Why We Don't Set 'Lor Loose In Manhattan part 2
The building was crumbling, abandoned, and had the air of a church, which put both of them, with their demonic heritage, instantly off-guard. Draugt hissed and struggled, but then they were dumped on the cold stone floor. Lit by needfires burning in braziers, the scene at first was reminiscent of a temple to Bane. But the imagery was much nicer, aside from that IMMENSE carving to the right, of an almost-naked human hanging from spikes through his hands and feet, bleeding, looking tormented. There was stained glass bearing pictures of a woman holding a baby, both with halos around their heads, men speaking to other men, traveling, or handing out food. There was one of a bearded man holding a knife over his bound son, a ram stuck in the bushes, a shining figure that was clearly a celestial holding its hands out to him. All in all, not entirely pleasant, but not very shocking. The thing that WAS shocking was the only other living creature inside those walls. To Kanil, Draugt instantly came to mind. Her skin was light, azure blue and bat-like wings stretched from her shoulders, a tail twitching near her cat-like feet. She wore a halter-top and loincloth made of torn hide, and a gold arm band around one bicep, along with a golden tiara that barely served to hold back riotous, flame-red hair. Like Draugt, she had fangs, her eyes shone red, and her ears were delicately pointed. Talons and fangs flashed as she growled at them. But her feet were jointed, like a feline's, she had only four fingers on each hand, and her elbows and knees were spiked. Minor differences, really. The creature let out a panther-like roar that ALSO greatly resembled Draugt's, and snapped at the portal, "Mabon! Get out here and HELP me you useless HUMAN!"
Kanil landed in a crouch, hissing and flicking his tongue at the unfamiliar air. He didn't look human himself, but Draugt was certain to attract plenty more attention. The female... whatever she was - she sure as hell wasn't a 'lor, though how he knew that he wasn't sure - looked threatening. The building was frightening in its own right, and he slid toward Draugt, putting his back toward his lover. "Next time, we tell Jar to go fuck himself," he hissed. Draugt didn't speak, just growled, eyes flaring red as he prepared to launch himself at the female. But just as suddenly as she prepared to do that, she stopped and froze. "Thailog?"
It was all the time Draugt needed. He hurled himself at her, hands finding her shoulders as he bowled her over, snarling. She yowled and got a foot under him, kicking him off and gouging his stomach with the talons on her feet at the same time. Kanil snarled and lunged forward, a knife flying from his hand to whizz past the female, grazing her bare upper arm and leaving a fine line of blood. He'd been prepared to be somewhat friendly, but she'd hurt Draugt, and now she'd pay. He kept his senses alert on the portal behind him, hands full of blades ready to be sunk into flesh.
"Mabon" emerged from the portal, shaking his head and chuckling. "Can't handle a pair of your own kind?" he said, clucking his tongue. "Maybe you're not as formiddable as I thought you were, Demona...."
She slid away from Kanil and sprinted across the room, picking up what looked like a long rectangle of shiny metal, with peices of red glass stuck into it that shone with inner light. It was almost half her height and she was tall, over six feet on those cat-like feet. She whirled. "Stop, my brothers! It's the human who's betrayed us," she called, hoisting the thing to her shoulder.
Kanil growled low in his throat, darting to Draugt's side to assure himself that his lover was alright, if not untouched. He knew one thing for damned sure, and that was that he didn't -have- a family. He had Draugt, and that was it, and that mage was -really- starting to piss him off. A tiny throwing knife danced in his fingers. Draugt's wound wasn't too deep. His thick skin had stopped most of the damage and it was barely even bleeding. It didn't seem to debilitate him as he surged to his feet. Even as he did so, the mage turned and raised his hands, calling out an invocation of some kind.
"No," the female snarled, "I won't let you do it..." The peice of metal in her hands began to whine, quietly at first, then louder and louder.
Picking an enemy was something Kanil knew how to do properly. The female was an unknown who'd injured Draugt and was currently distracted, but the mage had fucked with both of them far too much. That, and killing the mage first always helped. The blade left his hand. It should have sunk deep into the mage's skin, but it dagger bounced away.... repelled by a stone-skin enchantment that negated the hit. The mage continued with his invocation, and it became apparent that he had served as a cleric at some point in his life, because there was definitely a god he was invoking. The female's eyes widened and she said something in a language neither of the half-demons understood, lowering her peice of metal. Then her red eyes narrowed and she re-aimed it, at the stone around the mage's feet, not at the mage directly. Even as she did that, Draugt, realizing that the mage was invoking a diety's help, raised his own hands.... and reached out with his soul, finding the holy connection between this place and its diety, and tearing that connection to shreds as his growling voice rang out powerfully off the stone. "DESECRATE."
Kanil growled. There was more than one way to stop a mage. He noticed what the female was doing in time to prevent himself from body-slamming the mage, but he'd need something a bit more susbstantial than a throwing dagger. "Times like this I almost wish I -had- been a true Ekishou," he muttered, grabbing up the nearest and largest brazier and flinging it at the mage's head. Even if it bounced, it weighed enough to knock him back some. The mage took a step back and faltered in his chant, not that it did any good. The building rumbled and behind the mage, and his portal simply... winked out of existence. When he saw THAT, he faltered, eyes going wide. "No...." And then the female did something and the metal in her hands bucked as a searing whine assaulted their ears. There was a flash of red light and the floor beneath the mage exploded violently. Mabon screamed as it fell away beneath him, dropping into what seemed to be a basement underneath. "Hit him!" The female commanded, speaking in Common again. "Hit him enough and the enchantment will fail!"
"Yes! That is why you don't fuck with us, bitch," Kanil sneered, wondering for a split second if he could lift that huge, depressing carving and then thinking better of it. And then he suffered from that noise and wanted nothing more than to cover his ears, but that wouldn't do. But what he -could- do... He leapt up behind the oversized guy-on-a-T and shoved with all his might, toppling it over into the hole and on top of the mage. The crucifix (though Kanil and Draugt didn't know what it was at the time) tumbled into the hole and there was an odd squelching noise.
Draugt edged over the the hole, peeked, and smirked at Kanil, his violet eyes flashing amusedly. The female lowered the metal rectangle. "Hmph," she said, and her voice was low, sultry, melodic. "Very nice. I admire resourcefulness," she purred.
