Prinz

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

Amity was glad that her Aett seemed to be getting along well. They'd already figured out their configurations and-
"Brains, Brawn, Beauty and Booze, huh? Not half bad, Mako."
Makorai and Dawn seemed like genuinely good people between Dawn's sympathetic gaze and Mako's shoulder rub. Lucky her, getting such nice people.
Wouldn't it just be such a shame if they died off?
"Shut the hell up."
Quieting her internal dialogue, Amity smiled at the two near her. "I think Dawn has the right idea. I don't think any of us have the inclination to get our heads bitten off." Amity grinned.

It would've gone very well if Clifton hadn't slid into the room and casually announced a World Eater's appearance.
It would've gone well if Clifton hadn't slid into the room and not-so-casually announced a Jotun's appearance.
It would've gone well if Amity hadn't tuned in at the specific moment he said the word 'Jotun'.
It would've gone well if Amity wasn't a complete and utter psychopath when it came to Jotun.

It wasn't going to go well.

The world stopped, Amity's breath catching in her throat. Her pupils dilated immediately, the rune on her stomach glowing brightly as she reached over and gripped her sword for dear life. Gritting and grinding her teeth, the redhead doubled over slightly.
No, no, not here. Not here. Hold on. It's just a Jotun.
JUST A FUCKING JOTUN?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! JUST A FUCKING J O T U N?!
Amity's breathing quickened as she grunted to herself, trying her hardest to keep her temper in check.
"A Jotun up north, going around and killing lots and lots of innocent people. Why're you still here?"
Why was she still in the training hall?

Wrenching her slab of metal from against the wall, Amity shot over to the nearest weapon rack and grabbed a sword. By this time, the others had already likely filed out into the van, Amity's mind having gone completely and utterly blank for at least an entire minute while she processed the information.
By information I mean "THERE'S A JOTUN GO BUTCHER IT".
Looking the rack of weapons over, it didn't take her long to stuff that sword between her teeth and grab a third- of course, these were your normal longswords compared to her actual weapon. Biting down into the hilt of the sword so hard that it hurt a little, Amity rocketed from the training room like a raging bullet. She slammed into the wall in the hall just outside and pushed off of it. Rage filled her body, her mind, overtaking her as she exploded out the front door of the mansion.
Blood-red eyes focusing on the van for a moment, the information reached her ears and she gave a rough grunt before stepping back and jogging backwards a little bit. She ground her teeth against the hilt in her mouth.
"MAKO GO! HIGH GROUND, COVER ME!" She didn't have time to wait, or time to waste words. Besides, soon enough her ability to speak wouldn't even exist anymore. On top of that, there was a sword in her mouth. Unable to stop herself from letting out a blood-curdling scream as she bared her teeth in savage rage, Amity Veil took three running steps forward and then vanished, the ground where she'd vanished cracked and broken.
Anyone following her trajectory would see the woman flying through the air and sailing towards the north. Not precisely where the Jotun was, but close enough for Amity.

She saw red. Everything around her was tinted with blood. Her beautiful face was twisted into an expression not unlike that of a wolf's own snarl as she sailed through the air, slamming into the road hard enough to crack the asphalt below her and launching herself again and again. The sky was black, worthless in her perception of reality. Her dilated pupils flicked around madly, trying to locate the prey as Amity landed once again. She was close now.
Screaming.
Fear.
A tiny smile slid its way across her face as she leaped again, this time up at a building. She hammered into the side of it, cracking the windows around her and falling through them.
"FUCKING HELL BUY TOUGHER WINDOWS YOU STUPID PEOPLE DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!"
Roaring as she rolled and then flipped off of the floor, she rushed to the edge of the window and kicked off it, exploding forward like a bullet and getting closer to the street she'd heard from inside the van.
22nd and Vine.. Where the hell was that even at?!
Slamming into the ground and scaring the absolute crap out of the people nearby, Amity looked up at the street sign.
Well, she was close, at least.
Hopefully Mako wasn't too far behind. She could handle a Jotun by herself easily, but.. her skin was prickling.
Regardless, even if death was the result, it was her job to get to this place as soon as possible and stop people being needlessly hurt. Cracking her neck and growling deep in the back of her throat, Amity's maddened eyes locked on the sign.
20.
"20 fucking what?!"
Oh. 20th Street.
She'd torn half of the sign off when she'd landed. Looking down, it was stuck to her stomach. Grunting in.. something, Amity turned her head to look down the street.
She shot down one street with bloodlust in her eyes, intent on nothing more than a bloody massacre.
In the back of her mind, she really hoped she was going the right way.

The scent had already hit her nose like a truck, however.
A Jotun was nearby.
Amity Veil seethed, gripping her chunk of metal tightly as she bit down on her mouth sword.
It was time to cut a bitch.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

One Kana Cerulean sat in the chair beside Mitch, having been waiting in silence for a while now. Idly tapping her fingers on the table, the girl licked her lips and stood back up, making her way over to the fridge and grabbing a few more cans. Casting a glance over at the blind woman sitting there, Kana shrugged her shoulders and took a few more steps.
Out the door.
With about seven cans in her grip.
And one in her mouth because she could totally just eat the metal.
Humming to herself as she flicked her tongue out and pulled the door shut behind her, Kana sucked her tongue back into her mouth loudly and wandered down the halls.
Not much else to do except wait for someone interesting to find her.
Or to find them.
Or wait for the anticipated gunshot to rip through her body and coat the nearest surfaces in her blood.

