Welcome to The Duality of Man, an original animanga role-play that features numerous supernatural creatures. Unfortunately, these various species have distanced themselves because of the war that occurred thousands of years ago, plaguing some with eyes that only see their dualism. While others meddle themself with their differences, two groups fight, each attempting to eliminate the other in for their definition of worldly peace. These two groups of the Terror Response Syndicate (TRS) and the Assembly of Phantoms (AP). With individuals fighting merely over their differences, it brings uncertainty to the outcome of this war.
We happily accept all role-players as long as they obey the rules and are capable of meeting our word count of 50. This does include those who are unfamiliar with this style of role-playing. The staff of The Duality of Man are willing to happily help those who are new to the role-playing world so they feel comfortable on site. Feel free to message the staff if you need help, they can be found here or in the site Discord and will gladly answer questions alongside calm concerns. If you have any suggestions we would love to hear them; guests may use the support board as a suggestion area as well. Should you decide to join, may I say welcome to the site and we all hope you enjoy your time here.
Yours Truely,
The Staff
season
Summer 2024
Heat has broken through into a glorious summer. The snow has entirely dried through the spring, leaving to the brilliance of the warmer months. Terror activity has risen as people are brought out of their homes, leaving the TRS in a position of consistent work. Each are attempting to maintain victory in the endless struggle for power.
Since the wonderful members of TDOM enjoy the site enough to play around on it, this thread is to assist with the site's tidying! Functionality is important and we want to make the site functional even if its activity will be minimal at best!
Mikaela wanted to gape at him as he chose not to let her down. Sure she'd walked to the edge of that bridge, but she hadn't expected him to let her plunge into the icy depths of her stupidity. She'd been so sure he'd drop her where he stood.
Instead, she kept up the game they'd started. No way was she going to be the one to break and back down. Despite how uncomfortable she was being carted around with zero control, she smirked up at him. "Awe, you think I'm beautiful? You're wrong, but no take backs!"
They turned the corner and when he spoke, she tensed at whatever he was about to do. Quite suddenly she was dropped and landed in a thick bush. Twigs and thorns poked into her and she hurried to straighten her dress. Laughter bubbled to the surface before she could muster a scowl. "Yeah, that tracks. You really want people to think you don't care, don't you?" She stood as gracefully as she could manage and pulled a leaf out of her hair. Crimson liquid traced it's way down her arm, but she ignored it. It would have been a lot worse if he'd dropped her on a thornier part of the bush.
Now the matter of the deal she'd foolishly made. Technically it wasn't valid. She'd specified he had to get her here safe and she was bleeding which seemed pretty not safe. Then again, they'd gotten here before he'd dropped her. She played with the idea of emphasizing the word consider, but another thought occured to her first. A thought that made the request far more appealing.
"Come on. I'll give you that kiss once we get inside." She gazed at him, biting the inside of her cheek. Once again, she was captured by those eyes. Green like an olive tree with little lines carved out in an intricate pattern like hidden branches. For a brief moment they reminded her of home.
Nostalgia, joy, and a painful sorrow all danced within her heart and she forced herself to look away. The last thing she needed to think about was the lives she'd left behind. That's why she'd been drinking to begin with. And the sooner she got inside the sooner she could go back to drowning them out again.
She dug through her purse, easily finding her keychain. A picture of Mikaela and her sister stared up at her and she rolled her eyes. She hardly needed such a sentimental trinket to keep track of her keys, but Libby had given it to her so how could she not use it?
She selected a red key and shoved it in the door, frowning when it wouldn't turn. Changing the locks. Of course. She didn't hesitate to pull out her lock picks instead, shoving them in in place of the key. With a bit of practiced twisting, she felt the tumblers click and tugged the door open.
Mikaela didn't bother waiting for him to step inside. She flipped on the switch, crossing to the other side of the room before the familiar electric hum actually flickered to a start. Suddenly the spacious break room of the casino was bathed in light. She grabbed a sticky note and a pen from within a desk and quickly scrawled a note to the bartender: "Nice try, but that stunt didn't hold me for 10 seconds ;). Next time try getting a guard dog! I'm sure you're little Snowball would be loud enough to spook me. Take triple this week. ~ML"
She grabbed something from a little bowl on the desk, then walked back to the entrance and stuck the sticky note on the back of the door. "Your kiss." she grinned, turning to him and stepping in far too close. Her hand brushed against his and she passed him a silver wrapped piece of chocolate. "As promised."
