Cain stood up and stretched as Akihito spoke, quiet as he listened. He couldn't help but smile at such a genuine compliment, but grew a bit concerned as to what Akihito mumbled about. Nonetheless, he attempted to process what his old friend shared with him; information he'd heard somewhere in his travels, a custom for demons upon their new ascension.
"Akihito? Hm. It may take time to adjust, my friend, but a new name suits a new you."
Scooping down to pick up the medkit, a thought crossed his mind. Something he'd meant to ask before, but hadn't the chance to by the time he'd forgotten. After tossing the box behind his back whilst he held it, he finally inquired.
"I must ask, however. How exactly did you bring the jail down?"
He would've hissed if he'd been able to, instead opting to roll his eyes and huff as he stood still. When he caught sight of the ball, however, he harshly glared at Sergio. Too many bad memories with that ball attached to them.
"Not like the uther clenth wud no how to bury em."
With a sigh and disapproving shake of his head, he started back up again, keeping his distance from Knox but still advancing towards what was once known as Maelstromclan. Not once did he mean to stop Knox-- instead, he wanted to confirm that his brother was capable of seeing such carnage. Out of the three of them, Dominic knew how much more of a heart he had. But as his self-proclaimed brother, he normally teased the warrior for it.
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]"Whoa!" Sergio carefully considered posing, rhetorically, the question of whether Knox kissed his mother with that mouth but thought better of it. "Can you teach me all the other swear words you know too? Preferably before you wake up Tempestclan? Holy shit, man. I was asking. Cain was not. You're gonna turn around eventually and, frankly, I myself am wondering whether to, oh, wait, wait. Let me float this idea across first if I may, your Highness; you go there now, bury whomever you want to bury and then, if I'm getting this right, you definitely come back and are back to normal, righty-dandy. Because, if there's one thing I know about you both, it is that neither of you are swayed by emotions or," Sergio stared at Dom before continuing, "Passions, shall we say-- it's the pursuit of cold, unfeeling knowledge that drives you both, yar-har-har." [break][break] His thoughts sped past the rate at which he could articulate them; Sergio applied enough anti-gravity ahead of Knox and Dom to, ideally, encourage them to halt their slow march to Maelstromclan Funeral Homes Inc. unless they wished for a quick boost in altitude. "Dom, I can probably let go ahead. For one, he knows which end of the shovel does 'the dirt-moving thing good' and, also, I think I can trust him to come back after finishing burial business, either on your behalf or his own. Cain, uh, probably wants to make sure you're doing okay. Hell, if we all go back now, then I bet he'll make all of us go with you tomorrow to help out, which would make for a better funeral. Or whatever, right? To be buried by, you know, more than just one person?" Struggling to roll his eyes, he rushed a breath out through lightly clenched teeth. Sentimentality wasn't difficult to share, just to talk out into words, sometimes. Whatever. "Fucking, listen, Dom does it for you now, which I imagine isn't super duper ideal, or we all go together and we help you with proper burial stuff like a little bit later, let's figure something out here, people, c'mon. I won't even kick the ball at you, or fling you in the air. Just float you both back smoothly, like a, I dunno, river swim-paddle-thing."
"Go to Hell, Zamora." The man hissed at him, stubbornly pushing forward through the anti-gravitation. "You're such a heartless, mean-ass motherfucker. I don't even know why Cain keeps you around." At this point, Knox was just mumbling his furies to himself rather than yelling. "And we don't literally bury our dead, we burn them dumbass. You would know if you paid one fucking minute of attention to the people that were your family once. You stupid," Turning, the boy screamed at Sergio again. "-SELFISH DOG FULL OF PISS AND WIND. LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE! "
Though he was certainly the more sensitive of the group, Knox had never yelled at his mate more seriously. He couldn't care less who heard him.
Aki looked down at his hands. The blackened skin on his fingers faded all the way up into his forearms.
"I only touched it and it fell apart...Like it was going bad with age." He frowned in his own confusion. "The iron of my chains cried like a rusty gate before falling into dust around me...I didn't even mean for it to happen. A strange ability of this body, I suppose. Causing objects to ruin." Curiously, the demon leaned over to the side and plucked a handful of grass from the earth. He stared intently at the little blades, and in an instant they were nothing. Too small and insignificant to even leave dust behind.
