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Post by Zin Siripong on Sept 24, 2010 17:41:13 GMT
Zin bristled slightly at the older man's tone, she hated being spoken of as though she were a piece of disliked furnature, it wasn't uncommon but it still really put her back up. She forced herself to calm down though at Cindy's explanation.
She had been too busy giggling at the expression of bewildered horror on the woman's face from her quick change of clothes and conversation with Damaris to make much of a comment on the offer of joining the Watch but now that she was face to face with the so called Second In Command, she could see he was not the type of person she should take lightly. Especially in a fight. She got the feeling she would probably be a little out of place in this group, true she was a fighter, but not on the same level as these people. If this guy was the Second, just who was the First?
He moved with the same economy as she had seen in some of the other fighters back home, the ones who had served in the Army or been living on the streets for a while. The kind of movement that one had when they were always prepared to react, whether to attack or retreat, perfect balance and poise. Damaris had similar posture but not quite so...... They were different. She couldn't tell how, but they just were. She couldn't even tell if he had any existing injuries or sore muscles or weak points at all, it was both intimidating and frustrating. She was usually quite good at pinpointing that sort of thing in other fighters.
((Tell me to adjust it if you think its God-Modding but its just Zin's observations so I didn't think it would be any harm to put in there.))
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Post by Azrael Jiraco on Sept 25, 2010 10:21:01 GMT
(Nah, it's fine - good post)
Azrael looked at Cindy. He didn't know she was a linguist; his impression of Cindy improved as he came to appreciate that.
Azrael didn't reply to Cindy immediately but studied Zin. She was young; 16 or 17 he guessed. Her return stare was that of a warrior. If she feared Azrael or was even the slightest bit intimidated, she hid it perfectly. It then occured to Azrael that Zin was studying him in return. He allowed himself a little smile.
"Damaris, appraise me. Where did this girl come from and why did you bring her here? I presume that it was not only to get Cindy to translate for you." His tone had eased from his stern demanding attitude that he had started with into a curious one, although still stern.
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Post by Austin on Sept 25, 2010 15:15:24 GMT
Austin strode in from the gym, carrying the cup of Coffee from Azrael and stopped as he saw the newcomer pausing for the moment to study her - the bearing and stance suggested a fighter, yet she seemed so young, his nose however told him in no uncertain terms that she was a werewolf - a newly turned one at that.
"You been picking up strays again Damaris?"
he asked, his eyes not leaving the young lycan
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Post by Damaris Y Blaidd on Sept 25, 2010 21:17:34 GMT
Damaris stopped giggling the second she heard Azrael enter the room. She jumped off the stool and stood to almost to attention, after all, she and Azrael were friends so there was no need to be completely formal. She opened her mouth to answer his question, but before she could speak, Cindy answered for her. She nodded at the other womans words. SUddenly she felt like a naughty child, despite the fact that the second officer was nearly a decade younger than her.
"I'm sorry, I was on my way back and I found her pawing through a bin outside somebody's house. She was stuck in her wolf form, the bite on her leg was still bleeding, I think she'd only been bitten a few hours ago... I didn't know what else to do with her, I mean... I couldn't very well leave a freshly turned, starving lycan out on the streets, who knows what could have happened.... I was about to come and find you and the commander..."
She trailed off as Austin walked into the kitchen, carrying a cup of coffee. "Only one, sir," she replied with a small smile. "I was just explaining to Azrael, I found her outside someones house, I thought bringing her back here was the best thing to do..."
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Post by Azrael Jiraco on Sept 25, 2010 22:34:47 GMT
Azrael wasn't at all surprised by Austin's arrival. His senses being stronger than any other werewolf he had ever met, it was obvious that he would be aware of the situation. Azrael nodded to Austin as a greeting.
With Damaris attention so suddenly turned to Austin, Azrael spoke to Cindy again.
"Cindy, you spoke to the girl. What did you learn from her? Do her parents or trainer know of her whereabouts?" Secretly, Azrael was intrigued by the young female warrior but he knew they couldn't simply conscript someone like that. He could sense that Austin was curios about her too; he was using his analytical but approving look.
