Merule

When the Roar Falls ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

And to our joy :p

When the Roar Falls ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

Autharyx met his gaze without flinching, confident that the Viltez would be able to see the truth in his words. He was not lying, after all, and even the small deception of his form was more of an omission than an outright lie. What was the point of lying when you could keep close to the truth without getting into trouble? Viltez was taking his time deciding on his next move, but Autharyx was nothing if not patient. He just sat quietly, watching the other man mull over his words until he'd made a decision.

When he finally did move, Autharyx perked up and watched with attention. He didn't know what to look for at first, but than his shirt moved oddly. His words did not help clear things up , but Autharyx nodded in reassurance anyway.

"You have my word I will not speak of this," he said, perhaps unnecessarily repetitive. Still, it was the word of a dragon and it was rarely given this freely. "You won't need to- ah," he interrupted himself when a shadow on the wall suddenly resolved itself in a stretch of tail. He watched in fascination, eyes trained on the appendage like a cat's on a moving toy. When the curved blade at the end caught the firelight, his mouth quirked into a quick little smile. It didn't even occur to him to feel afraid of the wicked-looking natural weapon, as was clear by the look of fascination on his face.

"There is no need for that," Autharyx said eventually, dragging his eyes away from where he'd tucked the blade to meet Viltez' eyes again. "Disturbing is the last word I would pick to describe you," he continued in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "It's... fascinating to say the least. Do you simply keep it hidden under your clothing? Wouldn't that be terribly uncomfortable?" He couldn't imagine keeping a part of himself folded up like that. Sure, he'd squeezed into a smaller form for this little excursion, but it was different if you used a glamour.

Who Will Break? ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

Zach patiently let himself be fussed over, and even tilted his head into the touch a bit. He didn't need to fake that he liked the attention. His kind were tactile by nature, and it was rare to get touches like this without some sort of agenda behind it. Rare enough that he still took the opportunity to enjoy them when they came by, at least.

"That doesn't sound like fun. Aren't you supposed to be all... happy about religious stuff, being a priest and all?" he asked, watching the priest watch the garden. He still didn't have a concrete plan or anything, but he always preferred to work on instinct anyway. Right now the first priority would be to stop the priest thinking of him as a 'little one'. Zach doubted there was a shortcut for that one, so he would just have to see if he could find some common ground with his target.

"I'm comfortable here," he answered the question with a small smile. "It's very... peaceful. There's not a lot of green in the city, unfortunately." He helpfully took his own shirt off so the priest could get to the bandages. It was a bit of a challenge to get it over his head considering his ribs, but he got it off soon enough.

When the Roar Falls ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

Yup :) I love where whe're going now, so more of that is good :p It'd be fun to have Tezy be a bit on guard of 'Aryx', but I think it would be fun to keep the big reveal when he transforms to fight off attackers or something similar, what do you think? Other than that I think they have plenty to talk about at the moment :p

When the Roar Falls ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

Yup :) I love where whe're going now, so more of that is good :p It'd be fun to have Tezy be a bit on guard of 'Aryx', but I think it would be fun to keep the big reveal when he transforms to fight off attackers or something similar, what do you think? Other than that I think they have plenty to talk about at the moment :p

Who Will Break? ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

Oh, I'm enjoying myself nicely ^^ I like that they both seem pretty perceptive of the other, so we should have a nice balance going on. I'd love to focus on Zach trying to build up trust, with Kiel doing his best to help the poor street kid. Perhaps he eventually feels something is off, but by then he's also pretty invested in Zach's well-being? As for events, they could eventually go into the town or perhaps one of the guys who beat him up show up at the church or someone warns Kiel that Zach is not to be trusted? Just tossing some ideas around ^^

Who Will Break? ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

Zach kept quiet as he heard the priest's footsteps get closer, breath coming slowly and evenly as he keeps his body relaxed. When the human came closer to wake him up, he frowned slightly and groaned a little before fluttering his eyes open sleepily.

"Huh," he muttered, blinking himself awake as he pulled himself upright. "Kiel? Wha-" he broke off into a yawn for a moment before trying again. "What time is it?" Once he was sitting up straight again, he slowly stretched himself out, shirt riding up to show a sliver of skin as he raised his hands over his head. He let them down slowly, mindful of his injuries.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep," he said sheepishly. "Heh, guess I was more tired than I thought. How was mass?"

When the Roar Falls ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

Even with his limited experience in the ways of mortals, Autharyx can see that the conversation has quickly taken a turn for the worse. The energy in the air doesn't feel threatening though, more like the other is... afraid? While Autharyx tries to think back if he said anything that could be interpreted as either a challenge or a threat, his host is quick to put some space between the two of them as he retreats into a corner. Autharyx cocked his head in a curious manner as he looks into the two bright spots that mark Viltez' eyes.

