The Freaks of the Ring

Five : Doku

I don't know how it happened, but I think I just made a friend. It's not exactly every day that we get a new recruit, much less one that doesn't seemed too freaked out by my...outer qualities. Not that I'm going to question it, of course. At least someone is actually giving me the time of day. Levi doesn't even notice me this often, and they're the one that actually has to keep me sane and alive.

This Rayne guy seems cool to me, and Levi seems pretty exhausted, so I offer to continue the tour of the Ring just to give them a break. For once, Levi actually seems slightly grateful. Not that I can tell from their mildly monotone voice, but whatever.

It takes me a moment to actually get off my unofficial personal hospital cot, and I have to continuously warn Rayne not to touch my skin directly, but everything goes pretty smoothly. At Levi isn't barking at me to hold onto them and pay attention to where I'm walking every ten seconds, so that's pretty nice.

I lead Rayne out of the infirmary and back out into the Mess Hall (mainly called that because Tierra always seems to create a giant explosion of dirt and plant matter every time she stays in there for more than an hour). Most of the others are here, but a quick wave of each of them to Rayne tells me that they've already met. Well, that certainly makes my job a little bit easier.

He has to see the training room and meet our fearless leader someday, so why not take him now? Usually it wouldn't be a good idea to disturb anyone in there, but since I just got out of a coma, there's an unspoken rule that no one can even accidentally hurt me. It's not the first time or the last time that the rule has come into effect, so everyone's just kind of gotten used to abiding by it.

It takes a moment to pry the door to the training room open, mainly since my stupid-ass gloves keep on slipping on the already-jammed handle, but I think I manage okay. It's honestly no lie that I'm probably the weakest link of the team, despite the fact that I apparently have one of the more deadly powers. Honesty, I don't see what's so great about it. The only way for it to even work completely is to go all vampire on someone and do the whole biteroo on the neck or some stereotypical shit like that. It's not fun, seriously. I really don't understand why there are so many old books about vampires in the library, but maybe I'm just biased.

It takes everyone a moment to even realize we're in there, but the smell of a fresh soul must get Rem's attention. Or at least that's what I'm going to call it until they tell me otherwise. Picking up their heavily polished scythe off the floor, Rem makes their way over with a sly grin. Their usual black dress seems shorter than usual today, for reasons that I'll never understand in the least. I'm pretty sure I can even see a peek of neon pink underwear, not that I even mean to look.

There's a skip in their step as they swing the scythe over their shoulder. "We got some fresh meat, I see," they grin. "Name's Rem. Better keep that pretty little life of yours safe, or else you'll be stuck with me for all eternity." They're looking more at me while they speak, though it's (hopefully) directed at Rayne. Already I can see his face start to drain of all color.

I sigh and hold Rem back at arm's length before they can even try to swipe that scythe through either of us and steal our souls right then and there. "Give it up, you're freaking him out. And you're not getting mine until after I suffocate on my own venom, so forget it. Besides, we're supposed to make a good impression, not make him want to rage quit one day into living here."

They just roll their eyes, but I can see something click in their mind. "Fine, so I'm guessing you'd want him to meet Mufasa and Kannie at some point. But I'll let you get to that." With a little flick of their lace-gloved hand, they go back to whatever they'd been doing beforehand, which kind of looks like they're continuously trying to reap a soul out of an ancient duffel bag. Some of the training maneuvers are absolutely pointless for us to do, honestly. How hard could it be to steal a soul?

But maybe Rem stopping her activities for a moment actually caught Kannie's attention for a moment, since I can see her trying to stop Mufasa from completely murdering the little mouse he'd been trying to catch for the past few days. She just ends up picking up the tiny creature between two burned fingers and places it in her pocket where I watch it squirm. She seems a bit exhausted, but there's actually a slight smile on her face for once. It's almost pleasant to see that her eyes are currently red and not pure white.

She looks like she's about to talk to me...but then she notices Rayne and the smile fades. I swear I can see a flicker of yellow in her eyes. Well, so much for catching her in one of her rare good moods. "Okay, who's the fishman?" She doesn't even bother trying to sugar-coat it. Even Rayne can tell that she seems slightly miffed. Obviously Levi has neglected to tell her about my new friend. This isn't going to be fun.

"Uh...I'm Rayne. The new water guy..." His voice wavers a little, fear already creeping into his voice. Percikan is a force to be reckoned with, which newbies can usually tell from first glance. She might be almost as short as Ventus and look like any normal person, but there's always a glint of frustration, anger, or just pure fury stuck in her gaze. The only exception is when she's with Mufasa, but he's her little brother, and it's almost impossible to hate that kid anyways.

"What I'm hearing is that we got a new recruit and no one bothered to inform me?" Her fiery gaze slips over to me. I do the only thing that I can and bare my venom-free fangs.

"Don't look at me, I just got yanked out of a goddamn coma all of twenty minutes ago. Blame Tony, he does all the recruiting around here. I'm just the mildly clueless tour guide."

At least that softens her stare a little. Now I don't completely feel like my face is going to be burned right off. "At least we have a guinea pig to blame now." She sighs and puts her slight smile back on. She doesn't seem so terrifying when she looks happy. "I'm Percikan, I kinda make sure all these idiots stay in line." I can tell she wants to write out a pronunciation of her name for the poor guy. It takes everyone so long to remember how to say it. Pair-chee-con. Percikan. It's not even that difficult to day, but then again, she will drill it into this guy's brain someday.

Through it all, I'm just glad neither Rayne or I died.