Forum Thread

After the whole cliche “you’re a hero, you can save the world together” speech, a feeling of worry washed over him. So she really believed that everyone here could do something about the current situation... If they fail that belief will crumble, only to be rebuilt with disappointment. Even if those words encouraged them, wouldn’t some sort of pressure linger in their thoughts? Was that the point? Even so, Geo felt none of it. Besides, even if he had no other choice he wouldn’t be much use to the group. The fear and insecurities he felt now wouldn’t be the last of it. Oh what was he doing, overthinking something that could probably be easily avoided. Without another thought, he slightly raised his hand. “Excuse me, sorry to interrupt but... I’m not exactly sure I’m even supposed to be here, may I be excused?”

"Some of us were severely diminished of power in the past, Miss Kayleigh. With all due respect, Missus, I feel as though I might not be of much help. If I had my other arm, I might be able to do something to help, but at the moment I can only hold a shield. A shield, I may remind you, that blocks shots from both sides." He tapped his fingers slowly across the countertop, the stump of his opposite arm in full view for all to see. If, of course, they hadn't already seen it. "In saying this, I show no pride, but I know I saved many lives with that shield. Now, however, with another threat hovering over us, I start to wonder if that was the right thing to do. With my other arm, I could easily eliminate our foes. Might I remind you, Missus, I was a Guard of supreme power, simply because of that arm." His mind relayed a few memories, of arcs of lightning flying over his shield to strike those who threatened the area. His lip twitched, thinking of the two that had broken the shield that day, caused it the send out a retaliatory attack. Of course, the strike was randomly directed, but it still made him mad.

Late was still not good...

But since no on seemed to be truly upset with him, Lauri was content with letting the matter be for now. He relaxed his posture as Kayleigh started her little speech, taking the moment to slink back a bit and side-eye the others. Though the grim nature of the speech soon turned his attention back to their leader and had him shifting on his feet uneasily.

The reveal of Kayleigh's relation to the Assassin's leader and the very real threat to their lives surely didn't make it any less grim. Lauri swallowed the lump in his throat as he re-assured himself this was the right thing to do. ...He might be in greater danger on his own anyway. It'll be fiiine, just as Kayleigh said. As long as they've got a good plan and the plan goes to plan, the world will be fine. So focusing on the plan now, not the end of the world.

His inner monologue resolved for now, Lauri followed Kayleigh's gaze to one of people gathered about, the same lad that had interrupted her earlier. He seemed especially down by all this, which is understandable but still... The two of them seemed to be close by the looks of it. Would friends with that age gap be a tad weird? A teacher or mentor sort of thing? Or perhaps... As one of the others piped up his concerns, Lauri's brain brought back the comment Kayleigh made about her son not hesitating to kill even his own brother. Which... Oh.

Well, that was just cruel. So he should definitely pull himself together, the stakes weren't even that high for him, all things considered. Not that he was that close with his own brother anymore due to how life had gone, but he couldn't really imagine what that'd be like regardless.

Finding himself opening his mouth to say something, Lauri snapped it shut again and settled with giving them sympathetic looks as he hunched in on himself. Because whatever it is he, a stranger, could possibly say in this situation, it'd be worth nothing or worse.

So he settled for being quiet, taking a while to break his attention on the (presumably) mother and son duo and shifting his eyes on the one armed veteran of saving the world business by the sounds of it. One arm down or not, having experience on their side is always a good thing. Though the man himself didn't sound so confident...

---

꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


Working together with other people? Don't make Hyde laugh.

He laughed anyway, the strangled sound wrangled out from his throat

"Ma'am, I don't know if you know, but I know that this is going to go up in flames, real fast. You're asking me, the most likely person in the room to commit crimes, to work with someone who doesn't even want to be here, a dude with one arm who's already backing out no offence darling I know you got your reasons, the big bad's brother, and oh I don't know who else? Sorry, but I 'aint doing this, no matter how good the pay or what can be achieved." Hyde wheezed, fingers drumming against the table with nervous energy. While he wasn't scared of the mission per say, he was a bit wary of a woman asking a rag tag group to a) kill her son and b) get her other son to kill her son. Correct him if he's wrong, but Hyde was pretty sure that was on the top of the list of "What Not to do When Parenting"

---

Lauri scrunched up his nose as the laughter pierced through the room and the laugher's words weren't any less pleasant to hear. He'd like to think he's not one to judge people on first impressions alone, but this guy? This guy rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe this guy had the right idea to back out since he didn't sound at all like a person you'd want for saving the world business or someone you'd like watching your back while saving the world.

