Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Sounds good! And sure ^^ I can write out exactly how Jacob catches on that Cas was the one behind Iris's disappearance then, haha

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Sure! I didn't have anything else I wanted to write out here specifically :)

I can imagine, haha. After Cas and Iris go to sleep, we could always switch to Matthew's and Jacob's POVs for a few posts if you want to! Otherwise, I'll just describe what happened to Jacob that night in a summary.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Definitely. Also, we can time skip over most of the game soon, since it'll just be more of the same :)

The military is gonna be super mad that she got away.

Now it's poor Jay xD

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Cas nodded in agreement when Iris said she felt sorry for Jay. While he knew he was going to enjoy watching his friend try to keep down the spiciest food in the Kinder household, he didn’t envy the other high born’s stomach in the slightest. He was probably going to be chugging water for the rest of the night to get rid of the burning sensation and quell the nausea that would come with ingesting something so strong. Apparently Jay felt like the consequences were worth making him take two more shots though, so he was doing it to himself.

When she got up from where she’d been sitting, he blinked, briefly confused by what she was doing until she leaned over him and pressed her lips against his. Immediately, the quizzical expression melted from his features and he closed his eyes, tilting his head back as he sank into the kiss. It didn’t last nearly long enough, and he had to stop himself from chasing another when she pulled back and returned to her spot. A rosy hue lingered on his cheeks, both because of the alcohol in his system and the effect she had on him whenever she closed the distance between them. She’s so hot, the thought passed through his head, and his lip curved upward in a smile as he marveled how he had gotten so lucky that a woman like her wanted to be with him.

Clearing his throat, he forced himself to pay attention to the conversation. “Yeah, they’re good for that,” he nodded. “It’s hard to be upset about anything when they’re around.” As he spoke, he couldn’t help the way his eyes drifted to her lips, and he jumped at the sound of a door opening.

“Jay’s so going to regret taking me up on this dare,” Miles announced with a wicked laugh, holding up a bright red, wrinkled pepper as he walked back over to the table and plopped on the floor. “This is a Trinidad Scorpion. He’s gonna puke his guts out.”

Cas stared at the dangerous looking pepper and whistled. “Good choice taking the shot for that dare, Iris.”

“Alright, you punks. One down, one to go,” Jay declared as he stepped out of the bathroom and gestured to his freshly shaven legs. Sauntering back over to the table, he held out his hand toward Miles. “Give me that god damn pepper.”

“As you wish, O Bald One,” Miles flourished a hand dramatically and dropped it into his palm. “Remember, no water for ten seconds.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jay took the stem between his fingers and held it up, turning to Cas and jabbing a finger at him. “Drink up, bitch. If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.”

“Gladly,” Cas grinned, refilling his shot glass. He knew that between the two of them, he was getting the better end of the tradeoff, so he was no longer upset about being forced to drink more vodka. After all, he wasn’t the one who had to eat something with ‘scorpion’ in its name.

Jay waited for him to down the first shot and fill up the second. “We’ll do this together on three, okay?” he said, lifting the pepper in front of his face.

“Sure,” Cas agreed, doing the same with his glass.

“One… two… three!” Jay said, biting down on the pepper while the prince finished his next round at the same time. As soon as he swallowed the shot, Cas picked up his beer and took a swig to wash out the harsh flavor and turned toward his friend, eager to see his reaction.

At first Jay didn’t do much. He chewed a couple times and swallowed the pepper. However, in the next second, his expression changed, and he exhaled strongly. “Holy shit,” he gasped, already starting to sweat from the heat. “I was gonna say it’s not that bad, but it keeps getting worse.”

Miles cracked up, “Yeah, it does that. You have a few more seconds before you can get water.”

A string of expletives left Jay’s mouth as he pounded his fist on the ground repeatedly. As soon as Miles gave the OK for him to drink, he scrambled to his feet and made a dash for the bathroom, dunking his head under the sink faucet to chug straight from the tap.

Cas and Miles both doubled over laughing. “I think it’s gonna be a while before he can keep playing,” the prince noticed, wiping the tears from his eyes. “That’s gotta hurt.”

Beyond Expectations [AHeartlessNobody & Summer]

“Right,” Caeyin drawled in disbelief when the human tried to dissuade him from opening the door. He knew she was just trying to pretend like she wasn’t afraid of his people. She was spinning a lie about another frightening creature to prevent him from reuniting with the other scouts and reinforcing the reality that she was outnumbered by a group that was here to make sure she died. He didn’t know why she bothered. No matter what, he was going to shoot her before he left her wretched vehicle. This way was just more entertaining for him, since he wanted to make her grovel after she had tried to turn him into her captive.

Unperturbed by her panicked begging, he lowered his silencer to the ground just in front of her feet and pulled the trigger to fire a warning shot. “Stay put,” he barked. “Or the next one will strike you in the head.” With an impeccably steady hand and a keen eye, it was far from an empty threat. Even if she tried to charge toward him, he was confident that he could kill her before she took two steps. He finally had the upper hand against her, and he wasn’t going to lose it again.

