It was hard for Ira to decide why he'd come back here. Truth be told even deep down the reason eluded him. Perhaps it was for nostalgia's sake. Maybe it was another reason. It didn't matter either way anymore, the people that this town reminded him of were gone. Sure, the town still had the same feeling i had before, but it felt hollow to him.
The people here continued living their lives, blissfully unaware of the goings on around them. Chatting and laughing, living life. Ira hated them. He wanted to kill them, to make them feel pain. They didn't deserve the peace that had been given to them with the blood of good people. Regardless of his own feelings, his mindless wandering had brought him to Magnolia, though he was nowhere near the Fairy Tail guild yet. A fact he intended to keep true.
Growling under his breath, Ira turned abruptly off of the path and into a bar on the side of the road, glaring at anybody that so much as glanced at him. The place had a rancid stench about it, grey walls darkened in places from damp. It was, to put things lightly, a horrible place. Somewhere Ira looked out of place with his clean sit and bandaged visage.
He slammed a hand down on the bar, a cold look in his eyes.
"Get me the strongest stuff you have. I want to forget this place later..."
"Another job well done!" Neala grinned as she pocketed the necklace she had been sent to nick of some airheaded socialite. She got lucky, the air head just left it on her dresser, and here she was expecting to have to sneak past security. Man did she love her wood make magic, made the snatching of the necklace so easy she was actually disappointed that she didn't get to hit anything, What? She was a Northerner after all. She may be employing stealth but she had a different idea of having fun.
Neala stopped her stroll looking at the bar she was about to pass and weighed the options, well it wasn't like anyone knew she just robbed some airhead of her jewels. Might as well have a drink, well it's not like she was seen, hanging out in a bar wouldn't hurt. Besides it was a bar in Magnolia, if her little bro was to be believe there should be a good bar fight at some point in here eventually. She paused thinking about it for a second and moved the necklace from her simple pocket to an inner pocket on the inside of her shirt. That's better.
She gave the door a light kick and walked into the room in the time for the door to smack against the wall and close again she gave a sheepish look as she continued inside. Whoops, didn't mean to hit it that hard. She ignored the glares she was probably getting for that and sauntered over to the bar taking a seat.
"Aight, I will take a glass of well you know what surprise me, not here for anything in particular anyways. Oh, and a glass of water, so I can wash the taste out of my mouth later." She said ginning. She gave the place a wuick look not seeing anyone particularly interesting, but wait was that a mummy?
A slamming noise drew Ira's attention (and ire) to the front entrance, where he was greeted by the site of a tall, amazonian woman standing there grinning like an idiot. It was a strange sight for sure, but it drew some uncomfortable feelings to the surface for Ira. An odd sense of deja vu bubbled forth, unbidden and unwanted. They were so similar it almost hurt. He turned his attention to the drink in front of his, the bartender having delivered whilst he had been observing (Staring at) the newcomer.
He frowned, staring at his reflection in the glass before sighing. Life was just so unfair sometimes. "Gosh, she reminds me so much of Atrum if he were a beautiful woman. How strange..." He muttered to himself, unaware that he hadn't been thinking in his head. He sighed again before downing the entire glass in one go and crushing the glass in his hand. Was that really the strongest stuff they had? His body would purge that faster than it could make him drunk.
It was pretty pathetic if you asked him, as was the fact that the other patrons of the bar were staring at the woman with a mixture of fear and lust. Pathetic. Foolish men that flaunted their "masculinity" without a care. Manhandling barmaids and waitresses whenever they got the chance. They had no idea they were sat within the range of an alpha predator like himself.
"I wonder how long it would take to kill them.." He thought idly.
