[Day 190 | Open] Smells like a Roze.

[fullofthorns]

Who: Roze and the WORLD.
Open: Open
When: Day 190
Where: Around the Bastion.
What: She survived the Skyway and "snuck into" the Bastion. Now she's doing some recon!
Format: Prose or action, I'll match whatever you prefer.
Warnings: Language. Probably flirting. She may put hands on butts.





She vaguely recalled telling Ed that mixing magic from entirely different eras, species and schools wasn't a very good idea. She also remembered giving in and teaching him some of her great grandmother's favorite combat spells. After that, waking up on a shattered landscape full of ruins, ash statues and weird monsters wasn't all that unexpected. A little jarring maybe but she liked to consider herself fairly well-adjusted. She'd come up against quite a few crisis situations, no-win scenarios and even had to find her way out of Hell once upon accidentally falling through a gate meant for recently deceased on a fast track. Fortunately Enma was a reasonable and unusually nice guy.

Still, she wasn't getting anything out of the creatures in the Skyway - talking to sentient creatures with familiar languages was one thing - and she couldn't make heads or tails of the land so heading for the bright light in the distance seemed entirely logical. Once she made it inside and found a thriving little community, she started getting suspicious.

What was going on? Who was in charge? Where was she? Were they friendly?

While Roze might have normally chosen to blend in with humans in a human form, all her sneaking around proved that there was more than just mortal men. She could smell at least one kitsune, sense a shikigami or two and if she wasn't tricking herself, that was most definitely a huge ass friggin' dragon out there. Plus little dragons all over the place, some little girl, and weird, cute critters that reminded her of something out of a kid's video game.

What the ever-living fuck, man?

Prowling around in her natural form was risky, but at least she could blend in better with shadows and underbrush, as well as glide silently from building to building. Naturally, stealth was never her forte. Massive claws still clicked across roof tiles and sometimes her tail didn't slither along behind her quite fast enough. sooner or later someone had to know they were being watched. Someone had to see something out of the corner of their eye: a flash of burgundy scales, a flutter of pink feathers or fur, the glow of green eyes from the shadows.

She was trying to be sneaky, but really, she might as well have been humming the Mission Impossible theme and rolling on the ground between alleys.

If anyone didn't notice her, she eventually snuck up on her unsuspecting prey, slithered her serpentine tail around their neck and mouths and yanked them into the shadows, silent as could be to hiss in their ears her minute demands even as they were enveloped by the scent of whatever smell they had always enjoyed the most: mother's perfume, a warm fire, cotton candy, fresh lavender, bacon...

"Don't scream. Don't move. You tell me who the hell you are, where the hell this is and what the hell is going on...and I might not...uh...eat you. Or...your first born or something. Whichever you think is worse."

Comments

[dontyoujustwish]

It wasn't that Anya didn't notice that something was skulking about nearby, it was just that living in the Bastion could dull a person's sense of alarm. They were all used to normally terrifying occurrences like feeling the shadow of a dragon pass by overhead or overhearing bazookas being fired nearby (well, some of them more so than others). She may have had some concerns over the security of her belongings, but Anya certainly felt that, at least within the confines of the Bastion itself, she was safe.

So the skulking thing actually grabbing her was entirely unexpected. Especially when it was, for some reason, accompanied by the scent of freshly-printed dollar bills.

"Mmn-mmm-mhmnn," she mumbled, obviously trying to talk against that tail. She was definitely more surprised than frightened, because such an indecisive threat was hardly, well, threatening.

[fullofthorns]

"Huh? What the hell does that even--oh. Tch. Tits..." Roze muttered, loosening her tail. Of course answers wouldn't be forthcoming when she was muffling someone. Mercy but she wasn't made for anything covert; give her a sword and head-on collision any day.

"I mean it though, no goddamn caterwaulin', no shriekin' and flailin'. Just gimme some fuckin' answers, girly. I want fuckin' straight up, direct shit. what the hell is with all the floaty crap? why are humans walkin' around with dragons? Which way to Tokyo? Am I in Hell? I don't recognize any of this but its possible, I mean...its a big place. OH YEAH. And who the hell are you?"

