Birds of a Feather

"Birds of a Feather" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Rhenco was trailing through the woods, he had lied and fled, and was now making his way to his target. Possibly unaware that there was someone following him in the darkness. Her eyes were locked on him as she tailed him silently.
Despite all that he was. Rhenco wasn’t necessarily the most aware of his surroundings. Centuries of endless death and reformation had sapped his ability to focus on self preservation from his mind. He continued to walk back towards Hiligam.
He remembered his promise to the demon. He still intended to see that through. But his thoughts…his thoughts and feeling had turned towards the goat, and he muttered his name quietly under his breath.
She moved in front of him so he might purposely stumble upon her. She leaned herself against a tree and waited, as she saw her target draw close, she decided to speak. “You’re a strange one, Mr. Rhenco. The man who has died a thousand times, who escaped death by dying. And who has been sent wandering from his death once more.” her form was fitted by a leather outfit with a hood, adorned with dark red and black colours. Should she choose to be, she could easily be hidden in darkness.
Rhenco paused in his step, and then began to approach her. “Stranger still are you.” He replied, almost teasingly. He peered at her through the evening light. “Do I get to see your face…”
“Not right now, darling. All you need to know is that i’m not a threat to you. Right now that is.” She looked over at him and took a moment to consider him “I am Orne, The leader of a band of assassins known as the Dark Stryx, we’ve been watching you for a while now.” She told him plainly, Her eyes peering at him from under her hood.
Rhenco kept walking close, his body language tilted forward in an almost predatorial way. Although his act dropped ever so slightly as he spoke in his low voice. “And…” he inquired, clearly interested in her.
Whether he was actually interested in her words though was of debate.
“We watched you fall. An all too familiar tale. Attacked during peace. And bent to someone else’s will.” She extended her arm out as she spoke. “We can help restore you to your former glory, make you a formidable foe again.” Just as her sentence had finished, a large brown owl swept down, barely missing Rhenco with its claws, in one of which it held a rather large rodent. “If you insist on continuing in the way you are however. Allow me to use this rat as an example.” She held it gently in her hand, extending it out so rhenco could see it properly. Much faster than it should have, the rat grew older and larger. Until it died in her hands, she tossed it to the owl who happily swallowed it whole. “You may not need to join our family, but we can be useful allies.”
Rhenco blinked a few times as he starred at her outstretched arm. And most unexpectedly, as he heard her words and watched the rat, his heart contracted and then sank.
How could this have happened….
He kept his face calm. “Darling…” he returned as he lightly dragged on of his finger nails down her arm. “I have been the same for four centuries. My glory is right where it needs to be. Its just that I’ve found…an unbeatable foe…for now…he’s a foe at least.”
His gaze slanted off to the side in thought, and then they flicked back to look at her. “You wouldnt consider me formittable?” He asked as his hands slowly slipped into his pockets.
“not as much as you should be” she responded, her eyes locked on him. She allowed a second to pass “You and I are more similar than you think, Rhenco, I wouldn’t dismiss the offer” She made a small motion with her hand and the owl flew away. “Besides, you barely know the kind of strength our family holds.”
“And why do I strike you as a man who needs strength and more than I have?” Rhenco stopped only an inch away from her. He eyed her up and down, and his act dropped further as he stated bluntly. “I dont like you…people like you. Thinking because we have some cold hearted similarities that I would ever want to be allies. Agendas…organizations…thinking they could mesh with how I choose to live. It makes me sick.”
A snarl touched his normally inexpensive face. “You cant possibly have anything I could want, or the terms on which I would accept.”
Her stance remained unchanged as he drew near. She smirked to herself a bit as he did so, knowing that nothing would really happen. “You misunderstand me. We know that you wish to live in your own way. We can help you achieve such a thing.” She stated, Watching his every move. “There are next to no rules with us. But we would consider you an invaluable member.” She paused and looked him up and down, her eyes went through a thousand year stare, as if rhenco was not in front of her. Her voice grew much more serious. “A war is coming, to you, to them, to so many people. I’ve seen it happen before.” She looked him dead in the eyes, and spoke to him. “Weather you’ll like it or not, you’ll need something to help you. This is our offer.”
“I’m already living as I want. I already have the power I need…” Rhenco replied and let his fingernails trail around the hem of her hood. “I have yet to ever need help…oh…so..distanful…”
He breathed softly as he tilted his head at her. “But if you insist on making the offer…then bring me the closest, most meaningful person to you. Then we can talk of offers.”
“You just saw the last thing I dared get close to. Much like you when I was that close to someone they were stripped away from me.” She said, allowing the man to inspect her. She watched his eyes to see what they may betray.
