Fantasy Assassins: Battles of the Creeds

[Alstromeria]

Maciv nodded. "Let's get moving." Once out of the room, Maciv began talking about how things worked. "Allright. So. One of our most important beliefs is that nobody is oblogied to help anybody. But when someone asks for help, you help them. That's what that was about back there." he jerked his head in the direction of the room where they had come from. "Anyways, nobody has the right to boss anyone else in the guild around. Not even me." they passed a room with a couple of people in it playing cards. "Like these guys. They don't have to do anything if they don't want to. We all support the team, and a guild is nothing without brothership." He stuck a hand in his pocket. "Most of us were runaways from the DG. The younger ones were either brought in by Vice and Amous or came on their own. Again, looking for something the DG doesn't have, friends and brotherhood. We don't tell anyone how to do their job, but we do give them suggestions on how they can make it better." Maciv motioned for outcast to follow him up the stairs. There was a couple people in each room here, chatting, reading, playing a board game. "All aspects and areas of the guild are open to all members. This is the room I sleep in here." He opened the door to see two of the men in Vice's group arm wrestling on a table. "These guys are using it at the time, and that's okay. Nobody owns anything here, and there's no fighting. On the rare occasion that there is a fight, the other members of the guild stop it." He went to go back down the stairs. "Is this all making sense?"

 

[Little Masky]

Outcast nodded. "yeah. I got it. It's different here now then it was when I was younger. It's been awhile since I've been in a guild. this is nice. I'm glad to hear that I won't be forced into anything. I hate that."

 

[Alstromeria]

Maciv rubbed the back of his neck. "Yea. It was alot different. I... i did some things i'm not too proud of, I was still a teenager then. Paranoid. Harsh. Drunk on power. Clinging to the DG's ways, even. Stitches is one of the ones from then, that's why he's so skeptical. Anyways. I realized that people just wanted a break. A safe haven. But they also needed to live, and to do that, they needed to kill." Maciv motioned around. "There used to be alot more of us. But that changed. Not everyone wanted a brotherhood. Look around. We're all like one big family. And families can only grow." His voice got progressively quieter as he spoke. "Anyways," He said louder, "The little confrontation you saw with Stitches and I is another one of our beliefs. More Hakuna Matata like, but more harsh. 'Let the past be in the past, and all choices be to those who have to live with them.' That statement means to not make important descisions for other people, it takes away their freedom. And not to ask other people about their pasts, because it is irrelevant to now. If they seek you out to tell you about their past, that's fine, but otherwise, lay off. I judge people by what they are now, not what they've done. Everyone here is part of the guild. Nothing more needs to be known."


At this moment one of the younger assassins (about 15) jumped on Maciv's back and playfully wrapped an arm around his neck. "Glad you made it back old man! Did you see the work I did? Didyouseedidyouseedidyousee?" Maciv chuckled, swinging the youngster around and placing him back to the ground gently. "Yes I did Harness, yes I did. Good job." Harness giggled and bowed florescently. "Thanks!" And dissapeared down the hallway. Maciv smiled and shook his head.

 

[Little Masky]

Outcast watched and smiled. "You always look so serious. It's nice to see you laugh. It suits you." She was completely at ease now. She was surprised to find that she liked it here. Maybe she'd stick around this time. After all, she wouldn't be forced into anything and at least Maciv was nice as long as she didn't go against his beliefs anyway. She still wouldn't think of him as a friend though. There were two reasons for that. reasons she'd never tell anyone.

 

[Alstromeria]

Maciv smiled. "I would too, I would too." He kept his cheerful demeanor, but his voice was quiet. He stared a bit, then returned to normal. "That was Harness. Can you see why he calls himself that?" Maciv began walking back downstairs. "You need to meet the other doctors. You've met Stitches, but there's also Patch, Druggie, and Barnes. Those are the people you'll need to go to if you get hurt on a mission. Oh, and on names." Maciv headed downstairs. "You tell us your name after you make your first kill with us. That's when all of us think that you realize exactly who you are. As a result, you know your name."

 

[Little Masky]

"Ok." Outcast sighed lightly. She thought about her past briefly before shaking her head to get rid of those thoughts. Her heart ached slightly but she ignored the pain. She needed to process all this information and come to terms with her past. She just didn't know how to say that. She gave it a shot. "Can I rest for a bit after this? I need a bit of time alone.." That was the best that would come out of her mouth so she went with it. And better yet it was the truth. All the changes so fast was beginning to make her head hurt and she was really still pissed about the loss of her weapons. Not that she was completely defenseless without them but they were nice to have.

