. Catching onto it with both hands, Delilah would kick her legs forward to force her momentum up and over the bar...and touched down hard with her feet, sitting in a low crouch on top of the swing set.

"It's this movie where this teenager guy skips school to do awesome things and everyone tries to give him a hard time about it but he gives no fucks and just does his own thing. Sound like your kind of day?" She would look down from her perch at hi, Grinning wryly.

[Van]

SPOILER: Click to show

music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BOx4jlIH_g

Welcome to your Prophecy

---

A leafy rustle from the Eastern edge of the park would sound, hardly discreet. More furtive, however, was the sudden appearance of two strangers looming at the border of the sidewalk and the sand.

The men were slender and tall, with a perplexing mix of both gracile and rugged features about them: their faces were handsomely elfish but sickly gaunt, their pensive eyes glinted with something eerily animalistic, their hands were willowy, with long nails, but were worn and wrinkled, and they held themselves with poise but their dirty fur-lined robes seemed crude and primitive, and they wore no shoes. The age of these men was indecipherable, for though their hair was long and grey, their cryptic faces retained a celestial air of youth, and though their hands were withered, they moved with faerie-like finesse. The most striking and unsettling detail pertaining to the strangers’ appearance would be, of course, the sticky blood that stained their maws and dripped down their sinewy necks, as flagrantly raunchy as panthers after a kill.

Saul might have seen them around once or twice, but more likely, he might not have… but they had certainly seen him. These creatures, two of the more elusive members of a congregation of notorious for not existing, had been keeping their eyes on the boy ever since a certain incident grabbed their attention, while most others were inclined to reject the entire experience. These two in particular found themselves most… intrigued.

”His evil bidding to the birds the Wolf bays,”

[/b] one of them slyly grinned. ”And see how the devious Raven plays,” added the other, though it would always be impossible to tell which man was speaking, as both of their mouths seemed to move in unison while only one ominous voice could be heard.

”A overt omen of good fate in store,”
”Precisely the sign we are watchful for.”
”When the Wolf and the Raven are in league,”
”The spoils are ours in the coming krieg.”
[/blockquote][/size]