After all, she needed to know what to write on any makeshift tombstone, right?

"Answer me quick and quiet-like. No funny stuff," she added, keeping the woman turned away from her. Last thing she needed someone doing was fainting after seeing her hideous-ass lizard mug. That'd put a hitch in her recon attempt.

[dontyoujustwish]

"I'm Anya, this isn't a hell dimension, and you don't have to resort to kidnapping to get answers. People are surprisingly responsive here."

Anya's tone was matter-of-fact and a little annoyed, but decidedly less than intimidated. Besides, straight up and direct were what she was best at.

"As for where 'here' is: this isn't Earth, although there are pieces of it floating around out there. Someone managed to create a weapon of mass destruction that worked across dimensions, and this is what happened. You and I were just lucky enough to survive it.

"Now, let go of me before I have to resort to cursing you. I can do that, you know." It was true enough, although she didn't have the spell components on her to make it a very good curse. She might be able to make the lizard woman sneeze a lot, or something.

[fullofthorns]

"I dunno, I might be immune to curses," she murmured, loosening her tail some more. "Stay turned around a minute," she added, the tail pulling away entirely. It only took a thought to change into her human form, so it wasn't as thought Anya had to turn away long.

"Alrighty, Anya, was it? I'm Roze," the young woman barked, stepping into better view. At six feet on her own and wearing four inch stilettos, she was a towering, curvy creature with piles of unnaturally pink hair and dazzling green eyes. A scar across her right cheek was the only thing marring generally magazine-model stats. That and a dark tribal tattoo running down her neck and arm to disappear under her clothes.

"Roze Ichishi...uh...Ichishi-Finklestein? Something like that, never really worked out the details. And I think maybe my consort...er...husband? Details...anyways I think maybe I know how blew everything up and that kinda freaks me out so could you be a peach and maybe say 'Oh no it was totally insert-name-here that did it? That'd be great. Because I'm maybe about to freak out a little."

[dontyoujustwish]

Anya rolled her eyes at the request, but did keep her back turned until Roze was finished. Looking Miss Victoria's Secret Model up and down, the only thing she really envied was that hair color. Was it dyed? Had she brought any of the dye with her? Anya had never tried pink, only gore.

"Freaking out is normal, but your husband-consort with the funny name wasn't responsible for this mess. It was someone from this world, and I think they killed themselves in the process.

"Not that Frankenstein isn't also dead, most likely, along with everyone else you've ever known."

[fullofthorns]

"F-frankenstein?" the pink-haired woman choked before belting out a loud, delighted laugh. "Oh man, no kidding...it totally does sound like Frankenstein. Wait til I see that little nerd again. I'm totally calling him that," she added with playfully malicious glee.

"But nah, I ain't worried about him. He's pretty resilient. He might be able to blow himself up but I'm pretty sure no one can completely do it themselves. He's probably floating around as space dust or meat mist or something. He'll figure it out sooner or later," she remarked with a dismissive shrug. "Word of advice - if you ever get married, hitch up with someone at least as hardy as yourself. Huge load off the mind."

Turning and dusting herself off Roze peeked around the alley corner before reaching up to adjust herself, tugging the straps of her bra with an unladylike grunt.

"So some fuckin' douchebag blew everything up and himself? Awwwwesome. And there's no way to like...bring him back to kill him better or something?"

[dontyoujustwish]

Anya was not entirely sure what was so hilarious about the name which she had apparently gotten wrong. Had she inadvertantly made one of those pop culture references? She would have asked if the topic of marriage hadn't presented itself and she grew a little stiff.

"Believe you me, if I ever even consider marriage again, he'll have a long list of traits to measure up to."

She brushed at her dress and then stepped out of the alley without any of that silly peering about. "There might be if we had his body, but I wouldn't recommend it. Magic as dark as raising the dead always has consequences."

[fullofthorns]

"I'm with you on that one," she replied, nodding once and turning to lean against the building wall. She had no intention of wandering around in the open quite yet. "Raising the dead is never really a good idea. It never turns out well and frankly, when someone is dead, they're probably meant to be that way. The powers that be really don't like when you go fiddling with their shit. I avoid fiddling. Fiddling is bad."