Regardless, Kana skipped down the hallways, ignoring the fizzing cans of drink in her arms as she opened one and it exploded everywhere. She clamped her mouth around the top of the can and felt her eyes water a little as the fizzy soda choked her.
She forced her throat open as far as possible and wrapped her tongue around the entire can, dragging it down into her stomach like a trapdoor spider dragging its food into its, well, trapdoor.

Yum.

---

"A dagger. Crazy, right? You'd never guess."
Amity's eyebrow shot up as Dawn explained herself- a Private Investigator, huh? Well, Amity figured the woman was pretty keen of eye and must've also had quite a good intuition.
Or maybe not.
Amity didn't know.
More brains than brawn, then. Especially considering the woman's.. height.
Or lack of it.
Suited Amity fine, considering brawn was more or less the name of her Rune. She could leave the thinking to Dawn while he chopped up everything in her path like fresh mince.
"What about you?"
Something dangerous flashed in Amity's crimson eyes as she quickly looked over at the fake Jotun, the small smile that had made its way across her face vanishing in an instant.
"I'd prefer not to talk about that, actually." Amity kept her eyes trained on the dummy, once again feeling rage building up inside of her.
"You alright?"
Snapping her out of her glowering, Amity turned to Dawn and nodded, giving a small smile. "Bad experience with Jotuns, is all."
Amity leaned against the wall of the room as she did before, giving Makorai a curt nod as he moved over. As he offered, she shook her head and raised a hand to decline. Maybe later. If she drank while she was this tired, she might just pass out right here and now.
Gods know she wanted to.
Although, heck, she'd be drinking later regardless.
She hadn't been too focused on his words, honestly, her little daze taking a little while to wear off. What she did focus on, however, was the rifle he pulled out. It'd been customised for sure, and Amity found an appreciative smile crossing her features as she looked it over.
Seemed like he'd designed it for both long-range and close-range combat, using the bayonet to skewer or slice anything that got too close and having the multiple grips for added stability even on the move.
It was beautiful, in a less elegant and more practical way.
No fancy gems or patternwork, after all.
She wasn't exactly in the best place to criticise weapons for their beauty, however. She was carrying around a massive, bloody hunk of metal.
And nobody had really reacted to it except Dawn, which Amity found weird. Surely someone lugging around a weapon the size of a van merited some sort of response, but..
Well, apparently people were too busy going at each other to really observe anything else in the room.

"Two long range and one close range, then, I guess? Maybe one long range, one mid range and one close range?" Amity turned to Dawn, shrugging. "Either way, it seems like our Aett is pretty solid." Amity looked over to Makorai, now focusing on the two people who actually mattered to her and tuning out of the people going at each other or being completely silent- the duo before her would be the ones with her back in the field, so getting good group morale and synchronisation was key.
"I'll take a guess and wager you're pretty good with that lovely rifle of yours, meaning I'll be relying on you to keep things off my back out in the field, Makorai." She bowed a little formally as she turned to the man, reaching over to tap her monster sword. "And you can count on me to facetank most things and keep you two out of danger. Don't worry, if you need me I can quite literally jump over and get things off your back, too."
Turning to Dawn, she smiled. "Of course, I'll be relying on you too, Dawn, but I can't really put a finger on your position in the team. You're not carrying around a weapon, after all, so.. I don't imagine you'll be up front with me, though. Especially since friendly fire is on and, uh.." Amity looked over at her sword again and gave Dawn a sheepish grin.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

Amity was leaned against the wall, arms crossed as she closed her eyes for a few moments. Reaching up to rub her face, she opened her eyes again, watching as the girl from earlier- Dawn- moved over, redoing her hair. Amity cast a glance over to her sword, leaned neatly against the wall beside her, and smirked.
“That’s quite the sword you’ve got,” she commented on the gargantuan blade that Amity wielded. “It suits you, I think.”
Amity's smirk grew into a wide smile as she nodded in response. "A good friend of mine made it for me. Used to be a tiny little dagger, actually, but then she reforged it into, uh, that huge hunk of metal. It used to be a lot prettier, I promise." She gave Dawn a sheepish grin.
“Where’s Makorai?”
Amity shrugged. "No clue, actually. He might've gotten lost. Or drunk. Or both." Amity was fairly certain he'd been drinking alcohol in the room beforehand, actually.
If she was honest, she had half a mind to ask him to share.
Looking over to the incredibly lovely and friendly interaction between Oren, Maeve and Sil, Amity raised an eyebrow before chuckling to herself softly. "Let's get along better than them, yeah?" She idly noticed Makorai and Morgan moving into the room, and she quickly touched Dawn's shoulder and motioned over to the man before beckoning for him to come over to them. Might as well stick together, right?