"Why are you here then?" Lauri found himself asking with a frown, slight annoyance coating his voice. Wasn't this what they were here for in the first place?

---

꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


"Thats for me to know and you to find out~." Hyde crackled, waggling his finger with a tut. "Oh dear, did you really think I would tell you? You have Got to work harder than that~" Truthfully, he had come out just to hear out the job. Hyde had a personal policy of hearing any and all jobs out, both to ascertain the nature of his employer as well as get more information on a job, and so far it had been a policy that had saved his ass more than once. Surviving as a street rat meant having at least some sense of self-preservation and not having rocks for brains.

---

Kayleigh huffed in annoyance at the group's overwhelming amount of complaints and self-doubting. She opened her mouth to speak, though stopped herself once she heard Lauri speaking up and asking why they were here. This also caught Kendall's attention, prompting him to raise his head some to watch Lauri as he spoke and turn to listen to the response.

"Can we all think about this for a second?" Kendall piped up, exhaling in annoyance afterwards. "Whether you'd like to admit it or not, everyone here received an invitation and you're here for a reason." he barked, standing up afterwards. "Be it whether you can only cast shields with one hand or don't like anyone or don't think you belong here," he repeated, turning his attention to each person who had made their respective remark, "If we work together, we can better not just ourselves, but the entire world. Like-- Ouioui-Knife-loving girl, for example, can make an attacker's knife draw into one of Barron's shields which would disarm them while someone else attacks them."

Telling that Kendall was rather frustrated at the moment and that Lauri had also expressed some sort of distaste towards everyone's negative attitude, she put two of her fingers from each hand into her mouth and whistled to get everyone's attention geared back towards her. "Thank you, Lauri and Kendall, but starting more arguments at the moment isn't the best method here." She took seat and brushed her pants down to free them of any wrinkles created in the process. "I won't hold you hostage here; if you don't want to be here, there's the door. But, like I said, I believe the collective magic within this group is exactly what's needed to revert Koda's darkness."

---

Being brought up by a father who used to work for assassins, he was taught to despise and not trust the resistance. Now, he’s supposed to work with them. Looking at the rowdy lot, it seemed that what the assassins had taught him had not exactly been complete rubbish. In his pocket lay a packet of throwing cards, one of the 2 items he managed to get from his father before he was captured. The cards were made of thin steel, and he knew how to throw them with stunning accuracy. If anything happened, he could probably get there fast enough. For now, he’ll at least try to work with them.

---

So it was really that easy, wasn’t it. He could just get up and walk out the door, then pretend this never happened and go on with his life. So why did he hesitate? He already knew the answer to that... He hesitated because he wanted to be here, he wanted to be a part of it. He could’ve easily walked away when he saw the girl walk in this room but he didn’t. A small sigh left his mouth, but nothing else was said. He continued to sit unmoved in his chair, waiting for further details

Pressing his lips into a hard line, Lauri did his best to keep his annoyance out of his face. He was not going to like this loud obnoxious lad, was he? Though he didn't even need to express his annoyance as the boss's son took over and Lauri nodded along his little impromptu speech as it was delivered. Even though he didn't know what knife girl the guy was talking about, but that's what he got for being late.

Regardless, if he was already coming up with team strategies when they haven't even really started yet, that was a good sign as well. For now, it served to restore a little bit of Lauri's faith in this endeavor and set a good first impression. The young man seemed to be committed and his head clear despite the bad hand life dealt him, definitely not the worst option to be stuck with for something as big as this.

Though the whistle assaulting his ears the next moment halted Lauri's musings and he winced slightly more out of surprise than anything. He crossed his arms as he shrunk back a bit upon hearing the mild accusation of starting arguments, opting to remain quiet again. Maybe he shouldn't have drawn attention to himself like that and he certainly shouldn't continue doing so. He didn't feel the need to voice any agreement with her words either, he wouldn't be here if he wasn't in. He had already decided and screwing up his own plans if he absolutely didn't have to wasn't exactly his style.