Plucking at the edge of her tall boots and tugging them snugly into place, Roze spared a moment to look the other woman up and down curiously. Nostrils flaring, she sniffed the air and arched a brow slowly, green eyes glittering with curiosity.

"So what are you?" she asked, not concerned in the least about sounding rude. "Human? Other? Vegetable, mineral? You're bigger than a breadbox, that's a start."

[dontyoujustwish]

"Yes. Fiddling is bad." Between their ressurrection of the Slayer inviting the First Evil and the reversal of her last wish granted getting her friend killed, Anya knew this from experience.

...on the other hand, she herself was supposed to be dead, so she wasn't sure where that put her.

"Ex-demon," she answered, not at all offended by the question because asking it meant Roze wasn't sure if she was human. Unfortunately she was, but it was the thought that counted. "I've been human for the past few years, mostly. I tried going back for a spell after my fiancé dumped me at the altar, but it didn't work out."

[fullofthorns]

"Did you kill him? I'd probably have killed him. Well, maybe not. Ed coulda backed out and I woulda laughed because he kinda got wrangled by a joke in the first place," she murmured, striking a little pose.

"No worries though! I'm kinda ex-human, in a manner of speaking. If you look at human as the little buggy stage and this as the butterfly part. Its a long story. Inherited demon shit. Human one day, demon the next. By choice. Nice to meet another one before I have to deal with anyone else though!" the pink-haired girl chirped, thumping her fist against Anya's shoulder cheerily.

"Lucky me! Though I'm not really surprised. Demons are way more hardy than humans. You'd figure a few would survive the end of the world. Er...worlds. I mean it is, right? The end of pretty much everything? Just checking, because I don't want to have to go on some stupid effin' crusades if my job is pretty well done."

[dontyoujustwish]

"No, but for a while I did imagine the many ways in which he might be disemboweled or castrated. The unfortunate part of being a vengeance demon is that you can't exact vengeance on your own behalf."

She brightened at Roze's haphazard explanation of how she became a demon, not minding the companionable shoulder-thumping. "Oh, it was like that with me, too, sort of. I was human at first and then one day D'Hoffryn offered to make me a demon. There's been a lot of back-and-forth." This was her third go at being human, actually. Or maybe her fourth, if you considered the being-dead interval.

"Yes, it is the end of the worlds. I wouldn't say pretty much all of them, because there are a lot and I haven't seen any shrimp, but yours and mine are guaranteed as over."

[fullofthorns]

"Hey, that's fine by me. I didn't do it, Ed probably didn't do it, I wasn't tasked with saving the world and if its all over then my job is done and I can just get on with my own life the way I see fit. No scales off my ass," she remarked, waving a hand dismissively.

"I mean it sucks that everyone I know is dead, but I pretty well resigned myself to that happening in my lifetime anyways. Being a demon tends to make you outlive everyone else anyways and being estranged from your family just kinda makes you wish bad things that leave a nasty taste in your mouth anyways. Better it wasn't anything to do with me!" she grinned, shooting finger guns Anya's way.

"So important questions: How's the food and how's the real estate? And by real estate I mean prime beef and by prime beef I mean men. There are still men around, right? I don't drive a taco truck."

[dontyoujustwish]

"Taco truck?" As often as Anya discussed sex, it was always frankly without much use of metaphors. She wasn't certain what tacos had to do with sex, though she hadn't had any in a taco truck, that was true.

"There are some men, but an unfortunate number of stupid teenagers and people with no apparent sex drives. It's like they've never imagined themselves in that 'if we were the last two people on Earth' scenario. I only have one sex friend, and he took some persuasion."

[fullofthorns]

"Taco truck? Like I don't do hanky-panky with the ladies. Taco? Vag? 'Cause our junk looks like a taco? Really, you've never heard that euphemism? Huh. What have you got down there, another mouth full of teeth? I've seen that," Roze rambled merrily before distracting herself.

"Persuasion is what I'm good at?" she half-joked, performing a z-snap and cocking a hip dramatically before waving herself off.