Instead of the angry beehive he’d expected to be pelted with, a strangely pleasant laughter echoed from Ruby. At first he was certain she had finally lost it. The, as she smoothed herself out, Ruby revealed her master plan; a well-placed jest. Daichi scowled but said nothing in response to her poor attempts to strip him down. Of course he didn’t care about anyone.
“Are you alright? Really, I think you must’ve hit your head or something,” though despite the words he shrugged and trailed after her.
The where part of their journey was unknown to him. In fact they’d already breached the alleyway and gone back on the street so ideally he should have left her by now.
Maybe it was the morbid fascination of someone who’d effortlessly poised a knife to his throat that kept him interested. It had been a long time since any of his targets had bothered. There was nothing like the thrill of knowing that it could all be over with the flick of a wrist. The will to survive, it was absolute… even in the dead.
By the time Daichi realized he’d retreated into his thoughts Ruby had pressed something into his palm. He flipped it over slowly to catch the shape of a foil wrapped chocolate. A smirk played across his face at the effort she’d gone through for a deal she’d never made.
“Thanks,” deft fingers unraveled the chocolate, tossing the rapper as he shoved it in his mouth. It was the crude second-rate over the counter stuff but he ate it anyways before leaning on the desk of what he presumed was a place she knew, “so, is this your thing? Breaking into random places after leading strangers through dark alleyways and pulling knives on them? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you aren’t actually a nekomata but rather a yūrei come to lure me in as a midnight snack.”
He sighed, leaning over the counter to fiddle with the contents for anything useful. “You’ll be sorely disappointed if that’s the case,” Daichi’s fingers brushed a lose coin, marveling at the chill of it.
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS
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"A nekomata?" she bristled at the suggestion. Her? Innocent enough to be confused for a heavenly species? Clearly she’d gone a bit too soft recently. She could just be more mean, but that would be boring.
Pouting, she disappeared into the other room, not waiting for him to follow. If he was a thief, none of the important stuff was in the break room. The inner body of the casino opened up before her. It was always strange to see it empty. The smell of alcohol still hung in the air - it was ingrained in the building - but the monstrous atmosphere that balanced peoples’ livelihoods on the roll of the dice was blessedly absent.
She had a front row seat to these games and they still made her skin crawl. She embraced the thrill of risking her life on a whim, but that sort of gamble was different. She didn’t risk her life at the stake of others. But she still enjoyed watching the wolves tear each other apart.
She glanced at a small calendar pinned near the door. Today was blank. Usually they were closed on Thursdays, but sometimes the space was reserved for private games later in the night. She wouldn’t want to be caught in one of those.
Mikaela stepped behind the bar, grabbing two glasses and letting them clatter to a standstill on the marble bar. "What’s your poison?" she called, glancing at the various bottles surrounding her and grinning. "Nevermind, you took too long to answer! I'm choosing."
She grabbed a couple of shot glasses, ignoring the two already resting on the bar, and pushed some of the bottles on the shelf aside to reveal one with a less than professional looking label. She pulled it out and filled the two small glasses with a ruby liquid.
"If I tell you it's not drugged, will you drink this?" she asked, holding the glass with less liquid in it towards him.
maybe making him fondle the desk was a bad idea after all...
“Oh so you’re actually a bakeneko, huh,” he paused, taping the pen against the desk, “I think I like the idea of you being a yūrei better in that case.”
By the time he looked up she had already slipped out of the tiny room and into a much bigger room. Not wanting to lose sight of Ruby he released his grip on the pen so that it clattered onto the floor. The room that he stepped into next was… unexpected.
Dimmed lights, the glimmer of glasses against a darkened atmosphere that was married to the idea of fortune. He’d seen this setting a thousand times wearing different faces. This particular arena lacked the stale cigarette smoke that was the usual accompaniment to a place of this caliber. It was the promise of fortune that brought people here, the sacrifice of one’s wealth and guard.
His preferred hunting ground.
