Return of a Different Dead Man

So, I didn't think I'd be making a post about us hunting down the 11 names that Malik was able to dig up, who used a specific gun to kill his friend, in their area, at the time. I mean, it's fairly straight forward, track down the people, look at them from a distance and see if any of their faces match the ones I saw in Claude's memory, if not, move on. Easy-peasy right? Well, wrong.

I mean, that's exactly what we've been doing for the past 6 days, mainly by looking their names up in the white pages and then using Franky to Path our way to their address and it's been nothing but smooth sailing from there, until we hit the 3 last names on the list. See, we Pathed our way to the house of the next target, house wasn't super fancy, just a two story building with a backyard, a backyard that I used to sneak up on the house in order to get a quick look at the man residing within the house, so I perched myself up on the tree and waited to see if I would spot a face similar to the one I saw in Claude's memory through one of the windows. This was taking a while so Malik and Franky walked off to get themselves a drink in a nearby 7/11 store, leaving me hanging on that tree, bored out of my mind, now you might ask, why didn't I just break into the house to speed things up? Two reasons: 1. I actually have no idea how to lock pick doors and all the windows were closed, so sneaking in wasn't an option; 2. If sneaking in wasn't an option, brute forcing was the only way, except I didn't want to attract ANY attention to myself AT ALL during this time, because I'm trying to avoid catching Slendy's attention again, I rather enjoy using The Path with no interruptions.

Well, that last bit was quickly drained down the toilet, as I was sitting in my tree, boring myself to death, a sudden burst of force that hit me in my shoulder from the side sent me plummeting to the ground off the tree, immediately standing up, confused, I hid behind the tree I was sitting on top of this entire time, that's when I noticed the pain shooting through my arm, whatever hit me in my shoulder travelled with such speed that it dislocated my shoulder. Few seconds later Fortissimo ended up spitting out a bullet through one of my sleeves, somebody tried to shoot me, luckily for me Fortissimo reacted quickly and clumped up enough of herself around the shoulder area to prevent the bullet from penetrating the shoulder. I tried to peek from my cover, but was immediately met with a bullet wheezing past me, right in front of my face, grazing the tree. That's when I heard the car's engine start that was parked next to the house, which explains why I didn't see any movement inside the house for so long, the fucker was hiding in his car this entire time, as the car began to drive off I saw Franky and Malik jumping out of it's way, yelled to them that this was our guy driving off and they gave chase on foot. 

While they were chasing down the car, I was going to deal with my assailant, who's location up until this point eluded me, I knew he shot me from the side, meaning he was on top of one of the neighbouring buildings, but I had no idea which one and considering the fact that he wasn't opening fire on Malik or Franky, it was clear that whoever this was, was after me specifically. My only option was to quickly jump the fence that led to a nearby forest, right behind this guy's backyard, with the forest hopefully preventing the shooter from having a clear view of me. I'm so lucky that Claude was the type of person who felt like he needed to keep his body in shape, because this body's agility on it's own is very impressive, managed to clear the fence very quickly, bullets wheezed by, but none of them hit their intended target. Managing to make it inside the forest, I could still hear bullets hitting various trees near me, whoever this was, he was persistent, so I asked my darling to wrap herself around my body, making us blend in with the darkness of the forest. After the shooting stopped, instead of running deeper into the forest, I began running in the direction of where the shots were coming from, without leaving the forest. I had to find out who this was that was on my ass, suspecting that this was the same person who took pot shots at me before, then his next course of action would be to go after Malik and Franky, in order to get to me. Lo and behold, I was finally able to see the same silhouette from before, juxtaposed against the moon, I could clearly see him packing away his weapons and begin climbing down from the top of the two story derelict building he decided to occupy as his vantage point.

Rushing up towards the back of the building, I could see through the hole that was supposed to be a window at some point, the mystery assailant making his way through the first floor, towards his car. Couldn't allow him to get to it, so I leaned against the window, extended my left arm (the one that wasn't dislocated) through the window and elongated my sleeve into a tendril that slithered through the air towards him at a fast pace. The idea was to wrap around his neck and drag him towards me, but before my tendril could reach him, he quickly spun around and cut the end of the tendril off with a knife in a quick motion, after which he started opening fire on me with a pistol that he was holding in the other hand. I quickly rolled off the window, with my tendril coming back into my sleeve and landed on my dislocated shoulder, the pain of which reminded me that I still had a dislocated shoulder. I asked my darling to pop it back into place, which she did by morphing around it and forcefully yanking it into place, hurt pretty bad, wish I had the time to soak in the pain, but a Molotov that ended up hitting the edge of the window I was near, spreading flames in the process didn't give me that luxury. Rolling away from the fire, I took a moment to think, popping up from around the corner nearest to me would be suicide, no doubt the assailant was keeping an eye on it, rushing to the other corner would take too long, I needed an element of surprise, so I asked my darling to wrap herself around me once more and try her best to protect us from the fire, because I decided the best course of action was to jump through the burning window and catch our assailant by surprise. She did a magnificent job, I could feel the heat surround me as I flung myself through the window, even when getting to my feet, I could see parts of our jacket still flaming, but as I rushed towards the location of our assailant, my darling would put the fires out. As I suspected, he was guarding the corner, allowing me the chance to tackle him from behind, knocking his fedora off of his head, now on top of him, I morphed a sharp spike around my hand and drove it straight into his chest, I was expecting a yelp of pain, or a gargle, anything but an annoyed grunt as if a mosquito just bit him, the next unexpected move was his left hand smashing against my chin, sending me toppling off of him. I scrambled to my feet, as he himself began to stand up, dusting off his green trench coat, inspecting the wound I inflicted upon him.

Finally I could see the face of my assailant, with the moon fully lighting his head up, although, "face" is a bit of a generous description. It was very obvious what this guy was, with his sickly green skin, flesh that was in the process of rotting off his face, a lack of lips revealing his surprisingly white teeth, lack of a nose with just two holes and his right eye missing its eye lids. This guy was clearly possessed by a Dying Man shard, once he finished checking on his wound, I was able to get a better look at him overall. Underneath his green trench coat he was wearing a white business shirt, which made me notice the black blood that was staining it from the wound that I had made, a purple tie, brown formal pants, complete with brown fancy shoes, oh and the left hand that hit like the freight train? Yeah, that thing was encased in some sort of metal armour. Oh, he also had a bag hanging off to his side underneath the trench coat.

Corpse Man hunched over to pick up his fedora, without taking his eyes off of me , he put the fedora back on his head, covering his eyes with it's shadow, after which he spoke.

"Must you be so barbaric? This was a newly purchased garment." He spoke with a sophisticated, calm tone, which is quite a feat for guy who was currently bleeding from a stab wound in his chest, which led me to understand that he didn't feel any pain.

Now for those of you who are observant, might notice that this guy, in his description at least, resembles Koschey a little bit, with the additions of having a sophisticated tone to himself and an armoured hand. So I decided to prod: "My apologies, you did try to shoot me, but since we're conversing, tell me, you related to Koschey by any chance?"