"Well, it this is an established community of people just wandering in, I guess that means the numbers will only keep getting bigger. I consider myself kinda patient, I'm sure things will look up eventually. On the upside, I suppose the smaller numbers means less competition. Not that I'm competing with you or anything. I don't really do that whole...long term...forever thing. Not usually. I only found one good consort and he makes it hella hard to find anyone else."

She snorted irritably, fluffing her hair and rolling her eyes before stopping, face splitting into a broad grin.

"....But he isn't here right now...so he can't run every eligible guy through the red tape. Bonus! I meant he end of the world thing sucks and all, but I'm sure there's something to be done. And if not, and this is it...well...its not the worst thing I ever imagined. What about you? Settling in okay? I mean I dunno what kind of demon you are, but you look pretty California-American to me, and that usually spells Christian Hell, and those guys are all about the end of the world where I'm from. You like it? Not quite as flashy as I expected..."

Chatterbox. Definitely. At least in such a weird environment and good mood.

[dontyoujustwish]

"Oh! No, I've never heard of that one. But then the lesbians that I knew weren't very good at it. I mean, they weren't man-haters at all. At least not until one of them was murdered and the other tried to destroy the world, but I think that counts as more of a general people-hating than man-hating. Plus she used to have sex with a man, regularly.

"Anyway, I don't do girls either. It could be fun to try it, you know, maybe if I were drunk or really horny, but as a rule, no."

It was unusual for Anya to meet people who went on about things as much or possibly more than she did. It was refreshing to talk to someone who seemed to say the entirety of what was on her mind, instead of keeping it all to herself for no good reason that Anya could determine.

"Actually, I wasn't born American, I just lied about that a lot. I was a vengeance demon. But I did live on a Hellmouth in California, and the world threatened to end about every other Tuesday. If the Calamity hadn't taken care of it, I'm sure something else would have. This isn't so bad, really."

[fullofthorns]

"I'll say! And you're probably right, I mean...yeah, hookin' up with a girl wouldn't be so bad, I imagine. But I mean come on. Men," she grunts, making grabby gestures with both hands.

"Dunno what it is, but they got it. Poor, stupid bastards that a lot of them are. Well...plain ol' humans anyways. I'm always a little disappointed because I could never find a decent Hell demon that wasn't a complete twat. Males anyways. Females tended to be more tolerable just because hey, we're not that different. I'm not a Hell demon, obviously," she added, gesturing vaguely.

"Demons are different in Japan. Its more of a blanket term. I mean we even call vampires and werewolves demons back home."

She paused for a moment, squinting at Anya before snorting and shaking her head.

"You know, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever actually known a lesbian? I mean I know of them and I knew people who were but I've never had a friend that was one? Or they never told me. I dunno, I'm sure I come off as pretty insensitive some times so maybe I spooked them. All...deer in the road and shit."

[dontyoujustwish]

"No, it applies to all men, demon or not. The vast majority of them are horrible, horrible people, and somehow I still want to have sex with them. It's unfair."

She frowned in some confusion. "I'm not sure what sort of demons you seem to think we had back home. I admit the Japanese classification is fairly broad, but that's partly just poor translation. There are a lot of different hell dimensions, and a lot of impure demons walking the Earth. Maybe not my Earth anymore, but other Earths. Maybe the one with no shrimp."

[fullofthorns]

"Ahhhh, gotcha, gotcha. See, back in my home, there's a lot of different demons, but most "legit" demons, like...card-carrying, horned dudes with all the fire and brimstone and goat eyes and bat wings, they're "Christian Hell" demons because the only texts on them are Christian biblical. Like...a Babylonian demon isn't the same at all. Or things like...hm. Garuda, Krampus, Nyarlehotep...all different from Hell demons where I'm from. In Japan most everyone that isn't human refers to themselves as demon, as a community. But they're everything from dragons to kappa. Plus Hell demons live in a parallel dimension and don't tend to live on actual Earth," she stated, ticking details off on fingertips.

