[OPEN] "I'll post this in a day or three" or you know, five, same thing, I'm rounding up

[scornful]

Date & Time: backdated: late 09/15 - late 09/17 | following the party
Location: Outlands
Characters: a fake ophanim and an asshole and you walk into a bar. the bar is actually post-apocalyptic britain.
Summary: anyone who wants to scrap with Catsovi and the Misery following the Sept 15th party this is the place to do it. CATFIGHTS RRRRRRRRRRREOOOOWWWWWW
Warnings: FIGHTING ALSO HE DIES, GOD FRICKIN' BLESS

---

He'd finally had to acknowledge the Misery's presence and, even worse, come in contact with it after the ungraceful dissolution of Vanadi's party. They'd escaped the scene together, Cat balancing in the cove of its stationary center as it spun its way out and into the open air, unsteadily, unhappily. Through the ascent Catsovi had watched the Masked moving about and for a moment he'd considered following them back to the United Earth -- and then, just as quickly, lost that thread of thought completely. As if it weren't and never had been an option.

He lost all train of thought then. His khet may have asked him where they were going -- if so, Cat had refused to answer, instead retreating into himself to sulk like a child. So the Misery had taken its own initiative and fled back to the Outlands.

There will be... people coming after him. This is a fact that Catsovi eventually acknowledges.

After a while, it becomes something that he looks forward to.

The Misery's path becomes slow and erratic, weaving in inefficient curves, occasionally even doubling back on itself. It stops spinning so that Catsovi can climb to the very top of it, perching upon the rim of the wheel, turned back towards the city to look for pursuers -- watching, waiting, hoping.

Comments

[09/17 evening, the part where he dies] [closed to Adrasteius]

[scornful]

That awful dragon thing had gone and taken the Misery out -- not to dinner, Catsovi assumes, and also hopes -- leaving Cat alone, grounded, bewildered, and angry. He'd tried screaming at his khet to return, but if it heard him, it wasn't obeying. Damn it all.

With nothing else to do, Catsovi begins to walk.

He'd shed his coat long ago, as it'd become extra weight. His shirt was white and thin and in certain lighting it was possible to see through it-- to see the dark masses that had started to grow on his skin, oozing their way across his body, the embedded eyes blinking in and out of existence like flashing lights.

He wishes he could shed his crown as easily as his clothes. It's taken to spinning in dizzyingly fast circles about his head, like an annoying fly. He occasionally tries to bat it away but his fingers go straight through the thing. It is this that annoys Catsovi the most and, eventually, its existence consumes his attention entirely.

He goes to his knees and doubles over and grabs his face with both hands. His nails dig into the eye at the center of his forehead, hard enough to draw blood. Trying to cover its line of sight. When this proves ineffective, he lets go of a strangled scream, and slides one hand upwards to cut and claw into his scalp.

Catsovi starts hissing to himself in his mother tongue.

"Don't look at me don't look at me don't look at me don't look at me--"

9/15 [ Closed to Fairy Tail Beatdown Times. :D ]

[celestial_wizard]

Thank heaven for Natsu's heightened senses - Lucy had been unable to pin down where her key was all this time, but Natsu at least, managed to track it down. Being able to reunite with her spirit and get the key back raised her own spirits considerably, even if the not-date with Natsu earlier hadn't cheered her up. She'd given Juvia and Erza a quick message that Natsu picked up the key's scent and they were going after it, and of course, though she hadn't said anything, she fully expected her friends would want in on a little revenge too. Waiting was no longer an option - she knew that trying to get Natsu to wait for them would be next to impossible, and even she was antsy to get her key back. SO, with luck the others would catch up quickly if they wanted a piece of the action.

Lucy could tell the rest of her spirits were restless to boot - no doubt they would want to dish out some revenge in kind. Since the original thief was dead, she wasn't sure who or what had her key now - but BOY was she ever going to give them a piece of her mind. Keeping close to Natsu and Erza (when she meets up with them), Lucy glances around quickly. Juvia hadn't caught up yet if she saw the message. Then to Natsu, "It feels like it's getting closer - are you still picking up the scent?"

[explodewiththerage]

It was close. So close he could taste the scent on the air. The moment he'd picked up the smell he had activated his gauntlets and dashed off in hot pursuit. He sniffed the air like a bloodhound, the trail leading him and Erza into the outlands. They didn't even think of supplies. There was no time. They had to bring this bastard down before he vanished again.

Just as he did that Lucy caught up to them. He paused for a moment and said with a growl.

"Yeah. He's up ahead. There's another scent mixed in with it now. I'm guessing that's the guy who has the key" Coming out in the Outlands had been a mistake. Without the miriad of scents in the City it was easy to pick out a new scent.