 

[Alstromeria]

Maciv raised his hands to chest height, palms up. "Hey, you can do whatever you want. Just walk away now if you feel like it, find a quiet place to sit. The waiting room is probably your best bet, nobody has any apointments today, or so Amous tells me." Maciv turned on his heel, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Just tell someone you don't want to talk to them if they come up to you, they'll respect your descision. If you need anything, come get me." Maciv walked back up the stairs, his shoes making moderate noise. He wore loafers, he liked loafers. They were usually quiet, but if you wanted to stomp around, they made delightful clomping noises that got your point across.

 

[Little Masky]

Outcast stood there for second before finding a quiet place to think. She found an empty room and sat in a corner by herself. She thought about her past first. She remembered the last day she saw her parents. It was a gloomy day but they were happy. They were going to see a movie that day, but before they could leave her mother asked her to do a chore outside. As she was going back inside. Outcast was grabbed and knocked out. She was 11 then. When she thinks back to that day it's all fuzzy, she can't even remember her name.

 

[Alstromeria]

Maciv went off to talk to the other founding fathers of the guild. What they'd did last night was plastered all over every news channel. A consperecy theory was out about the russians starting guerilla warfare, but they couldn't be farther from the truth. 'Well, actually they could,' Vice corrected him, "If the DG decides they don't like our display of power, there might as well be a war going on.


 
Harness was walking around, and poked his head in a room. The new girl was there. He popped his head back, then into the room again. She was sitting down, so he couldn't greet her like he usually did (Jumping on her back) and this made him a little sad. So he popped his head out of the room, then back in again.

 

[Little Masky]

Outcast was dragged out of her thoughts by a movement near the door. She looked over. There was nothing there at first then a head popped into the room. It was Harness. Outcast got up and went over to the door.

 

[Alstromeria]

Harness backed up a bit, still in a crouch. He looked up at the girl. Definitely older than him, but that didn't mean she didn't need a friend. "Hiye." He said in his deepest voice, which was still pretty high. Harness liked making friends in the guild, and everyone here was like his big brother or sister.


Jethro had finished cleaning his gun. He was now clicking the pieces together, loudly and forcefully, just how he liked to. The sound of metal on metal entertained him. "So Maciv, where'd you find the new one?" Maciv folded his arms and rocked back in his chair. "Well, she found me really. She was the one smoking our taregets. Turns out she was the one watching me on my last solo job." "Well if she's more stealthy, why did you take care of her and not me?" Amous asked, shuffling some papers. Maciv clomped back to the ground with his chair. "Because she asked me for help. The third time I found her she was bloodied up quite a bit. She'd been kidnapped, stuck back in her house, and someone left a message. And a bomb." Vice tapped the table. "Third time. You said third. What was the second?" Maciv shrugged. "I told her to step off." Vice nodded in approval. "I still say you've gone soft." Jethro laughed, a lopsided grin spread across his face. "Yea, he has. But remember he can still kick your ass Vice." Vice snorted, but Jethro was right. Maciv could lick anyone here, quite easily too.


Maciv leaned back in his chair. "She says that there was a message and an emblem, 'Join or die,' and a kind of bird. Looks like the DG has another group of deserters and they're trying to grow a bit." Vice snorted again. "Trying to recruit by wounding rouges and telling them to join up?" Jethro laughed again. "Yee, imma just bonk ya over tha head, spread your blood around a bit, hey, wanna team up?" His laughter slowly died, and Maciv continued. "Anyways. I don't think it makes sense either, but we might get quite a few rouges looking for a place in the guild. I've decided to put the outcast in charge of them." Amous leaned forwards. "You can't be serious." Maciv's look said that he was indeed serious. "When am I not?" He said quietly. Nobody had an answer. Maciv leaned back on his chair again. "My reasoning is that she can relate to others. As for respect? The newcomers will be spread out, so not too many will be in one place. Prevent uprising. Vice? I'm going to give you a suggestion I thought I'd never give again, but if we get too many of them and even one steps out of line, bash him." Vice raised his eyebrows. "Yes," Maciv nodded, "We will have no other guild rise from this one. I will put none of our people at risk." Vice raised his eyebrows even further. "Yes," Maciv repeated, "I'm asking you to kill any insurretionists. Brutally. In front of everyone." Vice's eyebrows went back down and everyone was silent. One thing was clear, this new group wanted blood. Well, they'd get it.

 

[Little Masky]

Outcast smiled. "Hello." She was beginning to get used to being around others and Harness seemed friendly.She relaxed and leaned on the wall. "Need anything?" she asks.