As Oren yanked the tarp free, Amity's attention shot over to the training dummy, her head whipping around at the sound and her eyes narrowing. For a moment, her heart exploded, but immediately after she calmed herself down. Her hands twitched. "Statistically speaking, if anything is going to kill you, it would be a jotun."
Amity felt herself seething internally.
Jotun this, Jotun that. Every day was another worthless sack of shit Jotun coming in to eat people's faces.
Her hands twitched some more.
She didn't really need Oren's briefing on Jotun considering she'd spent the last months of her life relentlessly hunting them down and ripping them in half like wet tissue paper.
Leaning back against the wall and taking deep breaths to calm herself, Amity closed her eyes and counted to ten.
One.
Two.
Three.
Kill Jotun-
No, Four.
Five.
Six.
KILL-
SEVEN.
EIGHT.
NINE.
TEN.

Exhaling hard and opening her eyes, she felt her heart slowing as her tense body relaxed. Looking back up, she saw as Oren called out Tyr's Aett- the one that included the short Morgan kid and the pale, possibly some sort of vampire guy who liked sweets. He also crouched in his chair instead of sitting normally, which was.. interesting, to say the least.
Morgan she hadn't really noticed. She hadn't seen him around much, and he didn't particularly strike her interest. He seemed like a fairly normal guy, actually. Although who was she to judge? Maybe a little scrawny, though..
Which was terrible for him, since apparently he was going to be fighting Jotun possibly on a daily basis from now on.

Amity briefly wondered why a bunch of random people had been chosen.
Before her Rune showed up, she was just a happy bride about to be married to the love of her life.
The only person who seemed openly knowledgeable about actual combat was Sil, and that was only because of the weapons strapped to every inch of her person. Amity had learned from experience, but a lot of the people here looked, well.. way over their heads.
Even if they'd been in a fight or two before, they'd probably never fought a Jotun. Especially not at full strength.

Shrugging to herself, Amity took one last look around the room before closing her eyes again. She could be completely wrong. Every single person here could be the secret product of some sort of supersoldier experiment for all she knew.
She figured creating relations with her Aett was a bigger priority than sussing out everyone else, at least for now.
Opening her eyes again, she turned to Dawn with a small smile on her face.
"So, how'd they end up dragging you into all of this, if I may ask?"

In the back of her mind, she'd also answered Oren's question.
"Cleave it in half like the murderous trash it is. Simple as that."
Of course, most people couldn't do that.
But Amity could.
And she did.
And it worked great.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

As Oren dismissed them, Amity nodded briefly to herself. Going to the training hall was a given, but if actual training was involved..
Giving Dawn a quick nod as she hurriedly left the room, Amity jogged out the front of the mansion to where her gigantic sword was. Working with Dawn and Makorai, who she hadn't met yet but guessed was the guy who tossed Kana the muffin, seemed pretty fine. At least the members of her team hadn't abandoned her. Noting the trio of Sil, Maeve and Madison a little way away, she gave them a quick wave before crouching down beside the door to the mansion and hefting the massive sword up and onto her shoulder. She felt the blade cutting into the armour on her shoulder, and she worried that it might give out at possibly the worst time ever.
Looking up into the building and wiping her forehead, she wondered exactly where that pale-ass little monster girl had gone.

---

"Hand me that wrench, Reddy."
"Reddy?"
"Red? Like the colour? Yer hair?"
Only a few months after she'd stepped foot on the Blessed's mansion grounds for the first time, Amity stood in Kana's workshop, watching the girl work on.. something. It was shocking, honestly, that someone so.. unorthodox.. was able to pick apart and improve on technology that even Amity thought was stupidly complex. Reaching up to wipe some grease off her face, Kana held out her hand. Amity rummaged around in a toolbox for a bit, grabbing a random wrench and tossing it over to Kana. It sailed over the girl's head, but her tongue shot out and grabbed it, dragging it down into her waiting grip before she immediately rammed it into the mess of pieces she was working on. Amity had absolutely no idea what it was, other than the thing being some sort of levitation technology in the making. For the redhead, it was just a couple pieces of metal stuck together and apparently Kana had gotten grease on her face without ever touching any grease or greasy things. Amity actually wondered where the hell it had come from, now that she noticed it.
"By the way, Red, there's a surprise for you out the back. It's not much, but I figured it's time I gave your toothpick back to you."
Amity glared hard at the girl.
"It's not a toothpick, it's a-"
"Yeah, yeah, your most beloved possession gifted to you by your fiance on the day you were supposed to get all snuggly and then wham Jotun attack and Wargs and boom suddenly a Rune and then survival and a snake girl and whoa who are these rich fancy people and why are they taking me somewhere? Right?"
Her shoulders falling a little before she shrugged, Amity looked over towards the door to the back of the shop. She pushed herself off of the wall, wordlessly heading over to the smaller room and pushing her way inside. The doorknob broke under her grip, so she shoved it open like a brute.
That's what she was, after all.
Kana watched her leave, frowning a bit before turning back to the thing she was working on. She wiped the blood off of her cheek, glad it had dried and darkened enough. The low lighting made dark red look black, which was even better.