[09/15 LIKE RIGHT AFTER THAT PARTY]

[lexiconning]

There had been a commotion, that was all Syllona knew when she stepped out on the streets. It was a very good excuse to get up and move, she certainly wasn't sleeping when word came on the networks of an attack, not with so many nightmares to keep her awake. Those were common nowadays.

The most recent one left her in a cold sweat, but the cool night air feels good. Out here is safer than in a place with many people, at least to her anxious mind, too many walls, too many obstacles boxing her in close to danger. Syllona is acutely aware she's panicking again, that running off alone is maybe not the most logical option, but she's very, very tired. She just needs to move.

Eventually she has to catch her breath though, and scrawls out a spell on the mouth of an alleyway-- a trap, something quick and destructive, she hardly thinks it over when she lays down the instructions for flames-- but, no. It's not quite right.

She traces shaking fingers over the lines of chalk. There's something...no, that's just it. There's nothing, no warmth of power, or live, thrumming spark. It's dead. Absent.

Then comes the rumbling of something huge, but Syllona is still...staring. Mumbling the spell to herself; it's wrong. it must be wrong.

[scarletrequip]

Erza on the other hand had also come for answers and to reign Natsu in if things became violent. However that didn't mean that she wasn't angry as well and she would take the key back by force if necessary. On the off-chance that the thief had merely been an ignorant scavenger, unaware of the keys value, Erza needed to make certain that things wouldn't go too far.

She continued to watch the direction in which they were headed while addressing her comrades.

"Undoubtedly. There won't be any escape this time."

[ 9/17 Misery encounter ]

[dragonlordbight]

The events of the party were still fresh in the massive dragon's mind. Of the arrival of the construct and his forced transformation. His attention having been forced away from the construct to concentrate on those 'Masked' that were running amok. Allowing the construct and no doubt anyone who controlled it to escape.

It was now, two days later that Crucible was scouring the outlands for sign of the construct and its owner, keeping carefully aware of any not of its power dampening presence. A search not without some measure of success, locating lingering traces of its presence and passing.

Thus it was that he descended to land gracefully to closer inspect more recent clues to its presence, his senses alert for any sign of it nearby.

[bloodspeaker]

Like a great many others, Adra's been looking for Cat. But unlike the rest, he's not hunting with any sort of ferocity, with any measure at all of anger or a desire for vengeance. When he finally spots the man wandering around, clawing at himself, Adrasteius feels only sorrow. He approaches slowly, glad of the Misery's absence -- he could do what he means to do even with that creature in attendance, but the process will be much easier this way.

"Catsovi," he says. "It's time to go now."

[scornful]

Clues aren't hard to find. Crushed rocks, blood everywhere. But the trail stops and starts unpredictably, corresponding to whichever form of travel the Misery had decided to take at that moment -- sometimes rolling, sometimes flying through the air.

The Misery itself is currently lurking behind the shell of some hollowed-out city, the deteriorating skyscrapers the only thing keeping the khet from being directly in Crucible's line of sight. But Catsovi is hanging out a window on the top floor of the tallest building and he spots the dragon right away, and he is immediately, enormously annoyed.

"We're going," Catsovi snaps, climbing up onto the windowsill. "We're going!"

The Misery wheels up below the windowsill a few moments later, its movements slow, apparently reluctant. Cat drops onto it.

And instead of fleeing, the Misery starts to float towards Crucible.

[scornful]

Cat's practically wheezing with rage by the time he's cleared the party, hissing into the col night air, eyes flashing and flickering wildly about as if he can still see with them. His third eye is fixated on the horizon, on the distance, and in truth the entirety of him -- mind, soul, khet -- is intent on getting out of here. Intent on leaving this world, in fact.

But the Misery spots Syllona down below and, consequently, so does Cat. The khet pulls to a halt and drops.

It hits the ground with an enormous thud, outside the alleyway to block one end of it off, scraping and damaging buildings as it lands. Twenty eyes congregate towards the bottom of the wheel to stare at Syllona. Cat himself remains seated in the hollowed-out center of the wheel, arms crossed, staring down at the girl. Saying nothing.

[scornful]

Here, at least, Catsovi remained completely unawares of his pursuers. The Misery was rolling along at a steady pace along the ground, accompanied by the sound of cracking and snapping as it ran over the debris strewn throughout the Outlands. Cat stood in the empty center of its wheels, eyes fixed ahead, as if searching for some destination that he knew was nearby.

But eventually the Misery stopped of its own accord. It balanced precariously on the edge of its rim. Before Cat could question this halt, it wobbled, and started to turn around.

