CAVE CAVE DEUS VIDET

[Ciel]

Her body froze. Paisley stared out the window. Her mouth gaped as she struggled to see who it was.

"... Vahka?"

There were dozens of choices Paisley could have made. Smart, rational decisions. She picked the worst one. Paisley dropped her guard almost immediately and made a beeline for the window. She couldn't speak right away. She had to breathe in order to talk.

"What a mess, right?" Paisley smiled at Vahka, if not a bit grimly. "Gosh, Vahka, I'm so glad to see you."

Immediately she realized the implications of what she just said. Paisley's tongue caught in the back of her throat and she quickly backpedaled.

"I... I didn't mean... I'm not glad, but - " Okay, yeah, stop talking. "... Sorry." That isn't stopping.

She wanted to ask Vahka if he'd seen Tucker. They were close friends, weren't they? But she held her tongue and gave Vahka a once-over. Paisley's eyes noted the bandages. And the sword. And when she saw Vahka's sword, her eyes caught a glimpse of another boy, one that she didn't notice.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark. She saw the look on the boy's face. And when he saw his face, he saw the uniform. And when she saw his uniform, her eyes noticed the arm behind his back. And when she saw his arm... Paisley stopped smiling altogether.

He's reaching for something. That was the only conclusion. Could be a gun. Could be nothing. She had no clue. The uniform made it impossible to deduce anything about his stature, let alone what he had behind his back.

Act like nothing's wrong. She poked her head out of the window, bracing the windowsill and forcing another smile.

"Who's your friend?"

[Latin For Dragula]

Vahka's hand came out from his side toward's Vincent as Paisley called out to them. "Easy, hoss. She's one of ours. We might have a break from the fuckin' psychos."

A mixture of feelings rolled around in the pit of his stomach as they approached the cabana window through the snow. The only person he'd really knew so far was Marcus, and he'd just gotten a fresh reminder of how that worked out. He didn't want to end up in the same place with Paisley. She was across the line, if only for Tucker's sake.

For the first time in the hours since he'd woken up, he flashed a truly friendly smile and leaned down on his sword near the windowsill. "Heya, Pais. Glad to see you too. This's Vincent, from back home. One of the few good ones I've run into out here so far. He's a little jumpy, but after what we've been through...can't say I blame 'im."

Concern etched his face as he peered into the window. "How're you holdin' up? I mean, with what Marcus did to Eden...had to be a real kick in the gut for ya. You're stayin' safe, right?"

[Un-Persona*]

Vincent's fingers tapped the hilt of his knife in consecutive anticipation, each passing digit coming a bit closer to a grip as the girl continued talking, unconsciously wasting time. His breath was clenched as soon as she brought attention on Vincent, lips puckering in as he waited for the moment.

Then, Vahka raised his hand towards Vincent, assuring him that this girl, Pais, was one of "ours". His tongue licked the crevices between his teeth, bone grinding against muscle. He stared at Vahka for a second, eyes back to Paisley, and then to nowhere out of shame and disappointment. His retreating hand hitched back up and turned into a wave barely directed at the girl.

Vincent averted his eyes to survey the rest of the area. That was his excuse. His glove slowly trembled to his chin and lips. Drool. His jaw dripped down and he simply stared at the saliva on leather, before mincing it between his fingers till it was gone.

[backslash]

Pia would have liked to think that she and Paisley were far from "just going around", but spilling all their plans to some random chick had disaster written all over it. Instead, she just nodded. "Yeah, pretty much." She was about to go on to question whats-her-face about the things she'd seen and done that day, but Paisley's voice drifting in from the back room distracted her.

An ambush, was her first thought. Hoodie wasn't traveling alone after all. The barrel of the gun came up again, and Pia was a little pleased with herself when it shook only slightly. Aiming at someone who was just sitting there was harder than just firing everywhere in a rush of adrenaline, as it turned out.

"Paisley?" She called back, not taking her eyes off of Hoodie. "Who's there? Who are you talking to?"

[Espi]

Riley held her hands up, keeping as straight a face as she could with a fucking huge-ass gun in her face. "Hey, listen, I don't know who that-"

But she did. Oh, shit, she knew who that was. Riley felt her stomach drop.

Riley whispered in a rushed voice, "I think that's Vahka. He killed Taylor, threw him off the tower. I saw him-" Riley suddenly realized she was digging herself a nice deep hole to die in. "I'm not with him!" She hissed. "I don't know why he's here."

Riley started to stand from the chair.

[Un-Persona*]

A voice quietly whispers from Riley's collar.

"Hey hey hey, take it easy. Look, right now, you just put yourself in a bad spot. You can be smart if you stop to think, so take this time to breathe, relax, and look for a way out."

[Ciel]

"... Marcus?"

Oh. Paisley was all nervous and cheerful a minute ago. Then Vahka told her Marcus killed someone. She stared down at the floor.

"I... I didn't know that, actually," she said. "That's..."