"Yeah, well, he pissed me off," Kanil muttered, hopping down lightly. The look in Draugt's eyes was worth much more to him than the female's approval, and what he wanted right now was a fucking explanation. He moved to Draugt's side and peered into the hole curiously. -There- was one for the brag-book.
"Hm." She chuckled and flipped her hair back. Really, she was astonishingly beautiful. If either of them had been predisposed toward females, they very likely would have been drooling on themselves. Fortunately, they weren't... and thus had a perfect excuse to retain their composure. "I apoligize for your being dragged into this. Mabon was never the most trustworthy of fools," she spat, "but he was competent and I was so looking forward to the culmination of our agreement.... no matter. He tried to betray me and thus, he is dead. At first, I thought you were assassins..." she glanced at Draugt. "And one of my more hated enemies. But I was mistaken and again, I apologize. My name is Demona."
Kanil looked her up and down thoughtfully. She -wasn't- a 'lor, that was for certain, but what exactly she was escaped him. The mage was dead and done with, and now the fun part would be to figure out where the fuck they were and what the hell was going on. He stuck close to Draugt, oblivious to Demona's beauty in any sense other than the asthetic. "Nope, not assassins. I'm Kanil." He glanced at Draugt, green eyes glittering with budding curiosity. She certainly DID look like Draugt though. The similarity was.... astounding, really, in the shape of their bodies. Draugt merely appraised her for a moment, not deigning to speak. He was on all fours, like a cat ready to pounce, tail swishing slowly and deliberately from side to side.
She smiled at him. "Your companion isn't very talkative, I see. A welcome change from the person I thought he was."
"He'd rather rip people to shreds than deign to speak to them," Kanil said dryly, glancing down at Draugt and idly wondering if he'd have to pull his lover off four legs by his tail. He settled for resting a hand between his wings comfortingly. "So what the hell was that all about?"
"Now there's an intelligent specimen," she murmured. "Devote that energy toward humanity and you'll make a fine warrior indeed." She tossed her hair again, stalking over to where the portal had been. There were ritual trappings behind her, bowls of incense, candles, painted sigils, but she didn't seem concerned with them. "I don't actually know. But who is ever surprised by human treachery?" she wondered aloud. "Mabon and I were conspiring. We have... had... a similar interest in the more arcane arts. We were working on the very special portal that just vanished... an unfortunate event indeed, since I put many, many nights of work into it." She looked mildly peevish as she examined the place on the ground where the portal had been.
"Oh, no, you've -got- to be shitting me," Kanil said slowly. They were stuck here? Wherever here was -had- to be pretty damned far away from Calimport and the rest of Faerun, or else a portal wouldn't have been to hard to get. Which effectively meant that they were stuck here until further notice. Hell the fuck no... Kanil's eyes skimmed over the floor before he looked down at Draugt, a note of desperation in his cat-green eyes. If, by some incredibly disturbing and equally possible chance this was the dimension he'd been trained in... he didn't want to finish that thought.
Draugt looked up at him. His gaze was utterly calm, utterly serene, and his tail stopped swishing and curled around Kanil's ankle. Meanwhile, Demona straightened. "I'm afraid not. Now... I don't know who you are, Kanil..." she pronounced his name perfectly, "but I know you were no friend of Mabon. As they say here, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Mabon may be dead, but I'm sure YOU have no wish to join him, and neither do I. So. Can we formally except that we mean each other no harm and move on to other things?"
"Something like that," Kanil murmured to himself. The look in his lover's eyes went a long way toward keeping him away from the cliff known as hysteria that was threatening to make itself known in the landscape of his mind. "Yeah, sure. Truce, then? 'Cause as fun as continually fighting is, it's somewhat counterproductive," he said, looking up at Demona and lightly petting Draugt's wing.
She smiled beatifically at him. "Exactly." Setting her metallic rectangle down, she stalked closer to him... or maybe it was the shape of her feet and the twitch of her tail that made her look like she was stalking. Appraising him, she offered a hand. "You're fae, are you not? You have the look of an elf." Draugt's tail squeezed Kanil's ankle, a reminder that he DID, indeed, look like an elf and should therefore not be insulted.
"Only part," Kanil shrugged, figuring that to lie would be pointless and to tell the rather outlandish truth would most likely be perceived as a lie and so it was pretty damned irrelevant. He eyed her hand with a slight glint of confusion, having been raised to bow if it was necessary. He figured it out and took her hand, shaking it lightly, never stopping his idle stroking of Draugt's back. She reached past his hand and gripped his wrist, and Draugt's muscles rippled under his hand. Demona eyed Kanil's stroking hand and smirked at Draugt, whose eyes narrowed in unspoken sarcasm. After clasping Kanil's wrist, she offered the same hand to Draugt. His eyes narrowed further and then in a fluid motion, he stood and closed his talons around her wrist. She looked him over none-too-stealthily, interest flashing in her black eyes. "Hmmm." But instead of trying to get him to speak, she merely smirked and stalked back toward the church entrance. "Does he have a name as well?"
"If he wants you to know it, I'm certain he'll tell you," Kanil said with a slight sneer. He did NOT like the way she'd looked at his Draugt, and he sidled closer to the drowlor with a slight twitch of his lip. Women really were nothing but trouble, the kind that tended to crop up no matter how hard one struggled to keep away from them. He noticed that she was animalistic in a way that Draugt wasn't.
She laughed quietly. "All right then. No hardship there.... we never used to have names anyway. Come over here, would you? And steel yourselves. What you're about to see might be just a bit disconcerting."
Kanil glanced at Draugt before shrugging. "As long as it's not Lloth dancing around naked and singing bad love ballads, it can't be that bad," he said optimistically, moving toward her and the entrance slowly, padding silently on the floor.
Draugt followed along with him gamely, watching Demona through narrowed eyes, his prowling movements feral. She grasped the large handles of the door, turned to smirk at them over one well-formed shoulder, and yanked the doors open. "Welcome to Manhattan." Kanil snarled and ducked backward, nose and ears assaulted violently by the sheer volume of sensory input. His eyes managed to process most of it, though, and what they saw left him reeling. Beyond the doors was a stretch of green grass, waving slightly in the night air. The moon rose, high and full, and, about a mile away, blocking the horizon.... black monoliths stretched up into the sky, squares of light dotting them. Noise assaulted them, noises that had no natural cause, and the entire place seemed to glow unnaturally. And it was TALL, stretching up to the stars themselves, higher than any mage's tower they'd ever seen. Draugt hissed under his breath, tail lashing as something roared over their heads.... a potbellied thing with a narrow tail that hovered in the air, no wings apparent. Something whipped above the head, carrying it toward those monoliths. Kanil growled under his breath and stared out the doors in shock. There were almost no stars in the sky, though there were no clouds, as though they'd all burned out or been hidden by all the light. A part of him wanted to run and hide, but he settled for convulsively gripping Draugt's hand and squeezing hard. Draugt squeezed back, turning his head and glaring mildly at Demona. "What is this place?" he growled, effectively taking over since Kanil seemed to have been shocked into rare silence.