With a practiced motion, Ruby slipped behind the bar and began to rummage through it. He supposed breaking into a casino wasn’t the worst ways he could spend his night. As the glasses were set before him, she made a strange remark about poison. The corner of his mouth twitched at the idea but he gave no further tell that he found the idea of being poisoned amusing.
“If I asked you again if this place has any significance to you or if we broke into a random casino will you actually answer me this time?” he quirked an eyebrow skeptically in her direction, eying the crimson liquid that looked far too much like transmission fluid for him to even dream about drinking, “though I guess there’s nothing stopping you from lying to me...”
He sighed but nevertheless waited for an explanation, poising his hand over the glass but not touching anything. Truth be told he’d already erred in chucking the kiss wrapper and touching pen (among other desk items) but the idea of soliciting more answers from Ruby was far too enticing for him to resist playing a part.
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS
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He didn’t trust her. Mikaela couldn’t help feeling a little hurt. It wasn’t like she planned on killing him. She thought she’d made that clear. Shrugging, she downed the liquor in her glass and tried to push the negative emotion aside. The less he trusted her, the better off he’d be.
"If you want me to lie I can do that!" she grinned. "Ok, let's see. Despite the fact that I know the streets around here like the palm of my hand, I had no idea where that door led and lucked into finding a place with such a good bar."
She tilted her head to the side, observing him curiously. It was safe to assume she’d lie for no good reason, but she hated it. Just because she didn't like telling the truth didn't mean she wouldn't.
"I'll give you honest answers if you play my game." she smirked. It was a dangerous thing to offer, but it wasn’t like she planned on seeing him again. And besides, he wouldn’t know to ask the questions that could really get her in trouble.
"Only if you want them, of course. Think of it as a modified version of truth or dare." A version she was sure would turn out to be far riskier than the playground version for both of them. She was bored and clearly he needed some sort of incentive to be fun. She looked up at him pleadingly. Flirting hasn’t helped her case back in the bar, but maybe begging could annoy him enough that he decided to take the offer and get some straight forward responses out of her.
"It’ll be fun." she claimed. "But... if not you may as well give me back that drink and I’ll take care of it for you." she sighed. She held out her hand expectantly, but a question glinted in her eyes. She wouldn’t force him to join her chaos, and she wasn’t sure he would. It would take someone who was truly bored with their life to put up with her. That wasn’t a demand most people could meet.
What had he expected? Especially from a woman deriving from some form of nekoism. She almost looked like she was enjoying herself a bit too much but that was good, maybe at some point she’d let her guard down and give him some real information. Then, at the proposed idea of a game, Daichi wondered just what sort of rabbit hole he’d fallen into. The right kind of course.
“I have no way of knowing you’ll actually tell the truth, especially after that lie fest of yours,” Daichi paused, “but I think it’s safe to assume that since you answered so quickly this is a place you know someone from. Even lying can tell others the truth, kitten.”
Daichi locked his sage-hued eyes with hose deepened ruby rings, catching the level of intensity behind their silent landscape. Would he be wasting his time with Ruby? It wasn’t like he had anything better to do… no, this was exactly where he wanted to be. Games were usually Anzu’s thing but Daichi could play too and it seemed like Ruby wasn’t a stranger to these sorts of things.
“I love games,” he laughed and then grabbed the crimson-filled glass before drinking the contents in one fell swoop.
There was nothing save the taste of sugar and the harsh bite of the alcohol beneath, just the kind of drink Daichi despised. An individual’s taste in liquor was often an indicator of their personality but this wasn’t the case here. He wondered what prompted her to choose this one. Making a face, he slapped the now empty glass back down on the bar, prompting an empty clink of glass.
“Ladies first then. Since it was your idea i'll let you set the rules,” a pause, “unless you want to forgo any rules all together? I don’t feel like dying today but I guess today is as good a day as any. What'll it be Ruby?”
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS
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Mikaela shrugged off his commentary on her lie. In her experience, a transparent lie was always kinder than the direct truth. To herself and the people she spoke to.
"Ruby's fine, but kitten is pushing it. That's my sister." she made her grin teasing, but the nickname did bother her. She wasn't half as pure as Libby. It felt wrong having a similar nickname.