"Like, I've been to one Hell, Jigoku, but not the Hell they talk about in the Christian bible. People in Jigoku take their jobs pretty seriously and they don't preoccupy themselves with designs on subjugating mortal Earth or anything. They were pretty helpful about getting me home, in fact. I got there on accident and got lost. But the way its been explained to me by the few Hell demons I met that were the talking sort, if I went to their Hell I'd probably never get out. Or worse."

[dontyoujustwish]

"I see now," Anya said with a roll of her eyes. "The demons that get mentioned in Christian texts can be real jerks where I come from, too. I couldn't tell you how many times the things I did were chalked up to 'the work of the Devil.' The first few times, I thought it was flattering, because Satan is supposed to be one of the big shots, but then I realized that's about all he does: take credit for the work of better demons.

"So I wouldn't take what those 'Hell demons' told you about their world too seriously. There are plenty of hell dimensions full of untold suffering, so as much as they like to brag, I doubt theirs even ranks in the top ten."

[fullofthorns]

"Huh, really? Well, I don't suppose I'll get the opportunity to clear all that up now, but I suppose its a relief to know, either way," she replied, smiling cheerily. "That's kind of disappointing about Satan though. Well, maybe. I dunno. We have several back home and I'm not sure which one it was that had sent an invitation for me to eat out with him somewhere after I helped his people out on one of my missions. Sometimes the clergy goes all loop-de-loo and totally oversteps their bounds. Gotta keep the peace, no matter who you have to help," she explained with a shrug.

"Some to think of it, I'm pretty sure it was Shaitan. I'm not really good at reading other languages. Just speaking them. It was a written letter and someone else read it for me and I'm pretty sure the pronunciation was like...Shaytan. Not for sure though. Hm. Pity. I shoulda gone on more date when I had the chance. Lame."

[dontyoujustwish]

"He has a lot of names, too." She looked thoughtful for all of a second before she shrugged. Date with Satan? No big deal.

"It may take a little work, but I'm sure you can find a better orgasm friend here."

[fullofthorns]

"A wha--oh. HA!" Roze immediately burst out into loud laughter, eyes tearing at the corners as she pressed a hand to her chest and wheezed, struggling for a solid breath. Shaking her head and waving a hand she took a moment and got herself under control, coughing softly.

"Man and people say I have no tact! Wow! Still though, you're probably right, though I wouldn't precisely put it that way. Wow. Wow. Orgasm friend. Who says that? Dude, chick, seriously. Friends with benefits. Try a little tact. Just a tiny bit. Hell, even sayin' fuck-buddies sounds less bizarro."

[dontyoujustwish]

Anya was a little put out by that reaction.

"Tact almost always comes at the expense of clarity, if not outright honesty. I would much rather everyone say exactly what they mean. Just because you're having sex with someone, doesn't mean you're getting orgasms out of it, and I wouldn't wish that on you. You need an orgasm friend."

There, she said it again. That phrase was not leaving her vocabulary, nope.

[fullofthorns]

She snickered again, covering her mouth in attempt to hide the laugh and failing to do so. Huffing a short half laugh, half sigh, Roze shrugged and nodded.

"Fair enough, fair enough. Its all in the semantics I guess. Truth be told I like the emotional aspect too. I wouldn't call myself a love 'em an' leave 'em type. I just love 'em all. Makes it hard to find anything, really. Most people just can't grasp the concept. Ah well. I'm sure you're right, there's gotta be a few someones around here that aren't all stiff-backed. Not that its the priority. Speaking of which I should probably keep havin' a look around, try to assess some more things on my mind," she remarked with a considering tone, looking around the area curiously before raising her eyes to the rooftops again.

"If I end up stickin' around, we should get a drink or something, chat some more. Talk shop, whatever. I'm always pretty eager to learn about other people, human or otherwise. If nothin' else this place could be a nice pit stop. Gotta see what's outside too, an' all."

[dontyoujustwish]

"All right." Anya was agreeable enough after the other woman's concession and the mention of a drink.

"Be careful not to get yourself killed if you go back out on the Skyway. There are things that can give even a demon a run for her money. I recommend bringing at least one person with you whom you wouldn't mind dying in your stead.

"But then if you get back and need to relax, there's not only interesting booze here, but also an onsen to wash off any blood." See, certain aspects were practically like a vacation resort.