Amity flicked on the light in the storage room- barely larger than a walk-in closet, and her jaw dropped.
Sitting against the wall before her was a massive sword, bigger than her. The blade was dyed a shining silver hue, almost gleaming in the weak light. Covering the length of the blade was something Amity would describe as 'fancy designs', flowing blue carvings inlaid in the blade and coating the middle of the sword from guard to tip. The two sides were blank, bright silver, but they were quite fancy. One side was sharpened to a keen edge, and Amity was honestly worried about even touching it. The opposite side was sharp halfway down the blade, the rest of the side going down to the grip was host to a bunch of gritty looking serrated edges. Examining the guard itself, the noticed a difference- the middle of the guard and hilt was still that of her beloved dagger, set with sparkling gems. It'd taken a lot of his savings to buy something so fancy- it wasn't a weapon designed for combat, but a sign that she deserved something beautiful even if the use of said something was violent and brutal.
Biting her lip hard, she reached up to grab it.
One side of the guard curved around into the pommel at the base of the hilt, and Amity noticed grooves and a grip making it up. Being on the side opposite the serrated edge, it made sense that this was to help her saw through things.
She hoped she'd never have to actually saw through a Jotun's head, really, but times were grim.
The hilt itself was nearly perfectly crafted. Taking it in her hand, Amity pulled it off of the floor. It felt so.. easy. Light. It was easily the length of a van, but it was almost as light as a feather in her hand. The handle itself was doubled, allowing her to grip it in both hands with ease- like a zweihander that had been taken to the absolute extremes in terms of length. It was thick, too, at least as thick as.. what? A surfboard? How long had it been since she'd seen one of those?
It was an elegant and beautiful weapon, but the sheer size of it kept Amity well reminded that it was still a hunk of metal designed to murder, even if it was meant to do so and look good doing it.
"Kana.. did you make this for me?"
The girl paused in the other room, her features lighting up with a wide, happy grin.
"Duh! Who else but the one and only Kana Banana extraordinaire? I might not swordsmith much, but it wasn't that hard, you know! 'Sides, you wanna go and beat up those meanie weenie Jotun, don't ya? Gotta have a cool hero weapon to be a hero, Ami!"
Amity's eyes widened. It was actually hers?
Surely Kana was joking. It must've been for a well-paying client, at least. It.. must've.
"I'm not joking, mind you. Dead serious. Well not dead serious because I'm not dead buuut!" Kana smacked something hard with a hammer.
"I'm serious none da lesstest! Also there's a thingy on the bench too!" Another smack.

Casting her gaze over to the bench, a pristine piece of armour greeted her. Placing the sword down for a second, Amity reached over. She recognised it. It was a pauldron, massive, really, with several straps and belts attached to it. It reminded her of armour like the kind old European knights used to wear. Moving over, Amity lifted it up.
She lost her balance.
"It's heavy!" came Kana's cheery voice from outside.
"Oh, you don't say!"
Grumbling angrily, Amity recomposed herself and slid it on. It pushed her shoulder down a little, but whatever the hell it was made of, it seemed damn durable. Quickly clasping the belts and straps together around herself, the weight became a little easier to bear. It still messed with her balance, obviously, but she'd eventually get used to it. Righting herself, Amity moved her arm. It was surprisingly flexible, but still limited her movement just a little. It sat perfectly on her shoulder, and she could even lift her arm above her head. It wasn't a gigantic circle of metal or anything, just a plate, but it was enough. It clasped around her bicep with a belt, and also around her torso with several other straps. It sat well in place, and Amity grabbed her sword and lifted it up, placing it on her shoulder. She lost her balance again, barely able to hold both the sword and armour in place at once. It was tiring.
Considering her strength growth, though, by the next week it would be as easy as putting a twig on her shoulder.

Exiting the room with her new items, Amity glanced over at Kana, who was frowning at the thing she was working on. Placing the sword down, Amity walked over and grabbed the short thing and wrapped her in a hug. Kana let out a half-squeak-half-choke and flailed a little in Amity's grip.
"Crushing! Ow! Hurt! Pain!"
"You don't feel pain."
"That doesn't mean you can snap my spine so casually!"
"You don't have a spine, either."
"Stop taking my excuses to escape yer damn murder hug!"
Amity laughed and dropped the girl, who stared up at her with an unimpressed grimace. Slowly getting to her feet, Kana wiggled her arms as they slowly reformed from the little bit of crushing they'd suffered at Amity's hands.
"Thanks, Kana. I love it."
Kana scoffed, turning away and crossing her arms.
"You're scary!"
"I know."
"Say, you're gonna stay friends with me for the rest of eternity, right?"
".. Until I die, yeah."
"If you die I'll hunt you down and make you be my friend again."
"Ah, jeez, I was hoping for some peace and quiet when I die, Kana."
"Please. You're hoping for it now."
"Got me there."
Amity had already stepped back over and grabbed her sword, grinning at the girl again.
"I'll make sure not to die, then. This got a name?"
"Ha, no, only weirdos name their weapons."
"That's why I asked."
Kana gave the crimson-eyed Rune a look of utter betrayal before waving her hand it her aggressively. "I am so offended! Shoo, shoo, don't insult me or my anime memes, you pleb!" Amity chuckled and tossing the girl a wave and leaving. She had to prepare dinner, after all.
She had to get back before the Blessed even knew she was gone. A lie about the sword was already on her tongue. The only person who might've been outright curious enough to question her was Oren, and even then, she'd get the same answer as everyone else.