Her distracted thoughts were broken when he agreed to play. With rules. He was scared, wasn't he? He was probably too scared to admit it too. She smirked. "What type of game doesn't have rules?" she asked. Clear rules would make it more fun. It was really hard to find loopholes when there were no limitations to begin with.
She continued in a practiced tone, as though she were explaining a game she'd played hundreds of times. "Questions must be answered truthfully and dares cannot be illegal. I suppose that applies to questions too... For confidential information, you'll get a slide. The modified part comes in where you don't get to choose truth or dare, that's up to the person asking." She paused for a moment, gauging his reaction to the main rules before laying down her final lines.
"Since I made 3 rules, you can make 3 too. You can make them now or save them for during the game." A safety net in case he found himself drowning. He seemed like the type that could handle himself, but sometimes it was so hard to tell. "And since I set the game you get to go first. Assuming you're alright with the rules I chose." That was another safety net, but it was meant more for her than for him. Within these rules, the game could still be relatively safe. Letting him set the tone gave her an excuse to shift the blame if things went too far downhill.
Just like that, Daichi already had the means to destroy her. It prompted the question of weather or not she was truly sane. To invite a knife-wielding stranger to play a game in which she had little to no control over… well, that was stupid. What was more stupid was that he was going to play this game with her. It was, after all, just a game. He wasn’t bound by word or loyalty, these things meant relatively little to him these days.
No, this would be a perfect game.
“I’ll use my rules wisely then,” he smirked digging through his jacket.
Daichi’s fingers closed round the hilt of the knife he’d used on the man earlier. It wasn’t the standard pocket knife but rather a finely tailored blade reminiscent of his history. As such it was both sturdy and pointy, one of his favorites actually. With a determined poise he slapped the blade down before them with a metallic clink.
Sitting back, Daichi crossed his arms for a moment as he surveyed Ruby with a slightly devilish grin. There were several ways to test people like Ruby. Was she the kind of person that could empathize with others? Did she function normally or underneath that collected cat-like exterior was she simply just another tormented soul? All questions he wanted answers to.
But asking Ruby answers didn’t guarantee the truth.
“I dare you to stab my hand with that knife then,” the jorogumo leaned forward, placing his non dominant hand before her with the fingers spread out over the cold marble, “here’s my first rule. If you damage anything important beyond repair with my hand, you have to marry me and stay married to me for at least a year. Also, before you say it’s illegal, it’s not. I give you my full permission to stab me… just this once of course.”
He lifted his eyes up, a glint of darkness lingering behind them. Would she take the bait? She’d have to go directly against her own rules if she didn’t.
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS
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Mikaela kept her eyes on Touri, studying his expression. He thought she was making a fool's bet. She could see it in that arrogant smirk of his. It did look like she was in a terrible situation, but that was a good thing. When people thought their opponent was backed into a corner, they showed their true hands.
And she desperately wanted to know who Touri was behind whatever walls he'd built.
A knife was placed before her, and Mikaela studied Touri, interested in where this was going. As he laid out the rules, she grinned. She forced herself to think it over logically for a moment.
It was a fun puzzle, but why this one? He could just as easily have told her to stab her own hand and saved himself some of the pain. Maybe he was looking for pain - that would explain why he'd followed her so far - but somehow she doubted it. Maybe he was the type that didn't like others getting hurt, but she couldn't think of any occupations where he would learn to hold a knife so cooly without having to bring someone pain. She suspected he cared more about people than he was willing to admit, but he didn't seem like he was being forced into whatever life he was living.
That only left it as a way to test her. Would she be more hesitant to stab him as opposed to herself? It didn't matter. The dare required her to and she'd already agreed to play the game. He probably thought she'd back out. Was he not actually interested in playing, then?
The marriage thing warranted a bit of thought too. It could simply be something to stop her from cutting off a finger, but it was an interesting consequence. He'd be just as bound by it as her. "Lonely, are you?" she raised an eyebrow and grinned mockingly. She didn’t think that was the case either. He looked like he thought he’d won. He’d been given the perfect opportunity to mess with her and he was wasting it in a dare where only she had a safe way out. She almost pitied him.
Carefully, she picked up the knife and tested its balance. It didn't seem bad, but it wasn't the type of knife she was used to using. She ran a finger along the edge, checking how sharp it was.