When he reached the door, he risked looking away from her for a flicker of an instant to locate the handle, then fixed his gaze on her again while he took it in his free hand and undid the latch. Keeping her in sight to make sure she didn’t run while he multitasked, he turned the handle and gave the door a sharp pull, calling out as soon as it opened, “Over here!” Unsure if the other scouts knew he was already inside the vehicle, he wanted to be certain they heard him and recognized his voice, so they wouldn’t mistake him for another human and blindly shoot.

However, when the door swung open and the figure on the other side came into view, he bristled, realizing too late that something was wrong. The person outside the vehicle wasn’t a scout. It wasn’t even a Lunairan. His clothes were tattered and not at all like those that were worn by his people. His hair was light brown, and his eyes were a similar shade. In his peripheral vision, Caeyin recognized that it was a human, but when he turned fully to look at it, he saw that it seemed different than the female that had captured him. It had a glazed look in its eyes, and it was spattered with dried blood.

The sight made his survival instincts flare, and he twisted at the waist to aim his silencer at it, but the deranged human was just as fast. It lunged and collided with him roughly, knocking the wind from his lungs and the weapon from his hand. The latter clattered to the floor and skidded out of reach, and he inhaled sharply as he hit the ground, barreled over by the weight of his attacker. Quickly, he scrambled to push back against it with his hands, turning his head away as the thing gnashed its teeth and writhed, attempting to overpower him.

As he wrestled against it, Caeyin’s mind raced. He was shocked that human had been right and that her warning hadn’t been a lie. He was perplexed as he tried to figure out what exactly was fighting with him now. He was even slightly frightened by the fact that it had managed to get on top of him so easily and pin him to the floor. Reflexively, his pupils dilated, and he attempted to take control of its optic nerves, relying on his trump card to confuse the human and slip away. But it didn’t work. He felt the connection take hold, but the thrashing didn’t stop. It was as if the creature was immune to his invasion into its mind.

Grinding his teeth, he severed the link and continued to try pushing it off of him, giving up on tricking the creature with a vision when his usual method didn’t seem to be effective.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

That's why he's the only one who could do the pepper dare xD

Yeah, Cas already has regrets, hahaha

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“You’ve never met anyone like these idiots,” Cas told Iris with a laugh when she admitted to being surprised that the only one among them who hadn’t been drinking was the one to take on two dares at once. Knowing Jay and Miles well, he’d expected nothing less from his friends. They never passed up the opportunity to make fools of each other, careless about what anyone else thought of them. It was one of the reasons why he’d been drawn to them. Compared to the image-conscious people among his family and those they associated with, the other high borns were like a breath of fresh air. He liked how carefree they were.

“Shit,” Jay ran a hand over his head when Iris told him the dare she wanted him to do. “By the end of this game, I’m gonna be fucking hairless.”

“That’s the idea,” Miles raised his beer in agreement.

“Well, my mama didn’t raise no chicken,” Jay declared, getting up from his spot on the floor. “Miles, I’m gonna borrow some shorts.”

“My god,” Cas snorted. Even though his friend wasn’t allowed to get out of the dare, he was amused by how eager he was to go through with it. Between his challenge and Iris’s, he suspected that jay was right and that any time he took on a dare, he was going to have to shave another body part. It was turning out to be an interesting night.

“Go for it,” Miles waved his hand in permission.

Jay headed into the closet to exchange his jeans for a pair of basketball shorts and headed into the bathroom, while Miles got up to go look for something to feed him from the kitchen. On his way out, he assured Cas and Iris that he would find something brutally spicy, because his dad had recently been on a trip to South America and had brought back some exotic dried peppers that were tear-inducingly hot. With that, he skipped out of the room excitedly, leaving the two alone for a few minutes to go raid his family’s cooks’ supplies.

Once he was gone, Caspian turned back to Iris with a smirk, “Okay, I feel a little better about getting hammered now that I know Jay is going to look like an Olympic swimmer. That was a good one.” Glancing over his shoulder at the bathroom door to make sure his friend was still occupied, he leaned over to touch a swift kiss to her cheek. “I thought these two were gonna be too much for you, but I see now that I was completely wrong about that. You hold your own against them a lot better than I expected.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Jay decided to go for it xD
Cas is gonna be so drunk by the end of this lmao

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Of course Miles just had to give Iris a difficult challenge. Caspian shook his head, to which his friend shrugged, brushing off his condescending look. He glanced at Iris in wait for her reply, unsurprised when she chose to take a shot rather than complete the dare. Eating something super hot on top of dinking liquor straight could make anyone sick to their stomach. He would have been hesitant to accept a challenge like that too. Apparently, Jay was more brazen than both of them though.

“Actually, I think I’m gonna do a double dare,” the other high born announced, shooting the prince a smug grin.

“Damn it,” Cas groaned. Knowing that Iris wouldn’t know what they were talking about, he leaned over to her to explain. “We’ve got a house rule that if someone chooses not to do their dare, the next person to play can do the dare they’re assigned and the one right before them and make someone else take two shots.” He narrowed his eyes at his friend accusatively. “I feel like you’re trying to make me sick.”