"I told you. This is Manhattan," she repeated, waving a four-taloned hand at the scene in front of them. "Forgive me, I knew no other way to break the news. The portal Mabon and I were working on was not merely a spatial phenomenon, otherwise I would never have needed his help. It was interdimensional. You're in another world now."
Kanil breathed a soft sigh of relief. "Could be worse. Could be far, far worse," he muttered. He took a step forward, sticking his head out the door. He jumped back again as a screeching filled the night air, coming from those black monoliths, as a pair of white lights turned and shone on them from the distance. "So, the killer question is... how do we get -back-?"
Demona shrugged. "I suppose I'll have to reconstruct the portal. Not an easy proposition and it will take quite a while, but it can be done. I just hate to do it just from my end... oh well. I have the artifact I need from your world, so building the connection shouldn't be impossible and I HAVE always loved a challenge."
"Artifact?" Kanil inquired curiously, tilting his head. Shaggy blue-green hair flopped into his eyes and he shoved it back, eyes moving from Demona to the outside world again. His instinct to explore was starting to kick in, and he wanted to get out there and check things out. It smelled vile in a way he'd never known before... not so much evil and decaying as defiled. Forsaken.
Demona shrugged. "Nothing of real power. In order to forge the portal between two different worlds, I needed something very old from his world that resonated with its energies, and he required something similar from mine. I'm sure he had the more difficult of the two searches... around here, we have 'museums'," she told them, pulling the doors shut again and closing them off from the busy, noisy, overwhelming world outside.
Kanil raised an eyebrow, glancing back at her for a moment before shaking his head. It would simply be too coincidental. Blessedly distracted from the cityscape, Kanil fixed his attention on the walls, staring at the stained glass. "Second one, koneko," he smirked.
Draugt just smirked. "I'm afraid you will have to find a new ritual space unless you have a very powerful preist on hand," he rumbled. "This place has been... desecrated, for lack of a better term."
Demona hiked a brow ridge. "Yes, I noticed. But it's no matter. It was necessary to cut Mabon off from his source of power." She didn't seem the least bit surprised to hear him speaking intelligently. "In the meantime, you are both my guests. Please, come with me. You are welcome in my home."
Kanil suppressed a snicker. It was always fun to see Draugt at work. He smirked at his lover and winked almost imperceptibly. "Thanks, and all," Kanil purred. Seeing someone -not- underestimate Draugt was interesting, to say the least, and that outside world had been simply fascinating.
She chuckled. "Don't mention it. I very much hope we'll become friends.... this big old house gets silent sometimes." She pushed open a door and led them into a hallway that was thickly, plushly carpeted, wide, and decorated at intervals with tasteful landscape paintings. "Welcome to Nightstone Manor."
"Shiny," Kanil remarked, tone light. He never let go of Draugt's hand, prowling down the hall and staring intently at everything out of the ordinary. Draugt gamely held onto him, understanding entirely that Kanil felt disjointed. Truthfully, so did he, but he needed to be solid and dependable or his lover was apt to lose it just a bit. So he kept his head firmly on his shoulders and followed Demona, eyeing her frame and trying to figure out what she was if she wasn't a demon. Because she wasn't... he could identify his own kind. Kanil had never really been one for tact, and so decided to simply ask straight out. "What -are- you, anyway?" he said thoughtfully. He wasn't so much disjointed as distracted; luckily the sheer novelty of the place was enough to keep him from panicking right now. And who said they -had- to go home soon? A vacation would be interesting. And those museums Demona'd talked about... maybe they could bring back toys.
She looked back at him and for the first time, looked almost confused. "Don't you know? I'm a Gargoyle. Surely you're no stranger to the breed," she said dryly, indicating Draugt, who simply gave her a knowing smirk.
Kanil blinked, and then he broke into a wide smile. He tried as hard as he could, but he couldn't keep from laughing his ass off.
Draugt thwapped him on the head. "Forgive him," he said quietly. "Species aren't precisely the same in our world as they are in yours. In our world, Gargoyles are literally animated statues, unthinking, unintelligent."
Kanil managed to get himself under control, still snickering occasionally. "And we're not," he smirked. He tossed Draugt a highly amused look.
"Hm. Semantic differences," she muttered, eyeing Kanil and looking NOT amused. "In any case, this is my home. It's rather large but there are no servants, save the butler. He has seen your ilk before and will not be distressed. He is under my control; do not harm him. as for any other human, I don't care WHAT you do. You may sleep here." She pushed open a door that opened into a plush suite. "And here." There was a door directly opposite it on the other side of the hallway, and she opened that as well. "Are you hungry?"
Kanil glanced down at Draugt, tilting his head inquisitively. He wasn't particularly starving, but if set near food, he'd've eaten it. It was a given that he'd sneak into Draugt's room, or vice versa. Draugt couldn't hold back a smile, knowing exactly what Kanil was thinking; seperate rooms? Hah hah. He smirked at Demona. "We wouldn't want to presume upon your hospitality," he said graciously.
"Sure we would," Kanil informed Draugt cheerfully, grinning. This was shaping up to be fun as hell. Gods only knew what kinds of interesting stuff there was around this world. And a whole new dimension to terrorize...
Demona laughed. "Very well. Please attend... the kitchen is down this way. You picked a most auspicious occassion to show up... tomorrow night is a very special night," she told them, her voice thick with anticipation.
Kanil blinked and lifted his head, sniffing the air. "This is Thinveil night," he said thoughtfully. "Shouldn't you have done the portal tomorrow, then?"
She shrugged. "No, not particularly. We've actually had the portal up for almost a week, and we were in the process of stabalizing it and testing it. An interrupted process, but fortunately, I managed to collect a good deal of relevent data." They passed through an expansive and comfortable living room. "But tomorrow night, the entire population of the city will be out of doors in force, wearing costumes that disguise their true appearences, giving you the PERFECT chance..." she tossed them a grin, "to do some exploring without the need for disguises yourselves."