With her free hand, she flipped his hand palm up and traced the smooth canvas of his skin. She could imagine the bones and tendons beneath as she tried to recall what she'd been taught when she was younger.
She debated telling him not to move, but if he did and it caused more damage she'd be free from the whole 'if she did damage beyond repair' clause. She selected a realatively innocuous spot and, with a practiced motion, she let the blade descend into the meat of his hand, stopping when she felt the familiar sensation of skin breaking. Less than half a centimeter shouldn't really do much harm. It might scar, but she doubted that could be labeled as important.
"Sorry, I would have done worse, but I really don't feel like being married again just yet. According to a very exasperated doctor, though, that does count as stabbing." she smirked and pocketed the knife. "Be right back." she added before disappearing back to the breakroom. She opened a cupboard on the wall, searching for a few seconds before spotting the familiar red cross of the emergency first aid kit.
She waited another moment before returning, making sure she had her thoughts in line. She had a feeling this game would devolve into a form of roulette where her sanity was on the line. Not that she had much to begin with. It would be fun, assuming they both survived.
"I get the feeling we’re gonna need this quite a bit." she said, dropping the kit in front of him. "Since carrying a knife is illegal, I think I have to insist on no more knife based dares. I'm sure you understand." She wasn't sure where the rules stood in Canada, but back home it would have been a problem, and she would rather see how creative he could be without knives.
"Now it's my turn, right? How can I possibly match that?" A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. He'd thrown himself all in with his first strike, but that didn't mean she had to. She'd always preferred to scope out her target's limits first.
"Careful now, this question is very important." she let the warning hang in the air for a moment before actually asking. It would be important. Perhaps deceptively so. Not only would it tell her more about him, but it would determine how fully she answered the coming questions... If he planned on throwing her any, that was. "What type of music do you like?"
Precision. Knowledge of the areas that wouldn’t do damage. Evaluation of the knife prior to use. A palm injury would be more cumbersome in the long run though, prompting the question of whether or not she had intended it that way. The entire time he sat disturbingly still, watching like he usually did in spider form.
Part of knowing how to kill people was, unfortunately, knowing about them.
He was left to ponder over her marriage comment as Ruby disappeared into a different room. With the increase in crimson pooling lightly on his palm Daichi briefly considered disinfecting it with a nearby alcohol bottle. Ruby returned before this plan could be followed out, placing a cheap medical kit before him.
The assassin eyed her before snapping the lid open and tending to his ‘wound’. Truthfully, he hadn’t expected her to actually stab him so he needed to reassess her motives.
“Wait, you could ask anything but you want to know about the music I listen to?” Daichi’s brow shot up, a mixture of curiosity with skepticism that mirrored the absurdity of the question, “what makes you think I even listen to music?”
Daichi slapped a crude tegaderm over the gauze on his hand; he’d deal with it later. If this were going to be the sort of girlish sleepover-esc game Ruby was turning it into, he’d need some alcohol for that. The jorogumo reached over, grabbed the nearest bottle, and (upon confirming it wasn’t vodka) poured himself a quick drink in the glass he’d emptied earlier. After a long, drawn out sip he finally responded.
“I guess you would call it classical here,” he replied dryly before adding, “maybe some j-rock on a good day.”
Clicking the first aid kit shut, he slid it back over to Ruby with the enthusiasm of a student at the end of a three hour lecture. The plastic scraped crudely across the stone.
“Since we’re sticking with truth, I’ll give you an easy one: how many people are dead because of you?” Daichi’s gaze was sharp, focused on Ruby so that even the slightest change in mannerism could be detected. It was a loaded question really and one that could be answered in so many different ways.
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS
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Daichi Takeshi * And she's graduated to whiskey. Congrats Dai. * 549 Words
"Hey! Taste in music is very important!" Mikaela claimed, slightly offended at the question. Not only was it important, but it was easy to answer. And here he was pouring himself a drink like it was something he hated to recall. She was starting to think he was even more dramatic than her.
Finally, he answered and slid the kit back towards her. Before she could decide whether she could connect him with classical music, he asked a distracting question. One she'd been trying to avoid for a while.