He put his hands behind his back, smugly chuckling to himself: "Indeed, I was an associate of the one you dubbed 'Koschey'..." And then I heard a slight ripping sound as I noticed his arms jolt, then instantly, he lobbed something in my direction. I assumed it was a grenade of some sort, so I jumped back as far as I could, but all I heard was a loud pop, as smoke erupted all over me. Landing on my feet, trying to see through the smoke earned me a stab in the chest with a knife, an effect that this guy achieved by rushing through the smoke and taking advantage of my disorientation. The searing pain, combined with this guy putting all of his weight into the knife, sent me to the floor with him toppling over me, grabbing my throat with his armoured hand and squeezing.

"Let us conduct our business serenely, disrupting the public at this hour would be most improper." This fucking guy, why is it that I always attract the freaks? But he had a point, I'm quite amazed that we didn't wake up the entirety of the neighbourhood at this point and I intended to keep it that way, because at the time, I still wanted to stay off the radar for as long as possible, if I had known then what a fruitless endeavour it would turn out to be, I wouldn't have even bothered.

Considering that he didn't restrict any of my arms, we wrapped a solidified lump around my left hand, which we then used to smash into his arm that was squeezing on the knife, smashed so hard we ended up breaking his forearm, which immediately threw him off balance, allowing me to grab him by the collar with my right hand and pull him towards myself, headbutting him, which I think hurt me more than him, but it led to the result I wanted, he ended up letting go of my throat, allowing me to quickly scramble to my feet and tackle him inside the derelict building we were nearby.

Rolling over to my feet, he was already out of my grasp, hiding in the shadows of the building, shadows which were emanating from the still burning window. Taking the moment, I pulled the knife out of my chest as quickly as possible, allowing my darling to start working on mending the wound, then his voice echoed throughout the building: "I believe it is ill-advised to remove sharpened equipment in the case of an incising circumstance." Couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, but it did sound from further down the building, meaning he wasn't near me.

"Oh yeah? Well it's also ill-advised to take pot shots at me, things usually never end up in a good way for the person who attempts something like that." I yelled out, making sure that he would hear me, after which I began walking further into the building. His voice rang out again "I am aware Mr. Oleg, however, I'm afraid my current commission dictates that such action is necessary." Commission? Another Dead Man Shard assassin, like Koschey? As I walked further, I tried to prod further "Commission? What are you, some sort of assassin like Koschey was? I mean, you did mention that he was your associate." At this point I had reached the stairs that led to the second floor, well, technically, the roof, considering the second floor lacked a roof at this point in time, inspecting the area around the stairs, he spoke again, his voice clearly coming from somewhere at the top: "While true, Terror was an associate of mine, that promptly ended the moment he went into business for himself, severing himself from our proprietor." Now this was getting interesting, but further questioning would have to wait, I had to figure out a way to get upstairs, without getting my head blown off, because it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was guarding the stairway. Luckily for me there was a window near the stairway, climbing out of it and grabbing onto the steel frames that were sticking out from underneath the cement, made it a very easy climb towards the second floor, where I could see Corpsy standing over the stairway, inspecting it, no doubt trying to spot me. In his armoured hand he was gripping his handgun, which put me at a disadvantage, I had to find a way to distract him, luckily, I decided to keep the knife on me that was previously embedded into my chest, now I'm not much of a knife thrower, so throwing it at him would most likely prove to be a fruitless endeavour, instead, I threw the knife as far away as possible from myself, the clanging sound that it made upon landing against the concrete caused Corpsy to spin and wildly shoot in the direction of the sound, allowing me the opportunity to close the distance between us, smacking the gun out of his hand, which earned me a solid hit from his armoured hand, directly to my head, causing me to fall to my knee, however I wasn't going to let him capitalise, falling onto my back, my darling wrapping and solidifying around my foot in the process, I then kicked him with the foot directly in his right knee, the sound of a snap, following by his instant fall backwards onto the stairs, indicated that my kick was successful enough to break his knee.

I got up, holding my head, trying to balance myself and ignore the sparks in my eyes, I looked down at him, laying on the stairs, looking back at me, as calm as ever: "So, before I kill you, mind telling me about this 'proprietor'?" I formed a sharp edge with my sleeved around my left hand, ready to stab the shit out of Corpsy. "Surely Mr. Oleg, you don't think a business provider of my calibre would divulge such sensitive information, so nonchalantly." A smug sounding chuckle later: "I will, however, inform you that quite a lot of habitués would like to see you evanesce, one of such entity's is currently engaged with your colleagues." This made me pause, remembering that Malik and Franky were still out there somewhere, doing fuck knows what, just as I turned around, planning to go looking for them, they were right behind me, with Malik yelling in a panicked state that we had to get out of there immediately. Having no idea what freaked him out so much, they gave me no time to question them, before Pathing me out of there.

Malik will write up what caused him grief himself on his own blog, I would do it myself, but I have to prepare for my upcoming trip. It's a good thing that I had planned this trip in advance, before getting access to the Path again, with us not being able to use The Path for a while, my planned trip manages to stay on track and according to schedule, talk about lucky.

But yeah, so apparently there's some sort of "proprietor" out there that is seeking my death, funny isn't it, how all of a sudden, all of these freaks start coming out of the woodwork the instant I phrase things in a certain way, on one blog post.

Entertaining indeed.

Blind Man's Gifts of Observation, Useful Means of Inanition.

Apparently, certain wordage featured on my previous post attracted someone's attention.

I mean, granted, I hinted at Starman getting the meaning behind certain words I've used in that post and there was a possibility that he would come out of hiding (Probably busy stuck doing his corporate crap) yet again to either try and probe my brain as to what I actually know, or he would skip all that and immediately start trying to track my ass down to have a round three (And in all honesty, for all I know he could possibly be doing that as I write this).

Who I didn't expect was a messenger, sent by The Blind Man. And here I thought our Creepy Crawlies were too busy warring over who humanity is terrified of more, right now. Then again, it shouldn't surprise me, after all, The Blind Man's seeming purpose is to document as much information as he can possibly muster, occasionally using that knowledge to intimidate his pawns and play around with them as he sees fit, you know, the usual Creepy Crawlie shabang.

If you're unfamiliar with The Blind Man, basically he is a creature much like our Tall Friend, only instead of constantly playing around with his victims, he only does it on occasion, sometimes for the purposes of recruitment, sometimes for the purposes of unknowingly doing his bidding (Suzie Kingston comes to mind) and sometimes, for absolutely unknown reasons, much like our Tall Friend. He also has his servants, probably the most organised, yes, even more organised than the proxies. I mean, come on, sure the proxies have had influence on a governmental level at some points, but they reached that level of influence numerous times over the years and overtime, they folded in on themselves, every time. Whereas the Blind Man's servants, The Archive are a bit more organised, influentially staying on about the same level, sometimes they would appear to the public to seemingly share their collected knowledge (It would only be bare bones and I suspect the reason they did that, is because they wanted certain knowledge to reach certain people, so they could uncover more information for them), most of the times they would remain hidden, documenting various historical events from the darkness of their Catacombs.

Then again, it's not hard to be that organised, when your only stake in the conflict is to sit on the sidelines and just document pointless crap that ultimately has no meaning. So it makes sense that The Blind Man would notice my little activities on the side, during the various pandemics that are striking the world right now, he tries to get his wrinkly fingers into all of the orifices he can possibly manage and yesterday, when I was out and about, doing my thing, observing the city below and thinking about things, this guy intrudes on my solitude.

