Shared Story: Character Campfire

Fixed the wing thingy

"Ranks, Members like my friend have gone through a ritual and know their rules. They are walking dead." Sano realises that this doesn't really clear things up so he continues. "But sometimes they force other people to... I don't want to kill drug addicts or gamblers that owe the wrong people money."

After a few seconds of walking. "And for some important jobs they hire people with skills. Sometimes it's difficult to draw a line."

Coming closer to the fire Sano sees the silhouette of Damien and on the other side of the fire there's an other big beast. Is it dragon? It doesn't look like a normal dragon. He looks more like a Tattoo-dragon, that kind with tigers, koi and whatnot he had seen on those people.

He also sees a small winged humanoid. Is it an angel? Maybe a cosplayer? There is no normal people there except maybe that cosplayer. That's good, it means that they aren't here yet.

edited 13th Nov '12 5:44:52 AM by m8e

"From a hot air balloon," Damien explained, after he had swallowed, "that fell out of the sky while we were looking for water." He looked around. "Place just kind of sucks in travelers, from what I've seen. Mind the wolves."

He turned to the dragon next. "And what do you think happened? I bet Mud never goes as far as the convenience store without turning someone into something they weren't. There were a lot of things to carry, and for five minutes, turning someone into a gryphon actually seemed like the simplest solution."

edited 13th Nov '12 4:19:53 PM by DaeBrayk

Morgan simply nodded in response to Damien, finding the answer satisfactory. While there were some questions that were brought up, they weren't the sort that urgently needed answered and were more out of curiosity than anything, and these other people the not-usually-a-griffin mentioned could and possibly would explain in more detail.

She was about to respond to Razugual, but as he seemed ready to talk to Damien she simply decided to wait it out. Instead, she looked out into the desert, where sure enough she thought she could see something that looked like a pair of humans making their way towards the fire. Well, she thought they were humans, anyway. The constrast between the fire's brightness and the dark of the night made it a little difficult to tell if she was seeing things correctly. If she was, then the issue of feeding would be slightly less dire. But only slightly less; there was still the issue of agreement to sort out.

She shuddered slightly and decided to not think about the problem until/if it actually became reality and not just potential.

Razugual went silent for a moment, the strangest expression on his face. It was something like pain. "And I reckon he wouldn't take no for an answer?" He sighed, staring one moment into the fire, then up at Damien, then down into the fire for longer, then finally, up at Damien.

"Look, Damien, I'm sorry about Mud. I admit he's a little unrestrained..." Razugual shifted uncomfortably, which was a very amusing sight for a creature of his size. "I should have gone with you and made sure that he didn't indulge in his little... magic tricks." He shook his head and stared again at the fire. "Besides having the guy turn you back, if there's anything I can do Damien, just... just ask."





"Ah, so it appears I was mistaken!" The magician's face wore a huge smile as he looked at Sano. "My dear Sano, are you a hitman?" He said the words as though the notion was almost too unbearably hysterical for him to bear. "And instead of you killing these people, you want me to turn them into doves?" He was grinning now, perhaps far too delightedly.

"I started as one of those gamblers and then they found me useful. But I ended up with a lot of cash so hitman might be correct." Sano goes quiet for a moment. "Turn all of them into doves incase they have real people with them." Sano does air quotes at real people. "And wait till I give you a signal."

Seeing the mess Damien had done with the boxes Sano runs to the campfire and opens the cooler with the treats. The smell of booze spreads around the campfire.

Sano takes a look around the campfire. "Why do I always do this? Run for stuff and ignoring people." Sano goes to the dragon, reaches out his hand to shake the dragons. "Hello Mr. Dragon, my name is Sano."

Damien felt the pit of his stomach cool as he stared at the dragon. "I didn't try 'no.' He can change me back... can't he?"

Mud nodded, his lips slightly puckered under his curly mustache. "Real people, of course. Preemptive action so as we might avoid further catastrophe. Excellent, brilliant, magnificent. I shall be waiting then." He did not follow Sano when the man sped ahead towards the campfire, instead stopping at the edge of it's bright light's reach, and looking around the desert in consideration. The wolves were still present, maintaining some distance after what had happened to their fellows, though that distance was steadily closing.