Neala took a drink of the alcohol served to her and raised a single eyebrow at it. What was she drinking? Tasted like burning piss, or at least that was what she assumed burning piss would taste like. Back to the water then, guess being part plant made simple clean water god damned delicious . Neala snatched the water up and chugged it, pausing only when she barely caught a statement from the mummy. So let's get this straight, she looked like Atrum if he were a beautiful woman? No, no, no, Atrum looked like her if she was a handsome man, all the people in her family looked good, Ater was particularly fabulous with that hair of his. She took another drink and watched at the mummy crushed his glass in his hand. That looked pointless. She gave a sigh as she as she caught him saying something else. Well maybe this would be worth a laugh.
"Too long to get much done without someone strong stepping in, or coming after you, especially here in magnolia." Neala replied holding back a laugh as she plopped the empty glass down. "So Mr. Mummy man, you having a particularly bad day? Want to talk about it?" She jokingly asked, turning towards the bandaged man allowing the plants she woven into her clothing to glow lightly, she could 'see' better now. "Though I am more interested in your relation to my little brother," she said doing her best to imitate Atrum's polite intimidation voice. "I am Neala Furea, eldest sibling of the surviving Furea clan, of the Furan war tribe. Nice to meet you and all that over polite jazz Fiorians seem to insist on, oh well not like it is really important." She shrugged a confident smirk playing across her face, she really didn't worry much about anything, and why should she? Neala was easily the strongest of the three siblings, and from her point of view not many people she had met could stand on the same playing field as a War tribe member.
Maybe it was arrogance, but was it really arrogance if you were right? Wait didn't arrogant people usually think they were right? Maybe she should be a bit more cautious after all. Eh when she got her ass kicked maybe she'd consider it.
Ira raised an eyebrow at the woman as her body seemed to give off a slight glow. No. It wasn't the woman that was glowing, it was her clothes. Odd, but effective nonetheless. So, this was Atrum's sister? He could definitely see the resemblance between her and the man he remembered. It certainly explained a lot about her such as her height and build; she was from the same tribe her brother was from unsurprisingly.
"Well met, Neala Furea. For your information I'm not having a bad day at all. I just hate this town and most of the people here. Lord only knows how I got here..." He chuckled gruffly, subtly shifting his eyes, giving them more rods in their retina, the pupils becoming slitted and cat-like. In the absence of being able to glow, night vision would have to suffice.
"How do I know your brother? We fought together. Part of a team. The best way to get to know him was fighting with or against him. I assume it's the same for most people from the war tribe? You seem different to Atrum though. More at peace." He paused to chuckle slightly, shaking his head with mirth before settling his gaze back onto Neala. "That's a good imitation there, but I've probably heard Atrum use that tone more than you have by now. You'd be surprised how quickly people caved in to demands with somebody that big standing over them. No offense." He frowned. Why was she here? Was she looking for Atrum? Didn't she know he was gone? Well, it seemed like dancing around the question wouldn't benefit anybody. Better get out with it.
"Why're you here? Not for Atrum I hope. You do know that he's gone, right?"
Neala smirked at Ira's response, being in a town full of people you hated seemed like the makings of bad day to her, and why he was here in the first place the gods only knew. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she continued to listen to Ira talk. So the mummy man could change his eyes? What kind of people did Atrum meet in his time here? This guy seemed like the type who would clash with him rather than get along with him.
"People are people, hating others is just going to put undue stress on yourself." Neala casually remarked She was about to continue when she let the glow die down the growth enhancing magic having served it's purpose. She took another glass of water from someone passing by, exactly who they were she didn't really pay attention, she just knew that they had drink she wanted more than they did.
"Fought along side him huh? You must have been strong then." Neala started a cat like grin spreading across her face. "Well yes, you are right about that. 'Fighting is a form of expression, like how you can learn from a person's music taste or hobbies, you can learn even more from the way they fight.' Father often told us this when we were growing up." She gave a soft laugh, swirling the water in her glass and finishing it off before tossing it over her shoulder. Delicious. "Oh? 'More at peace' you say? Well I guess I am far more content with myself than Atrum tends to be, worries about everyone, Nyehehe easily the nicest of our tribe by far." She said waving her hand in the air. "Well Yeah I know he is gone, I ju-" neala was cut off by someone coming up behind her and clearing his throat loudly. Instead of turning to face the person in question she instead tilted her head backward to get a look at them. "Can I help you?" She asked with a note of annoyance in her voice.
