The swift journey out of Tempestclan territory was met with little difficulty, as none of the clansmen dared to follow the four. It was a fairly short trek to the Outlands when rushing through, and even shorter when one knew the proper twists and turns to make through the terrain. Scenic in nature, but the prospect of pursuit behind them left no room to take in its beauty.
Reaching the camp itself, it appeared humble without glamour. Spacious enough for the men to have their bedding separate, with a small campfire pit in the middle of the surrounding trees. Pots and pans scattered around it, most dirty as Dominic neglected his duties to clean them after supper. If he had more articles of clothing than the pants he wore, surely they'd have been tossed about as well, being the mess he was. In fact, the man already stripped off his shirt, tossing it to the ground before stretching his arms upwards as he stared at his makeshift hammock in the tree-line.
"Den'ta luv wut we've dun wit the pleth?"
He snickered, kicking away his shirt as he walked over to the stash they'd collected. It was a pile of treasures, weapons of high grade in all sorts of styles, gold pieces falling out of an open jewelry box items all collected through the workings of thieves. Casting the silver pieces from his pockets onto the pile, he craned his head back to look at the deputy and Akihito.
"Come sit, my friend. You too, Dominic. Both of you need your injuries assessed."
Instantly, Dominic's mood soured as he recalled the man's horrid attempts at previous medical aid. He clicked his tongue and turned back around, throwing his mask off and onto the pile of goods.
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]"What the hell was all that," Sergio asked, holding back laughter within his sharp exhales as he floated back to the ground. For a first taste of clan combat in so long, Tempestclan had disappointed; perhaps they needed to take a page from Maelstromclan once more. In any case, the gravitational gladiator had facetious disdain to share around, enough for almost everyone. [break][break] With slow, purposeful paces around the site, Sergio examined his neighbors. "Cool of you to join us, Dom; I don't know if Knox would've been happy or sad if I told him you went to the..." He paused looking at the newest discarded top of Dom's at his feet, "...big shirtless idiot farm in the sky. And, who do we thank for your new voice? Cain and I are shocked we didn't think of it first. Ith suith youh! Holy shit," he chuckled with a wide smirk. "You'll have to forgive the mess, Kirai. I'd sent all the trash and shit floating up and away but Dom swears there are valuables hidden every which way in them. So, if we ever got raided ourselves, the bandits would instead drop dead from the stench before trying to rob us. But anyway, how are you? What's up?" he asked casually, finding a spot to sit.
As the men approached the camp, Knox stirred from his makeshift bed- a collection of scrap fabrics from clothes and tapestries they'd stolen over time. He blinked sleepily, mumbling something incoherent as his eyes adjusted. "Mom, I-...What...the hell...?" Sitting up in a hurry he coughed over his last words in the hopes they weren't heard.
"Well, welcome back, ya ugly bunch of-" Knox's face grew confused and somewhat annoyed as he noticed Akihito, "Who's the new guy? And what the hell fucked up his face?" As Sergio spoke and mentioned Kirai, the man chuckled dryly.
"Kirai? As if...? This man looks like a dog fucking-"
"-That's right, Knox." Akihito crooned suavely, his piercing blue eyes and unnerving smile silencing the warrior immediately. Looking about, Aki's smile softened and he slowly sat down on the worn ground. "How am I..?" He asked, giving Sergio a gentle and sad look. "I'm much better seeing all of you."
Knox frowned in surprise, listening intently to the demon.
"I've been in Hell." Aki started.
"-I can imagine." Knox scoffed.
"No." The demon's eyes flared in anger towards Knox again. "I've been in the Castle of Penitence for decades, possibly centuries. That's how it works in Hell." Knox went silent once more, a cold feeling crawling up his back. Was this guy legit..?
If he'd been close enough, Dominic would've launched a punch at Sergio for the comment. Instead, he flicked him off as the conversation went on. He'd wait for Cain to inspect and treat Akihito before accepting any sort of treatment himself-- if Cain learned a thing or two in jail, anyways.
"And yet, you've returned to us. Scathed, but whole."
Dominic could see Cain trying to slide the conversation away from its frigid nature, something that even caught him off-guard to. He stared off and into the distance, seemingly at nothing as he continued to listen.
A spark ignited upon firewood, lighting the campfire without any smoke rising. Something only Cain could manage, lessening the risk of revealing their location.
"If you're just going to stand there, Dominic, then prepare us something to eat. Knox, grab the medical kit. And Sergio, make yourself useful. Tempestclan was already within a moment of weakness when we escaped, so the lack of offensive opponents is unsurprising."
Cain's expression dropped, having to explain the news to the boys. Dominic knew what was coming, choosing to go about making dinner as opposed to dealing with the emotional trauma of his brethren. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he saw Cain place a hand on his shoulder, supportive as he took on the role of announcing.