---

Coming back to the present, Amity shrugged the sword a little, exhaling and starting to make her way to the training room. She'd probably been having that exposition flashback for quite a bit, her grip on Bloodripper tightening hard. The metal was no longer gleaming silver, but stained red and black, some tiny cracks on the edges of the blade. The guard was chipped, and the two grips were worn from use.
Amity had had to use the saw, after all.
She doubted the sword was the sword of a hero any longer. With that in mind, she made her way somewhat hurriedly to the training room just like Oren instructed. She'd been there around almost a year now, so she knew the mansion fairly well. She paused, however, and spun around. Lifting a hand to beckon Maeve and Sil over, she shouted. "Hey, we're going to training now! Come with me if you want to live!" She laughed to herself at her reference.
Kana was rubbing off on her.
That was bad.
Her sword had gotten lodged into the wall behind her without her noticing as she waved, and as she dropped it off of her shoulder, it yanked a chunk of the wall with it. Amity grumbled and booted the debris off her sword before grinning sheepishly at the others. "You're, uh, in Oren's.. Ate? Art? Aett. It's pronounced Aett, Amity, c'mon." Keeping her grin wide at the others, she gave a respectful half-bow to Madison. He was a pretty chill pretty boy who was a pretty pretty cool dude.
Amity mentally slapped herself.

---

"If you can't handle me at my bratwurst, you don't deserve me at my Best Buy! It's a Marilyn Manson quote! I'm super edgy and cool and mysterious! Gimme cake!" Kana paused, cracking open her third can of soda now. She hadn't stopped rambling for at least five minutes, but finally gave Mitch a gap to speak as she guzzled a can of some orange liquid she'd never bothered to have before.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

"I hated me before the 21st century, really. Too much snake and not enough cute. Being stuck in the bottom of the ocean sure is a bore, Mitchy-witchy." When Mitch removed her arm, Kana simply replaced it. "Like really it's so boring down there! There's no tv, no internet, hot HOT ANIME GUYS TO FAWN OVER UGHHHH~" Kana let her tongue flop out of her mouth, the tip falling into the pocket of her bag and coming back out with a piece of beef jerky wrapped in it. Slurping her tongue back up loudly, she chewed the meat happily.
"Drugs, eh? Whoa, you tryina make a druggo outta me?! You can feed drugs to snakes! You'll get kicked outta the zoo, silly willy billy dilly filly! Heh, filly. Like a horse? Neeiiiighhhh. Get it? Likie neigh as is 'no' like nay? Naynay? Whips? D'ya like whips? I don't. They're too hurty for me. I prefer coconuts. Co-co-nu-tu-suuuuuuu~ Y'know there's this one anime- Sorry, I'm rambling again but also the ceiling here is really nice and-Oh, you're ignoring me. That's fine. I can say silly thing then like 'Wow Mitch you got a damn nice bootay if you catch my ocean current drift HAHA I'M FUNNY YEAH IGNORE ME IF YOU AGREE! YES I'M FUNNY THANKS MITCH LOVE YA!"

Kana didn't know what pop in a can was, and she was a little worried about opening it. Gunfire brought her flashbacks of Vietnam back when she ate a lot of people and collected lots of bullets with her cute face. Kana stuffed that thought back into one of about 75.3 mental vaults and-
"OH AN INTERROGATION ROOM NICE I LIKE THESE ARE YOU GONNA GRILL ME UP REAL GOOD UGH PLEASE DO MMMM~!"
Kana flopped into the room, rolling across the floor towards the fridge and giggling to herself before flipping upright like she was some sort of Dracula and ripping the fridge open. She grabbed approximately 6 cans of different drink and then booted the fridge shut with her rump, bouncing like a kangaroo over to Mitch and taking her seat.
Usually, it would make sense for someone to sit across from the person interrogating or whatevering them.
So Kana sat directly beside Mitch and put her head on the tasty woman's shoulder instead. Cracking open a can of drink, she poked Mitch in the side and made a raspberry.
"Uguuu~ Call me 'Adorable Kana-chan the Magnificent Chaos'! instead! I don't go by Jormununununungrgrrrrbllh anymore, so Kananananana will doosies~!" Without her need to maintain relative normalcy, Kana's usual bubbly self came out.
Not literally bubbly. That'd be disturbing.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