---

Camille was tense. There was nothing more to say about her, currently. She could feel the eyes of a man following her; the same man that had assumed she would attack a group of numerous, enhanced beings, each of whom could most likely overwhelm her in an instant. Did he take her for a moron?.. Well, truth be told, almost too many people already thought her crazy and erratic - these people should be no different.
"Bourbon, merci," was her response to the bartender, whose speed rather impressed her, especially as he had but one arm. Spinning on her stool to face Kayleigh, she listened to the rather hopeful speech, the same one that most failed rebellions began with; foreshadowing for this one, she thought. The following arguments simply added to her reasoning. For most of the aftermath of the speech, though, she wasn't exactly listening - instead she was picturing her hometown, as a certain realisation had overcome her. If she were to allow the assassins to wreak havoc throughout the world, to become tyrants, the Villains who conquered all hope and light in the world to return it to the pure darkness hidden within it's depths, what would happen to her home, and therefore her heart?
Perhaps she should give the rebellion a chance.
Upon hearing someone say 'Ouioui', she perked up, realising that she had completely zoned out. Was someone else in the room from France? Her blue eyes narrowing, she looked to the speaker, identifying his awful French as a means of mockery rather than recognition. Allowing it to sink to the back of her mind, she cast her eyes around the room, examining each oddity in turn, to better understand the people she was considering as allies.

Only a moment after Camille had spoken, Barron has spun, snatched the Woodford Reserve off the shelf, and set it by the cup. Turning, he hesitated, as if thinking of grabbing the knife back from his current client, then turned back and grabbed a different knife. Two slices later, a section of orange was in the cup, next to a bright red cherry. The rest was mixed in carefully, with mentally measured amounts. As soon as the one armed barkeep finished assembling the drink, he grabbed it, spun, and set it down. Glancing at the clock, he muttered something that sounded an awful lot like "so close."

꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


"Listen, little master, I do like the company quite well. Our darling bartender makes that quite easy though I'm sure even he would like to be off the clock than entertain a curr like me. I just work with people as well as oil works with a flame. Splendidly, but hmmm, maybe a bit too destructive for the fragile pallets of everyone involved. I don't think anyone would like to deal with an oil fire even if that fire burned out the filth." Hyde shrugged, leaning against the bar. There was a reason why people called him a lawless heathen. He didn't follow the conventional rules set by society, why would he when the restrictive chains of expectations bound one to silly morals and fragile concepts such as "order" and "peace". Those things were temporary and feeting, unatanable even if one died for them

---

Upon hearing Hyde's voice again, Kendall immediately snarled some. In order to prevent himself from saying anything or having an outburst of telekinetic or electrokinetic rage, he simply ran his fingers through his hair from roots, a bit of palm sweat smearing onto his forehead in the process. 'For the love of God, please sit down and shut the hell up, dude... No one cares. No one cares. No one cares.' he thought, mentally repeating those three words as he tried to calm himself down.

Kendall very rapidly imagined the several different methods he could have used to magically murder the drunk and out of all of them, electrocuting him seemed the most pleasing; but that would make him just like his brother in the sense of using violence, magical or otherwise, with permanent solutions for a temporary problem. He just needed to suck it up, bite his tongue and work with the dude until the whole "saving the world" thing was out of the way, then he didn't ever have to see him again.

Kayleigh too had grown quite visibly annoyed at the fact, though understood why he wouldn't want to work together. She also had to take into account his intoxication. Without missing a beat, she forced a quick laugh. "Once again," she started, her tone much more menacing and noticeably deeper, "if you don't want to be here, there's the door." By now she had stepped up a bit closer to Hyde, naturally looking up to him due to a height difference. She cleared her throat and turned away from Hyde. "There's been reports of an assassin lounging around in a city about 50 miles from here. For those of you who decide to stay, tomorrow morning's task will be reprimanding and only killing them if absolutely necessary. We could use them for information about Koda's hideout and his plan to stop the lot of you. You each have been assigned your own living spacing, your names are on the keys with their respective room numbers in a box on the second floor." she informed, turning back to Barron. "This one gets no more drinks tonight." she ordered. Without waiting for a response, she exited the hideout from the main entrance.

Upon his mother's departure from the group, Kendall exhaled and swore under his breath. "I'd thought she'd never leave." he mumbled, rising from his seat. This is just perfect. You've got the people who don't want to be here, the people who doubt themselves, and the people who are supposed to work with other people but don't like working with other people. What could possibly go wrong? "Good to hear that someone else isn't planning on running around like a chicken without its head while we've all been gathered together." he commented to Lauri as he passed the other male on his way to the bar. "I'll take that whole bottle, actually." he requested from Barron, though reached over the counter to grab the Bacardi he'd been served minutes earlier. While taking a shot straight from the bottle, the male began his tread up the staircase to the second floor to find the box with the room keys his mother mentioned before leaving.