"You shouldn't go around throwing glasses at people miss." Some gruff drunkard wit obvious anger issues said to her, eliciting a blanks stare for a solid second before she gave him an amused smile.
"You know what? I am bored of talking." She said simply leaning back forwards kicking her stool back pivoting on her heel kicking the stool up against the man's chin snatching it out of the air before it could fall and swinging it around to knock a few teeth out sending him to the ground in an unconscious heap. "Alright!" She declared spinning around again holding the stool in one hand. "Anyone else want to try their hand?"
Why did people always insist on making ruckuses around him? What did Fiore just curse him to be unable to live a semi-normal life when he crossed the border? Or was this just normal fiorian diplomacy? Drago sighed, there had to be a bar fight no matter WHAT bar he went too huh? At first the woman with the green hair and a man who had more bandages than really necessary where getting along fine. Then some dumbass had to press his luck and demand an apology, if that's what he was even trying to do, honestly for a place that actually had REAL manners fiore had a lot of shitheads with no manners.
Naturally when she demanded if anyone else wanted to try their hand at the fighting, he looked away from the current fight and at his own table. If he made contact with the crazy chick with green hair she was likely in the mental state to think he was attempting to challenge her new found dominance of the situation, which would quickly turn to aggression. The last thing he really needed was to be in a fight after the day he had been through. Not only would that be tough on everyone in the room, he didn't wanna wake up sore in the morning, he hated mornings already he didn't want to hate tomorrow's more.
Mooch was practically right behind Neala, or at least he thought he was, by the time he had entered the bar she went into she had already just beaten a man down. Whether this man was being physically punished due to stupidity of the ego, or the stupidity of lust, Mooch couldn't say, nor really didn't care. However mathematically she had just proven that people shouldn't be stupid. Which was bound to be everyone inside of a bar, because consumption of alcohol made people stupid eventually. Which was good because Neala did not consume alcohol, at least Mooch didn't think she did. If She did he didn't know, and that disproved his entire theory of Alcohol being the drink for losers, because Neala had only lost ONCE as far as Mooch could tell, and he didn't like to think about that.
As he looked back at where Neala was sitting he saw something that made him take a double take. Ira Chui? Ira Chui of the Magic Council was supposed to be dead, no wonder he was wearing so many bandages. That was interesting, if he wasn't dead, and he wasn't a templar, or a legal guild member what that meant was equally terrifying. There was another Dark guild besides his out there, the red somethings. Blades? Banner? It didn't matter, Chui being a part of it did though. The magic recorded by the Magic Council had him down as a shapeshifter, capable of doing things like making his limbs something else. He could only FATHOM how, he assumed DNA via magical manipulation, but if that was possible, then.
There were other records as well, as how he had a relationship with his sister at one point or another. This needed to be addressed rather rapidly, so he decided to interrupt their already interrupted conversation by walking right past Neala and asking the man directly.
"Mister Ira Chui, former member of the Magic Council, I have one question for you." Mooch asked seriously, his monotone revealing how close he was to just straight up threatening the man he was addressing, even if he was smaller than the man by quite a bit. The fact his voice slipped into its natural Vallish accent revealed how serious he was about this line of questioning. While he was a professional at hiding things from other people, his emotions towards his family and those he loved tend to be uncontrollable at best causing things to slip. "What is your personal relationship to a young lady who lives near and works with Lamia Scale, by the name of Tesslamyllae Ni'Qu'Leann?" He said her name without a single mistake, which was impressive for alot of people who only knew her by Tessy.