"Cleanliness is next to godliness, huh? Remind me to stop showering from now on."
Kana once again turned to the man, nodding to herself cheerfully.
"Ah, well, I do go by Kana, so that's one question down. I don't think you'd exactly react well to the answer to your second question- well, maybe. I'm just a cute, lost albino girl who wandered into the wrong neighbourhood while looking for something of hers that's gone missing, is all~"
Shrugging to herself, Kana sat down on the floor as the delicious scent grew even stronger than before. Her smile widened just a teensy bit.
And by that I mean a lot because Kana has a problem. Several, actually.
"As for that explanation.. that'll elicit the exact same response, really. Shame. I don't want this place trying to kill me just for coming here, y'know, my well dressed new friendo?"
As the fancy new smell turned the corner, Kana looked over. Pretty plain, honestly. Practically a regular human.
Which really made sense for someone who smelled how they smelled. Kana slowly stood up again, cracking her neck loudly and flicking her forked tongue out to grab yet another scent from the person before her.
"Far worse, huh? I doubt our lovely serial killer friend could really hurt lil' old me, though. I'm a special case." She turned to Clifton and gave him a wink and poking her tongue out like she was some sort of anime girl.
Turning back to the delicious one, Kana grinned, putting her tongue back in her mouth with her finger.
"Mitch Ingram. Plain name. A bit too plain, really. I'll forgive you since you smell absolutely delectable, though, Head of Security who has eyesight worse than mine if your glasses and cane are anything to go by~"
Kana paused, putting her hands over her mouth.
"Ah, that was mean of me, wasn't it? Darnie, I'm still figuring out how to do the hooman to hooman speaky thingy, ya feel me, Mitchy-witchy?"
Kana shook Mitch's hand the same way she shook Clifton's- namely without digging her nails into them and crushing their hands- and offered a slightly smaller grin.
"I dun mean to be mean, I just don't do the braining all too well, if'ya catch me drift, mate." Kana should show off her boomerang skills sometime, but inside probably wasn't the best place.
"My case, huh? I didn't even bring a suitcase or briefcase! Am I getting a cool new case!? Gosh, a nice little gifty for the adorable Kana-chan has been acquired!" She leaned over and wrapped her right arm around Mitch's waist, pulling her close and chuckling.
She ignored the remark about killing her.
"I'll have a vanilla coke, friendo. In a can. None of that 'drug the drink and replace the cap' sneaky snake stuff, ya feel me, comrade Mitch?"
She followed Mitch as she'd been told to, leaning up to lick the woman's cheek- by leaning up I mean extending her tongue like an absolute creep and making weird 'rerorerorero' noises while doing so.
This would be fun.
Mitch tasted great.

---

"Amity. Amity Veil. The day hasn't even started and it's been a blast, am I right?" She gave a respectful nod to both Dawn and Helena. "I always thought dinosaurs were pretty cool, myself. Nice sweater." Reaching down to grab a donut, inspect it and then stuff it into her mouth, Amity gave Helena a thumbs up. "Goosh donush." Swallowing it all in apparently one gulp, Amity chuckled and looked back at Dawn. "Not insomnia so much as spending the whole night figuring out if I could use a shield with my sword at all, really." She didn't mention the approximate size of her weapon being equal to the length of a van.
That might worry her new associates like her strength had terrified the blonde.

Watching said blonde angrily go off at Oren, Amity raised an eyebrow. It's not like being outside the walls was exactly a field trip, but getting that angry at someone over it was..
Amity didn't really know, honestly. Her brain wasn't functioning one bit.
Outside the city wasn't exactly the most popular topic by any means. Plenty of people had suffered out there and rushed in here soon after to escape the.. things.
Amity's grip on the cup of covfefe in her hand tightened hard, causing it to overflow a little before she relaxed her grip to avoid exploding coffee everywhere.
"So.. is our meeting on hold now since two of us decided to vanish, or..?" She turned to Oren as she spoke, taking a large gulp of coffee- she didn't want to drink it that quickly per se, but she'd rather not get her drink all over herself and everyone nearby. She awaited Oren's reply, but she swore she heard something out in the hallway, too. She would go check, but she'd wait until the others came back inside. If anything was going down, they'd notify the others, Amity hoped.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