"I-I don't know." she admitted. "Under this name, none." She wasn't sure that meant much, though. She wasn't piling on sins anymore, but didn't make up for what she'd done in the past. Following his lead, Mikaela grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels and filled her glass. It was barely a step above the grappa, but it left more of a burn. She wasn’t sure lighter drinks would be able to get her through this evening. Any warmth in her dissipated as she tried to recall the facts. The cool exterior wasn't meant to be threatening; it was just her only defense against the dark thoughts she knew would follow.
"I've killed three people. Of those, two were mercy kills - if you believe in such a thing - and one was an accident. Five good men have died under my protection or following my commands. I'm not an assassin, but I used to work with some, and they have killed four on my orders." She took a long sip of her drink, debating who else was worth adding to the list. "Two have died in my place and my failures have condemned a good seven people to unknown fates." She winced as she began adding up the numbers. That was more than she'd thought. She'd always tried to avoid death, but for a long time it had been required to keep living. It had been more justifiable back then.
"You can do the math for that on your own." She finished off the drink in one long drag and poured herself another. Those were details she probably shouldn't have given out. She'd made sure it was extremely difficult to connect her to her old life, but those numbers may line up enough to give her away. But she doubted Touri knew anything about the criminal underworld of Italy.
"I know, I know, those stats are pretty low but believe me, I've made plenty more wish they were dead." she smirked, attempting to brush away the heavy weight that now bore down on her conscious.
She studied him, trying to decide whether she wanted to know the same about him. The answer was no, she did not, but leaving herself completely in the dark about what type of monster he was seemed dangerous. Potential tests began forming in her mind, but she didn’t put words to any of them. Instead, her attention caught on his arms. "What do your tattoos mean?"
She only had one tattoo around her wrist, but getting that hadn't been her decision. She wasn't sure she'd ever choose to decorate her skin like that, but tattoos on others always interested her. "To you! I don't care what their cheesy store-bought meaning is." she hurried to add.
only in darkness can we truly forget what we were meant to be
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@tagged
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playing this card early XD
Had she listened to the information she was giving him? He wondered if maybe the liquor had kicked in. Ruby was far more than the alleged girlfriend of a rowdy drunk, no she clearly had the skill and history of someone involved in criminal activities. Probably some form of a gang if he had to guess.
He sat nursing his drink, soaking up each morsel of information and the way she suddenly had changed from confident to falling apart beneath the surface. When it was over, he simply watched her with a silent, knowing expression.
“I see you’re a real monster then,” his words were dry, followed by the slow sip of his drink, “maybe that’s why you spend time with that jerk at the bar… or why you let him hit you - don’t think I didn’t notice.”
Still, he left it at that because the next question she’d proposed was one he didn’t typically discuss with strangers. In truth he didn’t owe anything to this woman. Even if she had spilled her entire life story to him, he wasn’t obligated to tell her. Heck he could even lie if he wanted, spin a tale that was convincing enough for her.
Most people got tattoos simply to get them so it wouldn’t be unheard of. Daichi crossed his arms, pretending to think before offering up his reply.
“My tattoos… hmm,” he drew it out, calculating the best answer to a question with far too many loopholes, “since you didn't specify mean then i'll take that question to be the context of my tattoos as a whole. I’d say they serve as a reminder to me. Sometimes I forget myself so wearing my reminders works better.”
Technically it was an answer of what his tattoos meant to him seeing as she hadn’t specified what each one meant. It was personal enough that he hoped she would be satisfied but not enough that he felt he’d told her too much. Smirking, he polished off what was left of his drink.
“Alright, since you took away my knife there’s no sense in daring you to do anything anymore,” Daichi rolled his eyes before letting them rest once again on his drinking companion, “so then, Ruby. Why are you in Lorsette? Clearly with an accent like that this isn’t your hometown. Parents kick you out or something?”
He swirled the glass around in his hands as he waited, hoping he’d struck a nerve.
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS
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Mikaela’s hand rose to her cheek, hovering just above the skin. She’d almost forgotten about that - as though the bruise would fade along with its memory. No such luck. Not that two weeks would really be a problem. She’d been in far worse condition in the past and she was still alive and breathing.