"Obviously, there's more differences between here and home than we suspected," Kanil muttered dryly. Any sane person stayed IN on Samhain night back in the Dynasty, and his only Samhain night on Faerun had been on the ship to Calimport. He trailed along with silent steps, cat-green eyes flickering around with all the curiosity of the feline attribute they resembled.
"Oh, I'd say so," Demona echoed, chuckling under her breath. "We really do need to talk over dinner. There are a few things I should warn you about, about this century..."
"You're too kind," Draugt said politely.
"Yeah, if anyone from a different world ended up in ours, I'd probably just laugh when they did something stupid instead of helping them out." Brutal honesty was Kanil in a nutshell.
"Yes, well," Demona's voice lowered somewhat. "Let's just say that, as a very rich woman and a sorceress of no small talent, over the centuries I've managed to accumulate enemies. They outnumber me almost ridiculously. So I have a vaunted interest in your survival... because, believe me, this lot would love to kill you within a heartbeat of killing me." She gave him a dazzling smily and opened the swinging kitchen door.
"And what did you do to deserve such emnity?" Draugt inquired flatly.
She paused, stiffening. "In the beginning, I did nothing at all," she said coldly. "They murdered my clan for no reason at all. After that... well, let's just say it was justice. They destroy my family... I destroy them. Obviously I've failed so far, but I haven't given up and I won't, until the entire human race is gone from this earth and only we are left to rule it as we were MEANT to."
Kanil raised an eyebrow and slipped through the door, fingers twined with Draugt's. "Hey, man, that's not that bad. You're trying to kill humans off? They're stupid and smell. Fun, but not challenging... try killing the gods." He grinned irrepressibly.
Demona glanced at him, and the look on her face was one of pleasantly realized triumph. "Yes, yes they are. And they are murderous and generally inferior. Really, who can stand the rubbish? I am SO glad to see that you're not like Goliath and his ilk," she purred, her mood sufficiently improved to pull out chairs for both of them - chairs with skeletal backs that were much more comfortable for Draugt, given his tail.
Draugt, though, wasn't dulling his instincts despite the royal treatment. "Goliath?"
"One of my many enemies and a self-proclaimed protector of the humans. His pathetic little band is actually all that's left of my old clan. They can't see that the humans have to pay for what they've done to our kind. They insist on stopping me.... it's their interference that's prevented me from making this world safe for the next generation of Gargoyles." She looked coldly furious. "All I want is our rightful heritage. But Goliath is a traitor to our race... he even LOVES a human," she sneered.
Kanil had sat in much less comfortable things, and few had been so fascinating. He inspected the chair curiously, ears perked for any trace of real information, absorbing it. "Bad mental image right there," he murmured lazily, more than happy to play the role of the ditz. It really did make people underestimate him.
Demona smirked. "Yes, well, it's worse for me. He was.... he was my mate before the schism. Before the massacre."
"Your life mate?" Draugt inquired. Kanil twitched. That was... was wrong, pure and simple. Betrayal of the deepest kind. And with a -human-...
Demona nodded. "Our daughter is with his clan. She's... innocent, idealist. She believes that the humans can change, that our two species can live in peace." She shook her head as she extracted shiny, modern cooking utensils. "She won't see what's in front of her eyes. Even now, the humans rally against us, forming angry mobs whose sole desire is to destroy us." Picking up a slim black rectangle, she pointed it at Draugt, who didn't flinch, and pressed something. Behind them, the TV turned on... a black box with glass on the front that suddenly came alive with moving pictures. Odd pictures, cartoons. She did something and the pictures vanished to be replaced by others. A human voice spoke in rapid tones in an unfamiliar language, and the box showed a moving picture of a huge group of people, gathered together and waving signs lettered in a language Kanil and Draugt could not read. They seemed irate, and there was a person on a platform in front of them. He was speaking, somehow impossibly audible over the screaming of the crowd, and seemed to be egging them on.
Draugt swiveled his head and eyed the box, more than a little curious. Kanil blinked and leaned forward to eye the box. Fascinated, he stared intently, entirely transfixed on it. He slid off the chair and poked the picture tentatively, bright green eyes wide.
"Don't call it a moving tapestry. I'd have to kill you," Demona said dryly. "THAT is the north end of Central Park, where the children of one of my long-standing enemies has gathered together those of like mind. I know you cannot read the signs... they're not that creative anyway, but trust me when I say that all they want is the death of any creature that is not human. The Fey have fled to Avalon and there are less than a hundred Gargoyles left, worldwide, including the sizable clan in Ishimura and on Avalon itself. Humanity rules this world, my friends. The things they would do to you if they caught you... well. It's not a polite topic to discuss over dinner and I doubt you would believe me if I just told you. I will have to show you, and come the daytime, Kanil, I will do so."
Draugt turned back to her and hiked an eyebrow. "He goes nowhere without me."
She hiked a brow ridge right back. "During the day?"
"I can withstand the sunlight," he informed her. "I have lived in it for long enough."
She looked vaguely distrustful, but said nothing.
Kanil was entranced by the television, gaze locked onto it. However, his ears were oblivious to the foreign babble emitting from the box, and fixated on the conversation behind him. He turned around and grinned up at Draugt. "Boku no koneko," he said lightly. "This is why the mask will come in handy," he added, almost as an afterthought.
"The mask?" demona inquired politely. "Ah, yes. Speaking of masks, if you wish to accompany tomorrow, something will have to be done about your appearence. Otherwise you would risk your deaths. Fortunately, I have just the spell. I'll prepare it in the morning. I should warn you... one of those enemies had substantial magical power. He was fey as a matter of fact." She smiled wryly at Kanil. "He did something to me that was rather... distasteful, so come morning, do not be surprised if I appear somewhat different from what you rememeber."
"Cursed to a human form in the day?" Kanil asked, hazarding a wild guess.
She smiled deeply. "You are a bright one."
"He has his moments," Draugt murmured.
"No, it's just a bit clich�," he shrugged, grinning at Draugt as though to say 'see? I'm NOT a complete dolt'.
Draugt merely smiled at him, his expression somewhat proud, but also a bit patronizing. ~Yes, you had a moment. Don't let it go to your head... we're still strangers here.~
Demona sighed. "Well, I asked for it in a sense. That's the risk of making deals with Oberon's children as you well know... they take you far too literally and they never play along."
