Ame Damnee The Clock Tower

Celeste
Town Square

The city was... interesting to say the least. Intriguing. Beautiful, in the way it was crooked and laced with cruelty. Celeste walked around town, humming to herself as she walked through the streets. It was a pain that she wasn't able to use her wings, but walking around is pretty fun, so all's well that ends well. At one point, she had taken off her glasses, reveling in the darkness and the shadow engulfing the city like a thin film, and it was then that she was drawn to the Clocktower, still in chaos and needing repair.

Oh yeah. she thought. It had only been a few days since the golem attack. She only knew about it since Al was stressing over the casualties at the time, although she was working in the library at the time of the attack. She headed over in that direction, looking around in amusement seeing all things that are interesting. A merchant selling off fake goods to a girl in one corner, two drunk men looking like they're about to bash each other's face in, a man in strange mismatched clothes walking aimlessly through the crowd---

She blinked in realization. Eh? Isn't that... A mischievous smile formed on her lips as she walked towards him, closer, closer...

"Se-rin~!" She laughed as she tackled him from behind, putting her arms over his shoulders in a seemingly affectionate manner, but anyone who knew her knows that embrace could easily be a strangle at a moment's notice. Her voice, however, was playful. "It's been a while. What are you doing here, you old bastard? Business as usual?"
 
Serin - Town Square
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Had the embrace occurred ten minutes ago, it would have taken him by surprise, but Serin had managed to focus his senses enough to know she was coming just moments before. He seemed completely unfazed as she practically threw herself on him. "Celeste," he said, sounding pleasantly surprised. Serin reached up and plucked her arms off his shoulders as he smoothly turned to face her. "I could ask you the same question. Look, I hate to tell you this, but you still smell like a corpse," he said, wrinkling his nose to emphasize the point, completely ignoring her questions. "Worse, in fact. Did you not find the girl?"

There was a reasoning behind his question. Serin's contract with the Djinn rested on whether or not the prediction he gave her actually came true, and while he was fairly confident in his accuracy at the time, it had been over a hundred years ago. Things were a bit of a blur. He would hate to lose the ability she had given him; he was really starting to enjoy it. Of course he had never told Celeste that his prediction may not have been accurate. She didn't need to know that. Still, though it didn't show on his face, he felt a spike of apprehension when he noticed she was in the same condition as when they first met.
 
Celeste
Town Square

"Do I really smell that bad?" Celeste chuckled as she ran her hand through her torso, looking thoughtful. "Well, I did meet Allanah. She's such a precious little thing! Unfortunately, I've had... complications." she replied. Regardless, she looked very satisfied, amused even, as her mind wandered off to the events that led her to this moment. "It doesn't matter, I'm enjoying myself. I'm dragging our little duel along, because things will be boring again after I lose her. Though you're right, this body has indeed been worse, I wonder if it'll even last one more year. I doubt it. Worse case scenario, it'll break down in the next few weeks, you know?"

She placed her finger in her lips on a silencing manner. "Let's keep this our little secret, but I have her body somewhere in Yadresil." she frowned. "It's troublesome, I have no idea how to wake myself up. Well, not that I care much. Do you think hell will be a fun place to be, Serin?" her red eyes sparkled in delight. If anything, death would be just another adventure.

"But enough about me. How have you been? Have you been enjoying my ability? Was it useful? Hmm..." she paused, tapping her finger on her chin. "What ability was it again? I'd forgotten."
 
Serin - Town Square
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Serin felt a wash of relief when Celeste revealed that his prediction had come true after all. He didn't think of the contract he made too often, but when he did, it usually made it hard to sleep at night. It was a reckless deal, considering he never even knew if he could properly hold up his end of the bargain. It was nice to finally put his mind at ease over the issue. Serin was pulled out of his thoughts as Celeste continued to talk.

"Do you think hell will be a fun place to be, Serin?" she said.

He smirked. "Oh, I'm counting on it."

When she mentioned the ability, Serin perked up. He really loved this ability. "Well," he said with a mischievous grin, "allow me to remind you then."

Without warning, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her against himself, planting a kiss right on her lips. They were close enough that Serin could feel her heart beating against his chest, but he blocked it out so he could do full justice to the power. He yanked on her emotions as hard as he could, channeling every bit of his ability into her head, forcing her to feel breathtaking euphoria. It would feel like running into a brick wall with the suddenness of it all, but Serin didn't feel like stopping there. He tossed some lust in there for good measure, and, just for fun, a smidgeon of love. And just as suddenly, he released her, both body and mind.

Serin took a step back with a wry smile. "In answer to your question, yes, it's been very useful."
 