Well, wasn't today just a blast from the past? First the sister of Atrum that could pass off as a clone gone wrong if she wanted. They acted so damn similar. He saw a lot of Atrum in her response -or was it that a lot of Neala was in Atrum?- to having an apology demanded from her. And damn it all if it didn't nearly make him smile. He could almost say it was just like the good old days, only this time it was nice to look at Atrum. He chuckled, shaking his head and tightening the bandage around his eye, before a voice caught his attention.
This was where things became... odd. It was no secret amongst his peers that Ira loathed having his past dragged into the present by anybody but himself. One of the fastest ways to die was to bring it up. But hearing HER name spoken, it damn near broke him. Instantly he stood up, slamming his fist against the bar and breaking it in the process, turning to level a cold glare at the one who'd spoken.
He found himself unimpressed at the mouse of a boy in front of him. How dare this child talk of things he didn't understand? "Annoying brat! How do you know my name?" He growled out, fully aware that most eyes had turned to either him or Neala. They WERE causing a scene. He grit his teeth and breathed out slowly between them, clenching and unclenching his fists. In a flash he'd closed the distance between them and his mouth was right next to the boy's ear.
"You don't need to know about anything you've just asked. You have no connection to either of us. You'll leave it at that if you know what's god for you kid." He whispered gruffly before backing off and going to Neala's side, spreading his arms wide and addressing her.
"You should leave them alone. The weak tend to fear the presence of the strong. You won't find a good fighter in here barring myself." He said...
Just before the building erupted into a chaos of fists.
Neala's grin went from a confident smile to an almost devilish and amused leer as the events unfolded, she didn't know that her boss ad followed her in here. Well to be perfectly honest she didn't even know he followed her at all, she just went and did the job he asked her to as quick as possible and then decided to get a drink immediately afterwards. Well he wasn't the guildmaster for nothing but still, weird that he just followed her here. Her Guildmaster just asked him if he knew about Tessy. Hoo boy here we go, she didn't see The Bossman get worked up like this very often, these next few moments are gonna be hilarious.
She noticed something else as well, a man who was actively looking away, it was pretty easy to understand his logic. You don't look a predator in the eyes unless you plan to challenge it, but looking away was a sign of submission, of weakness, it made the predators wanna chase instead of fight. Neala however wasn't particularly interested in chasing down the man just minding his own business however. The other guy bothered her so she gave him something that to run through his head while he slept. She'd give him a break, she had more interesting things going on anyways. She turned her attention back to the Boss and Ira Chui the mummy man apparently. She had only just barely caught his name. Maybe she should ask Atrum about him some time later and- did he just threaten her boss?
Neala felt her jaw tighten ever so slightly as she watched him threaten her boss. She kept the smile on her face, she had a lot of self control, and her boss could take care of himself. More importantly she wasn't actually his body guard. Ha! He didn't pay her enough for that. Well technically she didn't get paid like that at all. She was paid on a job to job basis.
"I think if you look closer you will find that there are several strong fighters here." She said just before people started beating each other up. Wait....what? She took her eyes of the general crowd for like a single second any now everyone was trying to figure out how many blows to the head they could take. Neala sighed and cracked her knuckles. "Well I guess I get to prove my point, I think I am going to enjoy myself with everyone else. Have fun bossman." Neala said picking up the stool and walking towards the rampaging crowd whistling a merry tune as she started weeding out the stronger fighters from the weak.
(Terribly sorry about that, my life has been a ragged mess the last couple of weeks, with several public outings and other responsibilities ontop of looking for a job, appointments, going to the doctors, and other life related shenanigans. And now with all that out of the way, TIME FOR A POST)
One man decided he had enough of whatever it was he was selling, was the only reasoning Drago could comprehend as a man walked up to his table, cast it over itself and screamed "I'm sick of your face" Drago personally had nothing against this crazy assholes face, but he figured to each his own right? The stink of whiskey drifted from the man, so Drago couldn't hold the two insults against him, it was when the man tried to strike him with a chair that Drago decided he was done with the Assaulting People With Chairs game. He grabbed the leg of the chair and stopped its forward momentum, then broke it off with a quick snap. Dropping down into a crouch he swung the leg around the dudes leg, grabbed with the other hand, and pulled him off balance. The man landed with a thump with his ass hitting the wooden floor of the Tavern, the chair being let go with the mans surprise, crashing on top the mans head and rendering him, somewhat more inert than the booze did.
