Familiar Faces [open]

[Reika]

Still mildly irritated at the notion that the man had tried to toy with her, she maintained a calm exterior and no expression whatsoever. When he confessed that her reaction intrigued him, she assumed it was actually her lack of reaction that intrigued him. Whatever usually happened when he put his mouth an inch from another womans, it was probably very different from what had just transpired.

"Thank you." She took it as a compliment without asking, as if daring him to state it otherwise. The fact that he worded it for the game it had seemed to be, made her want to do something uncalled for in return.

If Reika had been aware of Jun's innermost thoughts and intentions, she might have minded his little game much less. She, too, appreciated honest people. Which was why she despised petty games for the sheer fun of toying with someone. Or maybe that was a personal bias making its way into how she perceived everyone. He could thank some other fae for that.

"What is there to hide? I am what I am." And deep down, she was proud of it. Proud that in a situation where it was sink or swim, she'd struggled against the tides, touched shore, and never looked back. Little did she know that was about to change a bit, though. As Jun began to make his sudden departure (not without a few jabs at her expense), she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him, though she realized she didn't have a right to hold it against him. She wasn't easy to talk to. She knew that. She'd intended for it to end that way. Still though, he had seemed genuine... slightly. In a roundabout way. Perhaps. Maybe she needed another meeting to dissect him more.

"Take care, I'm sure you've important people to see." She eyed his finely hand-smoothed attire with an eyebrow raise and cast her eyes into the crowd. It wasn't long before she felt something that made Koji so alert with tension that he immediately swooped down off his perch and took to the air.

The sensation, while mostly unpleasant, held an air of familiarity. That in and of itself should have been more unnerving, but the Nimbus couldn't help her curiosity. Her head turned of its own accord immediately as the man sat, unable to feign the disinterest she had with Jun. At first his expression set something off in her stomach, a sudden jerk that she was about to place, but her eyes came up to his and she felt suddenly immobile and drained of sensations.

His almost rugged handsomeness was hypnotic, and though she kept trying to force her gaze away, her gaze was locked on him. Sidhe, bastard... She had a sincere distaste for those who used their full charm without holding back. It made it difficult for her to compete, because she simply wasn't on his level. It meant her attention went to him whether she wanted it to or not.

He casually began to speak, and her response was immediate and slightly robotic sounding even to her. "I have seen no basking." It was true, though Jun had shared that... interesting moment with her, it had been the only point of connection worth noting. That could have been entirely her fault, though. She wasn't easy to flirt with, even if someone did have the balls to try. The woman managed to bite her tongue about the suspicion of the man being Unseelie. He was a shimmering nightmare, and in this case the shimmering appearance felt like icing on a cake made of poison. She believed the feelings she had under the surface more than being caught in his pristine glory.

This was the kind of Unseelie that set her off. Everything about this man set her off, in two completely opposite directions. Every muscle in her upper body was visibly tensed, though her face held a strained sense of blankness.

[Namgil]

”No, I suppose not.” Namgil let out a soft chuckle, a mocking sound that practically insulted the area around him. He shifted forward and returned the glass to the table, his right hand dropping to his lap while the ring-laden fingers of his left hand still remained lightly poised atop the table cloth. His manicured nails bit into the fabric as he studied the woman before him, ”You’re not exactly the most shining example of faerie flesh.” The moment Reika had opened her mouth Namgil knew that there was no way Jun would have been interested in this type of woman aside from perhaps engaging in conversation. She was too rough around the edges.

Still, the tenseness he caused in her amused him. It was a normal response in Namgil’s presence-he had met few faerie aside from the occasional Sidhe who did not feel the threat that radiated from him. His aura was akin to a snake, poised and ready to strike, yet completely and utterly unpredictable. It was this feeling that kept people on their toes around him. Still, his amusement was short-lived as he quickly lost interest in her reaction. Though he knew nothing of what ran through her mind, Namgil would have delighted in her attraction to him and how good she was at hiding it. Namgil knew his Sidhe allure was exceptionally strong – he made no move to hide it. Something about others worshipping him with their eyes and lusting for him with their bodies was comical to him. He frequently took advantage of this, employing Garlangers to carry out his tasks and taking a few Nimbus to bed to momentarily satisfy his sexual desires.

Slowly Namgil slipped forward closer to her, much like Jun had done, though he maintained a bit more distance as he scrutinized her face. For a moment he felt like breaking the blank mask she had put into place, merely for amusement of course. Smirking slightly he tilted his head, his dead eyes flicking across her face, ”Tell me little Nimbus, how many battles have you seen?” Namgil had yet to inquire her name merely because he didn’t really care. Though he had all but lost interest in her entirely after her first remark, Namgil was still contemplating whether or not to shed her blood across the white that surrounded them.

[Reika]

That laugh... Reika's right side jerked back involuntarily and she looked down at her body as if offended at the sudden reaction. Breaking his eye contact helped her to breathe, and she looked pointedly at his jawline instead of his face. "I'm not Sidhe. Irregardless, beauty is a mask for the weak." She rose eyes laced with anger up to his face and then stopped and dropped them back down. It was hard to play his games of intimidation when she couldn't look him in the face without having thoughts that were not her own.

As the man leaned in, his aura poured all over her like something thick and sticky. It seemed like it should feel good but it felt horrible, she wanted to wipe him off of her and her eyes couldn't mask her discomfort. When she looked into the closeup of his face, there was a similar sensation that prickled up and down her skin. "Enough..." She responded, voice slightly dry.