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Post by Cindy Harker on Sept 26, 2010 20:35:52 GMT
Cindy was a little startled that Azrael addressed her directly. She had expected (and hoped) that Damaris would deal with most of the questions. But Azrael helped to remind her that she was the one with the direct contact. "N-no. I don't think so. I'm not sure. She was a little vague on the details. She said she was a 'cage fighter'." Cindy managed to pronounce the inverted commas, making it clear such a concept was totally alien to her. "But that she left and became lost, and therefore ended up in Edgehaven. I'm not sure if the cage fight was, um, here." Cindy had certainly never heard of cage fighting, so had no idea if such a thing was done in Edgehaven. "She hasn't mentioned parents, or a trainer. I can ask her, though." Without waiting for a prompt, and because she felt sorry for Zin, having them speak about her in a foreign language while she looked on, she turned to Zin. "<Azrael is asking about those that know you are here. Do you have parents also here? Or perhaps a trainer, who may be worried about you?>" She asked as tactfully as I can. "<This man is Commander Austin Darkora. He is our leader.>" She added, using the tone of reverance she usually used when talking about Austin. |
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Post by Zin Siripong on Sept 26, 2010 20:54:55 GMT
Again with the furnature attitude. The girl refrained from sighing and tried to glean as much information as she could with her limited knowledge of English but stiffened immediately when the new man came into the room.
He smelt..... She couldn't describe it, not accurately, but it made the bottom of her stomach drop out and her innards twist into stone filled knots, her blood burned and her palms began to sweat a little as every new instinct in her body told her to run or submit. Her mouth went dry and she quickly looked away before she did something stupid like bare her neck to him - like these 'Lycanthropic' instincts were telling her to do.
Then Cindy spoke, jarring her from her intense study of the floor.
Parents? Her trainer? Her blood turned to ice and she suddenly felt quite sick at the thought of people looking for her, especially after what she'd done. People that may be worried for her? Memories flared in her, her papa's funeral, her mother standing meekly by as her new boyfriend shouted at her to work harder or they wouldn't be able to put food on the table - all the while sucking on a bottle of expensive western wine. Memories of the guys at the Gym, the guys who then talked her into taking part in underground illegal fights and betting on her to earn some extra money, ditching her in the dark to walk home alone and injured. Memories of that night making her pale and her eyes sting as she remembered seeing her 'Trainer' - her mother's boyfriend - banishing her from the Hotel room so he could spend alone time with that caucasian slut behind her mother's back. And she'd left because it was nothing new and then the man in the dark with the hands that reached for her neck and -
Zin flung the memory away and looked away from Cindy, touching at the shattered chopsticks, "<There is no one,>" she said quietly.
She didn't lie. Her Trainer cared nothing for her, her mother would not be allowed to care for her, the guys from the Gym wouldn't care either. If anything, the only people that would have cared for her now were the ones who wanted her behind bars. Her eyes burned and she forcefully pushed the impending tears away. She would NOT cry.
Crying was for weaklings.
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Post by Austin on Sept 26, 2010 21:20:22 GMT
Austin nodded, acknowledging Damaris' line of reasoning and then put his head on one side as Cindy spoke and then the young lycan replied briefly, it took him only a few moments to recognise the language but he cringed slightly as he realised that it wasn't one he'd been able to learn much of on his travels abroad.
"<I'm Austin, what's your name?>"
He asked her in faltering Thai, silently hoping and praying that his pronunciation wasn't too terrible after 25 years.
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Post by Zin Siripong on Sept 26, 2010 21:35:48 GMT
Zin stiffened and whipped her head around so quickly it cracked audiably, black eyes wide as they practically goggled at the man who'd just spoken her language. Cindy was one thing, she was a Lady and Ladies, proper ones, got good education and had to apply themselves to being smart instead of being tough - though she supposed being smart was a different kind of tough? A mental one? Her brain had to be strong to be able to speak so many languages.
But this person as well?
Zin was beginning to feel very inadequate.
She spluttered a little, suddenly feeling very much like a tongue tied little girl before she forced herself over her surprise, "Chahn chuee Zin... Yihn dee tee die roojahk, Kuhn Austin," she said, too stunned to bow in greeting to him. Her face was still stuck in an expression of comical surprise and she quickly shook her head, this was no time to gape like a moron!
((Oops, forgot to put what she said in.
"My name is Zin... Nice to meet you, Mr Austin."))
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Post by Cindy Harker on Sept 26, 2010 21:41:41 GMT
Cindy gave Austin a startled look. Okay, so his Thai was even worse than her's, but he could speak it. Somehow, it had never occured to her that Austin had travelled far enough to be just as much a linguist as she was.
Suddenly feeling very useless, given that her one trait that had helped the team right now (and in many ways, since the fall of Rino, the only time she'd been useful) was her ability to speak other languages, she took a step back and decided to let Austin take over.