"You need to cease your pursuit, you know not of the powers you toy with."

The striking accent was what really threw me off guard, what you read up there, was my best ability at transcribing what this person had said to me, if you want a more accurate sounding representation of what was said, then here you go, feel my pain:

"Yuh need fi cease yuh pursuit, yuh kno nuh of di powas yuh toy wid."

However, once I turned around to face my fellow, rooftop vagabond, I was even more confused as to this man's appearance. Now, granted, I haven't encountered a lot of the Blind Man's servants, I definitely never encountered any of his Gifted servants and I must say, if this is how they all dress, then I'm imagining the Catacombs to look like some sort of weird crossover between Gothic, Hood and Carnival culture.

So let me try and describe this specimen to the best of my ability: The gentleman was of African-American descent, judging by his wild accent, I'd say he was Jamaican. The only way I could see his skin colour is because he had this weird, white, mask on, that had very slit eye holes and had black lines cut into it, kind of representing a bird of some sort and the mask was only covering the top half of his face, everything from nostrils down was visible. He had a black, goat patch beard and whenever he talked, I noticed the street lamps reflect off his teeth, dude had gold teeth. And I believe his hairstyle would be described accurately as long, laid back dreads. Now his outfit, was some sort of black, cult-looking robe, why cult-looking? Because the edges of the robe (the buttoned placket, edge of the hoodie, sleeves, etc.) were covered in some weird ass, white writing, at least, I assume it was writing, since there was spaces between the symbols, indicating text. Black gloves, black dress pants and black boots. Only other weird thing was, that from the belt of his pants, you could see a bunch of chains hanging off down to his knees, the end of each chain had some sort of symbolic pendant attached to it.

So yeah, you can see what kind of circus show visited me the other night, so of course, I responded appropriately:

"Well, you're new. And what exactly are you supposed to be?"

He stood there for a second, looking around, his stance was stoic, with one hand behind his back and the other inside his robe. So you can understand as to why I didn't entirely let my guard down, he might not have been in a battle ready stance, but the hand in his robe could be gripping anything.

"It does not matter, what does matter is that you heed my message and cease your pursuit."

A message huh? Of course I would press on that part first.

"Wow, my very own messenger, interesting... And who sent you, might I ask?"

Another few seconds of silence, after which, I swear I could see his iris, underneath his mask turn white/gray, mainly because prior to that, I couldn't see his eyes behind the slit eye holes of the mask. After which he began to pull his hand out from inside his robe. Of course, in response, I formed a sharp edged sleeve around my hand, preparing for a possible attack. But an attack did not come my way, because all he pulled out was a musky, old, ripped in places book, yet another weird ass symbol on it's front cover. At this point it's kind of obvious that this goon was sent by the Blind Man, no question about it.

"He has observed you since your return, thing, he is convinced that you know something, but not everything, I repeat, cease your pursuit."

I did not remove my sharp edged sleeve, who knows what kind of voodoo The Gifted can pull off.

"Thing? Rude, not a very smart idea to try to convince someone to do something, by being rude to them."

The rudeness didn't stop there, because immediately after my statement, he started pointing at me with his other hand.

"You are an aberration and your actions run the risk of muddling in events that are out of your control, granting you an eternity of suffering, so spare yourself and cease."

At this point, I started to get excited, I'm not sure if this "messenger" realised what he was doing, but by saying stuff like that, he was only proving to me that my thinking process was on the right track, so there is no way I would heed his worthless warning.

"Oh really? Somehow I doubt that you, or the blind man are concerned about my suffering, I mean, it must not be that serious of an issue as to what I'm doing, or going to do, since the Wrinklemeister didn't decide to show up himself and instead sent his errand boy."

I was trying to provoke Masquerade over here into a reaction, I was curious as to what The Gifted were capable of, other than sitting on their asses and collecting information. And I thought it worked, because for a short period of time, his chains began to clang around, despite him not moving an inch and there not being any wind to move them around, but then they stopped and he put his pointing hand behind his back.

"My duty here is finished, thing, you have received your message. If you choose to ignore it, the consequences you face in the future will make you regret ever being brought into this plain."

And before I could mutter a response, he flung his book open at me, sending pages upon pages right into my face, there were so many of them and they were coming at me with such force, I thought he was trying to push me off the building, but just as I felt myself tipping over the edge, the pages stopped flying at me and began to fall to the ground. Once I was able to see again, he was gone without a trace and when I tried to pick up some of the pages, all of them quickly dissolved into dust and were blown away by the wind.

So there you go, looks like I'm doing something right, if I even got the Blind Man to get off his ass.

"Crypticism" is the name of the Game and boy is The Game being played.

I dream, which is very strange.

You see, when you are a creature similar to myself, such necessities like sleep, food and other "human" needs are not an issue, it is only an issue concerning the human body I inhabit. So on occasion I need to force it to go to sleep, in order for it to replenish it's energy, during that time Fortissimo watches over it, since she doesn't need to be the one to control the chemicals in the body's brain to make it shut down, I'm the one doing that.

So what happens to me during that process? The strangest of things, I don't want to label it as the act of "sleeping" after I claimed that I have no need for it. However, the feeling is very similar to all those years I've spent in that briefcase, waiting for myself to form to Kelevra's standard. That weird "limbo" that I inhabited, before Malik's treacherous friend was forced to inject me into himself. I've been experiencing this sensation ever since Morningstar's dumb gas did a number on me during our first confrontation in Dimir's tower, not on a constant basis mind you, I'm sure that I wouldn't be sitting here, publishing these posts if that were the case, but on a very rare occasion, when I shut down the body, I experience this... Openness? Not sure how else to describe it honestly, it's like I'm occupying this vastness and somehow, regardless of how vast it is, I can see it's limits.

Only I don't see, but I feel... I guess the human equivalent would be, the feeling of standing on the cusp of something you know is going to be grand, but not having the ability to effect it in any way. Only during this... "state" I don't just feel that I can effect it, I know how to do so, except, when I wake the body up and exit that "state", I can't seem to remember that knowledge, but remember possessing it. It's enlightening, exciting and very infuriating, I have a hunch that once I drop the humanistic pretence that I carry with myself via Kelevra's memories and emotions, I'll be able to exist in that "state" for good, however, it is too early for that, knowledge must be accumulated first, one does not simply fly to the moon after all.

On a less vague note, let's talk about the happenings in the world shall we?

Hoo boy, shit has hit the fan huh? The Plague Doctor has been running absolute rampage all over the world and I still have no idea what's with the sudden outburst of activity, but understanding the Creepy Crawlies is a practice, that will always end up with you smacking your head against a concrete wall (Sometimes, literally), you just have to go with the flow and boy is humanity failing to flow right now.

Then The Brute seems to have decided to get in on the action, which does not bode well for anyone. Considering that fucker has been locked up for so long, this must be like a massive birthday bash for him and the stomping ground is the currently burning, U.S. of A.