Celeste
Town Square

She gasped in surprise as she was suddenly pulled toward him, pressing his lips to hers. She felt it inside her, that strong pull, as if he was forcefully milking her psyche of the emotions he wanted her to feel. She felt it, a wave of euphoria and pleasure, similar to how she usually feels after a wonderful, gruesome kill, and she grinned against his lips, grasping his clothes and pulling him closer, kissing him back harder, her heart pounding inside her chest. More, more. She closed her eyes as she felt him as he added on some lust, and a strange, alien emotion she had not felt before. The high was amazing. amusing, and to her it was like a drug, but as soon as he stepped back it disappeared suddenly, almost as if there was a door that suddenly closed shut, leaving her feeling empty. Like the usual.

She expected that. This is her problem with emotions, they never last. Nothing will ever make her pursuit for thrill and excitement end so easily. Still, it was pretty amusing, for him to go and seduce her like that.

The woman smiled coyly. "Ah, yes I remember now." She replied delightfully, as if they weren't just passionately kissing a moment ago. "That ability... I never could use it properly. Emotions make no sense to me. Good thing you find it... very useful." she replied, as she leaned in and playfully drew circles on his chest with her finger. With that small kiss, her interest for him has increased tenfold. "Good job mastering it. Makes me remember why I liked you the first time we met."
 
Serin - Town Square
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Serin was used to extreme reactions when he pulled that trick on people, but he was surprised to see it had such a profound effect on Celeste. There'd been a certain... Desperation there, as if she'd been starved for emotions. Interesting... Now this was something he could work with.

Serin stayed in place as she moved closer to him, though he didn't move to touch her again. Not yet, anyway.

"Oh, you liked me?" he said, his tone humorous. "Good to know."

Then he started to push her emotions again; subtly this time, more wisps than actual feelings. In any normal circumstance, no one would be able to tell that such emotions were caused by him, but Serin had faith that she'd know exactly who was feeding her the emotions. He went through the whole spectrum: happiness, anger, annoyance, intrigue, sadness... Eventually he let them taper off, finishing with the gentle touch of longing. He was toying with her, of course, but in doing so he was sending a message. 'There's more where that came from.'
 
Celeste
Town Square

She giggled. "I was charmed by how pathetic you looked, devoid of sight, hungering for power..." her voice dropped to a whisper, murmuring in his hear. "Agreeing to a contract you have no idea whether you can fulfill." a chuckle. "I knew. I watched you. Not all your predictions come true. But even when you saw what happened to my body, you still did the gamble. That took guts. It was very entertaining."

It was then that she felt him play with her emotions again, a spectrum of strange unfamilar feeling going through her, some things she understood like annoyance and intrigue, but some more ambiguous ones that made her heart feel... weird. She licked her lips as she seemed to savor the feeling, staring at him with more intensity, more excitement oozing in her voice. "What do you want from me, Serin? I sense an invitation. I'll have to say you got me interested." She ran a put a hand on his cheek, caressing his lower lip with her thumb. "Power? Pleasure? Another contract? Tell me."
 
Serin - Town Square
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Serin scoffed at her analysis of him when they first met. She was right of course, and that's why he hated it so much. There weren't many things Serin cared about in this world, but his ego was certainly one of them. He shoved her hand away when she touched his face and withdrew, clearly displeased. "And look who's clambering now, hmm?" His voice was still sweet, but laced with mockery. "Trapped in a broken body, unable to feel, losing the one battle you were so desperate to win. You might play at not caring if you die, but if that were true you never would have come to me in the first place." He laughed harshly. "You know how many people I get thinking that if they just knew what was coming, if they could just prepare maybe they could cheat death?" He gestured to her body. "You see where that got them. Face it, Celeste. You're nothing but a walking corpse; an addict desperate for your next fix." Serin smiled disparagingly. "How the mighty have fallen."

Serin began to pace around Celeste like a wolf circling in for the kill. "Of course I could help you," he said casually. "Wake up that body in Yadressil's Forest. Give you that fix you want. But right now, you don't have a single thing I want, and I don't make deals with worthless people." He practically spat the last two words. "Unless," he let the word hang in the air for a moment, "you manage to find something worth my time."
 
Celeste
Town Square

Celeste frowned, looking disappointed. "Hah?" It was almost funny, but also slightly annoying, how Serin seemed to think she cared about her life. The reason why she came to him before was because she was looking for a way out from boredom. When she met Al, befriended her and see her for the precious sweet thing she is, she decided to trick her out of boredom. The reason why she led that group, all those years ago, and why she created the contract that she knew would rot her body away, is because of boredom. Boredom was the only thing absolute in her world. The thing that's eating at her sanity since she could walk. She'd rather die than be bored.