"She said she doesn't have any parents or a trainer here." Cindy filled Azrael in quietly. "Although I expect even you could tell something bothered her about that question." She added, before realising the 'even you' came out very wrong.
"Oh god! I'm sorry! I meant, even you because you don't speak Thai..." She quickly added, stumbling over her words in manic apology. "Sorry!" She added again, realising how it sounded.
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Post by Damaris Y Blaidd on Sept 27, 2010 9:51:39 GMT
Damaris relaxed slightly as she realised that she wasn't in trouble for bringing Zin into the HQ, although she stayed standing. She felt somewhat redundant now that everybody was busy trying to find things out about the girl and as she realised that Austin also had a basic grasp of Thai, she couldn't help but feel a little jealous. She was glad that Azrael was also there, it meant that she probably wasn't the only one that felt a little out of the loop.
She smiled at Cindy's 'even you' comment to Azrael and turned away from Austin to speak to the other two. "I noticed that," she said, despite not being the one addressed. "She looked like she was about to cry for a second, you think she's from an abusive home or something? Maybe she ran away and she doesn't want us to find out?"
In truth, her heart bled for the girl. She was young, too young to have to deal with something like this in the older lycan's opinion. She was alone and probably frightened, but she was too proud to show it. Damaris guessed that it was probably a result of her fighter training - Cindy had said she was a cage fighter and she was sure she'd heard Zin say Muay Thai which, if Damaris remembered right, she had seen once in Thailand. She had thought it brutal and pointless, but then she thought that about most forms of fighting sports. She shook her head - a young girl like Zin and a sport like that wasn't a nice combination in her mind.
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Post by Austin on Sept 27, 2010 9:52:43 GMT
He saw the way the young lycan reacted to his words but decided that since he'd already started, he should finish
<Nice to meet you too Zin, I hear you haven't had the best of times lately?>
he replied, struggling alittle to put the sentence together from fragments of memory
Ye gods! What must I sound like to her? It's been far too long since I used Thai, I just haven't had the time to travel lately
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Post by Zin Siripong on Sept 27, 2010 11:44:50 GMT
His accent was.... She refrained from laughing but couldn't look him in the eyes or she would burst into a fit of giggling. He was trying and that was nice, Cindy had been trying as well and it made her feel kind of special that they were making the effort - but Mr Austin just sounded funny with his accent. Probably a lot better than she was at English though.
"<Not really. No,>" she agreed before touching the chopsticks a little guiltily, "<I broke your cutlery. Sorry.>"
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Post by Azrael Jiraco on Sept 27, 2010 16:14:56 GMT
"I know what you meant," Azrael replied coldly as if he didn't see the humour behind it.
"And yes, I did. However, I don't believe that 'being abused' is an adequate discription of what this girl has been through."
Azrael wasn't as well informed as the ladies in this 'Zin' scenario but he knew that Zin was a strong fighter, both inside and out. She couldn't be so easily broken... could she? Azrael gave it a few minutes thought as Austin tried to communicate with her.
"What do you think, brother?" Azrael asked before Austin had spoken to Zin again. He didn't know if he was interrupting or not, unable to understand Thai and all.
"I say we keep her here for a while."
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Post by Cindy Harker on Sept 27, 2010 21:06:27 GMT
Cindy gave an uneasy glance at her feet from Azrael's cold response. She decided she'd better be quiet and avoid making many more inputs. She could only guess what Azrael really thought of her. Heck, what all of the Watch did. She knew none of them really liked her. In fact, she was pretty certain most of them viewed her as a coward and a snob. She sometimes worried if they ever found somebody else with her kind of knowledge she'd be dismissed.
She listened to Damaris's theory and considered it. Abuse was a tricky thing to understand for Cindy, but even she thought that if Zin had been abused, it wouldn't be in what people thought of as the traditional way. Perhaps she was forced to fight, but Cindy thought she detected pride there. It didn't seem like something she hadn't wanted to do. But how did a young girl grow up to even hear about cage fighting? To Cindy, that was a mystery.
She was about to offer her opinion before she realised Azrael had asked Austin specifically. She hadn't expected that, but she supposed it made sense. The two leaders were here now, and so they wouldn't have much use for her. Truth was, they never had much use for Cindy since the Rino fiasco. Sometimes she wondered why they kept her around.
She glanced at Zin, and wondered if she saw some comprehension in her eyes.
"We may want to be careful. I believe she can at least understand some of what we're saying." Cindy said meekly, more to Damaris than the leaders, too frightened to speak up in front of them.
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