Due to Plague Doctors latest Virus, I'm sure the Cold Boy managed to find himself plenty of victims to feast on, considering isolation is a highly advised practice these days, hell, in some areas it is even enforced. No doubt that frosty pipsqueak is out there, cashing in on the opportunity big time.

Hell, even the Intrusion decided to get in on the fun, what, did you think those Killer Hornets just decided to fly out of nowhere in such large amounts, just because they got tired of sitting on their stingers for so long?

It seems like the good ol' Doctor has opened the flood gates for other Creepy Crawlies to get in on the fun, it's been a while since the Fears have fought among themselves on such a level, hell, I'd say decades. All sorts of them have been bringing their foot back into the game, hence why I always laughed at those naive runners: "Well maybe they'll just go away some day, they can't terrorise us forever, surely" and yet, here we are. The world has not been hit with so much shit at the same time in a very long time, which begs the question, when are the sighting going to start up again I wonder and how many little runners will run to their precious internet to document them all over again? Exciting times we live in, huh?

Hell, that's not even mentioning a certain event that everybody is speculating about right now, piercing a certain "barrier" and finishing all of us off. Of course, if Morningstar reads this, if he's memory is still intact, my phrasing will have more meaning to him than a mere "oh shit, a comet is coming". But I'm hoping this foretold "event" is yet another fluke, much like the 2012 of it's time, after all, it is my job to take down any kind of "barriers" around here. However, the recent Fear activity is not a calming factor, shit's been happening fast and on a large scale, it would be foolish that certain after effects didn't already affect the before mentioned "barriers" already, which means, I have to kick my shit into gear.

Deary me, you must be so, hopelessly lost reading that jibber jabber I wrote up above, it's ok, I get lost myself sometimes, contrary to popular belief, neither the original Kelevra, nor the current Kelevra that is occupying this blog right now, have complete understanding of things. But I am piecing things together slowly but surely, all the while laughing at the grand irony of those who left behind such valuable pieces of information. Labelling themselves as some sort of guardians who would fight tooth and nail the preserve the "status quo" all the while leaving behind their little blogs where they dumped buckets of valuable information, it is absolutely hilarious to me.

But let's write something that you, dear reader, will be able to grasp and understand.

Team work has been going a lot more smooth these past couple of weeks, sure, Malik's stubborn nature and Franky's lack of nature tend to get in the way of communication. But so far, every one of our outings was always a resounding success, specifically we've been concentrating on figuring out who gave the order to off Malik's friend. Claude's memories are a chore to dig through, mainly because of all the attachments Fortissimo suffered at the hands of those miserable Lab Freaks, they tend to get in the way, but my effort paid off and I was able to see the faces of the two men that pulled the trigger on Malik's friend.

But no names, which would make any kind of info harder to look for, but due to Malik's quick thinking, he figured that there was still a dead girl that had to be reported. All we had to do was go to the police station that was closest to the location of the murder, look for her name through the databases, disregard the false reports filed under her name and look for any kind of information that would point us to her case's evidence storage. Now, logically speaking, if the report of the murder itself is falsified, why would there be any evidence, right? Well, that's what we call a hunch, a hunch that was worth checking, you never know, maybe these idiots did actually store some actual evidence from the crime scene.

So Franky opened up The Path and walked us right into their old town that Malik's entire crew used to operate in. From there, we made our way to the nearest Police Station, utilising The Path yet again we were able to quietly wander into the Police Station. From there on, I sneakily abducted the Evidence Technician and beat the crap out of him, until he gave us the log in information for their Evidence Database. Finding her file and the number to her evidence locker, I dispatch of our very helpful technician and make Franky, Path the body out, while me and Malik made our way to the girl's evidence locker.

This is where the hunch turned into a result, these idiots forgot to dig the bullet out of her skull, so the cops had to archive it, ordinarily, this wouldn't be a big deal, mainly because the falsified reports on the girl's death circumstance would make any willing investigator who was not in on the seedy operations between Proxies and our trust Law Enforcement, turn away from the case instantly. However, nobody expected me to get involved now did they? So took the bullet with us and by this point, Franky Pathed back to us and just like that, we were out of there.

In the future, we will have to refrain from using The Path this much, because it gives away our position to those who are in tune with the thing if we use it too much. Only reason we do it so much right now, is because, I'm pretty sure our Tall Friend is too busy involving himself in the current Creepy Crawlie conflict that is going on, as for advanced freaks like Morningstar, have any of you seen him recently, at all? Dude's probably been shut off by his Overlord's yet again.

Anyway, so the bullet is in our possession and according to Malik, he can use it to give us our next lead, something to do with "unique markings" that every bullet has, I don't know, I'm not a firearms expert. I'm sure he'll fill in the blanks on his blog at some point, mainly because I'll probably force him to do so.

And I believe that is it, TTFN my dear freaks, be careful out there, great powers are playing around.

And this Path remains

Been a while, but hey, that's what happens when one experiences a sudden spike in productivity. Which is exactly what happened to me ever since I regained the access to the Path of Black Leaves.

Fortissimo sure enjoyed reconnecting with her home, she missed it, the unstable nature of that place, the constantly warping reality, the constant heaviness in the air, far different from the reality we all inhabit over here. I sympathise with her, as soon as she began to exhibit her changes with me, back when I was alive, our Tall Friend kicked her out and severed her connection to The Path. Funny how that could be interpreted as a parent kicking their child out for being "different", I'm sure Malik can relate.

So how did we get back inside The Path if mine and Fortissimo's connection has been severed to it? Welp, my newly established partnership with Malik turned out to be a 2 for 1 deal. His friend, Franky, decided to join us as well, most likely for the purposes of watching over Malik. I have been aware of Franky's curious ability to not only summon Maenad's to our reality, but also, somehow control them, what I wasn't aware of, is that he also had access to The Path and could actually navigate through it flawlessly. When I had access to The Path, navigating through it was a pain in the ass, sometimes I could nail exactly the moment as to when I should exit it in order to end up where I need to be, most of the times I would miss my exit point and would end up being stuck inside of it for weeks/months.

Suffice to say, I've been curious as to Franky's "human" nature ever since.

But that's a topic for some time later, let's talk about the previously mentioned "productivity". Now that I no longer had to travel across the world through the painful means of a flight service, we've been busy locating a new base of operations and cleaning up certain loose ends. Not to mention, working on actually being a team, which has been a bit of a rusty endeavour: refusal to do what I request them to do, constantly questioning the purposes of my plans and constantly nagging on about going after Malik's interests while putting mine on the shelf. Overall, it's been rough, but, it'd be lying if said it wasn't worth it, because of Malik's strategical thinking, we've been able to "take care of" certain "issues" flawlessly and with minimal risk.

However, we must also acknowledge that the ease of our operations also comes from the fact that our Tall Friend is currently occupied. You see, due to recent events, undoubtedly caused by The Plague Doctor, I'm guessing our Tall Friend was forced into becoming active in a conflict with The Plague Doctor. Far more people are living in fear of contracting a deadly disease these days than anything else, the food chain is under threat and our Tall Friend, I'm assuming, can't afford that to happen.

Of course, all of that is just mere speculation on my end, mostly because I haven't seen our Tall Friend for months now, which is strange considering the nature of our "activities". Oh well, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, nevertheless, this recent panic has been working in my favour deliciously.