Rubbing a hand against his forehead, he listened to the two bicker on about the issue. Arguing itself was an awful annoyance out in the woods, and the pair had barely gotten anywhere. If Kirai or Cain hadn't heard their feuding by then, he'd have been surprised.
"Kool et. If eth thuch uh fucken prablem, Cain can deel with et then."
Not trying to add anymore fuel to the fire, he gave a glance behind his shoulder towards camp.
Cain watched as Akihito drained the life from the strip of grass, mostly shocked, but certainly impressed. A horrifying skill, one which could certainly level a building, and easily destroy the body.
"Incredible. You never cease to deliver, my friend. Your gift is powerful; be careful not to rot through your bed while you sleep."
Joking a bit, Cain gestured over to two of the beds-- a simple mattress of straw and cloth, beside it a light-colored hammock. As he started that way, his goal in mind to return the medical supplies, Knox's yells caught his attention.
With a twitch of his brow, he deeply inhaled and chucked the box onto the bed of hay.
"Do you hear them? This idiocy is why I can't leave those oafs to their own devices."
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]Dominic could surely hear Sergio's eyes glaze over. The jolting disbelief displayed in his brows struck faster than lightning. "Wait. People like dogs, even when they pee or shit; still surprisingly well-regarded. What people don't like are little, like, cratchety, scrape-one-out-your-ear-and-another-one-leaps-in kind of guys. You, basically, I'm talking about you. Now, is this where you turn the page containing your list of 'very-angry-mad-words' to the other side, or do we get to talk now? I vote we talk now, because it really doesn't, like, matter if it's bury or burn. That really isn't the point, if you'd believe it or not. You're gonna go there, see what you, I guess, want to see, and then either, like, run for the hills' hills forever or come back and be a total fucking mope. See, it's not the same when you or Dom are gone-- cause it's usually better. However, Cain picked me to deal with the 'fucken prablem' because he's busy figuring out if the bandage goes on before or after the cauterizing. So, acting in his weird fucking best interest, you both can 'wunder how et luks' in camp until he inevitably drags us all there together in the morning." [break][break] Throwing his hands up in the air, while catching the ball with the crook of his foot, Sergio made a sound of exasperation and ratcheted up the anti-gravity from a couple different directions. Knox and Dominic would be dragged back to camp as needed, maybe with some trees-- er, correction, some landscape being pulled along too. "Is this what I get for... What was it again? Specifically not wanting to see a bunch of people we all know lying there dead? And it's probably been how long since whatever happened happened? Yeah, maybe wondering isn't so needed, Dom. See, I'm comfortable... say, bargaining? Bargaining with the situation, yeah. If I go tomorrow or if I think about it tomorrow instead of now, maybe it'll be fine. What I don't get is why, or fucking how, you seem to think being in angry denial is a solution to, um, goddamn anything. But yeah, by all means, come back to camp and explain to the guy we know who uses fire on a minutely basis why you're best-suited to go and do some proper burn-ials right now," sighed the warrior as he rocketed the ball with a swift kick through a riverbank that had been sliding alongside the two incorrigibles. A quick burst of zero-gravity saw the ball return to Sergio, re-chambered in front of his foot. He shook his head to himself, feeling he'd gotten off-track in talking about how he felt-- people who had everything figured out didn't need to waste words on how to figure stuff out, Sergio believed.
Knox cursed as he fell onto his face, getting dragged back the way he came. "Oh is that so Sergio?" He exclaimed in a highly mocking voice. "You uhm, like, fucking, like, don't, like, want to see, uhm, dead people?" Turning onto his back, Knox folded his arms furiously and glowered up at the man escorting them, all the while teasing his way of speech as he was dragged along the earth.
"Well that's fine! Because I don't, like, uhm, want you to fucking come with me! I, like, fucking hate you or whatever! You're such a bad friend! And if Cain doesn't get rid of you I'll be fucking leaving in the morning, much to your relief. I'm done with your bullshit. I'M SO FUCKING-"
Knox continued to scream about his feelings for the entire trip back, his voice catching whenever a rock smacked him in the head or a branch whipped his face.
