The knife nearly flew from my hand at the crash against the wall of our sanctuary. Mystery and I barely looked at one another, already guessing it's probably some fuck trying to get our attention since they couldn't pass through the wards. Which meant they intended harm for those that did not had no problem passing through. I flipped shut the blade and grabbed the handle of the axe I always kept at my side, we left the mansion with Drake and Ecko inside, which might have been for the best in my opinion.
The moment we exited traps of all sizes flew at us, none of them intending to actually hit us. An attention grabber, I looked at the one responsible for this interruption to find it was a female, small thing. She held a good portion of traps in her hand as if their weight meant little, it wasn't hard to see with her hoodie she was athletic, the shorts she wore showed her running legs. Why anyone would be wearing shorts when dashing around the woods is beyond me but she appeared to have little to no scratch marks which only made me more suspicious. Her plain black hoodie wasn't as baggy as you would expect, trimmed in white and zipped up fully over what little chest she had. Her shorts pretty much matched and the running shoes she wore were white, worn down a bit. Her hands weren't covered which surprised me some, I wondered if this meant she did not have fingerprints (anymore) or if she just didn't care, would have to find out.
This girl's mask was just... Unusual. It looked like a cross between a bird mask and on of em' old plague doctors masks. Fully covering her face was a mask of white, black eyes most likely layered is my guess and they were outlined with a blue design. It sort of dipped down near the nose but the design flared with four spikes upwards at the outside corners of the eyes. On top of the mask was a mohawk of feathers of blue and yellow, tilted back some as if stuck that way from running. Her hair was freaking chocolate, a messy sort of straight pulled back into a ponytail, pieces outlined the mask some and there was a single strand that was beaded with all sorts of things I couldn't make out. The reason I said the mask looked like a cross between a regular bird mask and a plague doctors was because of the beak. Its scale was smaller, hell, feminine even. But the way it curved fit the latter more-so than being a regular bird mask you'd see in some stores. Aside from that she wore a bandana around her neck that covered a majority of it, blue and white with faint yellow, a pattern I couldn't make out.
Her fingers released the traps and dropped them to the ground at her feet. Her hand twitched violently, a body flinching for a reason I am unsure of even now. What was the strangest thing about her was she was a blur even when standing still. It looked like she was in a constant state of motion. This wasn't like Prosper who moved like a goddamn ghost, or like Executor who was a fucking phantom. She was just there one moment and then gone the next to be closer to the woods. Her version of a walk was blur of color, she moved more quickly to another spot before coming to a halt and looking our way. No words, no nothing. Just silence and then poof, she was gone.
Mr. Sunshine was growling like a beast even after she was gone. I looked down at his crouching form and placed my hand on his shoulder trying to ease the fellow. He grumbled and pulled up to a stand and followed me to the traps as I crouched down and picked through them carefully. Finding a majority of them only disarmed, the more... Lethal ones (block of wood with fricking spikes on a rope) seemed broken entirely, as if not meant to be used again. I asked Mr. Sunshine to bring over the other traps she chucked before, his form shadowed mine from behind and he dropped a dozen or so on top of the others. I looked over my shoulder and up at his smiling face, hard to stay annoyed at this guy. Beneath the dirt stains he's like an adorable man-child. Mr. Sunshine stayed outside, hovering over my shoulder for a few minutes before I was able to ease him to head inside and eat. Only once he was satisfied this Road Runner was gone did he go back to devouring everything Mystery handed over to him.
I picked through the traps and divided them up to assess what we'd be dealing with. I recognized a few of them as ones I set up myself but there were so many others and I was unaware as to who placed them out and about. It troubled me to know someone did this, it troubled me more to think about whether it was just Road Runner doing it to gain our favor... Or perhaps even worse, that there was an actual traitor within our band of fighters and survivors. I plucked up the traps and dragged them into the mansion and plopped them down on the slab of fallen wall I sleep on, when I can sleep. Pulling over the tool kit I began tuning and fixing fucked over traps. I spent most of the day fixing the ridiculous amount that chick left us, some of the next day as well. A nice break was taken, I spent time with Trinity trying to catch Mr. Sunshine and give him a bath.
...It did not go well, to put it mildly. He flipped the bucket of water and soaked me, Trinity was giggling and trying to towel me off while Mr. Sunshine clung to the ceiling like a fricking cat and hissed. I grabbed my pillow and chucked it at his face and he caught it and began eating it. You know, you really stop being surprised at these things after a while. Trinity filled up a "tub" with water while I grabbed some meat, it was the perfect lure. He spat out the pillow and ran after me. I threw it into the tub and he tackled me into it before I could get out of the way. All I heard was Trinity laughing again, the splash of her jumping into the mix. We left his clothes on for the most part, hell, they needed cleaning too. We scrubbed his sweatshirt, I flipped off his hood and Trinity gently cleaned off his face. It was rather cute how he sat rather contently in the water and she on the edge of our makeshift tub just cleaning out every crevasse of his face. It doesn't surprise me Mr. Sunshine has become fond of Trinity, he's still a child for the most part in mind and she still has that innocence despite her maturity. I honestly think she could keep him in control when I'm not around the best due to that similarity.
I leaned back in the tub and scrubbed Mr. Sunshine's mask, the plain white that was scarred rather viciously. There were no designs upon it, no paint, no sharpie marks, just this mask of white with scars that could be seen at a distance. Though you never see this mask because he hides it within his hood that has a poorly stitched covering that he can see through but you cannot see back. Like one of those grim reaper costumes, you know? I mused over the idea that's where he got it from, a childhood costume he might have worn before all of this or maybe one he saw over the years of watching under His hand.
I pulled myself out of the tub and wrung out my clothes with a sigh before hanging up his mask. Trinity hopped out and did the same before scurrying off to get some towels. Sunshine stripped out of most of his layers, save the necessary one for Trinity's sake, and I hung them up before wrapping the towel around my person and sitting next to Trinity on the rock as Sunshine finally tended to himself. We faced away and I listened, only having to shout once that he better not be trying to sneak out of the tub. Chucked a towel at him when he was done and he sat on the rock with us under the hole in the mansion so the sun could leak through and dry us faster. Mystery sort of just looked at us as if we were crazy before musing over our soaked selves all huddled under the sun. I'll admit, while I dislike getting soaked this had to be one of those times where I was just downright amused.
It was a nice break before I went out to set up some of the traps Road Runner disarmed. I mapped out where they were and made sure everyone was aware.
Now there is one thing... The note left in one of the traps. It read as, "You are losing it. You are losing what you are. You are losing it. This composure, your composure. You are losing it. Cannot even see the traitor in your ranks. The boy with lethal lead eyes. He is dead weight and I say cut him loose if you want to live another week. Hurry now before you lose all of it. Before you lose it all. Before all of your composure is gone."
So yea. Not sure what to say to that. Road Runner, you're a strange one that's so far has pissed me off bit by bit. You aren't doing yourself any favors by this. Sorry, I'm not going to hack away at the guys in our group, if there is a traitor we will deal with him or them or whoever then. Your actions have proven so far to not be very trustworthy and we cannot afford to walk into further potential danger.
So now you guys know what's been up, why I delayed the post as well. I dismantled some traps we weren't going to use for spare parts and other safety reasons. Everything is set up and in order. Nothing from Prosper since well... Before. Going to scope the area out later or tomorrow, depends on what is going on tonight.
Stay safe,
-Shady
No comments:
Post a Comment