So, how's everyone else been? Are any of you even still alive out there?

Partnerships

So after making my new friend make a post on his blog, I guess I'll fill in the rest of the blanks and announce here, that after a very, very long and heated conversation between us, we have finally come to an agreement.

As soon as we got out of London and got as far away as possible from that vessel we borrowed, we ended up crashing in one of the warehouses present on the docks. Personally, I would have kept moving, but Malik's stubborn nature (And probably the fact that he was tired after such a long swim) refused to go along with that idea and instead he started walking towards the before mentioned warehouses, not saying a word to me. His friend, Franky, obviously, followed after him. Did I mention that he didn't say a word to me after our first encounter in London, after I told him that I'd help him get out of London, he stopped talking to me after that and just would follow me out of London, I guess he was too busy thinking about his next move, suffice to say, the journey was pretty awkward.

Anyways, I followed him towards the warehouses, which he then proceeded to break into, I just stood and watched him try his hardest to make the lock budge with his sword.

"You know, I could easily open that right?" I said to him, seeing if I would finally get a response.

His form of a response was to try and make it budge even harder, gonna have to give it to him, he managed to break it off, which would be impressive, if the chain holding the lock wasn't rusty as shit.

Once inside, he started gathering anything flammable and piling it up, yeah, he was clearly freezing from the long swim we had to undertake. He started the fire and both him and Franky sat down near it, as for me, I decided to pace around the warehouse, going back and forth in front of Malik, pretending like I was looking around.

"Would you just fuck off already!?" He, suddenly burst out at me, there it was, a reaction.

I stopped across from him, the fire burning between us "So does that mean you don't want the information I have on your friend's killers?" I shrugged.

"You can spare me your bullshit, as if you'd give a single shit about that type of information to obtain it." Logical, he's right there, I'd never care enough to get that type of information, but I didn't need to.

I chuckled at his observation "You're right, I don't have that type of information..." I trailed off, knowing full well that he would not hesitate to interrupt.

"Exactly, so how about you cut the crap and tell us what all of this is really abo-" I'm sure this thought he was about to voice was super interesting, but I didn't finish my previous point due to his interruption, so I returned the favour.

"But I know who does, I believe his name was Claude, wasn't it?" I couldn't help but smile, knowing full well the type of reaction that name would elicit.

Malik went silent, but I could tell by the glare in his eyes the amount of anger he held towards the person behind that name, but then he took a deep breath, composed himself and replied "So you read up on my blog, congratulations, next thing you're going to tell me is that you know how to find him?"

"Find him, hah, why look for someone..." I began to take off my bandages, at the same time preparing myself for an oncoming outburst from him, due to the nature of my revelation "When they are already here?" 

Recognising the face of the man responsible for the death of one of his closest friends, whatever logic he had possessed, immediately went out the window as he began to lunge at me, pulling out his sword in the process.

But I was prepared for it, didn't even need to rely on my darling to avoid a hit from him, I just ducked underneath him, grabbed the back of his neck and pushed him upwards in the stomach with my second hand, flipping him on his back and sending him to the ground, his sword falling from his hand.

His friend immediately jumped up and was ready to attack me as well, but I quickly put a stop to that bad decision, by pointing one of my sharp edged sleeves at Malik's throat "Alright, let's take a deep breath, before we all do something very stupid." My attempt at calming the situation down.

"YOU FUCKER, I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" The boy was practically fuming at the mouth, whilst clawing at my leg that was located on top of him, preventing him from standing up. Clearly he wasn't thinking about what was happening here, blinded by his rage for the face of the body that I have been occupying for quite some time now.

Which is funny, up until my re-union with Minxie, I had no idea who this schmuck, who's body I was occupying, was. During our meet up, once I took off my bandages to reveal my face to her, per her request, she immediately recognised who's face she was looking at, she gave me the background info on who this guy was, which led to her name dropping Malik, which in turn made me remember the real intended host my past self prepared for me, which was the kid underneath my boot right now, funny how things just happen to click sometimes, huh? But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I kicked Malik in the ribs to make him shut up, Franky didn't take to kindly to that, I saw him tense up, but in the end he couldn't do anything due to the spike that was near Malik's throat.

"Shut up and think for a second, you're a rational kid, yes, I'm the guy who was responsible for the death of your dear friend, but I'm also Kelevra? How do you suppose that works?"

He seemed to calm down a bit, as confusion and questions began to swarm his mind, as his breathing steadied, I retracted my spike and took my boot off of him, allowing him to stand up. He threw a glance to his sword, most likely contemplating attacking me again, but in the end his just sighed, looked at me with a very annoyed look and asked "Ok, what in the fuck is going on? Start talking."

I shrugged with a smile and began explaining, as I've said, my past self originally intended for Malik to be my host. Shortly after that small group my past self led fell apart, he began thinking of a way to preserve himself, in order to return after death, this was during the period as him and my darling were slowly morphing into something... different, creating me. I remember Kelevra, staking out one of the Proxy operations to get his mind back on track after the disaster that was his little group of Rejects, he tended to do this very often, he enjoyed watching different factions killing each other off. These particular Proxies that he was observing, were about to raid a Timberwolf hide out, I guess they saw it as easy pickings after Kelevra and his little band of rejects did a number on a number of their bases in order to attract the attention of Archangel, in order to pull off this stunt. Guess who was one of the proxies in that little raid? That's right, Malik was in that group and the thing that attracted Kelevra to him, would have to be the fact, that despite him being only a foot soldier in that group, he didn't hesitate to call out the idiotic infiltration plan, their leader had laid out in front of them. Now, it might not seem like a lot, but that takes guts, considering the fact that most of these Proxy group leaders tend to just off any critics present in their group. He however, only earned himself a pretty hardcore beating, but that didn't stop him, because no matter how hard the group leader kept beating on him, he kept on talking, pointing out obvious flaws in his plan, which would get the rest of the group killed. But none of them listened, so they just left him on the spot, beaten and bloodied as the others would carry on with their plan and effectively get themselves killed. As his team mates were getting slaughtered in the Timberwolf base, Malik struggled to his feet and would proceed to walk away from the scene, leaving the idiots to their own fate.

I'm not sure what was it exactly that Kelevra saw in the kid, whether it was his ability to plan, or his blatant defiance in the face of authority, which Kelevra himself would do quite regularly during his servitude. Something clicked and Kelevra would proceed to look up information on Malik, around the same time as he was conducting his studies into Sergei's mind. Once he had enough information on the kid, he set up a bogus mission for him, posing as a proxy higher up, he would send out a mission specifically addressed to Malik, tasking him with retrieving a certain briefcase filled with very dangerous liquids. The briefcase contained various glass vals filled with different types of Servant blood, which one of Kelevra's ex-associates named Krogav used to inject himself with, in order to gain the abilities of said servants for a period of time. Which is when he plucked me away from himself, put my in one of the glass vials, which is where I've spent all the 4 years before my return.