Razugual was surprised that Damien had been compliant with Mud's demands. It did not seem the typical nature of a person to give up what they were at another mans behest, or even the world's behest, whether there was a choice or not. He stirred over these thoughts for a moment before quickly realizing that his wording may have given the man— gryphon— Damien, the wrong idea.

"Oh- yes, yes, of course! At least, I think... probably. He's done it before." Razugual was perhaps not the best for giving reassurance. He fiddled with his clawlike hands as he fumbled with his explanation. "I said besides because I assumed that... that particular request, would be a given." His mouth shifted into the best reassuring smile he could manage. "No worries, I'll get him to change you back, even if I have to-"

Razugual stopped when he heard the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching. He looked up, greeted by the sight of a man he'd not seen before running to one of the nearby boxes Damien had spilled. Razugual cocked his head in confusion, and was about to call out to the man, when the man himself seemed to realize what he was doing, even going so far as to state it aloud. Before he knew what was happening, Razugual found the man before him, reaching out to shake his, his hand. It was under unusual circumstances when Razugual was the one hesitating to return a handshake. He did finally, saying, "H-hello stranger... You certainly aren't shy." He paused for a moment and narrowed his eyes in what may have been curiosity, asking, "What makes you think that I'm not sitting here considering how best to eat you right now?"

It's a shame I couldn't go through with that Dae Brayk. It poses an interesting conflict, but I'd have to skew what Mud is capable of and what Raz knows he's capable of to make it work. Still, gives me some interesting food for thought.

edited 14th Nov '12 10:48:18 PM by Ryuhza

Sano thinks for a moment to come up with a good answer to the dragons question. He decides to use another Lao Tzu quote. It might give the dragons something else to think about, or maybe even amuse him. Maybe not the quote itself but the whole situation.

""There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent."" Sano calmly tells the dragon while doing air quotes. "I don't think we want to be opponents."

Sano then gets seated by the fire next to the strange girl. He takes a look at her and tries to figure out if she is a vampire or someting else. She have fangs but they can be glued on, the wings look real and she got claws instead of nails. She is clearly not a normal human. Sano decides to sit and wait for Mud.

edited 15th Nov '12 1:40:35 AM by m8e

The conversation between Damien and Razugual was getting rather interesting. Apparently, Razugual's companion, who apparently was called Mud, was the one who turned Damien into a griffin. It also sounded like Razugual was going to get Mud to turn Damien back into...his original form.

Morgan wasn't quite sure what to make of this information. On one hand, she was seriously bothered by the knowledge that someone here had the ability to turn people into monsters and didn't quite have the restraint to resist doing it. On the other hand...she glanced at her claws, wondering if this Mud person would be capable of undoing this vampire curse and turn her back into a normal person. She'd love to go back to being of a species that wasn't so stimatized, and especially being able to eat normal food instead of blood.

Her train of thought was interrupted when the people see saw earlier finally arrived at the campfire, as announced by footsteps, and the smell of alcohol drifted through the air. She wrinkled her nose at the scent - while she never tasted the drink herself, she always thought it smelled vile, and that wasn't getting into how strangely the people who drunk it tended to act.

She turned to see just who had cracked open the stuff, just in time to see the newcomer try to shake hands with (and apparently confusing the hell out of) Razugual, introducing himself as Sano. Okay, it looked like he had no fear, which was rather stupid from Morgan's experience since, well...she herself had been outright terrified of the big glowing dragon thing when he first tried talking to her, and even now she wasn't quite sure if he really didn't want to eat her. The fact that Razugual had just outright brought that possibility up to Sano made the scenario a little less likely.

She shrugged. Razugual could handle Sano well enough, she figured - if Sano was indeed one of the two figures she spotted earlier, then the other one couldn't be too far behind. She was about to look around for this other figure when Sano promptly decided to drop himself right next to her and start looking her over. By the looks of things, he was eyeballing her wings and whatnot; not exactly something Morgan appreciated. It was bad enough that she wasn't supposed to be a vampire in the first place, and she definitely didn't like it when the fact was rubbed in her face.