"Maelstromclan has been annihilated, entirely. Wiped off the map, confirmed by Kirai himself. We are a large portion of the former clan members who remain."
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]Maelstromclan, gone. In some sense, it seemed an inevitability yet, at the same time, it struck him as impossible. Cain, for better and for worse, wasn't the type to tell jokes of such a manner. Tugging idly at his shirt sleeve, Sergio let his gaze wander along the ground. "Well, that's... Sucks they got taken out. Must have been some kind of bullshit that did them in. They all were, at one point or another, like tough as nails. But, uh, maybe that's why they got taken out. I dunno. Fuck." [break][break] Keeping from rambling, he shrugged and started floating some food waste into a neater pile. "Reunions generally happen under better circumstances, is my understanding. But fuck all that, your return is the most interesting thing that's happened in years. So, like, welcome back." Sergio reclined on the ground, content to quietly observe how Knox might take the news; Dominic must've already heard, or he'd have started trying to tell stories or whatever about the clan.
Knox had hurriedly gotten up in search of their medical kit when he heard the tragic announcement. He dropped the supplies, his expression frozen on the ground in terrible shock. ..Mom...? Invicta...? Gone..? Slowly, turned away from them all, the boy lowered to his knees. His glazed eyes stared into the black woods before them. When Knox had run away from Maelstromclan at sixteen to chase rebellion, he'd left behind his family- mother and younger brother. He'd always planned to see them again, perhaps when he'd made a life he'd thought they'd be proud of. On nights of heavy drinking and serious words, he'd mentioned them more than once in nostalgic slurs to his mates.
"When did this happen..?"
Akihito watched him from where he sat, his eyes sorrowful. "A little over a week, I'd guess. Shot down by a storm of black arrows."
Knox's expression cringed in grief and he shuddered. In this moment, all those years he'd spent away seemed foolish. Scrambling to get back up, he gathered the dropped supplies and hastily brought them to Cain. "I have...I have to take a walk." He mumbled. Quickly, he stepped past them and into the trees, smearing tears off of his face.
Akihito sighed, wincing as the exhale shifted his fracture. "What have you all been doing here all this time..?"
Cain gauged each the boys’ reactions, understanding Knox’s immediate grief, but also expecting a bit more sympathy from their aerial combatant. Dominic likely internalized it, although he refused to face the two as they explained.
Graciously taking hold of the medical kit, he nodded as Knox briskly walked away from the group.
“Be careful.” Was spoken under his breath, a simple warning serving as well as a prayer.
“Thevery, muthly.”
The reply to Akihito’s question took a second as Cain hesitated. There was truth to his words, but the summary lacked all of the decade the demon missed out on.
“Cain’th gud et thellin’, Thergi-hoe gud et thteelin’. Knox end me gud et everything elth.” He tossed his head up and snorted once, to which Cain shook his head.
Setting aside the medical supplies for a moment, deputy brought his hands to the bottom of Akihito’s shirt, pulling it over the leader’s head as he joked.
“Mind not his words. I’ve taken up fathering these lovable oafs for a time.”
He flashed a smile up at Sergio, assuming the man would understand a joke as well as his own.
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]Sergio sucked air in through pursed lips, a pout of sorts present on his face. Perhaps deflecting from reflecting on his own feelings, he shot a look in the direction Knox had stalked off towards. "Hey, shouldn't one of you go and, like, check on him? Maybe? Whatever." His statement finished, Sergio rolled over and laid down comfortably facing away from the others. [break][break] "It's more or less as Dominic put it, regrettably," he piped up, adding to the conversation. "Cain's a great dad, definitely. He does take Dominic's side a lot when it comes to keeping up the 'no women allowed' sign outside the camp though," Sergio turned back over to reach his punchline with a bored smirk, "Thath alwayth sruck me ath weirdh, ith allh. Maybe too tongue-in-cheek. But anyways, I've been training with new offshoots of my existing techniques, mainly. Sometimes there's stuff to be lifted, for us and from others occasionally, and that's like a decent way to test moves." Rolling forward slightly to sit back up, he raised his eyebrows to complete a sarcastic expression and picked up a loose twig. Applying anti-gravity to it in full sent it hurtling skywards, towards what was probably the stratosphere and beyond-- there was no stopping its new course, unless some celestial body's orbit finally outweighed Sergio's little trick. "I can do stuff like that now, so that's fun. I dunno, would it be corny to say we've been biding time? Cause that's technically what we've done, but I made what I could out of it. Skills and shit. So, yeah."
Akihito's expression was unreadable as he listened closely to Dom's garbled words and Sergio's unenthusiastic answer. His heart swelled with pride in Cain's caretaking, but he felt otherwise about the rest. He wished they hadn't left the clan, not for this sort of life. "I see..." The demon said quietly, ducking his head down in cooperation as Cain removed his shirt. His chest had gone purple and black from fractures, but he didn't feel them anymore. "And what are your plans now, if I may ask?"