Sitting up straight, Akihito could hear the shouting of Knox as well as the boys drew nearer on their way home. "Good to be back." He said with an amused smile. A break for either he or Cain just didn't seem to be in the cards tonight. Carefully, the demon stood and walked over to one of the beds he'd been offered. With a tired huff, he sat down onto the hay mattress, criss-crossed his legs, and waited for the loud disaster of immature men to emerge from the forest. "I'd like to see this." The demon said, watching Cain. All those years of being in charge of the chaos, it felt good to watch someone else handling it. It was also incredibly funny.
Regardless that he was trying to stay as neutral as possible through the whole ordeal, Dominic caught himself before landing on his face, unlike Knox had. For once, he thought that he might've perfected the craft of avoiding he fall to the face. But considering how the terrain beat and battered the two, he couldn't say it with conviction.
"Theriouthly?"
Gritting his teeth, the man grunted each and every time something hit him as he stubbornly tried to find his footing, much like how he'd train with the other. In time, regardless of the anti-gravity force kept upon him, he was at least somewhat balanced with his head upright as they were brought back to camp.
Laughing a bit at the demon's comment, he soon turned his attention to the loudmouths causing such a ruckus in the dead of night. Although it'd be morning shortly, they didn't need anyone waking up early to investigate the noise. His expression turned stern as he analyzed the way each man returned to camp. Floating... being dragged through the dirt.
"Men."
For a moment, he considered calling them 'boys' instead-- especially for the way they acted towards each other. But in front of Akihito, he defaulted towards calling them somewhat by their actual age.
[attr="class","skulloverlap"]Nunca llueve a gusto de todos.
[attr="class","skullbody"]"Someone ordered two breakfast pastries? Both are half-baked but are also nefariously soft. Enjoy!" Sergio dropped Knox and Dominic unceremoniously. The anti-gravity was released a moment later, after each got an extra scoop of mud scoot. The gravitational gladiator was feeling generous with the helpings of earthy dessert tonight. "There is, I'm told, a burn-ial for us to attend to in the morning, courtesy of our masked pal Knox. He has returned to present to you both your invitations. Dominic followed after him earlier to make sure he didn't spell your names wrong. 'C-A-I-N' I told him but apparently, it's just so many vowels," he joked. [break][break] Sergio remained floating and kicked the ball up, bouncing it along his knee while maintaining a perfect line of sight on a potentially malcontent Knox or Dominic. "Stronger together, or something, hurrah. We're all here again. I may be an awful friend but I am a super effective brother, I mean, whew," he sighed, collecting the ball in his arms. Gesturing to indicate he was done speaking, for the moment, Sergio noted thin wisps of rather distant smoke over the treeline with a click of the tongue.
As soon as he was released, Knox scrambled to his feet, grabbed the nearest cooking pot and chucked it as hard as he could at the floating man. "You are NOT my brother!" He yelled before turning towards Cain. "Sergio dragged us back! And all he's been fucking doing is teasing the shit out of me! LIKE ALWAYS!" The last statement he directed towards Sergio with a hateful glare. Reaching up, he ripped his mask off and it dissolved into nothing. Underneath, his eyes were red and tear-stained. "He doesn't give a shit about anyone and I'm fucking done with it! After all this time, you couldn't let up on me?" The boy asked, giving Sergio a look of confused betrayal. "Just this once? You still get your kicks on making me feel like shit even now? When I've just lost everything I planned to return to? My family is FUCKING DEAD and YOU DON'T GIVE A SHIT! I FUCKING HATE YOU SERGIO!" At this point, his grief had clearly peaked and Sergio was the punching bag- not that he didn't deserve it.
Akihito's smile had vanished, replaced with a more serious frown. His eyes traveled to each of the men, curious as to how this would be handled by Cain.
As Dominic took a step back, brushing himself off of dirt and other debris, Cain eyed the two men in question. Time was subjective, but had even 15 minutes passed between the time Sergio departed for the boys?
The campfire itself dimmed as a few flames rose and severed from the pit, only to circle the remaining fire. It'd been some time since he had dealt with serious issues-- not since the men were boys did they undergo real punishment. Certainly the boys recalled such burns. At least Dominic did, as he stepped back and away from the situation as a whole.
His stern, fiery gaze settled onto Sergio, fierce as embers rose along with his temper.
"My boy, the sun still sleeps and yet two return unwilling. Time may be subjective, but what is your reason for hostility?"
To misinterpret his words was one thing, but to harass one grieving was certainly another.