 

[Alstromeria]

Harness shook his head, sitting down and crossing his legs. "Nope. Just looking for some company." He rolled on his back with his legs still crossed to the center of the room. "I am harness. I saw you earlier." He said, a smile on his face.


Maciv stood up quickly. "I want everyone armed at all times. Not that we arent usually, but I want everyone in groups of three. At all times. In the base, it's fine if someone's alone, but I will not have any of our people, NONE of our men, killed on the sly outside. No more solo missions. Not even for us." Amous nodded, realizing that dark times were indeed incoming. "Hey maciv?" he asked. Maciv looked at him. "Don't go back to the way you were. You were no fun when you were paranoid." Maciv said nothing, just held Amous's gaze with his piercing blue eyes, and turned to go down the hall. Once he was gone, Jethro shuddered. "Damn, I would hate being him." Vice scratched the inside of his neck. "I'm sure he does too."

 

[Little Masky]

"I remember you too." Outcast said. "You're a very friendly person. I noticed Maciv is happy around you. You seem to cheer him up. I don't know how he can frown so much and be so.. serious all the time."

 

[Alstromeria]

Harness stopped rolling around on the floor to pay attention to what outcast was saying. "Well, he is a pretty serious guy. And he does focus alot on work. I've never seen him not doing one thing or another for the guild." Harness stood up, he was around 5'5", a pretty short person. "But I like him. He always has time for anyone that asks him anything. And he always does exactly what he says. Like one time, a dude made him mad, like, really mad, cuz he had a gun and he was waving it around, and he pointed it at me, and Maciv just stepped in front of me and said, 'if you point that gun at anther one of my people, I will shove it down your throught along with four packets of salt,' but really softlike, I could barely hear him, and the man shot him, and he just took the bullet, I mean, it didn't even hurt him, he shot him right here," Harness gave his childlike rambling a break for a moment to point at his chest. "And then he grabbed the gun and bashed the guys face against a table, and then he shoved the frigging gun in the guys mouth, pulled the trigger, and dumped four packets of salt on him, just like he said." Harness began rubbing his hands up and down his arms. "I'm talking too much arent I? Amous says I do that sometimes. I'm sorry."

 

[Little Masky]

"Don't worry, it's perfectly fine. I don't want to talk much so if you do most if the talking I'm alright with that. I listen better than I speak." Outcast says with a smile. She couldn't stop imagining Maciv killing someone like that. She knew why he did it and she thought it was cool and brave. He was very protective over his friends and allies. She liked that about him. She didn't like that he was so serious all the time though. She decided to try to get him to smile more. She didn't know how but she could try.

 

[Alstromeria]

Harness nodded. "Yea, I didn't peg you for the talkitive type. Then again, nobody here is really unless you get to know them. Aside from Craig of course, he was a bounty hunter, he's the one with the big scar over his neck that ges up to here." Harness traced a finger from his neck up to his cheek. "I don't understand why Maciv took care of you instead of handing you off to Amous, Amous handles all the quiet types. As in killing of course. I'm with Amous myself, the don't call me harness for no reason, haha." Harness usually killed his taregets the same way he played around with the others, jumping on their backs. He did have a knife, but it was strapped to his leg. And he prefered using shivs anyways.

 

[Little Masky]

I don't either. Although, I think Maciv is alright. I mean, he's the who helped me and currently is the only one here that trusts me at least a bit. I'd stick around him more but I don't want to seem clingy and get annoying. Plus, sometimes he freaks me out. But yes, I now see why you're called Harness." Outcast said. Harness was cool. She hoped that Harness was her friend. She'd never really had friends in the past and didn't really know much about having one. She didn't say that of course. She preferred to figure things out on her own.

 

[Alstromeria]

Harness rolled around on the floor again. hey, just hang around him whenever you want. I think he feels flattered." Harness sat up and wiggled his fingers. "He is pretty shady, but he is one badass motherfucker." He stood, unfolding his legs. "I should get going now, I've bothered you long enough." He turned to go out the door.


Maciv sat by the window in his room, looking at his mask. Each person wore one, not always literally. His had blue swirls, he remembered when he made it. Along with Jethro, Vice, Amous, they did alot together. They joined the death guard together, ate together, lived together, killed together. Defected together. Formed the guild together. Almost destroyed the guild together. But in the end, they managed to find a happy balance and keep this place running. But he knew their story was not at an end. They had said they'd all go down together, but Maciv had a feeling that wouldn't happen.

 

[Little Masky]

"Ok. See you another time then." Outcast says and sits down in the corner of the room again.