"Than it is very fortunate most humans have the senses of a deaf and blind mayfly," he finally answered, keeping everything about his pose non-confrontational. He had been planning to masquerade as an ignorant human, but he supposed he could adjust his plans a little. He wasn't quite ready to announce his true nature to just any mortal, human or not, but it would be nice if he could drop at least a little bit of the supposed ignorance.

"My line has tended to the shrine for generations," he said by manner of explanations. "Most people seem to have forgotten the ways of old, but some have longer memories. Be ensured that I have no intention of speaking about that which it is not my place to speak about."

When the Roar Falls ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

When Viltez turned around to stare at him, Autharyx knew he had to have said something wrong. He quickly went through his own words in his mind, looking for anything that might have cause the reaction, even as he tried not to fidget. The other's eyes were roaming over his clothes again, and if he'd known the scrutiny they would attract he might have swallowed his pride and gone with peasant's clothes after all. Probably. The inspection went on for a few more seconds, and then the half-breed dropped his eyes and went back to washing up without a word.

Autharyx felt himself bristle at the insult. So not only did his words merit another close examination, but then this mortal decided he wasn't even worth the effort of explaining himself? Surely this was not normal amongst humans, or he would have noticed something of the sort in the market place. But then... this man wasn't human, was he? He smoothed over his irritated expression when the other turned back to him, and instead tried to see if he could figure out whether his different nature would be common knowledge or not. What he heard was not all that helpful, really.

So he was 'different' and people didn't mind when he acted 'odd'. That could mean all sorts of things, but in this case it could well mean that the humans were aware of his nature, whatever that might be. He knew the mortals had duller senses than he did, and it had taken him a while to figure out what he thought the man was, but they had years to figure him out. Surely one couldn't hide something like this for that long?

"Time is of no consideration," he said when Viltez had seated himself again. "And it is good that there is much to see, though I must admit I find it hard to believe that there will be more to experience than the infinite variations my river and lake have to offer." This was to be a holiday of sorts after all, after which he would gladly return to the comfort of his own territory. Which had plenty to offer, thank you very much. He tilted his head slightly as he shifted his attention to Viltez.

"It makes sense they would see you are, as you say, 'different'," Autharyx said, carefully talking around the issue as Viltez had done. "I had not expected to hear that people do not mind. I thought that... humans as a whole didn't have such an open mind in things." Not in his experience at least. Even when he was well known to the people of the lake, they had rejoiced in placing the blame for all sorts of misfortune on those they perceived to be even slightly 'different'.

Who Will Break? ~ PopeAlessandros x Raafling

Zach answered the priest's smile with a small one of his own, nodding at the suggestion to take it easy. He suppressed a small shiver at the sound of the church bells, and waved the priest off with yet another smile. He waited carefully until he was out of his sight before relaxing his pose and rolling his shoulders in relief. 'That went really well,' he thought with a satisfied little grin. He decided to take a look through the small house, movements loose and fluid now that he wasn't pretending to be an injured human for a bit. He'd gotten a chance to look at most of it already, but now he was picking up books here and there, reading through them a little before putting them back exactly as he found them.

After going through the living area, he sneaked into the priest's bedroom, carefully memorising exactly how everything looked. While he supposed it wouldn't be out of character for 'Zach' to snoop around, he would rather the priest trust him as early as possible. Which probably meant he had to start going to mass at least a couple of times. He made a face as he pulled open a few drawers to see if he could find anything interesting. It wasn't like it would harm him, of course. There was little to no chance that an unimportant little place like this would be warded against the like of him. Demonic protection was both expensive and hard to maintain, but when applied it was distressingly effective. Which was where he would come in, when he passed this test. As with everything, the weak link in the church' defences were the humans involved. And if there was anything Zach could work with, it was humans.

Sadly, there didn't seem to be any obvious secrets stashed in the priest's quarters, at least not somewhere he could easily get to them. All in all the man seemed to be quite genuine. Zack smirked slightly as he made his way back to the door before closing it behind him, leaving the room as he had found it. On the one hand that would make his job more difficult. One the other, however, it would make his victory so much sweeter once he earned it. It had been a while since he'd preyed on a pure soul, and he knew he was going to savour it.

He could still hear the voices of humans raised in song when he walked into the garden, so he supposed he would have to wait a bit for the priest to come back. He settled himself onto the stone bench, which was thankfully sheltered from the worst of the rain by the vines and plants growing overhead. It took some time to get himself comfortable on the cold stone, but when the sun started to come out he ended up lying on his back, small beams of sunlight warming up patches of his skin as he dozed. Wounded humans needed a lot of sleep, right? Plus, he knew he looked completely innocent with his face slack as if in sleep. It would be the perfect position for the priest to find him in when he came back.