I don't know how exactly Kelevra was going to get Malik to inject himself with me specifically, if he left an instruction note within the briefcase, or whatever. According to Malik, the mission brief that Kelevra planted, stated that the briefcase were to remain in Malik's possession until further notice and not to be made known to anybody that it was in his possession, the briefcase also contained instructions (Probably written up by Kelevra) explaining what was the purpose of the liquids in those vials (Why he left all the other liquids present in the briefcase, if he wanted to inject himself specifically with me, is beyond me, probably not to raise suspicion, I don't know). And so it remained untouched, until Malik's friend was murdered and the Timberwolves were the likely suspects, so filled with grief, Malik popped open the case and injected himself with Maenad blood and went on a rampage, yeah, Malik didn't use Kelevra's intended vial, for a long time in fact. It wasn't until after Malik found out that it was his friend Claude that aided the killers in their friend's murder, the killers being Proxies, who were sent out to leave a message for Malik, for his numerous acts of insubordination.

Eventually, whilst hunting for Claude, Malik gets captured and taken to their warehouse, the Proxies now possessed the briefcase with the vials and presumably, wanting to test them out, they sent Claude into Malik's holding room and instructed him to inject himself with the Azoth vial (Which was housing me) and kill Malik with the abilities and that's pretty much when I began to fester inside of his body, apparently my release somehow even managed to attract the attention of our Tall Friend at the time.

"And that's how ended up inside of your friend's body." I finished my long and slightly convoluted explanation.

His expression was mixture of shock and confusion, no doubt going over the parts that made sense and fit perfectly into the time frame that he had spent tracking Claude, but also questioning the very obvious flaws in this slightly convoluted plan, however, in the end, the only question that escape his mouth was "So is he still alive?" He looked at me, no doubt inquiring about the current status of his betrayer who's body was now owned by me and my darling.

"Hard to tell, I used to fight him for control quite regularly prior to my re-union with Fortissimo, back then it was just me and him." I tapped my finger against my chin "But ever since my merger with Fortissimo and the countless Azoth liquids that she was fused with in that disgusting lab..." I tensed up, remembering how badly my darling was tortured during my absence "I have felt no trace of him."

He looked at the ground, remembering that his sword was still on the ground, he bent over to pick it up and once he came back up, looking at the sword in his hands he asked: "And what about the information regarding her killers?"

To this I smiled "Because I have been occupying his body for quite some time, I can access his memories and find out exactly who gave out the order for your friend's murder."

He looked at the ground once again, clearly thinking and considering his options, he then looked at Franky, Franky didn't say anything, nor did his face reveal anything on account of it being covered up by a blank white mask. They stared at each other for few minutes, but eventually, Franky gave him a nod. After which, Malik looked at me and said: "What the hell, got nothing left to live for anyway..."

I extended my hand, looking for a handshake which would verify our partnership. He looked at it and then looked at me: "I'll work with you, on 2 conditions: One, you never take off those bandages again; Two, once we kill everybody involved with Alesa's murder, you give up Claude's body, I don't care how you do it, whether you find a different host, or whatever."

I thought about it for a second and then just smiled at him: "All of that is doable."

After which he shook my hand, establishing our partnership.

Life's been Pretty Hard

Did I ever tell you how hard it is to get things done when you are cut off from the Path? If there is one thing I miss about being under our tall friends servitude, it's that I had access to the Path, could go anywhere, at any time, albeit not with precise accuracy, it was always risky using it, but so convenient. Sure you'd end up puking your guts out and with the type of head aches that made it feel like your brain was rattling around inside your skull, but hell, it got you where you needed to go, sort of.

So, been a while, world's kind of been going to hell, a lot of terrorist acts happening left and right, wonder what could be the cause for those. Especially here in the great country of United Kingdom, I mean, those couldn't at all be done as means to cover up something more sinister, nah, the public is too busy paying attention to Prince Andrew and his fun adventures over in the US.

It is not at all a means of eliminating the proxy element from the governmental establishments and there is totally no tugs of war happening over who holds the power. And I totally wasn't laying low, because there are literal death squads on the streets, hunting down anyone who had any significant contact with our tall friend and his little, self appointed secretaries.

Things seemingly have calmed down comparatively speaking to a few years ago, from what I hear, that's when the real parties were happening, riots left and right as if it was black Friday every day.

Yeah, travelling is made a bit hard with that type of pressure going on, but hey, who said that gathering allies would be easy, am I right?

"Allies?" I hear you ask. Why yes, allies, in today's day and age you need people who can take a look at your plan and tell you it's shit. That's actually the main reason the Rejects fell apart, they were all pathetic worshippers, none of them questioned my plans, they just followed them, which is not good. I need a second opinion, that much I have learned during my past life, I need people who don't look up to me, or some dumb shit like that.

And I found a perfect candidate... Long time ago. Oh yes, I had this guy in mind for a long time, even before my original death, I mean, at the time, I had different plans for him, things kind of got fucked over and forced me to change the original plan, but it worked out, better than ever too.

Not going to reveal who it is... yet. However, some of you may actually know him and if you don't, even better, you get to meet this charmer for the first time.

After meeting up, we've been trying to smuggle ourselves right the fuck out of the UK, hard to do, flying was a no go. So we took a swim. Did I ever say that human cruelty can be extremely helpful? Man, the things people smuggle in and out of countries, all for some coloured papers, they don't even feed the things they smuggle that often, barely any of our fellow passengers could stand on their feet, they were extremely pale, their eyes sagging, with massive blue bags underneath, so fragile, so tiny and so similar to one another.

We of course had to politely ask the original owners of the delivery service to give us a ride, at first they refused, but after a lot of delightful persuasion on our end, the remaining members of the crew agreed to give us a much needed lift.

Human cruelty can indeed be helpful.

It's funny, those poor things that could barely stand, the ones that were so broken you couldn't even call them human anymore, when they heard the screams of some of the crew members during our... negotiations, that spark of hope in their eyes, that finally somebody had come for them. In any other circumstance I would enjoy snuffing that spark out, there's nothing more beautiful than a person's life draining from their eyes, with the realisation sinking in that this was the final line. It would be nothing personal on my end, it is simply pure entertainment, but alas, my team mate would not approve of this act and so I had to reel it in.

After we got out of the country and arrived to where we need to be, we just left them, I mean, we of course thanked all the remaining crew members for giving us a lift by throwing them a party, the party must have been so good, we never saw their vessel move from the spot in the middle of the ocean where we asked them to stop.

It's actually kind of funny, I don't know why I stopped myself from doing those poor, tiny things the favour of snuffing them out. My team mate, never really told me not to, but due to it being a new partnership, I didn't want to accidentally sully it, however, when we leaped overboard for our 3 hour long swim to the shore, he didn't seem to hesitate. There was no way those tiny things were getting off that vessel alive, they had no strength to swim, no knowledge on how to operate the vessel and there wasn't going to be anyone in sight any time soon to rescue them, they will most certainly die by the time anyone finds them and yet, he seemed to be indifferent to the idea, maybe it never crossed his mind, maybe I should have snuffed them out, would be doing them a favour too.

Oh well, what's done is done, can't change the past.

Reconnecting with Friends Pt. 2

Alrighty, so I've been tailed for a week now, not really sure by who, but whoever they are, they sure as hell are persistent, could be the sniper from earlier, could be somebody entirely else, whoever they, I hope they know that they're playing with fire.