“Jarod?” Rhenco mused. “A friend. Nothing like what the people I visit feel towards their families and significant others.” His hands drew back. “Well then. I suppose you have nothing to interest me after all.”
He stepped back carefully and then walked so that he may get past her.
“Nothing more than a friend and yet the first person you think of when you’re told who’s close to you.” She mused to him as he came level with her. Her finger reached out to her chin as she thought aloud. “Unless, perhaps, the last person who was truly close to you had their life taken by your own hands?” She was almost taunting him, giving him her own small test.
“No…” Rhenco said distractedly. “No nothing like that.” He glanced at her. “Sorry…but we cant do anything with each other.”
“Before we part ways, answer me this.” She paused and side eyed him from under her hood. “How many chances to you have left? You’re bound to run out at some point.” She kept her eyes on him as she waited for his response, ready for any move he may make.
“The only way I could have near infinent lives, was if I bore the burden of knowing that any death I suffer may be my last. Thus changing everything, and nothing at the same time.” Rhenco replied. “In short…I dont know. But I am also unconcerned, it is what it is at this point.”
“here, give me your hand, let me show you something I bet you’ve never seen before” She reached her hand out, almost expectantly. Readying herself to give him a taste of her power.
“Under a condition…” Rhenco paused, and then drew a small vial out of his pocket, a red liquid dark, and murkey inside. “If I do…theb you get to do something you’ve probably never done before in turn.”
A few seconds passed as she thought. She had been expecting a movement from him. But an experience for an experience. That sounded like a fair trade. “If you can guarantee that no harm shall come to me, then it shall be so.” She stayed with her hand out and looked at rhenco. Wondering weather he would take her hand or give her the vial.
Rhenco let a drop of the red card land in his palm, his eyes glinting. “Deal.” He said, and grabbed her hand.
@hookedhookless
As he grabbed her hand she flowed something unseen into him. He felt as though he got slightly younger, like there was more spring behind him. He was being filled with the life energy of the rat which he’d seen her kill. Yet she herself felt something, something was off with what he’d done. She was getting a headache, she pulled her blade out from her side and pointed it at him. “what did you do to me? I swear youd best be ready to die again.”
Rhenco stepped backwards smoothly.
The flow of extra vaitility felt rejuvenating. Pure…it clashed bitterly with the foul mind and poison he allowed into his body.
“If it’s any consolation…” he began with the ghost of a smile. “I planned on ripping my own heart out over that little…touch…” he met her gaze, practically able to see the red card beginning to cloud her mind.
“Things are going to start getting a little blurry…and you’re going to start to want to do things you haven’t tried before. Consider this my final answer to your organization’s offer…goodbye.”
For the first time in a long time, heat rose in her body, she was getting angry. She grabbed one of her daggers from behind her and threw it at him quickly. She jumped back and dissapeared away from him. She hadn’t gone far, just for enough that he would be able to track her. She sat tired against a rock and held her head “Son of a bitch” She mumbled as she sat and tried to focus on anything but the pain.
The dagger struck Rhenco in the back of his retreating head, sinking to its hilt, and the man hit the ground, face first, like a tree cut from its roots.
Orne sat by, making sure her breathing was going to help her through. She pressed into her head a bit and as soon as the pain had eased off slightly she called out to the trees “Aria, can you come out now? I need your powers”
She dropped down lightly from her hiding spot in the trees, and came up to Orne, sending a surge of green light to her. The woman felt the ease of pressure, her entire body tingling in the magic, and she relaxed.
Aria stood to her feet when she was done, glancing towards Rhenco’s prone figure, “Did you get him?”
“To join us? No. Dead? Yes. The bastards infected me with something.” She slowly stood up next to Aria, holding herself up with an arm around her. “Thank you darling. You’re an asset to the Stryx” She pulled her hood down, revealing long black hair as she took in air without her mask on. She looked over at the body of rhenco and sneered. “He has his chance, we’ll kill him until his last death.”
She supported Orne by the waist as she leaned heavily on the half rabbit. Aria continued peering towards Rhenco, her big, green eyes flashing in the sunlight, many things runnijg through her young mind, before turning towards where she came from. She grinned up reassuringly at Orne, “Yeah! Come on, let’s get back.”
Rhenco body slowly burnt and froze over with its usual black ash. But for a moment a scale of it fell away from his eye, and his gaze fell on the two girls, studying them. He committed their posture, features, and clothing to memeory. Then he halted his re-generation, and the eye rolled back up into his head.
She smiled and held Aria gently. Knowing that she couldn’t support herself without the healer there. “You’re always right where I need you.” She looked around them and back at Aria. “As you say, we should get back”
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:Aria Lindholm
Category:Rhenco
Category:Orne