She focused on the thoughtful act he was putting up about his tattoos, but the words still hung in the back of her mind. Reminders. Permanent reminders. That required a type of bravery she’d never have. The world shifted around her faster than she could predict and a happy thought could easily turn into a haunting nightmare. The scars left on her mind from the times she’d let down her guard in the past were bad enough without having to see a physical representation. She’d rather live in denial.
Touri’s words broke her thoughts and Mikaela smirked. She’d honestly expected some cat-related dare to come up eventually, but it seemed she was off the hook for that. His question left some room for interpretation, too. Did he mean why she was in Lorsette or why she’d left Italy? She decided to go with a response that could answer both.
“Ugh! Italy’s so hot!” she waved a hand in an annoyed gesture. “It was, like, 40 degrees or something the day I left. Lorsette is much more tolerable. And I already spoke the language so I figured why not.”
As she took a sip of her whiskey, her mind once again snagged on what he’d said earlier. “Why would you give a second thought to what happens between me and a drunk stranger at a bar? Are you sure you don’t have some sort of hero complex?” She watched his instant reaction with a cat-like smile before adding “That’s not a question for the game. You can lie and keep pretending you’re too cynical to care about a stranger if you want.”
Daichi scowled at her superficial answer but said nothing. He’d avoided her question in almost the same manner so there was no sense in splitting hairs about it. Her response pretty much told him that she didn’t want to talk about the real reason. Again, the conversation went back to her alleged boyfriend and his supposed hero complex.
The assassin had only asked to stir the pot. Clearly, she should know that. How could he possibly care about anyone other than Anzu? It was an absurd idea.
“You didn’t specify the nature of the questions but since you seem so bothered by it, I’ll pick a different one,” he set the glass down, “and you can insist I have a hero complex all you want. Whatever fantasy you’re into I guess.”
He tapped the counter for a minute, deciding whether or not his next request should be sarcastic or just plain demeaning. At this point he had most of the immediate information to profile this woman. She was a common criminal seeking a new life. Whether that was by choice however was unknown. One sibling, likely no parents.
Whatever interests he’d held before were somewhat muted now. Ruby just wasting his time at this point if she was going to dismiss his questions.
“Would you like it better if I gave you a dare?” sage-hued irises reflected his hubris as he made his way around the counter and picked up what was likely a snack bowl.
Daichi ran the bowl under an undetermined tap and placed it in front of Ruby. Maybe it was cruel but it was for the best if he made her angry. The assassin didn’t want her to think he was interested. The less associations he had, the better of he was. Lorsette wasn’t exactly a metropolis. He leaned against the bar, suddenly aware of how much taller he was than her. “I dare you to slurp this up without touching the bowl kitty cat,” his lips twisted into a smirk, “since I’m feeling generous i’ll let you choose whether or not you want to do it in human form or cat form. Since you supposedly like abusive men this should be right up your alley.”
MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS
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Mikaela bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling as she let him dig his hole a bit deeper. He was dripping indignant energy. It was kind of adorable.
Her gaze tracked him as he came around the bar. He grabbed a bowl and filled it with a liquid. It didn't take her long to distinguish the scent of cheap beer. So he had been holding back. If she was taking him seriously, she would have been offended. The fact that he was actually trying now, of all times, didn't support his point.
"You're overcompensating, cucciolino*" she mused in a sing-song voice, gazing up at him. Her amusement faded, replaced with a far more serious front. If she seemed like she was joking her point might not stick as well. "And you misunderstand. My question about your heroics was the one that's not part of the game. It's still my turn."
She looked him over, knowing full well that she was about to make a stupid decision. The way he loomed over her he should have seemed like a threat. Then again, how could such an adorable wanna-be seem threatening? "The thing is, empty gestures like this meant to scare me away just confirm my theory. So, if you want me to believe you're so big and scary..." She flicked a knife out of it's hiding spot, happening to grab her own rather than the one she'd taken from him. She leaned toward him, placing it next to his hand. "Prove it."
She gave the two words a moment to sink in, letting her muscles tense. She wasn't sure how he'd respond, but on the off chance that he was being honest with himself she should be ready to get out of the way. Not that there was much space for her to move with them both behind the bar. "That's your dare. Prove it or admit you care far more than you should."
*Cucciolino(coo-chee-oh-lee-no) - Little puppy (it’s worth noting this could be used as a romantic nickname)
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