"...Yes?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sano notices that his behavior bothers her so he moves a few feet further away from her and closer to the dragon. He wanted to wait for Mud. Mud might know her and maybe make it unnecessary to ask. But now she is sitting there with a raised eyebrow waiting for Sano to say something. She might even be waiting for that question.

Then he finally utters "Hi, I'm Sano, and you are?".

He wanted to know if she is a vampire or not. He couldn't ask straight out. But now he at least is going to get her name.

edited 15th Nov '12 7:37:09 AM by m8e

The man's words served only to sustain Razugual's confusion, slight though it was.

"Well, no... certainly not." He said, somewhat amused, though his words still rang with a quizzical hint. Razugual did not think that there was any reason to fear this man, Sano, and he doubted anything Sano could do would harm him. Still, the man's appearance had been very strange and sudden, and- oh.

Once again, various pieces of information suddenly clicked together in Razugual's mind. The man's immediate concern with the boxes that were allegedly from the crash of the hot air balloon Razugual had seen floating overhead some hours ago. The way that Sano had approached Razugual with a seeming lack of surprise or hesitation, going as far as to greet him and shake his hand, assuming immediately that Razugual would even respond to these things. Of course, hot air balloons didn't typically fly themselves. The water-seeking group must have met the man when they'd discovered the wreck. Then if he was here...

Razugual turned all the way around and looked in the direction he'd thought that Sano had approached from. A small stretch of vacant desert lay in the distance, some small dry shrubs here and there, but Mud was not in sight. Razugual did not hesitate with his assumption, and asked Sano, "Is Mud—the... man who looks like a magician—with you? Was he with you on your way back, I me-"





CLANG!
One of the doors to the decrepit gas station flew open with a loud crash, kicked, it seemed, quite forcefully from inside. After several moments the magician stepped out, looking vaguely bored and eating an apple that was as blue as blue paint. He walked forward, alternating biting his apple and tossing it into the air to catch it. When he neared the campfire, Mud looked back at the gas station's interior and shook his head in disappointment.

"What sorry a heap of rubbish." He said, "Plenty invaluable, no doubt, but plenty more too far gone to be of any sort of use to any sort of person." Mud shook his head and took another bite of his blue apple, now standing before those seated around the campfire. "Evening gentlemen, ladies. Are we engaged in a game of musical chairs?"

edited 16th Nov '12 2:44:47 AM by Ryuhza

An awkward silence spread around the fire just like the smell of booze had previously done.

Sano breaks the silence. "Ok, anyone hungry? I have nuts, chocolate, jerky and stuff in that box." Sano points at the box he calls the treat box. He then turns to Morgan. "Or do you want something Special?"

edited 17th Nov '12 5:11:19 AM by m8e

Sano seemed to know when he was bothering someone, so Morgan had to give him credit for that at least. Unless his behavior had something to do with the possibility that he suspected she was a vampire and therefore didn't want to be anywhere near her, which in that case her fears about integration were confirmed. She couldn't say she was surprised by this turn of events, should that had been the case. In light of this situation, she found herself wondering why Razugual didn't suspect anything else beyond "not human" when he first met her. Maybe he'd never heard of a vampire before?

Speaking of which, the conversation he was having with Damien was bound to not be over yet. She was about to tune back into that when Sano introduced himself to her and asked for her name. Morgan figured there wasn't any point to not answering that question; she was trying to be polite here, so....

"Morgan," she said, not feeling it necessary at the moment to reveal much beyond that. Instead, she looked back towards Razugual, ready to listen to anything he had to say, when she was interrupted yet again by an extremely loud bang that made her jump quite a bit. As it turned out, the sound was the result of a man with a strange fashion sense (by Morgan's standards) and tastes coming out of the building she arrived in. One part of her saw him as a newcomer, but judging by what she had saw earlier and what everyone else was saying, this may have well been the man referred to as "Mud."

"Er...." she responded to his question, not too sure what he meant by it. Judging by the ensuing silence, it didn't seem like anyone else knew what he meant by it either.