Kanil chuckled softly and shook his head. He knew he wasn't exactly the most intelligent of people, but sometimes his intuition kicked in. "But of course. Chaos, mischief, mayhem, they're all so damned fun..." he purred.
She beamed at him. "I heartily agree," she purred back. "I see you're very interested in my television. Would you like to know how it works? There's one in your room, and of course, there are always a million things to watch. The general sentiment of this generation is that there's nothing good on "TV", as we call it, but to someone who's never seen it before, it's bound to be interesting. I'm sorry, though, most of the programs will be in English and you don't know the language as far as I recall. Of course... hmm. I have a universal translator program in my VT-600.... perhaps I could adapt it to your language. What a smashing idea. I would like to see if it could even be attempted..."
"Got any books in it?" Kanil inquired. He'd always been precocious when it came to learning things he was interested in, and would quite gladly try to teach himself. Try being the operative word, but between a television and a dictionary from Japanese, he'd be set. If only he knew that Japanese was spoken in this world... And that translator thingymachigger sounded like even more fun. But which language? Common, drow, what?
She laughed. "A thousand. Of course, I SHOULD show you the library. But after dinner... I trust you're both carnivores? I've never been able to understand those who would only eat vegetables.."
Draugt gave her his most unsettling smirk. "I don't suppose you have human flesh."
She laughed. "Would that I did, but I find them repulsive in ALL ways, I'm afraid. Beef will just have to do." She winked at him and he smirked.
"The last person who tried to feed me vegetables found them embedded in his trachea shortly afterward," Kanil reminisced happily.
"Bravo," she said sincerely. "But perhaps you'll consent to a few potatoes? They taste very good if they are garnished with cheese and bacon."
"Considering that if we get to rampage tomorrow night and can eat as many humans as we can catch and kill, I suppose it's not -too- stressful to eat something that didn't once bleed," Kanil grinned.
She shook her head. "Mmm, I'm afraid not. You see, the humans are great in number and have powerful weapons. There can be no killing." She turned and her lips twitched at the corners. "Unless," she murmured secretively, "You absolutely, positively, DO NOT GET CAUGHT... and the bodies are never found."
Draugt snorted. "You don't know who you're saying that to." Kanil just smirked, shifting away from the television to sit at Draugt's feet. Corpse disposal and evasion of heroes? Been there, done that, kicked ass at it.
Draugt patted his head as Demona threw on a few fine cuts of beef. "If you prefer it bleeding, then I'll make it rare," she said generously. Or rather, warm."
Kanil's nose twitched. "It's never much mattered to me, but vampiro-here is picky about it," he teased, grinning up at Draugt and leaning into his hand.
Draugt hiked an eyebrow. "I am not picky. Any style of meat is just fine with me, and I will still compliment the chef. But I do prefer raw meat."
Demona began seasoning the meat and chuckled at Draugt. "How our kind used to eat it," she told him. "I'm fond of it as well. But variety keeps things from becoming dull, don't you think?"
"Chaos in all things without moderation makes the world a more interesting place," Kanil chirped, tilting his head.
"Yes!" Demona agreed. She left the steaks to sizzle and pulled out a chair for herself, smiling genuinely at both of them, though it still looked sultry. "Forgive me for saying so. I know that you're feeling out-of-place. But I'm beginning to be very glad Mabon dragged you through that portal. It's been so long since I've agreed with anyone about anything."
"You're lonely," Draugt said simply.
Demona blinked and for a moment scowled, then pulled herself together. "Perhaps. When my choices of company are limited to humans and traitors, it's understandable."
"And probably pretty damned bored, too," Kanil said lightly. "But things are always interesting when the 'lor come to town." He smirked, eyes glinting as he leaned against Draugt's leg, apparently oblivious to any tension, as per his usual facade.
She seemed to relax as neither of them chose to press the advantage. "Yes, it might be. But I have a multi-national corporation to run and a world to destroy, so I manage to keep my nights filled somehow." She smirked. "Tell me. You're from Mabon's world, correct? Toril?"
"Technically, I think so. Sometimes I wonder," Kanil mumbled, sounding vaguely cryptic.
She nodded sympathetically. "Are there many like you there?" she asked Draugt.
He shook his head. "No. There is Kanil and there is me, and I have never met another, though my mother's race created them habitually, I know."
Demona seemed confused. "You are the same race? But Kanil... oh. Is a half-breed." She nodded. "I understand."
Kanil sighed. "Yup. Just us. Just the two of us..." he crooned teasingly, winking up at Draugt. "And we're both half-breeds, thanks," Kanil said, not sounding offended in the least.
Draugt smiled at him. "We are both half-breeds. But my father's genes are more prevalent in my make-up than Kanil's."
She nodded. "I see. Half-elves?"
Draugt snorted. "Of course. And even if we WERE half-human, that wouldn't change anything," he told her cunningly. "We are what we are and humanity is nothing dear to us."
"Actually, watching them kill themselves and each other off makes pretty good comic relief, so they're good for -something-... and they make excellent target practice." Kanil's smile was cutely malicious.
Demona's smile returned. "Yes, I have noticed. Oh... are you sure you won't stay here for a while? I could make things very interesting for you." There was a tiny thread of something in her voice... it sounded almost wistful.
Kanil glanced up at Draugt, tilting his head. "Jar never said when to be back, did he?" he said slyly.
Draugt glanced over, startled into a smile. "... No. And even if he does get impatient, the item he needs should be in the mage's unguarded laboratory now. If we could communicate with him, we could tell him as much, and whenever he had a spare moment, it would be child's play to retrieve it."
Kanil smirked. Oh, gods yes. This... this would be fun. He grinned up at Draugt, cat-green eyes sparkling. "So, this would be why we don't set 'lor loose in... Manhattan, was it? Yeah. Why we don't set 'lor loose in Manhattan."
Draugt smiled back at him. "Yes, so it would seem. But we would hate to continue to infringe on your hospitality...."
"Oh, come on, she already said she's got nobody to talk to. And you know me, I talk enough to entertain thirty people. I'm certain we can make it worth her while to have us here, annoying the crap out of her. Right?" He turned his smile on Demona, bright and winning.