Kana turned to Clifton and gave him a warm, happy smile.
"Of course. Chicago certainly got to him, didn't it?"
Well, this was interesting. Of course, getting away from that owl lady would be good.
On the downside, it seemed her observation was getting cut short.
On the upside, this would turn out much more interesting, Kana believed.
"I understand. I was under orders to keep quite a way away from everyone else in the staff, actually, so not even someone in your position would've known." She chuckled softly, looking down at the pocket his other hand had been in during their handshake briefly before flicking back up and matching his gaze with hers.
"Shame it almost got me killed, really. Near death aside, it's a pleasure to meet you, Cliffy." Taking Clifton's cue to exit the room, as she left, she paused and turned to Volkir. Giving him a grin, Kana hissed at him before taking her leave from the room and beginning to hum to herself as she walked.
The scent had gotten closer, and that's where she began to wander to. With both herself and Clifton alone, Kana let out a long, loud sigh and reached up to cross her arms on top of her head. When she was sure that nobody else was nearby, she spoke again, her tone almost musical
"Man, I thought security was super duper lax since I basically just walked in here, but you and that angry owl lady sure made things difficult, didn't ya?"
Spinning to look at Clifton, she looked him up and down with a smirk that grew into her trademark cheshire grin- just a little too big and a little too wide, showcasing off her jagged fangs that glinted in the light gently.
"I'm sure you've realised that if anyone was going to die today they'd be already dead, so let's not start killing each other just yet, cutie." She adjusted the scarf around her neck, licking her lips quickly as she did so and pouting a little. Her scarf just refused to sit comfortably. She'd learned to ignore it, but sometimes it was just.. ugh, annoying.
"So how many people have you killed, anyway? You absolutely reek of cleaning products. It's a bit gross, actually. Makes my nose itch. People only smell that bad if they're either a massive clean freak or if they're a massive mass murderer. I think I'll go with the latter."
Spinning around in place, Kana stared around the halls they walked down with almost childlike curiosity and humming to herself in an off-pitch tune the entire time. Excitement bubbled up inside her chest and it visibly showed, the girl becoming much more fluid and momentous as she moved around and investigated everything- Clifton included. She kept constantly poking and prodding him, nodding to herself in satisfaction every time she did so. It was utterly meaningless, but she wanted to at least mess with the man a teensy bit.
It made waiting a bit less boring. Plus, she'd already spoken enough to warrant a few replies. No need to overload the poor escort.
She wondered if he would garotte her or put a bullet in the back of her head.
That'd be fun.

---

Meanwhile, back inside the room, Amity reached up and rubbed the bridge of her nose in something resembling annoyance. She hadn't slept, and then all of a sudden that girl had popped up and started causing a mess. She wasn't a Rune, even Amity knew that.
Somehow Amity doubted that the CEO of KanaTech herself would come here with no reason, however, and that made her worried.
Her features betrayed her thoughts none, however, just a slightly annoyed, tired girl who leaned against the wall. Kana being gone was good. Great, even. She could actually focus and not be on edge for one.

She really should've brought her sword. Even if it was just to enforce peace or something like that. Clifton had been right, however. With Kana gone and Oren no longer grilling her, the mood in the room was sure to improve immensely.
She hoped.
Dropping her arms to her side, Amity leaned her head back and closed her eyes, groaning to herself before moving over to Helena and Dawn, grabbing a cup of coffee. She downed it in a few gulps, her dead eyes shifting over the other two girls present.
"Sorry. Didn't sleep last night so I'm a bit out of it. Barely got a shower in before I got dragged here. Now that our creepy friend is out of our hair, what're your names? Figure being friendly would be great even if I'm half dead." Amity gave a small smile, although the bags under her eyes still remained.
She couldn't complain though, really. She would've woken up several times in the night even if she had slept.
Nightmares were kind of a bitch.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

Amity stood in the back of the room, eyes trained directly on the pale girl suddenly surrounded by a trio of people. She'd keep her mouth shut for now, unless anything really happened.

Kana caught Amity's gaze for a moment and poked her tongue out, winking cheekily before looking over at Oren and shrugging her shoulders. "Ah well, bird lady, I didn't forget your question. I was just ignoring it, really." As the blonde moved over to her and mentioned how getting into the building was a feat in itself. Kana felt herself smiling a little.
It was far too easy, honestly.
Shrugging to herself, she crouched down and picked up the pen and paper from the floor. Looking around the room, she figured she'd go draw her rune on the table- so she did. Moving away from the uncomfortably close girl who was probably going to shank her in the back with her knives or something, Kana crouched down and put the paper down, drawing a crude circle on it before nodding to herself in admiration and standing back up, handing the paper to Oren. If the lady didn't take it, Kana just stuffed it against her chest and let the paper go.
Humming to herself, she took another look around the room and reached up, putting her hands on her head and then remembering her muffin. Biting into it greedily, she took a bite that could be described at least as 'worryingly large' and then chewed about three times before swallowing the food in her mouth easily.
"Sure is a nice place here, really. I imagined they'd have bigger walls or thicker doors, but getting in here was a bit stupid easy." She clicked her fingers, nodding to herself as she spun back around to face the two obviously higher-up people in the room.
"I go by the name of Kana Cerulean, if you're really that curious. So you're the new, fancy rune guys everyone's been talking about, huh? Can't say I'm not surprised. I figured you'd all look flashy and cool, but you're all awfully normal lookin'. No offense, really."

Shrugging to herself, Kana gave everyone a small bow.
"Gotta admit, a few of you little cuties really made it hard for me. I guess since the gig's up I can come clean. Technically, I'm your superior. I was sent in here to mess with a few of you and see if you'd catch on. Luckily for you, you have your bird-like friend here to do all the work for you." She gestured to Oren, giving her a thumbs up. "Good job. Nice security." Leaning back against the wall behind her, she idly cracked her neck and crossed her legs.
"Now we wait, I suppose. Don't we, handshake man?"