---

Lauri did not appreciate the patronizing and belittling tone of mister oil fire's ramblings and it appeared he wasn't the only one. As a faint snarling noise drew his attention, the man turned his gaze to the source just in time to see Kayleigh's kid running his hand through his hair, less restrained in his annoyance than Lauri was. So perhaps the lad's head was not the clearest after all, the added stress of dealing with reluctant people probably wasn't good for anyone his position. Though they were probably all a bit on edge due to the current situation in the world, which didn't bode well if they didn't sort out their differences.

Kayleigh, however, seemed to be working on that for now, but not in the most diplomatic way. The shift in her tone and posture as she addressed mister oil fire had Lauri instinctively straighten up a bit. He once again reminded himself not to be late again.

The announcement of tomorrow morning's task had him growing increasingly tense. That was sooner than he would've assumed even though this was a pressing matter to be dealt with asap. He had some major doubts how they'd work together when they didn't even know each other or what each of them is capable of yet. This was far from ideal. To settle the brewing storm in his mind for now, Lauri just had to believe Kayleigh knew what she was doing and she thought they could deal with one assassin, disorganized like this or not.

So he didn't feel like the 'compliment' he received from the younger half of the leadership was exactly warranted. True, running around like a headless chicken wasn't a part of the plan but... that's what he may end up doing as the lack of a distinct plan had him nervous. Though he had no time to start forming a response as the young man didn't intend it to be conversation, continuing straight to the bar. Lauri watched with a frown as the other man shamelessly stole a bottle from the bartender and continued on his not-so-merry way. So, yeah, not the clearest head.

His frown deepening, Lauri planted his hands on his hips as he watched the alcohol thief disappear up the stairs. He probably still shouldn't impose. But he didn't need to, an invitation should suffice, he was here to help after all. That was the plan. With a soft sigh, he dropped his hands from his hips as he smoothed out his frown. Then, he followed his target up the stairs. ...Which thankfully didn't come off as weird considering he was supposed to go key hunting up there anyway.

Finding both the man and the keys, he casually joined the other man in going through the keys. Forgoing the opportunity to snoop through the names attached to them, he instead addressed his teammate. "If you need a person to rant to, I wouldn't mind," offered with a small smile, "Since my job is to make sure you're in the best shape to save the world and all." Which was true, though slightly out of his field of expertise. Or more than slightly actually, he was definitely no licensed therapist. But venting at an actual person rather than merely thin air might be better than nothing for some.

Spotting his key in the box as he glanced down to prevent awkwardness, Lauri was reminded of the missing formalities he had neglected. "Oh, I'm Larry by the way," he hastily added, offering his hand up for a shake on auto-pilot. As he did so, he also remembered Kayleigh had already used his actual name before. So in case this guy had noticed that, he awkwardly proceeded to explain, "It's easier to pronounce for people from around here."

Mission to avoid awkwardness in grave danger.

---

Barron had quickly gone to try and take the bottle of alcohol back from Kendall, although unsuccessful. Pouting a bit, the man rested his arm across his chest, the closest thing to crossing his arms. Sitting down with a huff, he seemed to forget about nearly everybody in the bar, including Hyde. It wasn't clear why he was so upset until he spoke. Then it became very clear. "That was a seventy dollar bottle of booze he just snatched." Glancing up at the cabinet that held bottles upon bottles of different drinks, he absently counted all the bottles that cost seventy dollars or more. Most of the bottles were included in that count.

---

So this place was a hotel, in a sense anyways. After seeing the behavior of everyone else here, having a room on the same floor seemed like a bad idea. If anyone decided they were pissed off at someone, they could just cause a ruckus and make the situation even worse. No, he was just being paranoid. One other thing he had a problem with was that he was the most underprepared out of all of them. He didn’t bring anything for his stay here, and he was still in old ripped jeans and an oversized shirt. The attire would’ve been fitting for any other circumstance at a place like this... Well, he just had to get over it. He had no further business being down here any longer, so he got up and headed up to the rooms to find his key. It wasn’t all that hard considering how many people were here. After looking at the room number, he put the key ring around his finger and began to search for the room number corresponding to the one on his key.

---

Kendall had been rummaging through the keys in the box his mother mentioned to find his. Luckily, there weren't too many different people in the group so finding his was rather easy. A bit tipsy, the male became startled after noticing someone else had followed him upstairs to retrieve their key, though after thinking about it the task was what everyone was assigned to do. He noticed he'd spilled a bit of the Bacardi from the bottle onto his shirt, verbally swearing at the fact that he had wasted some of the precious alcohol.