There was something off about all of this. Why did Vahka decide to bring up Marcus? It fel awfully strange, not to mention out of left field. Paisley had a massive crush on Marcus, sure, but she never told anyone. At least, she was sure she didn't. Was Tucker sneaking peaks at her diary again?? But... Even if Tucker passed that information onto Vahka, why would he bother remember it now? It felt weird, like she was out of the loop. It's as if he knew how she was going to react. And yet chose to bring it up anyway.

Vahka was sweet though. She knew he wouldn't have done it intentionally but...

It would be impossible for her to arrive at a conclusion without more information. It was hard to concentrate on the circumstances of the subject when the subject itself just shocked her. The part that made her breathing shallow was the dream she had. Or, rather, the dream she thought she had.

It wasn't a twist. Vahka confirmed what Paisley already knew. Why here though? Why now? Her finger flicked at her brown bandanna, hitting the collar underneath. Paisley found it especially difficult to look him in the eye.

Thankfully she heard Pia's. Unfortunately, she sounded worried. Paisley looked over her shoulder and noticed the door. The wind must have blown it open. Crap.

"Don't worry!" Paisley called. "I'm just - Give me a second! "

Her eyes found his bandanna; neither Brown nor Silver.

Her hand tightened around the Vektor, still pressed against the wall, still out of sight. Paisley realized she could shoot Vahka. With her gun out and his sword tucked down, Vahka wouldn't be able to stop her, even with a build like his. Heck, maybe she'd hit his friend too, if she was lucky. It all looked so easy. So so easy. A child could probably do it...

Paisley breathed slowly. Inhale. Exhale. She was okay. Vahka and Vincent were okay. Everything was okay.

"Pia's with me" Paisley said. "We found a few others but it's... It's just us, now." A quick hand motion, towards the door. "Do you want to speak to her?"

[Latin For Dragula]

"Oh. Shit, Pais, I thought..."

But he didn't. He knew. Not necessarily that she hadn't heard, but he knew the color of the bandanna around her collar. The same color as the one Marcus was wearing. Maybe she'd already heard the announcement, or maybe she hadn't, but either way he was reinforcing one context for her to remember Marcus in: Killer. Traitor. Not team-mate.

Turned out that if you pretended everything was going according to plan long enough, a plan might actually start forming.

Just as he started to feel pleased with himself, she turned the the emotions of the room around on him. Just one simple name, and he flinched.

"Pia?"

Without really thinking it through, his head poked in through the window beside her, glancing in to find Pia staring down the crazy chick in the hoodie from the tower.

"Hey Pia. Hey Sneaks. How we doin'?"

[Un-Persona*]

Vincent straightened himself out, ignoring his prior feelings for the sake of remaining composed. Back in reality, he turned to face where Vahka was.

Except Vahka wasn't there anymore. He had jumped into the window, for some reason that was hopefully not asinine.

Vincent waited for a few seconds, making sure he and everything else was in order, so as to quell any heat he had for the things ahead. When that was safely arranged, he began walking towards the window.

[backslash]

((GMing of Riley in this post approved by Espi))

There was too much coming at Pia all at once again. Vahka. Vahka was here, but Hoodie wasn't with him. Had he followed her? Did he mean to kill her? Part of Pia wanted to give Riley a withering look and explain that she knew who Vahka was, thank you very much, and it would be more than a little hypocritical of her to freak out over him killing someone.

She'd heard the announcement, of course, and had squashed down all her mixed feelings over it just like she'd done with all the other names. But he was here now, and she could get the full story right from the horse's mouth, or however that saying went.

In a way, it was actually kind of comforting. Paisley had said she was on board with the plan, and Pia believed her, but Vahka- Vahka would understand her, what she'd done and why. And regardless of teams, he was a friend and Hoodie wasn't.

And then Vahka spoke from just behind her, and all the little rules Pia had been imposing on herself flew from her head as she turned to greet him.

Never drop your guard, no matter what state your opponent is in. The minute you give them an opening, they'll take it. And take it Riley certainly did, surging up from the chair and colliding with Pia as she bolted for the door.

"Hey!" Pia only registered the footsteps and the body jolting against her, only saw the close-up yellow of an enemy bandanna. By the time she regained her footing and brought the gun up to fire, Riley was halfway out the door.

Halfway out wasn't far enough.

[Espi]

Riley stood, but froze as the gun seemed to move back up towards here. She could hear talking from the other room, but she didn't expect Vahka to pop up through the window. When he did, a startled gasp ripped it's way out of her throat.

This so-called safe situation was rapidly becoming dangerous. Once again it seemed prudent to run.

Riley heard the clatter as the chair fell to the ground.

She heard the squeak as her shoes slid on the ground.

Then she heard a loud bang as she bolted out the door.

((Riley Parker's story concludes in Fame Has a Price))

[Ciel]

Vahka threw his head in through the window. Paisley had to take a step back to avoid bumping into him. She turned her head away, half to glance at the door, at 'Sneaks', half to hide the abrupt blushing because... well, reflex, mostly.