A few minutes after that, Sano broke the silence again with an offer for food...and then asked if she in particular was looking for something "special." She knew exactly what he was trying to get at with that question - he was probably banking on that question to get her to reveal that she was a vampire.

"Actually, I'm not hungry right now," she replied, frowning heavily and unintentionally exposing her fangs a little more than they usually were.

"Ok then, maybe later." sano replies back.

Sano then goes to the treat box passing Mud and Razugual on the way. He pretty much ignores Mud, but he gives Razugual a friendly nod. At least he tries to. Razugual's tall stature made it next to impossible and made the nod just look weird.

He digs up a big bag of trail mix and a bottle of IPA from the box. One of the few bottles that didn't break in Damiens crash. Sano sits down by the box and start to gulp down the mix. Only pausing to take a small sip of beer and carefully savor it.

Sano though that this morgan thing started to get silly. He just wanted to know if she was a vampire, mutant or something else. If she needs human blood and in that case how much. He had other questions. Like if she is vurnable to sunlight, But the blood thing was the most important one right now. Sano got a little sad thinking this, but she could be useful. She could be hundreds of years old but she looked like a little girl. She might have been a perfectly normal teenager until recently and she might see this as a curse. It might be a win-win situation, mutual benefit, but still?

Questions, Questions, Questions. Sano decided to think about something else for a while and just eat his trail mix and drink his beer.

ok. For some reason I(or Sano?) assumed that she was around 13. Might rewrite this some more later.

edited 18th Nov '12 1:06:38 AM by m8e

Mud blinked several times, a large sideways frown splayed upon his face. He was clearly let down that nobody seemed to understand his convoluted question that was scarcely connected to the question he was really asking. So the magician continued, speaking, at first, much louder than was necessary, "For behold! Where you four are seated, other guests were seated prior. And now..." The magician shut his eyes, opening them seconds later with a big show of surprise. "Oah! They. are. gone! He took the only partially-eaten blue apple in one of his hands and squeezed it into nothingness, releasing onto the dirt only a jumble of seeds.

Mud thrust his finger suddenly towards Razugual. "Meneer Monsieur Mister Great, did you frighten them away? I'll bet you did, frightening them away like a big white ghost!"

Razugual's eyes narrowed at Mud's sudden appearance. "I don't think so, but Mud-"

"Never mind," cut in the magician, "what's done is done. Perhaps... I shall have simply to make due with tonight's performance having a somewhat meager audience. And the relegation of our journey from a position of purpose to one of fecklessness, all by this single... blighting discovery!" He sighed with aggravation, shooting sideways looks at Sano and Damien, then sniffed quite crossly. "Then again, and then once more, I do not see the same belittling frustrations upon my cohorts faces. If they do not share my anguish, then it shall be entirely gone should I snuff it out."

Mud shut his eyes again and tipped his head downward. He waited several moments, then snapped his fingers. "Done!" He cried triumphantly. "At the very least, the doors don't seem to be closed quite yet." Mud turned his eyes toward Morgan, "An introduction; I am The Marvelous Magician Mud Malinconico the Magnificent." he removed his hat, and bowed, grinning delightedly the whole time.

For clarification, since I forgot to mention it: Morgan's somewhere in the 17-20 range; young enough for "girl" to be an apt description, but she isn't a five-year-old or something.

So this was Mud. Morgan wasn't so sure what to think of this guy. She still had her worries from earlier, which concerned what he apparently did to Damien. Given that she was already afflicted with a vampire curse, she really didn't need to be an animal of any sort on top of that. On top of that, he seemed pretty willing to blame Razugual for the lack of other people around the fire (though admittedly Morgan thought that was a likely scenario). On the other hand, the other parts of his personality were rather charming, if a bit bombastic. Provided he didn't try anything on her, she could (and probably had to) get used to his presence.

She sat there still looking rather confused for a few seconds, before attempting to look a little more jovial. "Morgan," she said, repeating her earlier introduction to Sano since she doubted Mud was around to hear it.