Now that he was standing, he dusted his coat free from sawdust, and decided he was going to leave and go home. He was done with bar fights and trouble, he stopped when he turned to make for the door and saw a small domestic dispute between a scrawny guy, and the dude with the hair problems. Thats when he realized he probably wasn't going to be leaving very easily.
The man heard her name and immediately got aggressive defensively. The instant reaction let him know several things, one Ira did indeed have feelings for Tessy at some point, however apparently never made due on them. Reasonable understanding as he became defensive meant he didn't want to talk about this, and aggression meant Mooch had hit a button. While his reaction seemed natural, and logical Mooch still didn't understand why people immediately got angry and defensive instead of just answering stupid easy questions. If people just answered questions, the only thing shit would cost was words, instead of blood. Words were so much cheaper than blood, and Mooch would know, he ran the black market thing for Vampires. He also learned that Ira Chui was an arrogant, selfish, ignorant child. All his respect for a man who had supposedly worked with the Ghost of Fiore was now gone.
However still some of his words echoed in his memory.
You have no connection to either of us
Those words rang through his mind. Strong, concise, words. Accurate words, or at least, half accurate. He had much to do with Tessy, and the fact Ira thought, no Assumed, he had nothing to do with the assumption of at least one party in this conversation amused the Guild Master. He remembered back in Valland, when they were young, his older sister always picked on him, "do this better, do that better, no that's not how you do that. " or the infamous "God Damnit Mooch" Originally it drove him mad, always trying to correct him from his genius, when he was the mage of the family. Well one of them anyway, his older brother was a crash mage, but that wasn't important.
He remembered their youth, and how she grew up ignored, how mother always treated her like a discarded doll. How the boys at the parties would always eye her like a prize they could just win. Boy were they disappointed when they realized she had more than enough personality for the entire party. He remembered when the assassins tried to kill the three of them and their mother, the explosion from his device, the car when it crumpled around the two of them. The state she was in, the axle, the angle of it, the sheer amount of blood. They said it was a miracle she survived in the hospital, but Mooch had doubts she would make it out of surgery. Later on he would be forced to remember her run away from the hospital, and how they immediately tried to blame the entire event on him, as well as the bill.
Mooch grinned up to the man who assumed he had nothing to do with Tessy. "Oh really mister? Why shouldn't I?" Mooch said innocently, his tone implying he didn't understand that the man just threatened him. While he may be correct that Mooch hadn't seen her in a long time, that still didn't mean he didn't have anything to do with his own flesh and blood relations.
It wasn't hard for the man to ignore the bar fight breaking out around him. In fact he could tell of it all, the table five feet to his right being thrown aside, the man who had the distinct smell of fine aged honey whiskey immediately getting clobbered next to them. Neala behind him saying something then immediately relaxing as she decided she didn't need to defend her guild master. Which was good, he wasn't sure he could pay her enough for the amount of damage she would have to do to this guy to keep him down, and teach him to show some respect to other people, god only knew how this person treated his betters. Probably like he just treated Mooch, like a child who didn't know any better. That was okay, asses like this weren't remembered when they weren't found the next day, The cops wouldn't even have an identity to pin on him when he was found thrown in a ditch somewhere with no clothes or wallet, and not many loved ones were questioned when the Templars started asking questions, and probably the most disappointing of all, only a few people would go to his funeral.
"Hmmmmmm" Mooch said thinking, sizing the man up. He seemed to like red for someone who had brown eyes, and brown hair. But Mooch couldn't disagree with how it made his complexion stand out.