"No need to worry," Demona purred, crossing long legs and looking mischevious. "I have the PERFECT solution. You see, as a human, I'm vulnerable during the daytime. I am the CEO of a very powerful corporation... sort of like the Master of a very large guild. And there are those who would like to see me... shall we say, indisposed? I've been hiring bodygaurds, but they've all been human, and thus they've been.... imperfect. After all, I'm still an excellent FIGHTER... if skill was all it took, I wouldn't need guards. I can hide your true appearance from those around you... do you think you might be interested? It would give you an excellent chance to learn about my world from me, as well as giving me an excuse to train you to use modern weapons."
Kanil's smile grew wider. "You mean we get to play with even more toys that can spill blood and cause chaos? All for keeping an eye on you and kicking the asses of anyone who tries to fuck with ya? Well, shit..." It sounded easy, not to mention fun. A bit too easy, but hey, she'd said she had a LOT of enemies, and Kanil was willing to bet they'd have their work cut out for them. He tilted his head, eyeing Draugt inquisitively. As always, his lover had the final say.
Draugt smirked slightly at her. "Among these enemies are those other Gargoyles, I assume."
Demona made a disgusted sound. "Yes, but they haven't attacked me for quite a while. My daughter is... well, you know how children are, I'm sure. She's been trying to smooth things over between us. And while I wouldn't normally hesitate to destroy Goliath, neither of us wants to risk her getting caught in the crossfire, especially since she has an annoying habit of deliberately putting herself there."
"Of course. Kids have a tendency to think that they're invulnerable and nobody will hurt them cause they're so damned cute." Kanil seemed to be half-joking, but it was really hard to discern; the sparkle in his eyes said he was kidding, but his tone was deadly serious and somewhat sardonic.
Demona eyed him. "The rest of the clan is fair game. But you will NOT lay a hand on my daughter. Understood?"
"Understood," Draugt agreed quickly.
It was nice to see a parent who gave a shit about their kid. Kanil nodded amiably. "Not a single finger," he said, wiggling his hand.
She nodded, apparently satisfied, and got up to mash the potatoes and flip the steaks. "I'll take you on a tour of the mansion and show you the defense systems... they won't make much sense to you now, but I'm sure you'll catch on quickly."
"Anything for a chance at new and offensive technology!" Kanil chirped. He truly enjoyed chaos and mayhem, and even watching things burn every now and then. Giving him explosives, now, that would be stupid...
She smiled. "Excellent." The roar of the egg beater drowned out any chance of conversation for the next couple of minutes as she worked on throwing the meal together, finally presenting them with mashed potatoes full of little peices of bacon and very rare steaks. Draugt smiled up at her. "Thank you."
"The easiest way to win me over... feed me." Kanil grinned widely up at her and winked. "Thanks, Akuma-chan... 'cause a hungry 'lor is a cranky 'lor." He sniffed it curiously before setting into it with all the refined voracity of a trained panther.
She chuckled, eyeing Draugt, who was eating more slowly. "And what is a 'lor?" she inquired.
Draugt smirked. "A conversation for another night, perhaps."
"Aw, come on, half the fun of being 'lor is terrifing the crap out of people with the tales of our so-called demonicism. Though I doubt she'd be frightened in the least..." Despite the rate at which he was sucking down his food, he was infinitely gracious about it. Wow. Table manners... who'd have thought?
Draugt shrugged. "You are so fond of running your mouth. If you feel the desire to relate the entire story, do not let me stop you," he said flatly.
Demona eyed them both. "Talking over my head isn't the best way to get on my good side, you know." Though at this point, it was somewhat moot... she had already decided she liked the both of them a great deal. They agreed with her on so many of the important issues, after all.
Kanil snickered. "He gets bitchy when I babble. Which is pretty much most of the time," he confided to her in a mock whisper. "See, we're not like you. Not Gargoyles, that is. We," he said proudly, "are demons. Well, halfway, anyway."
"Demons?" One brow-ridge peaked. "Really."
"Yup!" Kanil beamed. "Balor, to be specific. Not like that means anything to you, I don't think, but it's a specific type of demon. And he's drow, too - dark elf, they're fun and evil as hell, though they've got this lame obsession with spiders, which in my opinion are really only good as decorations for the bottoms of my feet - and I'm elf. Unfortunately. But yes... demons. It's why he doesn't look -exactly- like you do." In Kanil's opinion, Draugt was -far- sexier than Demona, but he sure as HELL wasn't about to say that. He did have SOME tact, after all.
Demona looked meaningfully at Draugt, who swallowed before adding quietly, "The Drow worship Lolth, goddess of spiders, and live in the Underdark far beneath the surface world. Mating with demons is a common practice for priestesses. Kanil's mother was raped by a demon of the same ilk as my father, and hence we share common blood. He, however, takes mostly after his mother in appearence while I have about equal trademarks of both races."
"Well, you must feel terribly jealous," Demona told Kanil. "No wings?"
"Nah. It's a fair trade, I guess... I can walk around in my world without needing a disguise. I look almost normal. And besides, I'm acrophobic as it is. I'd probably crash my own dumb self. Mostly it's because the stupid bitch that is my dam had much more power than did my demon sire, and so I look like a bloody elf. Except for my horns, and this." He smirked and extended his tongue, seven flickering inches of black, slender appendage, the last inch or so forked.
She smirked. "Well, if I were you, I would be disappointed."
"Believe me, I'm entirely capable of providing him with aerial transportation if needed," Draugt said quietly, then smirked. "And believe me, when he says he's acrophobic, he's not exaggerating."
"Hey, now, you're -supposed- to defend me," Kanil muttered, giving his lover a dirty look. "And besides, lack of wings gives me a -great- excuse to latch onto this sexy beast here."
Demona blinked. Draugt merely gave Kanil a sidelong glance. "If you want to be defended, don't stick your own foot in your mouth."
Oops. Maybe Kanil shouldn't have offered that so blatantly? Nah, he'd been obvious enough about it since they'd arrived. "But it's so -easy-," he grinned, leaning closer to Draugt. "I mean, my mouth is big enough to fit both feet at once!"
"Let's not subject our hostess to... intimate banter," Draugt suggested, seeing Demona's upper lip begin to curl. "I don't think she was quite ready for that bit of information.
Kanil blinked and sighed. "Alright. I don't get what everyone is always whining over it for, though," he muttered to himself. "And -you- are the ecchi who thought that first."
Draugt smirked. "I'm aware. As for whining... well." He shrugged and eyed Demona. "Surely in such an advanced world, you're familiar with the concept?"