Sano had no idea that people had disappeared. His friend and those two pilots was of course out there somewhere, and Felix too. Felix must have stayed with the twins, betting on the plane being fixed. But how many have disappeared from the campfire? Why and how? Have them been killed by the wolves..., the dragon or maybe the girl? Sano almost hoped it was the girl.

"Mud." Razugual called for his attention from across the fire, but he went unnoticed, or—more likely—ignored.

"Morgan." Repeated Mud, as though he were considering the name. He replaced his hat on his head, tipping it's brim down over his eyes.

"Mud."

"How does it feel to be Morgan, Morgan?" the magician asked, sounding almost like a therapist. He stood before Morgan stroking his goatee and leaned his head back so that one eye was fixed upon her.

"MUD!"

Razugual was fed up with being disregarded and disrespected by the magician. He lunged forward through the large fire, pressing both hands down in the middle of it, and leaning forward so that he was face to face with Mud, and partially engulfed in flames. His own luminance blended with the bright glow of the fire. It was a spur of the moment idea, but Razugual hoped it'd give him a bit of an edge when addressing the disrespectful magician.

Mud ripped his hat from his head and flung it against the ground, stomping in frustration. He faced Razugual with an intense glower, and demanded, "WHAT!? What do you wish me to hear, vexatious stooge??"

Surprised, and a little taken aback by his counter-outburst, Razugual almost faltered in his response to Mud. However, his frustration was enough to keep him well and focused. "You," he said, jabbing Mud in the chest, "have business with Damien." He thrust his finger over at Damien.

The magician frowned in confusion. "Business with Damien? What business with Damien? I've only just arrived, and I shant have any business with gospodin Damien until I make business with gospodin Damien, and right now—I shall tell you forthrightly—I do not feel obliged make any." He seemed finished for a moment, then waved his arms in a shooing motion at Razugual, "Now remove yourself from my fire— goodness knows you're giving whatever you've got inside a right toasting."

Razugual did not follow Mud's orders, partly because he wasn't done with the man and so wasn't about to yield to the man, and partly because he was completely fireproof; only the very outer edge of his body would even change it's temperature without his say-so. He continued to meet the magician's glare and informed him in a none-too-friendly tone, "Damien is no longer carrying your crap, now it's your responsibility to change him back to the way he was before you ignored what must've been a thousand simpler and more logical solutions that I know you are very capable of pursuing, just so you could havethechancetoturnanotherpersonintoanANIMAL!"

If Razugual had needed to breathe, he would have been very out of breath. If there was blood flowing through his body, it would have rushed to his head, flushing his face a very red. As it were, he stared at Mud with eerily placid silence, then spoke in a quieter and slower voice than before, but a voice that was still very harsh. "You must turn him back now."

The magician seemed, if anything, calmer and less perturbed than before. He raised his eyebrows in question, and asked, "Must I? Is this what Damien wants for himself?" he looked over to the gryphon, whom both Razugual and Mud had failed to consult earlier, despite being the subject of the sudden aggression. "...is this what he asks of me?"

Razugual seemed to hesitate, his eyes going from being narrowed in anger to their usual roundness. He felt slightly embarrassed for having jumped into his outburst without asking Damien specifically about it beforehand, but... but surely... "In a manner of... well, I, I-in some words... yes." He turned his gaze to Damien and asked hopefully, "...Right Damien?"

Mud took no notice of his companion's answer. He reached down for his hat, picking it up and revealing his blue apple underneath—fresh and uneaten. He took it in his free hand, where it became a more natural shade of green. The magician placed his hat back upon his head, and turned entirely towards Damien, slowly walking towards him. "Damien..." he said, his voice genial and soothing, "Good chap. Is this your request? Think now: are you at peace with yourself? Healthy. Alive. Strong as the four winds and their trusty steeds!" He put a joyful emphasis behind each sentence, then stopped, shifting to a more somber tone. "Or must you be a rusty old chittering machine to reach your peace?"

Once again, Mud removed his hat—slowly, from the front of his head—and pressed it, holding it by the top, against his chest. The magician stared sadly at the gryphon, like an old man watching his grandchildren reject the presents he'd given them.