“Maybe,” Jay lifted his hands in a shrug, feigning an air of mystery. “We’re supposed to make the king think you were out clubbing all night. I’m just trying to speed the process along.”

“Sure you are,” Cas drawled. He looked down at his glass with a wince. Having already downed the equivalent of three shots, two more would put him up to five, which was a lot to keep down in just the span of a few minutes. He had a feeling that he was going to be very hungover the next day if he kept up at this rate. Not to mention he would have to be especially careful about picking which rounds to skip by taking another shot, since he didn’t want to get blackout drunk before he went home. There was a line between coming up with a realistic cover and making himself unnecessarily miserable.

“Jay can’t pass on dares,” Miles reminded them with a snicker. “Give him a good one, Iris. He’ll have to do it and eat whatever I find in the kitchen.” He clapped his hands together. “This is gonna be fun.”

Beyond Expectations [AHeartlessNobody & Summer]

As the human tried to defend herself, Caeyin held her gaze, unimpressed. She had already lied to him once about the presence of others of her kind, so he was sure she was also bluffing about the creatures that were more frightening than the Lunairans. Alone in the world, he felt certain that she was just putting on a tough façade to discourage him and seem stronger than she really was. Whatever her motive was, he didn’t buy it. The reality was that she was one of the last humans—or possibly the very last—on the Earth, and her death was drawing near now that his people were preparing to make their settlement. He believed she was secretly afraid, and he would just have to keep doing his best to exploit that until her calm exterior splintered, and he could kill her.

He stretched his legs as she turned back to her plant and gave him a self-gratifying speech about how important it was to value life. Despite what she seemed to think, his kind did value life. That was why they were getting rid of the human race. He knew the history based on the lessons he’d been taught in school when he was younger. When the Lunairan people had first discovered the Earth, they had seen how violent and threatening the dominant species was, and that was what had led them to clear them out to make room for themselves. Their determination to survive outweighed their concern for other life until they were stable enough to afford to care. Once they were able to settle comfortably, they would tend to the planet better than her kind ever did.

However, there was no point in arguing with someone who was so clearly biased against his species that she would call him a monster. Choosing to ignore her instead, he absentmindedly fingered the chain around his wrist, indicating with his silence that he wasn’t in the mood to keep talking to her about it.

As he let his thoughts wander to other things, he was caught off guard when she suddenly backed away from a window and said something that sounded like a swear. He looked up again and watched as she began running around, apparently searching for her weapon. For a moment, he was tempted to brush off her fluster as another petty trick, but then he wondered. What if she had actually seen something outside that would give her cause to panic?

His eyes widened slightly. It had to be the other scouts. The Lunairan vanguard had found her hiding place and were on their way to investigate it. His heartbeat quickened in his chest with a mixture of excitement and anxiousness. On one hand, he was eager to get out of his prison and return to the mission he’d been assigned, but on the other hand, he would have to suffer the humiliation of being caught tied to a pole. He had mixed feeling about the scenario he painted in his head, but as long as he got away from the human, he supposed the humiliation would be worth it.

Shifting his weight on the ground, Caeyin repositioned himself so that he was sitting on his heels, ready to get up as soon as the opportunity presented itself. The human was still frantically hurrying about the vehicle, seeming to take no notice of the change in his demeanor. He glanced at her once more, just in time to see her bump into a shelf and scatted its contents to the floor. Following the displaced objects with his eyes, he froze as he spotted something amongst them that snared his attention. It looked like a key. His violet eyes darted to the key hole in his chain, and he quickly swiped the little metal piece and plugged it into the slot. It was a perfect fit.

Reenergized by the prospect of breaking loose from his bonds without help, he twisted the key and felt the restraint pop open, no longer tying him to the pole. He slipped his wrist out and rose to his feet, turning toward the human the instant he was free. She was still distracted, arming herself with both her weapon and his, and had turned her back to him. Wrong move, he thought with a victorious smile.

In a flash, he crossed the distance between them and caught hold of her wrists, forcing her arms behind her back and spinning her so that he had pressed her body between his and the nearest wall. “Looks like death finally caught up with you,” he growled in her ear from behind, stealing the silencer back from her waistband and pressing the barrel to her head. With his other hand, he gripped both of her wrists tightly to encourage her to loosen her grip on her other weapon, which he then brushed out of her hand with his leg and kicked underneath the bed, out of reach.

In the second that he’d pinned her, he could have fired his silencer and ended her life, but he hesitated. She had made a fool of him when she’d knocked him out and made him her prisoner, and now he wanted to do the same to her. What better way than to flaunt her as his trophy in front of the other scouts?

Deciding to make her regret what she’d done, he let go of her and stepped back, though he still kept his weapon trained on the back of her skull. “You say we don’t scare you, so let’s put that to the test,” he challenged her haughtily, backing toward the door of the vehicle. “I’ll let the others in to join us, and then we’ll see if you’re still as brave as you claim you are.”