Snatching a dirty lost sock from nearby the campfire pit, Dominic curved it into a more suitable projectile and launched it at the back of Sergio's head. Of course, it held no chance of damage, but he hoped its permanent stench would cause the man discomfort as he took off with the shithead's advice. With a sneer, he began to follow Knox, holding up a middle finger over his shoulder in case Sergio caught a glance. He was mumbling something to himself, too, but it was too low for anything Cain could've picked up.
The father of the ragtag team of hoodlums' immediately noticed the damage as Akihito's shirt was tossed off and away. After a brief apology, he moved his hand to put pressure on the wounds, testing the types of breaks, fractures, tears-- the overall damage done to the poor demon.
"Trading and training was the idea, before. Now that you're here again with us, our plans will be reevaluated."
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]The brazen attempt on Sergio's life received a scowl and a flinging of the weapon of choice, a sock, towards the heavens. "Good, good, good. Dominic is going off to make sure Knox doesn't get lost on his way back from the commode. That is the kind of bonding Cain has helped bring about here, in your absence. No man gets left behind! Very rah-rah, very... I dunno. Cool brotherly bullshit, right?" The warrior rolled over once more, avoiding looking at the extent of Akihito's damage; though even he was unclear, was it the blood and bruises he looked away from or was it whatever Cain would try to do to heal said damage that had him avert his eyes? One could say a part of why Sergio had spent so much time perfecting a gravitational barrier was to avoid sustaining injuries, so as to avoid needing Cain's 'healing' assistance. [break][break] Stretching while reclined, Sergio followed up on the explanation of activities, "Hey, so while we're re-evaluating stuff, is there not a way we re-evaluate Dominic and Knox out of the picture? I'm just saying. Or, just kidding. Though, the suggestion of recruiting more members was something that got floated, don't remember by who... But it was an idea. We have this sort of good base already; more than enough of this and that to live off of, so anything further can be for whatever, uh, re-evaluation described. I dunno." Shrugging, he turned over and looked up at the sky.
The demon looked up at Cain in confusion, wincing a bit as his friend evaluated his wounds.
"Surely you don't think...that I would reclaim leadership..?" He asked quietly to the man, in reference to what he'd said. Akihito stared hard at him with an 'absolutely not' sort of expression.
Meanwhile, Knox was walking fast with purpose in the darkness. He could hear someone trailing after him.
"Go back. I'm fine." The man called over his shoulder as he wiped his eyes again.
Trying his best not to slur, he spoke the word slowly, hastening his walking pace to catch up. Although Knox walked with speed, the path his sworn brother took was nonetheless a long one: likely to Maelstromclan, where even Dominic was curious about.
His next words were lowered, a mumble as he slurred again.
Cain paused a moment, sympathetic at the pain he'd caused, yet also empathetic at the idea of Kirai's leadership once again.
"Be reasonable. We haven't the numbers for you to lead, even if you offered."
A deflection of an answer, to which the deputy checked around for the medical supplies. He wasn't sure how best to handle the man's wounds, but his usual way of burning something back in place would need to wait for how severe they were. Checking the stock of bandages, he figured he'd have to make do, and began to wrap them around the demon's figure.
"To increase our numbers here would be idiotic at best, Sergio. There's little land left to occupy."
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]"I dunno about land issues. Knox and Dominic could be convinced that they need more of a vertical lifestyle; then we stash them in a tree or something. Voila, no one, especially not them, the wiser. I think that'd make recruitment easier too, you know? I'm kidding. Hey, aren't you gonna wash the stuff before bandaging? That's like infection village if you don't, right? Infectionclan?" Sergio sighed and lifted some water into a floating glob for Cain to use. "The mud, probably, should go before the bandages get wrapped up, right?" Standing up and crouching next to the two of them, he furrowed his brow and pointed out some of the grime and dirt that had covered Akihito during the great escape. "Do you want, like, ice or whatever? For the bruises? It's, here, wait." [break][break] Sergio broke off a bit from the glob of water to send it soaring up into the atmosphere. Timing it quietly while tapping his foot to check his count, he stopped the chunks of ice in freefall a few yards from his head. "We can make him an ice sling with some bandage scraps, if you haven't used them all already," the warrior joked with a shrug. The leadership question seemed to weigh on Cain and Akihito's back-and-forth; Sergio raised a brow at the personalities at play, but kept to himself his feelings on the matter. Either of them were fine leaders, though Akihito-- Kirai, rather-- had been more interesting initially. Being used to 'Papa Cain' counted for something, probably. It was only the first night, however. Such things could be left to the two of them to discuss; Sergio felt content providing more pragmatic assistance.