Anyways, back on topic, while I was away, our dear Minxie provided a write up of our meet up from her perspective, mentioning some things that I myself forgot, or didn't get to, you can feel free to read up on it here.

After playing a rousing game of tag with her in the darkened alley for a few minutes after all the proxies had been dealt with, she was finally able to spot me with the light of her phone, specifically after I muttered: "But then again, friends never forget each other."

Once she spotted me, she immediately dropped the phone on the ground, making sure to use her free hand to steady her rifle on me: “I remember more than ever, 'friend'”

You could hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes, I couldn't believe it, after so many years, she finally utilised his training and teachings to a point where it came natural to her, looking at her, standing there, all ready to blow my brains out without a second thought reminded me of him, I got a bit melancholic even, but only for a second, because my joy was far more overflowing with the fact of how proud I was of her!

And rightfully so, I mean, just looking at the countless acts of murder she committed in those alleys was enough, but hell, it goes further than that, she was fresh from committing arson on one of their bases! Which by the way was my card to use against her, I could hear the sirens in the distance: "I believe I've wasted enough of your time here for the cops to be able to quickly follow the trail of dead bodies and catch you."

After which I offered her my hand with the promise of a quick getaway and an opportunity to catch up with an old friend.

She left me hanging for a bit, as she proceeded to sling her rifle back around her shoulder and then carried on taking the dead proxy's wallets, little scavenger. But eventually she did shake my hand, with a pleasant admittance: “It’s actually nice to see you”

The feeling was very mutual, while we were shaking on it, I asked my darling to open up a sewer grate that was positioned behind me, which she did fairly quickly, after which I stepped aside and waved Minxie to go on in.

She shimmied down the ladder quickly. “You look the same, but kind of different. What’s up with that?” She noticed, my new body, only reason people usually don't, is because they usually have barely any time to take a good look. But yes, this body was different, bigger than the original I had, when I was alive, but I didn't want to go into detail of my rebirth, so I just jokingly remarked that going to the gym has it's benefits, while I was climbing down the ladder.

She didn't take kindly to my sarcastic remark and rattled the ladder whilst I was climbing down. I must admit, it did surprise me, I thought the ladder was about to fall, but of course it didn't and as I climbed down, I promptly let Minxie know that nobody likes smartasses.

"It’s true; even I don’t like me." She was walking in step with me, examining some minor scrapes on her arms. “But.... thanks for your help. I was in some tough shit there. Any idea where we’re going?”

Honestly, I had no idea, my main plan was to just as far as possible from all the commotion upstairs, but I was also looking for a place for us to simply stay put in and relax, so on occasion as we would walk past sewer grates above us, I'd ask my darling to take a peek through the grates, by extending her high up and tell me if where we were.

Whilst I was doing that, I also made sure to keep the conversation going: "No problem, anything for a friend, I gotta say, I'm impressed, you were almost able to get away from them, I specifically liked the fuse box trick."

"Didn’t really see much of what happened after I set it up. Usually I set up barriers and traps like that, but I’ve never electrified one before. Hopefully their deaths were relatively quick and painless..." Such a wasteful wish, in my personal opinion, those losers deserved all the suffering they got for being so careless and full of themselves, I swear, at some points during their chase, they were talking about ascending the ranks due to the deaths of their comrades, pathetic. "Although if you enjoyed it, then they probably weren’t. Well, it was effective. That’s all that really matters." Oh how I wish she would have expressed more enjoy in disposing of such worthless beings, but oh well, at least it doesn't really bother her anymore, which is good, such minuscule creatures shouldn't even take a second of one's thought.

However, I did want to prod a little further "Really Minxie? Quick and painless? No satisfaction at all from the fact that you killed people, who would've later done much harm to someone else who didn't deserve it?" Funnily enough, as I asked that, we've reached a good spot to get out at, so I signalled her to climb up the ladder, whilst still waiting for an answer.

"Of course I feel satisfaction." Minxie began to climb the ladder "In fact, I’m pretty grateful you didn’t intervene until it was totally necessary. You don’t kill-steal like most rescuers do. But I can’t say their suffering in the process would mean much to me. Yet." Ah, so it's the thrill of the hunt, at least, that's what I got from that, the opportunity to learn from one's hardship, it's a good outlook to have, assuming of course that's what she meant. Yet, there was that "yet", I assumed it was some form of doubt lingering around, but in any way.

Once we climbed up, the sirens were fair long distance away from us and right in front of us, was a pub, it was a regular looking pub, nothing special about it. I simply, as a good friend, figured that, that little game of tag Minxie was playing earlier, must have worked up quite the appetite, so this was my treat, which gave us ample opportunity to catch up as well, without any disturbances.

"Give me a second." She unzipped her rucksack, pulled out a hoodie, dissembled the rifle and chucked the components and Colt inside. She took a wipe out of the bag and quickly scrubbed the blood off her face with it, then shrugged on the hoody. "Deep down, I wouldn’t call it doubt so much as just a-" For some reason she cut herself off, still walking alongside me towards the entrance, I could pry but decided not to, whatever made her stop herself, seemed like it was done on purpose and who am I to question people's desires to keep quiet when they feel like it?

I myself put on a slightly simpler disguise, asked my darling to extend the collar of the jacket and cover my head, turning into a pretty long hoody, covering the entire top of my face, after which I began to unwrap my bandages, since they would attract attention. I saw Sanna squinting at me as I unwrapped my bandages, must have been surprised to see the lack of burning marks on my face, that's the beauty of the new body, it's far more physically fit than my old one AND it doesn't look like someone was trying to cook me alive, although I do miss my scars, they were beautiful.

We went inside the pub, picked our seat near a group of teenagers, all playing pool, judging from the conversations they were having amongst each other, those must have been some sort of students, who all were in the same class, or attended same courses, I picked the seat next to them, for a reason, but I will get into that in a bit, firstly, orders had to be placed.

"Haddock and chips, salad side, cider- wait, no, I shouldn’t. Pepsi. Or Coke. Whatever they have. Do you have to eat? Like, is it... medically necessary for you to eat?" Now do you people understand why I call her the Curious Minx? This is how our friendship began, for those of you who are not in the know, when Minxie first started her old blog, I wanted nothing but to torment and then kill her, just for fun really, no deep, personal reason. But despite making my intent clear to her, she couldn't stop asking me questions about all sorts of things, her curiosity in the face of a clear threat and fear intrigued me enough to post-pone my original plan, which eventually turned into this messed up friendship, funny how life is? Also, the answer to her question was that I personally don't need to eat, but this body does.

I went to the bar, to place the order and as funny as it was watching the barkeep give me all sorts of dirty looks over my appearance, it was far more intriguing to keep an eye on Minxie from afar. Even with the promise of a calm get together, she was still on her toes, looking around, I assume she was taking notes of the nearest, possible exits, clever, looks like my lesson of not trusting anyone also stuck around.