Her pulse had started to speed, and she remembered a darkened room lit by candlelight, red satin... but had it always been red? Or was that simply her blood? And someone leaning in to speak to her. He smirked, teeth glittering in the shadows, quirking his head like a hawk and just... watching her. Everything had black spots, spots she couldn't see through in her memories. But she recalled the pain, she thought they had skinned her entire back. Temporarily out of sync with what was going on around her in the present, she had started to sink the wood of the table into her lower back. She jolted when it cut a thin line into her skin, giving widened eyes to the Sidhe in front of her.

"Who are you?" Each word was punctuated solidly with a short breath, her hair snaking across her skin with how hard she'd been breathing. He might have misunderstood her reaction initially as lust as it had felt in the beginning, but her expression held nothing but thinly masked fear and pain.

[Skylla]

With the coming of night comes the pounding of drums who direct a procession of faerie dressed in flowing white robes and cowls. Horns sound a triumphant call as each member of the procession surrounds a large pyre. One by one each fae takes their torch to the pyre until the tower of lumber is a blazing inferno.

The Imbolc bonfire symbolizes the melting away of winter and the warmth associated with the spring. The light of life can be seen for the first time since the past summer in burning pyre embers. The whole festival is bathed in warmth and a powerful brightness.

[Namgil]

Namgil dropped back with a grace that seemed uncharacteristic of him. As his left hand drummed lazily on the table beside the both of them he dropped his eyes down to examine the fingernails of his right. He had no real reason to; he merely felt that his own hand was less yawn-inducing than the woman in front of him. He was slightly disappointed in her reaction to him thus far- fear was something he relished, but not when it came so easily. He hadn’t expected it of course. Reika seemed like the type of faerie that would just as easily meet his blade with one of her own. Apparently he had misjudged her.

The Sidhe rose an eyebrow and glanced up at her briefly, his onyx locks shadowing his already dark gaze, ”Who am I?” He chuckled, ”I have many names sweetheart.” The tone of his voice was sickly sweet, frosted with a thick, biting layer of sarcasm, ”None of which I intend to offer you.” Namgil stifled a yawn and then lapsed back into the chair, his posture slouched.

When the procession of white clad faerie entered the area and lit the pillar on fire Namgil hardly spared it a glance. He had seen many Imbolc festivals throughout his life time and he found the traditions boring and stuffy. The Faerie monarchs were sticklers for tradition and Namgil was a more conventional man. He preferred to go with the flow; old and outdated things bored him. The festival was no exception, though it did hold fond memories for him. Namgil dropped his head back and directed his eyes towards the white canvas of the tent ceiling, Reika momentarily forgotten as his mind wandered down memory lane.

It didn’t stay there for long. Reliving those memories did nothing but renew his thirst for the flesh he had once firmly possessed. Lolling his head back down, Namgil studied Reika for a few seconds before he suddenly jerked his body up and came to a standing position quite faster than one would have expected. He cracked his neck rather audibly, rotating it in what seemed like an impossible position to shoot her yet another piercing smile, ”Can’t say it’s been a pleasure.” Namgil offered her an animalistic smile, his mouth baring his teeth so broadly it appeared to split his mug in half. He winked at her and then snapped his head back and shoved his hands into his pockets as he began to meander away from the festival tent.

(ooc: Reika can follow him to stop him or we can end the thread here. I can’t really make him stay any longer since it would be out of character for him. The only way it would work is if he literally stabbed her, and I’m not about to make a scene haha)

[Reika]

((LOL we already agreed on no fighting, and this is the only way Reika won't try to take out vengeance anyway XD))

She watched his display of arrogance without blinking, he could be an asshole for as long as it amused him. The only thing she had any interest in, was knowing who he was and where he'd come from. The reason being, she had an inkling that the answer was already in her mind, but she needed to confirm it. When he slouched back into the chair and directed his attention away from her, she tried to force the rest of the memory to clear.

Reika had been so sure at that time that she'd never forget what had happened or who had done it, but years of slowly giving up on getting revenge had made things hazy. Feelings and memories had been locked up instead of dealt with. The beauty of the procession was lost on her entirely, the blaze of fire serving only to bring back another flash of memory. There had been fire in the room, it created a warm glow that never reached her body.

When Namgil suddenly stood to leave, she glanced upwards at him. His bones cracked in a way that would have made most people cringe, but that had never bothered her. However, it did bring to mind the habit of the man who had faced her. When he'd stood, he'd done the same thing. Her eyes caught his face in the firelight before he left, and her mouth opened with a sharp exhale of air.

Someone was holding her arms behind her back, craning her neck to look at the man in the dark. He'd said he wanted to watch her face when they started to brand her mantel into her back. Half of the designs were tattoos, but all were meant to leave scar tissue. It was more intense and barbaric than any human parlor would ever dream of, and they'd been at it for hours, damaging her skin and setting her nerve endings on fire. She hadn't yet screamed or cried, had been trying to give steel eyes to the man. When finally her composure broke and she did scream, he had merely smirked and walked away.

What happened out of his command was just as bad as what had happened in his command, but she knew for sure who it was. The voice came back, his eyes came back, his words came back. She remembered everything. Standing as fast as she could manage, her coat was flung out to the side as her hand found her blade. The tips of her fingers shook as she stood there, breathing hard and staring into the empty darkness. He was gone, and when she calmed down enough to think, she realized she couldn't go after him anyway. He was Sidhe; she was not. Her chances were slim, and in such a fragile state it was suicidal. This had to be dealt with accordingly, she had to enter a new type of training.

Koji chose that moment to come down from where he'd been observing, waiting. For the first time in a long time, Reika actually longed for company to reassure her, make her feel better. She felt pangs of guilt thinking about her sister, and was suddenly alarmed when she realized that the young woman shared a court with this monster. With a renewed sense of urgency, she began to set out to find the other Nimbus for the first time in a long time.