"Don't misunderstand." she told him, as she crossed her arms in front of her. "The reason my body is dying... is because I wanted it that way. I did this to myself. Willingly. Isn't it exciting, having death following you around? But of course someone like you would probably never understand." she made a smug smile. "Someone like you who values self preservation over everything else... thinking I'm anywhere underneath you is so not cute. What a turn-off."

"I don't need you to wake up Al's body in Yadressil. Not now. Not while I'm still having fun with her. And while you do evoke interesting things out of my psyche..." her voice suddenly became dreamy, like a young maiden fantasizing about love. "There's a cuter werewolf boy I'd like to meet, the embodiment of fear... Ah, I hope he's not dead yet~! I wonder where he is right now."
 
Serin - Town Square
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Serin couldn't resist the half smile that escaped him. This part was usually so easy, and yet this woman seemed intent on alluding him every time he tried to pin her down. It was... Intriguing. He'd never really had a proper chase before; not in a long time. So he wasn't above her. Fine. Though, perhaps he had finally found his equal.

"Hmm, too bad," he said. "I'm sure we could have come to an agreement."

With that he turned to leave, gently pulling on her emotions one last time, tantalizing.
 
Celeste
Town Square

Celeste couldn't help but make an amused smile that even when he was leaving, he still pulled at her emotions playfully, but before he was truly gone from sight she yelled over. "Serin, dear, how long will you be staying in Abaddon?" she asked. After all, he did offer to wake up Allanah's body from it's slumber. If made in the right time, his help would be pretty handy. She didn't think he knew how useful Allanah's body could be, if she could get her hands on it someday. At the moment, she'll be keeping that to herself of course.

How many more days or weeks should I wait? she wondered. It was almost a shame to kill off Allanah's soul for good, she was a nice girl, but it was necessary if she wanted full control. Because... Allanah is a precious.... friend. She hesitated. Oh yeah. Then won't it make it more thrilling and despairing to kill her. A smile formed on her lips at the thought. It made her skin tingle in a way that was almost pleasurable.

Serin was right for one thing: she was indeed an addict desperate for her next fix. And this time it was a fruit she had let ripen for years. It made her so excited that she could feel her heart pounding in her chest.
 
Serin - Town Square
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Serin stopped when she called out to him, turning abruptly on his heel to face her again. He grinned broadly as if to say 'I knew it!'

"I'll be here as long as I feel need to," he replied. "Should you have a change of heart, you know where to find me." With that, he performed something like a bow before walking away from her again.

Trap baited and set. It wasn't often Serin ran across people who could offer him anything more than just money. The fact that he ran into Celeste twice was certainly an interesting twist of fate; one which he intended to make the most of. One way or another.
 
Celeste
Town Square

Celeste smiled at his response, and the wide grin the graced his lips at her words. She blew him a kiss, acting as playful as the persona she liked to use, and as she walked away, she contemplated the fate that had once again brought her together with the blind fortune teller. To think that when she first met him, she didn't realize that he would be such a useful acquaintance. If it weren't for him, she would never have met Allanah.

"Well then, time to find the werewolf boy." She murmured to herself with a mischievous smile, licking her lips in anticipation. That boy--- Al called him Kaleo, didn't she?--- was very interesting. He was timid and silent, but underneath that facade was a danger so potent she could almost touch it. She wondered if maybe, just maybe, residing inside him is yet another monster. If anything, the shadow surrounding him, engulfing him, was almost alien, as if it does not quite belong to this world.

Humming cheerfully, she walked, looking around, exploring the rest of Abaddon.
 
Damien - Town Square
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Damien wove his way through the crowded square in a hurry. He hated crowds so the sooner he left this place the better. Even after years of living in Abaddon, he never got used to going through this part of the city. He adjusted his pack; keeping a firm grip on the tear in the left hand strap, and increased his pace. He needed to find a place to stop and repair it. He could feel the leather strap slipping through his sweaty hands.

Thankfully, the fountain was just ahead. Damien briskly walked towards it and plopped on the nearest bench. As he was removing the pack the top flopped open and several of his journals and stone figurines fell out. A gust of wind picked up at that moment and scattered the pages of one of the journals all across the ground.
"No, no, no!" the dwarf mumbled to himself as he franticly scooped up the pages. One of the figurines rolled off of the bench and on to the ground, but Damien payed no attention. Several of the pages had floated into the fountain. He rushed over and tried to snatch them from the water, but they where out of reach. Had Damien been a couple of feet taller he would have been able to reach them.
He let out a fustrated yell and spun away from the fountain. Today just wasn't his day.
 
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Serin - Town Square
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It had been a few hours since Serin had run into Celeste, though his mind was still dwindling on the... Encounter. A smug smile crawled onto his face.