"I am familiar," she said disdainfully, "But that does NOT mean I approve. It is unnatural!"
Kanil sweatdropped. "Oh, bloody hell, not you too. You can be a megalomaniac and genocidal, but homosexuality is unnatural? On that case, you should condone it merely on the principle that it -is- wrong." Kanil's version of logic left much to be desired. Luckily, he stopped himself early on.
Her eyes narrowed. "It's a detriment to the clan. It.... but.... you're not Gargoyles." She sat back slightly. "And, given what you ARE... I suppose there are degrees of unnaturallness that one must expect from a demon."
Draugt's violet eyes flashed at her. "Yes. After all, what does it matter to you, who we choose to mate? We have our reasons. They are good reasons. I'm sure you have yours as well."
~I will -not- get into stupid debates with this chick. I will -NOT- get into stupid debates with this chick,~ Kanil instructed himself, shutting his eyes to iron out his composure. "Something like that," he muttered. He wanted nothing more than to clamber into Draugt's lap and shock the hell out of her right then, but he refrained.
Barely.
Draugt contentedly ate his steak, as Demona eyed him wondering what he'd meant by that last comment. "Well. I suppose it's unimportant. But, should you encounter Goliath and his troupe, I suggest you keep that little tidbit to yourself. And not mention that you are demons."
"Why, will they come after us with pitchforks, screaming about sodomy?" Kanil inquired dryly. The mental image was almost funny.
"Perhaps."
"And," Draugt said, "It would ruin our chance to infiltrate their clan and kill them when they least expect it."
Demona eyed him, he shrugged, and she smiled. "Devious."
"Drow," he said dryly, pointing to himself.
Kanil sighed. "You and your subterfuge. Whatever happened to the good old "rape, kill, pillage, and burn!" thing? What's with the whole cloak and dagger approach? It's great fun to make people think you're on their side and then tear them apart from within, granted, but it's MORE fun to eviscerate them straight off the bat!" he informed Draugt.
"No, it is not," Draugt replied haughtily, digging into his potatos.
Demona tapped her talons against her lips thoughtfully. "It is a great deal easier to destroy an enemy who doesn't see you coming. Believe me, I know. I've taken on Goliath's brood time and time again, and the head-on approach simply fails to work every time. The Hunters had even less success, and Xanatos even tried the cloak and dagger approach and failed miserably."
"Yes it is," Kanil protested stubbornly. "I mean, the look of betrayal in their eyes is priceless, I'll give you that, but the sheer terror when they see someone they can't even identify bearing down on them with murder on the agenda... it's much more fulfilling." And this from a ninja! "But hey, if anybody can do the whole twelfth-layer-of-deception thing, it'd be a drow."
"I don't like to place my confidence in unproven allies," Demona told them. "Learn from me for a while, and then we will see what happens with The Clan."
"A wise proposition," Draugt said simply.
"I gotta agree. Hell, it's not like that Mabon guy was any indicator of our skills." It was very hard to tell is Kanil was serious or not; for a guy who was hardly ever -not- joking, it was pretty much a given most of the time that he was kidding, but sometimes, it was a mystery.
She nodded. "Well, then. Shall we tour the place? I'll show you the library which is, of course, at your disposal and give you a crash course on how to operate the television."
"That's the telavizin, right?" Kanil inquired, craning his head around to stare at the box, grinning widely. That thing had -serious- potential. He'd seen magical items somewhat like it, and if his guess was approximately correct, he could wreak some serious havoc with something like that.
Demona nodded. "The TV, yes. This is a remote control." She held up the slim black rectangle. "It... well, it allows you to control the TV remotely. This button says 'Power'... push it and the TV turns off, or on." She pressed the button twice, demonstrating.
"Power... like power over it? Neat." Kanil's eyes locked onto her hand, staring intently as he absorbed her words. The little letters above the button must have been what she said, power. The letters were familiar, but the word was not, and he summarily imprinted it into his mind, determined to learn this language, and soon.
She smirked. "This one that says "vol" controls the sound. Pressing this arrow turns it up, and this one turns it down. This one that says 'chan' means 'channel' and changes what you're watching." She flipped through several channels.
"Channel?" That application of the word made little sense. He frowned, thinking about it. If channel was the different set of animated pictures, then maybe each was a river in its channel, each picture following the next. That made a bit more sense to him, and he nodded slowly. "How does it -work-?" he asked, fascinated?
"See this little glass globe at the tip?" she asked, pressing a button and causing the globe to turn red. "It is sending a signal, telling the television what to do. This signal cannot go through walls, and it cannot go over large distances so you have to be close and point it at the TV."
"Like a... like a spell?" He'd heard of spells that could send messages; maybe there was a way to do it with that science stuff. It would most likely involve mirrors... A part of his brain long dormant due to lack of material to work with woke up and started spinning, processing all this new information.
Draugt watched fondly as Kanil tried to master the remote, and Demona tilted her head. "No, this is technology, not magic. Though it is sometimes hard to distinguish between them in today's world."
"Toma once said that at some point, the two merged," Kanil mumbled to himself, liberating the remote from Demona and pressing the channel button repeatedly, flickering through each station. "So each of these channels is a different flow, and each one's got something different-" He stopped, staring at the screen. "It's a drawing." Sure enough, it was a cartoon, and it appeared to be anime. And, even more importantly, it was in subtitles. Kanil's jaw dropped and he poked the volume button - the wrong one. He glanced down to adjust the mistake, and turn it up, pointed ears twitching forward to catch every word. "Nihongo desu," he murmured, amazed.
Demona blinked. "<You speak Japanese?>"
"<Hai. Was raised on it, in the Dynasty.>" Kanil was entranced by the show, which portrayed four young men in a flower shop.
Demona looked pleased. "<Well. That makes things MUCH easier... you can learn English from Japanese. I assume you're also familiar with the alphabet?>"
"<Same alphabet used for Common,>" Kanil said lightly, finally tearing his eyes away from the screen. The Japanese he was speaking had a very thick accent to it, though, as though it were a different dialect - which it most likely was. That, and a good five hundred years archaic...
She nodded. "<And your koibito?>" she inquired, eyeing Draugt.
Draugt eyed her right back and deadpanned, "Watashi wa nihongo ga sukoshi shika hanasemasen."
"Boku no koneko!" Kanil said in a lilting tone, giving Draugt a wide smile. "Baka desu." Draugt shot him a glare.