When your mind starts spinning with so many thoughts it may be difficult to keep track of everything. Most people find it easier to stick to one or two thoughts, working one's way through the muck. For a slim minority, this muck is manageable. They can handle atmospheric noise and they find it easy to run ten, twenty or fifty different calculations in their heads at once.

Paisley was in that slim minority. Back home, it wasn't unusual to find her on the bus ride home, juggling homework and a good novel while still being able to carry a conversation (with the social handicaps that come with always having one's head into a book at all times, mind).

Between Marcus, Vahka's behavior, his friend Vincent, Marcus, Pia, the gun in her hand, Tucker, Marcus, and the inevitability of death, she found it difficult to center herself. This wasn't a new development; Paisley noticed it very early on and took steps to change because she would die otherwise.

So when Paisley caught sight of 'Sneaks', her first instinct was to raise the gun at her. A few seconds late, it turned out, because 'Sneaks' was already turning tail and booking it. Paisley didn't have the will to shoot her but that was probably for the best.

And when the boom made Paisley's ears buzz, she didn't think about hearing loss. Neither did she consider how killing was a sin, and Pia may have just committed it a second time.

Two down. Eight left; Vahka and Vincent make six; Matt's plan is coming together; What am I going to do when Pia leaves?; these are the things Paisley considered while she waited for her hearing to return.

Adaptation can be horrifying, especially if you can watch how it's spreading.

"... I hate this." Paisley said to no one in particular.

[Latin For Dragula]

Everything kicked off, and more out of instinct than conscious thought Vahka found himself running towards what he assumed was the entrance of the house. As he rounded the corner, two events simultaneously kicked him back into the moment. First, somebody shot Sneaks in the back. To her credit, she barely broke her stride as she trailed blood away from the house. He didn't figure she'd make it far, and he probably would have ran after her to make sure the job got finished, but then something caught his eye.

Birdie. Dead Birdie.

At that point, he was too busy laughing to give chase.

In a couple moments, he dialed it down to a chuckle, followed by a loud, fat loogie headed into the dead man's face. "Too bad, super-star," he sighed. "Hey Pia, you get the one by the door too?" he called out from the side of the cabana, "'Cuz if you did, I owe you a drink. Shoulder's stung like hell since the bastard tried to shake me down."

One known threat down. Maybe two, with Sneaks biting it soon enough. All in all, everything was coming up on his side.

[Un-Persona*]

Vahka had a tendency to just disappear when he felt like. As soon as the gunshot had gone off, Vahka left to...admire, Vincent supposed. The other one, Pia, had shot somebody else outside the house, possibly another one as well.

Meanwhile, Vincent was well aware that Vahka would probably want to spend some time chatting with his lady friends, for who knows how long. Vincent sighed, not particularly caring for socializing right now, but it was all to keep up appearances, so he would deal with it for now.

Although perhaps not fitting to the normal cues, Vincent decided to hoist himself up and go in through the window, difficulty minor. He pressed and wiped his uniform once he entered, trying to reduce the amount of wrinkles on it. All for appearances, again.

Ah, a bed. Wonderful. Vincent patted it, testing it's comfort and softness, before deciding to get under the blankets and reacquaint himself with feeling of pillows. He knew he was going to ignore his hosts of sorts for the rest of the time being, but he was the guest...of sorts. They had more obligation to him then he did to them.

So he laid there, putting his uniform cap and gloves on the dresser next to the bed, and drummed on his tummy idly as he began the procedure of boredom.

[backslash]

The gun jerked in Pia's hands and kicked against her like it was trying to escape right along with Riley, and her ears were left ringing long after the echo of the shot faded. Riley disappeared into the darkness outside, just as Vahka rushed past her.

What really broke her out of her momentary funk was his laughter, causing her to lower the gun out of sheer confusion. It took her another moment to really catch up with what he was saying, and even then her response was less than graceful.

"Your shoulder- oh! Oh! Ah, goddammit, he even said-!"

You know, I've already shot a kid today. And sweetheart, he could have eaten you for lunch.

"Ugh!" Pia all but stamped her foot. She should have realized; who else could Matt have been talking about? "Goddamn, I'm sorry, Vahka." She stepped out onto the porch next to him, frowning only slightly at the trail of blood that led off into the night. No point giving chase now. If Hoodie bit it, she bit it, and they'd know in the morning. One more down, right?

"...Yeah, so that happened." She said finally. "Wasn't actually aiming for him, but, well." She gestured at Matt's body with the gun, as if to say "it is what it is". "Never even saw the other guy, but I guess he learned his lesson. Hasn't come crawling back around here, at least."

Pia glanced back in as Vincent made himself at home, and gave Paisley what she hoped was a reassuring look. She and Vince weren't exactly compatible personalities, to put it lightly, but he was running with Vahka, so he got a pass for now. "You two make an interesting couple. When's the wedding?"