He had almost finished setting up his strange little tent - he finally decided to put it near the fountain - but one of the tent pegs was giving him some grief. Serin was about to tear it out of the ground and start over again until something suddenly flew into his face. He snatched it out of the air in irritation. Paper. He was about to crumple it up and toss it away again until he noticed the source of the paper was on the other side of the fountain, where it seemed someone was frantically trying to gather them again. Normally, that wouldn't have stopped Serin from tossing the paper anyway, but it seemed that as he was setting up his tent he had drawn a little crowd of curious observers. Might as well use this as an opportunity to get in their good graces. No one wanted to do business with a man they didn't think was honest, after all, especially in his line of work.

So Serin pushed his irritation aside and coolly set down the last tent peg. He took the piece of paper and walked around the fountain, fully aware that the eyes of the crowd had followed him. Ignoring them, Serin came to a stop in front of the unfortunate soul who had lost their paper and held it out. "Lose something?" he said smoothly.
 
Damien – Town Square​

“Lose something?” As Damien spun around, he came face to face with a man who was holding out a piece of paper. Quickly recognizing it as one of his own, he snatched it from the man’s grasp.

“Y-yes thank you,” he said quickly. He looked through the page. It was an account of a conversation he had with a drunken woman a few weeks ago. The encounter wasn’t pleasant. She tried to kiss him multiple times, before he eventually escaped. Why he ever wrote that down to begin with he never knew. It was a habit he started long ago. Every conversation he ever had, or overheard, he wrote down in his journal. Sometimes these conversations provided inspiration for a new tale, or sometimes they where a story in of themselves and he enjoyed going back through them.
He flushed and quickly stuffed the page in his back pocket. He looked up at the man’s face to see whether or not he had read the page. That’s when he noticed the sash around the man’s eyes. He was blind! Damien sent a silent prayer of thanks to the heavens and composed himself. But his momentary relief was soon replaced with confusion and a touch of wonder. How did he find me? There was no guide anywhere. He just had a staff.

Damien studied the man. He had a very pale complexion. He carried himself with an air of confidence and his clothes where… well… different. It was obvious that the blind man dressed himself. The man intrigued Damien. This man had a story and Damien wanted to know what it was. He cleared his throat. “Damien’s the name, story tellin’s my trade. I’ll be at the Two Talismans later tonight if yer interested.”
 
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Serin - Town Square
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Serin crossed his arms and tilted back slightly. The man was a dwarf, apparently, based on the height and the voice. Interesting; he couldn't remember the last time he'd met a dwarf. Figuring out a person's race was always an interesting endeavor, but this one was pretty straight forward. As was the dwarf's thought process, apparently. Quite honestly, Serin could care less what the dwarf did for a living, but now that he had an audience, he'd have to give them a show.

"Storytelling? Certainly an... Interesting choice of work." Serin then started poking around in the fountain with his staff. "Though if you're planning on actually selling any of this," he felt his staff catch on something, and he swept it out of the water with a flourish, "you might want to avoid dropping your papers in the fountain, hm?" Serin plucked the sopping papers off the end of his staff.
 
Damien - Town Square ​

"Aye, aye." Damien said. He watched with interest as the man scooped the pages out of the water. It was like the man wasn't blind at all. His words stung a little. Damien wasn't usually this clumsy. He held out his hand towards the paper "I'll take those, thank ye." It was then he noticed the large, colorful, partially assembled tent behind him. He nodded towards it. "Need a hand with that tent?" Normally, Damien wouldn't ask a thing like this, but he needed an excuse to talk with the man more. The tent meant that he was a traveler. And travelers always had a story to tell.
 
Serin - Town Square
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"Does it look like I need a hand?" The curt words slipped out before Serin could stop them. These idiots all seemed to think that just because he was blind he couldn't do anything for himself; it was insufferable. Still, he was supposed to be nice at the moment. He stood up a little straighter and once again shoved his irritation to the side. "No, thank you," he said calmly. Before he could snap again, Serin turned and walked around the fountain again, moving to finish setting up his tent.
 
Damien - Town Square​

The sudden change in the man's tone caught Damien off guard. He took a step backward.
"Aye, alright, suit yourself." He called after him. He kept his tone pleasant. The last thing he needed was to start a fight in the middle of the town square. He watched until the man reached his tent. Then Damien returned to the bench to gather the rest of his things. He carefully placed the wet papers into an empty journal. Most of the ink had been washed away but there where some readable bits. Damien would salvage what he could. After packing away the rest of his things, he fingered the broken strap of his pack. There wasn't much he could do about it. He didn't have anything to fix it with. So, he slung the good strap over his right shoulder and continued on his way; whistling as he went.
 
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