Demona laughed. "Koneko? Hmm... he does resemble a little black kitten in some ways." Draugt shot HER a glare.
Kanil smiled innocently. "Doncha just adore me?" he crooned teasingly, batting his eyelashes at his lover. "And he does. He even purrs."
"Which must be simply adorable," she said a bit too sweetly. Draugt ate, steadfastily ignoring them both.
"It is," Kanil concurred, grinning at Draugt. He leaned over and trailed a hand down his lover's back between his wings.
"Now, now. If you want to do that, I've given both of you bedrooms, though I somehow doubt they'll both be used," she scolded mildly as Draugt shuddered.
Kanil snickered. "Aaaaaalright," he conceded with the slightest of pouts. He stopped tormenting Draugt to finish off the last of his dinner.
Draugt looked mildly relieved, while Demona just looked thoughtful. "Interesting," she murmured as she idly watched the TV. As it overtook her thoughts, she sneered at it.
"What's interesting?" Kanil inquired, more curious than a kitten as he turned to regard Demona and the boob tube.
"He, at least, even has errogenous zones that mimick a Gargoyle's," she told him. "We're quite sensitive between the wings."
Draugt hiked a brow. "It could be true for any creature that has wings... something to do with the way the nerves must be structured and the muscles patterned."
She nodded. "It's possible."
Kanil blinked, and then snickered. "What about the tail? How're you guys with those?"
She smirked. "Very, very sensitive, particularly around the base." Draugt eyed Kanil, looking mildly embarassed and irritated. Kanil was about to make another teasingly callous comment, but he caught the look in Draugt's eyes and sighed, reluctantly deciding to lay off. "Yeah," he said half-heartedly. He gave his lover a 'please forgive me... i'm cute' look.
Draugt snorted. "Then it would appear that physiological similarities between me and your race are abundant," he said, bringing the conversation to a close. "More riots?" He indicated the television.
Demona snorted. "This is not a riot, this is a RALLY. And that," she said as the camera focused on the speaker, a haggard-looking man with close-cropped hair, "is my most persistent and most despised enemy, Jon Castaway. Leader of the Quarrymen."
Kanil made a little mental note to kill that one first, staring intently at the screen to memorize every nuance of the man's features, all the better to target him. Modern day Manhattan didn't know how to deal with a ninja.
"He's a descendant of a boy I hurt long ago," Demona said quietly. "I was clanless and alone, trying to steal some vegetables from his farm for food and take a rest in his barn. He came out to check on the animals and threatened me with a pitchfork. So I slashed his face. And since then, his descendants have hounded me. The Quarrymen are a new occurance, however. A hate-group with... well, even I don't know how the hammers work. But they carry hammers that are somehow electrified to deliver a very painful strike."
Kanil raised an eyebrow, wondering if their natural immunity, as demonspawn, would render them immune, or at least reduce the effects. A shock had never hurt him much before, and he wasn't planning on letting it start now. "So this guy's whole family holds a grudge against you for a face cut?" he inquired. Face cuts were a horrible dishonor among the Ekishou, but he somehow doubted that these humans followed the same precepts that the clan did.
She tilted her head, then smirked. "... Yes, actually."
"Bloody buggering hell. And I thought I knew anal retentive people," Kanil muttered in disgust, shaking his head. "At least that paladin had a half-decent reason, right, koneko?"
"Are you referring to the fact that I desecrated his church, murdered an innocent on holy ground, or killed his sister?" Draught inquired with dry amusement.
"I suppose all three would contribute, yes," Kanil chirped.
Demona chuckled. "Well, well. Ambitious little... what are you, exactly?"
"Kanil has termed me a 'drowlor'," he told her.
"Yup. And I'm an elor. Which makes us both 'lor." Kanil smiled widely.
"Lor," she repeated. "I suppose it's as good a name as any."
"Better than 'hey you' or 'halfbreed', in my book." Kanil shrugged, not bothering to mention any of the various names that his trainers had used for him.
She smirked. "As you wish it. Are you quite finished watching this drivel? The library is this way...."
Kanil tore his eyes from the television with a verging-on-sheepish smile. The promise of books quickly cleared his mind, though, and he nodded. "Yeah! Let's go check it out. If you've got a book from nihongo to inglash - englesh? whatever it is - that'd be great."
"I do. And in fact, I have a computer program that will also teach you... and you could learn to use a PC in the process," she reasoned as she led them from the kitchen. Draugt had dropped to all fours again, prowling along behind them.
"A what program?" Introducing Kanil to a computer would be a sink or swim thing. Either they'd click and he's spend the next several weeks memorizing the layout of the keyboard, or he'd desperately desire to take a sledgehammer to the thing.
"Computer. It's a machine that.... well... does just about everything, really. But computing is most of what it does. Here, I'll show you later." She pushed open a set of mahogany doors. "And the library...." It was a huge room, filled with shelves that were crammed from floor to ceiling.
Kanil stopped and stared, resisting the ruge to run up to a shelf and start rummaging. Though he'd always liked books, he'd never gotten much of a chance to read too many, and had only discovered his adoration of the written word in the last year or so in Calimport, in the luxury time he'd had to read the books stolen from Crisias.
"Please, help yourself," Demona was saying when a chiming sound interrupted them. She sighed and removed a palm pilot from her belt. "Yes, Berkins?"
Kanil was at her side in an instant, peering at the thing in her hand. It vaguely resembled the remote, made of the same smooth material, but it had a glass plate and was shinier. There was SO much cool stuff in this world!
"Ma'am," came the voice from the palm pilot, which proceeded to rattle on in English. Demona listened, then gave him instructions in English. As Kanil peered over, there was a tiny television screen in the device which showed a man's head, moving.
Undistracted by the sounds emitting from it, Kanil could focus all his attention on the little picture. "It's a telavizin and a remote-thingy, all in one," he murmured, green eyes wide.
"And a computer, and a personal planner," she told him. "Please excuse me, I have to attend to something that simply cannot wait. Would you like some coffee, or tea? Feel free to explore some."
"We should be entertained enough," Kanil said with a shrug, eyes flickering up and around the room again to land on Draugt. This whole stuck-in-another-dimension thing was looking to being more and more fun every minute.
"Very well. I'll leave you to your entertainment..." She clicked the palm pilot closed and stalked from the library, shutting the doors behind her.
end part 2
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