Once I got the food, I went back to our table, right past the noisy teens, setting the tray with food on the table, I took my seat and tried to calm her nerves "You need to calm down, if we were being tracked, I would know." I looked at the students playing pool next to us "Enjoy this small moment of normalcy for as long as you can, my gift to you." That's why I chose to sit next to those students, I wanted her to be around normal people for a few minutes, to remind her that there's more out there than constant survival for the sake of survival. I may have admired Sergei, but he's path was he's path, I don't want Minxie to go down that path, not because of how tragic it is, but simply because, I feel that, it simply isn't her. I wanted her to realise, or remind her, that despite all of us being haunted by the supernatural monsters that want to rip us apart, life for others still goes on, ignorant as swans (Until I end existence of course) and because of that, there's more out there, than just survival, I don't know if that got across to her, or not, if it did, she didn't show it.

Then we began to properly catch up about our lives, I will not go into detail about that. I refuse to share, because this was a conversation between two long time friends, what was said at that table is between friends, if Minxie decides to share I won't hold it against her, nothing of utter importance to my plans was said anyway, I just want the only place for this "catch up" to be preserved is our memories.

I will however, share one titbit that amused me greatly, our Minxie outright stumped me. At one point she was asking me about my return and how it was possible, although I've pointed this out before, I felt like I had to point it out to her again, in case she forgot, that the current Kelevra that is using this blog, is not the original, the old me died by Sergei's hands, I simply inherited Kelevra's memories, feelings, goals, everything, to carry on his work. To which she followed up with:

"I’m aware. You ever worry about the original coming back?" I never even thought of that scenario before, it's funny to think about, what WOULD the original Kelevra do if he were to ever meet me, the current Kelevra? Would we try to rip each other's throats out? Would we team up? I guess we'll never find out, unless... you know, he actually returns, which, I don't exactly know how he would pull it off, but crazier shit has happened before.

Time passed, our meal slowly disappeared, the students began to wrap their game up and the pub was nearing closing hours and I guess it was time for us to take our leave as well: "Well, I'm stuffed and I need to run in a few minutes, great things await my doing, care for a short walk?"

As we neared the doors, she asked me: "Great things? You mean bloodshed?" It was weird, when she said it, there was this "amused" tone she would exude, in fact, I picked up on it a while back during our conversation, specifically every time we talked about something violent, it was just less obvious than it was when she asked me that question. It confused me, she seemed to flip flop between not wanting to needlessly hurt anyone, yet still experienced a form of joy when she did.

"Oh most definitely, would you like to be a part of those plans to end everything in existence?" I asked her as seriously as I could, I was curious as to her answer.

She met my stare fearlessly, slinging her bag onto her shoulder. She seemed to be deep in thought "Normally I wouldn’t consider it. Bloodshed can’t exist if you end existence..." doubt in her voice, I was in disbelief, didn't even let her finish.

"Well that's funny, didn't even think you'd entertain the thought..."

"Then why did you ask?"

We continued to walk down the street whilst talking, I could hear sirens in the distance, but they weren't coming closer to us "I was expecting some sort of snarky retort, like you usually do, why the sudden blood lust?" Something was wrong here, inconsistent even.

"Sometimes you have to be around death to know you’re alive. I mean if you’re in this kind of life, you’re stuck. Might as well embrace it. As for your expectations, well - I learned from you more than anyone to stay unpredictable." And there it was, she was throwing me off guard, playing me, legitimately confusing me! I was beaming with pride!

I smacked her on the back as hard as I could in a show of comradery, scheming to take advantage of the situation and protect her interests even if it's your friend. She knew exactly what to say to confuse me, she manipulated the conversation to throw me off guard and if she were to take advantage of that, she'd have a pretty big opening in that moment. But there was one issue with that, it wasn't a guarantee that her attack would succeed, or if it would be effective.

This is when I would divulge my gift to her, what you thought I came to visit an old time friend without bearing gifts? What was the gift? It was the knife she gifted to Sergei right before he took off on his final mission, a knife made from an Archangel's bullet, fully capable of hurting the living shit out of me and my darling, and any Azoth, or any other creature.

When she opened the box, her reaction was priceless "This is..." She was very emotional, her eyes were glassy, but she was strong, held back those tears no problem “Holy fuck. Holy shit. How did you get this? Did you find... what was left?”

Oh I wish, no, the thing is, when Mendella received Sergei's severed arm all those years ago, for some reason he left out the part that it wasn't just holding the tape recorder with Incognito's last hours recorded onto it, it was also holding this knife and so he buried it, along with his arm. So when I dug out the arm to burn it, I found this knife and remembered that this was the gift Minxie gave to Sergei. I figured he'd want her to have it, he's not going to be using it anymore and it gives Minxie a fighting chance against people like Star, or me.

"I’ll gladly take it. Thanks." Her eyes darkened at the mention of Morningstar, for obvious reasons, the scars from the torture he exposed her to were still there, she gripped the knife tightly, good.

"Yes, that's right, that's the feeling you need when confronted with any opponent, not just Morningstar." I began to pat her shoulder, pure hatred for even daring to stand between you and your goals, that's the kind of thought process you need, before going into a deadly confrontation with your enemy, no matter who it is, no matter how stronger they may be, if fear isn't holding you back, nothing can "FUCK FEAR!" I yelled out in the middle of the street, clearly entranced in my own explanation, good thing it was night time.

Funnily enough, she joined me in my optimistic outlook on deadly combat "FUCK FEAR!" she yelled out after me, dare I say, it seemed to be even louder than my own yell, I saw some lights come on in some of the buildings, woops.

And that was that, the last bonding moment between me and her, it was time for me to run, this was arguably the last time we would see each other on such friendly terms, I hope not, but I have a feeling that moving forward, I will be making nothing but enemies, so I offered a fist bump and left her with a final bit of advise "Remember, no decision you make is wrong, even if it seems like it and nobody stands in your way, got it?"

"Got it." Good, she looked determined when she said that, bumped my fist with conviction too.

But then, her eyes began to get misty once again, she zipped up her new gift and spread her arms, after which, she uttered arguably the nicest sentence I had ever received: "We'll always be friends, OK? Even if we're about to kill each other. Us being friends won't get in my way, I assure you. But I can't pretend like you don't know me better than anyone else, or that I'm not who I am today because of you, and I can't pretend that I hate you, or that I wouldn't be sad if you were gone. So, I consider you a friend."

You remember how I said that I choose to feel today? That I can give it up any moment? The only reason I'm "feeling" is because I don't want me and my darling to become just yet, I reserve that moment for the final steps of our plan, so usually I have a pretty strong handle over my emotions, selectively choosing when to allow myself to feel and when not to. This moment? One of the few instances where my handle slipped, looks like the old me's memories were a bit too strong to handle, for a second there, I began to think of myself as the original Kelevra, luckily I got a handle on it pretty quickly, before completely forgetting my newer self.

I embraced her in the hug, whispering into her ear that we will always be friends, no matter what. Then I ran off into the nearest, darkest alley, I didn't want to leave, but I had to, my goals awaited, but before I disappeared I made sure to look back and wave at her, a final goodbye, after which me and my darling took our leave, disappearing into the night.

And that was that, Minxie is on her own path and I'm on my own, will they ever cross again? And will that crossing be on such friendly terms? I don't know, but, I hope they will cross again, no matter on what terms.

Seeing my friend is always a treat.

Thanks Minxie for indulging me.