"What?" Cat demanded, once they were facing the city again. "What do you want--"

His vision focused on the group heading towards them. He cut himself and frowned. One of them looked familiar. One of them... oh, yes.

Miss Heartfilia.

[scornful]

Cat's hissing fit stops abruptly when he hears Adra's voice. He raises his head and looks straight ahead, his eyes dry, bright, the blue of his irises shining against the drab haze of the Outlands.

"Oh," he says, in a high voice already laden with contempt and hatred. "And you're going to show me the way, I suppose?"

Shakily, slowly, Cat pulls himself to his feet. Another corner breaks off his crown, shadow flaking into dust, vanishing. He spends a few seconds staring at the ground before snapping his head back up to look Adrasteius directly in the eye.

"How helpful of you," he spits. "How kind."

[bloodspeaker]

Adrasteius reaches out, quicker than he ever has before, quicker than anyone would ever expect of him. He seizes Catsovi by the shoulders and digs his nails in, pressing Cat's skin against the bone, hard enough that he can feel the other man's pulse thrumming in his muscles.

"There won't be anything kind about this," Adrasteius murmurs.

[celestial_wizard]

Thank god. Thank every god, thank every spirit. Lucy glanced at Erza, then Natsu for a moment, nodding firmly. "Right!" No way would the thief get away. She wouldn't forgive him if he did anything to Loke's key. And then she could see it - the figures just ahead. What the heck was that? The figures stopped in any case, and as her group came in range, she... she could see the face of the person they were pursuing.

Saw it and stopped dead in shock, catching her breath in a sharp gasp, a hand abruptly clapping over her mouth. For that second, she completely forgets about her two friends, her mind refusing to accept the possibility of the reason Catsovi and that weird...thing were here. Because he was a friend.

That... this... this had to be a mistake. It was - maybe he was looking for the thief too for his own reason. Maybe...

After a long silence in which she just /stared/ in disbelief, she remembered how to use words. "...c...catsovi...?" How. Why. When what where? Let's go with What.

"Wh.. what are you doing here...?" Please, Please don't tell her you had ANYTHING to do with this.

[scornful]

Catsovi staggers in surprise, stumbling over his own feet as he attempts to both back away and step forwards. But this moment of imbalance lasts only a second and then Cat's regained balance, and he's sagging forwards against Adra's hands.

"Oh!" Cat hangs his head, shaking with laughter. "Are you going to kill me? You?"

[explodewiththerage]

Erza would have a tough time holding him back for long. The memory of how Lucy was that night had chosen to come back to his memory just now and it only served to fuel the boiling cauldron of his inner rage.

His features morphed into an angry scowl, sparing the monstrous creature next to Catsovi only a single glance before turning to where the scent came from

"You know why we're here, bastard." Natsu growled menacingly and stepped to the front. He didn't know this man was one of Lucy's 'friends' in this place but right now he didn't care. His pet had hurt Lucy both in body and in heart. That was something the Dragon Slayer was not going to allow to go unpunished.

[lexiconning]

Syllona makes a strangled squeak, dizzy with ragged gasps as she whips around to face them. There's recognition -- her shock of the Misery leaving her face for something more queasy. It's appearance coupled with every other worry buzzing in her mind is so sudden, so absurd, she vocalizes the first thought to bubble to the surface.

"Your...wings healed."

She takes a step back, dragging her vision from the eyes pooled so near to search the rest of it over, for a clue why it was here. Then she sees Catsovi.

Her attention fixes on him, eyes widening and wild with too much adrenaline -- briefly, they flicker to her spell, to the still lifeless markings and, then, to the dim traces of light reaching from a streetlamp far behind her...

[scarletrequip]

It was disturbing that Lucy knew this person but it didn't matter at the moment. Erza stepped to the front of the group, sword in already in hand. She remained wary of the creature at Catsovi's side. Unlike Natsu and Lucy, Erza maintained her composure.

"You have something that belongs to Lucy."

[scornful]

"They do that," Catsovi says, absently. He pats the wheel. "They have to. The stupid thing runs itself over so much."

He smiles down at her. His eyes are still blank, but they're fixed on her face, and the third eye painted -- burned? -- into his forehead is pulsing.

"Would you like to come up and talk, Syllona?" he asks.

[lexiconning]

Syllona opens her mouth, apparently ready with an answer but something seems to click and she stops herself short. She raises an eyebrow, chewing her lip.

Slowly, she shakes her head left to right. No.

But she doesn't run, despite the shifting of her feet. It doesn't seem smart.

[bloodspeaker]

"Very likely," Adrasteius says. His tattoos glow with expended energy as he centers himself, focuses. Power, like heat, like electricity, causes the air around them to shimmer and vibrate. He holds Catsovi tightly, and then -- then he begins to take.