Razugual felt nervous.

Damien looked around the campfire, and around the desert, blinking through large avian eyes. He could see only two sorts of living creature in the desert— the people who were sitting around the campfire, and the wolves who weren't. It was difficult not to draw conclusions.

"But suppose they weren't eaten?" said Damien, contradicting his own train of thought. He tried to see the situation logically. He knew now, firsthand, that magic could change a person. He knew that there had been over a half-dozen people to arrive at this campfire and not leave but vanish, and something told him that there were at least a half-dozen more wolves than there had been before...

That was as far as Damien got before Razugual hit his breaking point and plunged into the fire. Damien watched the back and forth, comprehending barely half of what the two were saying, as happens when two have known each other for a certain amount of time. A code is formed, accidentally, comprehensible only to the two people who have shared a certain history. Damien was aware enough, though, that they were talking about him, and it did not take him long after that to realize what about.

"I want to be..." he began. He felt there was quite a bit riding on his decision, so he tried not to think about siding with Mud or siding with Razugual. He tried to look inside himself to see what he really wanted. It was the same thing he had wanted for the past fifteen years, and remembering hurt.

"I want to be who I was before," he said. He stared at Mud. "Before all the...killing and dying and putting back together and killing and dying again. I had all ten fingers. And a girlfriend." He shrugged. "But I would settle for all ten fingers." He looked away then to stare moodily into the fire. "I don't suppose you can do that, though, so it doesn't matter much to me."

edited 19th Nov '12 1:33:41 AM by DaeBrayk

The magician sighed regretfully and lowered his gaze to the ground. He let his apple roll into his turned-over hat, then returned it to his head.

"I'm afraid not."

The words hung heavy with melancholy. Mud said nothing more. He stared at Damien with his silvery eyes for a few seconds longer, then tipped his hat and turned away. He moved to an unobscured side of the fire, and stood before it, gazing into its core. What he had put there, what he could control. What he could change.





Razugual went from being nervous, to being self-accusing, to being glum. He'd long since moved out of the fire, and without it, his glow was dim and frail; a light bulb that was barely-there. The magician's companion was unable to figure out what to do at that point. His thoughts, or whatever they were, were racing, but each carried a load of guilt that stacked up to something close to unbearable.

Bending to his own nature, Razugual abashedly searched for a way to make things—if not right, then... better. He backed away from the fire entirely, into the dark of the night where he stood aglow. He circled slowly around the edge of the fire on all fours, and even then keeping especially low to the ground. When he reached his destination, Razugual lingered quietly behind Damien. After a few silent moments, he spoke, his voice low and rumbling. "Damien? I'm sorry. I was being... impertinent."

When he got the gryphon's attention, Razugual asked, "Do you want to talk...?" and then added in a voice that was gentle; close to a whisper, "...about befores?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," said Damien. He did not know what 'impertinent' meant. As for talking about befores, his plan until now had been to crush and ignore anything and everything he could never have back. It did not seem to be working. He nodded, but froze at the idea of actually talking about himself.

"Do you have a Before?" he asked.

"I...." Morgan began, suddenly feeling very awkward now that she was the center of attention. She could hear Razugual trying to get Mud's attention, but it seemed like Mud was ignoring him and trying to speak to her, but she didn't feel up to saying much beyond a basic introduction. She was about to direct Mud's attention to Razugual, when the latter decided to take things into his own hands in a decidedly startling way.

The second the glowing dragon thing plunged into the fire, Morgan leaped to her feet out of sheer surprise, wings and claws both outstretched. She was too busy trying to comprehend what was going on that she missed most of the exchange between the two. She did manage to catch the words "Damien" and gibberish that ended in the word "Animal," so apparently it was about Damien's being a griffin.

It didn't take her long after figuring that out that she realized what was really going on: Razugual was trying to get Mud to undo Damien's transformation. Suddenly, she was all ears. Depending how this ended, she might have been able to get Mud to revoke her curse. It'd be so nice to not be restricted to a diet of blood, and to actually walk among people without being feared....