He suddenly realized the other person there was speaking, offering himself as someone for Kendall to vent to. That's exactly what the male needed at the moment more than anything. He watched the other male's eyes shift from him down to the box with the keys in them, his own eyes following. "Wh-" the male muttered, somewhat taken back as the male offered a hand out to him as he introduced himself as Larry. 'I didn't hear that name earlier...?' he thought to himself. Seconds later, Larry had explained that it was easier to pronounce "for people around here", assuming he meant Americans and thus Kendall.

He extended his own arm, the one not gripping the bottle of Bacardi as if it were stolen treasure, to return the handshake. He opened his mouth to speak, though stopped himself as his eyes trailed one of the other people who simply took their key and went on to find their room. "I'm... Kendall. Nice to meet you." he greeted, the corners of his mouth tucking themselves upwards in a mediocre half smile. "Uh... I probably would enjoy venting to someone, but I don't-- y'know... wanna be that guy that just goes on about their problems." he explained, hoping the Larry fellow would ensure him that it was okay to vent to him to calm his anxiety some. His heart was racing and he soon realized he hadn't let go of his grip from the handshake, trying to slyly retrieve his hand to prevent the awkwardness from intensifying, only making himself more anxious as a result.

---

꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


Hopping out of his seat, Hyde waved heartily to anyone else left from in the bar, uncaring about the unpleasant atmosphere that he had brought with him. With a hop and a skip, he snatched the key meant for him and sauntered into the corresponding room. As far as inns went, it wasn't awful and was more than servicable. The very first thing Hyde did though, was turn the room upside down, checking each nook and crany for anything that he could use, could be used against him, or any openings he should be wary of. Noting them all down, he meticulously set them all back in place, making sure that nothing was shifted or disturbled before nodding. Well, a room was much better than sleeping in the underbellies of a city, thats for sure. With his safety ensured, Hyde sat down heavily on the floor, sighing as he ran a hand through his tussed and sweaty bangs, contemplating what moves to make.

It would be easy to simply step out and turn his back on this particular mission. Everything about it screamed at him to just back off. He wasn't a good person, never had been, and this mission was almost tailor made for the shining paragons of justice that served as their world's last hopes. How laughable it was, that he was among the few blessed with powers when he was the lowest of the low, a scumbag who fought dirty without remorse. He could possibly broker an agreement with Kayleigh but the woman's words had made it clear. Either he was in or he wasn't, and that was that. So in theory, the decision was quite simple. He would refuse the job and walk away, find something else to do, maybe kill a few denizins of darkness, business as usual.

Growling in fustration at the seemingly easy choice, Hyde angrily unwinded his scarf, throwing it onto the ground with a shaking thud that made the floorboards creak. Rolling out his aching shoulders, Hyde breathed out and let his wandering mind come back, grounding himself before he felt his body twisting back into a better form for rest. The small rodent that sat in place of Hyde squeaked once before scampering over to the scarf, burying himself in the heavy material. Perhaps he'd just stick around and see what happens. Discarding the heavy thinking, Hyde sunk into the warmth and simply closed his eyes. Rest would not come easy, but it never hurt to get a head start

---

As the other man took Lauri's offered hand, his awkwardness mellowed at least a little bit. Only for it to spike again as one of their newly acquired teammates came by to pick up his key right then and the awkward moment of standing there hand in hand in silence seemed to stretch longer than it was in reality. During which he wondered how much of the stolen property this guy already guzzled down. Though he didn't have long to eye the bottle in the man's grip before its newly appointed owner regained his attention by introducing himself. In doing so, Kendall dispelled some of the awkwardness permeating Lauri's being.

The agreement mixed with hesitation further put him at ease despite the equally awkward end to the handshake. Relaxing his pose, Lauri returned the smile on his face as he nodded at Kendall, "Yeah, I get that. But I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it and people worried about being that guy usually aren't that guy, so..."

Unsure of how to continue, he trailed off as he attempted to find more words. Though, in a weird turn of events, mr oil fire came to the rescue as he hopped along and snatched his key. So he had decided to stay after all. Raising his eyebrow, Lauri trailed the man go about his merry way seemingly without a care in the world before settling his eyes on Kendall again. Exhaling a little chuckle, he jokingly proposed a counter offer, "And hey, if I get too annoyed, you can always return the favor, right?"

---