She was lying through her teeth again, but now she'd given herself plenty of wiggle room. Questions could be deflected, and Kana introducing herself by name was bound to make it just a little more believable.
Of course, the biggest clue sat in Kana's circle drawing, but she doubted anyone would be that insightful- or really put a circle to her name.
Still, the blonde girl naming her sword after her gave her a good chuckle.
She supposed it was a pretty alright lie, especially since she could always drag that voice in suit boy's ear into the equation.
Having such good hearing was a bit annoying most of the time since it made music a bit painful, but it came in handy.
Kana took another deep breath, licking her lips.
She caught a scent.
Beyond the special scent filling the room, another scent.
She closed her eyes and grinned.
It smelled great.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

@xXSINXx I would heavily advise against trying to sleep with the snake cx
Imagine waking up the morning after with a bunch of snakes in your bed.

The Runes (In Need of Players!)

Where to begin?
Kana looked up at the woman addressing her, locking eyes with her own.
"You look like a bird."
Idly taking the pen and paper from the woman, Kana scrutinized it before putting it aside. The woman was distracted for a moment regardless, and Kana was fine with that. Of course, it was doubtful she wasn't under scrutin-
Aaaand a door slammed across the room.
"Well fuck me sideways that's a bit much."
Looking up at Volkir, she grinned and nodded. "Yep, friends! Let's all be good friends!"

Giving the redhead who entered the room the briefest of glances, she cocked her head to the side as something clicked in the back of her head. Shrugging to herself as Amity introduced herself, a tiny smirk slid across Kana's lips.
Amity herself took a moment to straighten her collar, chuckling nervously as she walked properly into the room. Noticing the blonde woman practically about to collapse, Amity gave her a happy wave and smile before moving over to the muffins.
"Hey, I'll take one of these."
Stuffing the muffin into her mouth, she gave Jeddah a thumbs up as she ate. She hadn't eaten in about 12 hours, too buys swinging around her giant weapon to really do much else. Her entire body was aching, honestly, and getting something in her stomach sounded great.
The comments by two of the other Runes fully registering in her mind, she went to respond with a mouth full of muffin but held up her hand and swallowed quickly.
"Ah, yeah. I'm getting better, but right now all I can really do well is-"
The muffin smushed in her grip.
"Not hold things. I can swing a pretty big sword around, though, which is fun."
Amity didn't think telling everyone just how big her weapon was would make this any less awkward, so she didn't. They'd find out later, maybe. Turning back around as two new people entered the room, Amity gave them a quick look over.
One was a girl wearing possibly the greatest sweater she'd ever seen.
The other was a man that immediately put her on edge and she had absolutely no good idea why.

Kana on the other hand knew exactly why. The smell of cleaning products hung around the man addressing her like a cloud.
It smelled like a disinfected crime scene or something dramatic like that. Kana blinked as a muffin landed perfectly in her lap, having curved over Clifton's head and landed face-up. That was interesting. She didn't see who threw it since her eyes were currently blocked by the well-dressed problem, so she waved her hand out to the side and gave a peace sign. "Thanks for the muffin whoever gave it you're awesome and I love your face!"
However..
As Clifton addressed her, Kana frowned and took a bite of her muffin. It was harder than she'd expected to get left alone here, but at least she'd climbed through the window before all the sketchy people arrived. Wasn't anyone as silly as they used to be anymore? Sighing and standing up with empty paper still on the floor, Kana gave Clifton a small smile and took his hand.
"Care to introduce yourself?"
"Nope. I've never met anyone here before, so isn't it a bit weird for me to just toss my name around willy-nilly?"
She shook his hand as she'd shake anyone's hand, making sure her nails didn't slice into him or anything. He might attack her, but she wouldn't attack him. She's a pacifist, obviously. A pacifist that eats people BUT a pacifist nonetheless.
Kana idly looked over to the person the potentially dangerous man had spoken to just before- she hadn't even noticed him walk in since she'd been preoccupied. She gave him a wave with her free hand, turning back to survey the rest of the room.
Well, it's not like this could end badly.
For her.
Pulling back from the man's grip, Kana put her hands on her heart and swayed. "Ah, but my dear sir, is it not uncouth of thineself to ask a maiden's name before giving thou own? Oh, woe is me, thou art but a well-dressed beggar!" A soft laugh escaped the girl's lips as she held up her hands and grinned. "C'mon. We're all friends here. I have no reason to attack anyone, being a fellow Rune and all~"

Having scoffed down the rest of the crushed muffin as quickly as possible, Amity brushed a few stray scraps from her mouth and ate them too. Waste not want not and all that jazz. She hadn't responded to the well-dressed man since her mouth was full, but she was glad that someone would fix the door. Looking over to him again, Amity's eyes narrowed at the girl whose hand he was shaking. It wasn't that she was angry at that girl or anything, but Amity knew she didn't belong here one bit. It seemed like several others agreed with that notion, and Amity silently moved to the back of the room.
Of all the people.
She should've brought her sword.
Crossing her arms, Amity retracted that thought. As much as she hated it, she knew she might get dragged into something annoying.
She owed that little brat, really.
She hated that.