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Damien just didn't want to be the person he apparently was before Mud changed him; he wanted to be the person he was before going through the sort of hell Morgan didn't think existed outside of myths. That desire appeared to be beyond Mud's capabilities, as the man noted sadly.

In the ensuing silence, Morgan thought she heard the sorrowful howl of a wolf. The timing couldn't have been more appropriate, given the general gloom that hung over the fire right at this moment. A few moments later, Razugual and Damien struck up another conversation, but Morgan didn't feel like knowing what it was about. She plopped back down into her spot, wings drooping slightly.

She then had another thought. Her own curse, she was certain, was magical in nature. Mud was a magician; though that was the first time she'd ever heard that word, given what Mud was capable of, it wasn't much of a mental jump to assume that he was something similar to a sorcerer. Perhaps the reason he couldn't do anything for Damien was because Damien's issues weren't magical.

Well, the best thing she could do was get the exact details on the situation. She looked back up at Mud, head tilted slightly to one side.

"...I hope this isn't an awkward time to ask this," she started, trying to figure out how to best word her question, "but...what, exactly, did this person-to-griffin thing entail?"

When Sano was done with his bag and his beer he started to dig through the boxes again, seemisly ignoring what's going on around the fire. Sano did in fact listen carefully as this stuff could be important. Having big beasts around could scare away people. One less could only be a good thing. But Morgan seemed to be interested in this magic too, or at least she seemed to listen carefully. She might not want to be whatever she was now. That might be good for her, but she would lose her fangs and wings, her powers. Useful power. Sano had things to do, so he decided to not interfere.

He kept on taking stuff from the different boxes, mostly from the misc box. When he was done he had a pile of clothes, a flash light, a few cans, cartons and some other stuff.

He was going to go to the gas station to clean up a little and change his clothes. But hearing Morgans question, he knew that there was something he had to do. He took out a styrofoam box from the cooler and handed it to Morgan. "I guess it's later now. Don't do anything rash". Then he headed for the gas station with his stuff, without giving her any chance to answer or really react at all.

Razugual laughed an amused little inward laugh, "You bet your googly eyes I've got a Before." He nodded slowly, looking at the campfire instead of at Damien. "Yes indeed... almost thirty six years of Before, in fact. A hell of a lot longer than it's been the way things have been since then. But that's only now. And it seems to me that in the long run, the way things have been since Before will greatly outlast Before itself."

He moved from his low-lying position to something of a hunch, and arched his neck to stare at Damien directly, the edges of his long mouth drawn in a strange smile. "Sorry, I know this doesn't make an ounce of sense, and I doubt that it would even if you were familiar with context of what I'm talking about. Uh..." Razugual looked down, thinking of how to approach his Before.

He drummed his clawlike fingers on the dirt and sand beneath them for a moment, then stopped, clenching one hand shut as he seized upon an idea. Razugual returned his staunch gaze to Damien and asked, "...have you ever had an experience with death?"





The magician turned his head to Morgan, a thoughtful—though bitter—look upon his face. He sniffed and smirked, a look of decidedly mordant amusement.

"What does it entail?" Mud repeated the question as though it was nonsense. "I transfigure a man into a fantastic beast. He can speak, he can think," the magician turned his head back to stare into the fire, "he can breathe. He can run, and bound, and leap— and fly!"

As Mud spoke, his voice became agitated. As it became agitated, it changed. It became less regal, taking on a bit of an unusual accent as well. He stopped then, however, leaning down to grab a somewhat long stick off of the ground, then jabbing the fire with it. When he resumed speaking, his voice was stable again, if somewhat solemn.

"...he can mourn, and he can long... and, so it seems, he can regret..." He looked into the fire, continuing to poke it with a stick, and asked, "Does that pertain to the nature of your question, dear girl?"

edited 22nd Nov '12 2:28:14 AM by Ryuhza

Damien snorted. "Oh, have I ever. You think ended up the way I did sitting around the house being alive all day?" He stretched and inched closer to the fire. "My record's a day and a half, but I never saw any bright lights or anything. It was just like waking up, except with horrifying realizations."