Hunters in Wonderland [plot: invite only]

"Epsilon..." Calibur murmured, his voice trailing off in thought. "So that is way you are taking memory lane... the valley of mushrooms is a ways off from here. It won't take long to get there but we must tread carefully. Something tells me it won't be easy talking to that guy. I hope all of you know how to flatter. It's a bad thing to get on that guy's bad side. A bad memory is the worse kind because you can never get yourself to forget it."

Malina stood, staring at Garrus after he had been subjected to his own nightmare, for a moment before sliding her weapons into their respective holsters. She turned swiftly away from the man, who now stood, coughing up blood, and looked around the other occupants of the area before locking eyes with Vanille. 'Vanilla. The useless little girl. Why the hell is she even...' Malina shook her head of the thoughts before clenching her fists and storming toward her with a frown etched across her face. "Hey bitch!" She yelled at the girl as she approached her. As Vanille turned to face Malina, Malina wound back her arm and sent her fist straight into Vanille's nose, knocking her back, onto her ass, on the ground. "Who the hell do you think you are to just *&%#ing STAND there while the rest of us fight those things!?" She yelled at the girl on the ground as Manticore unraveled itself and poised itself to strike over her shoulder. "If you're gonna just stand there every time we fight, explain to me why the hell we shouldn't just leave you here."

Vanille looked at her surroundings as Garrus was coughing up blood. For the whole time, she seemed to just follow the group around and lurk behind them not knowing what to do. She thought of herself as rather useless, but not to this extent. She was now staring off into space until she heard the sound of Malina's unpleasant voice. She already hated her and despised the sound of her voice everywhere the group went. She then turned as she heard her say that she was a bitch. She was then knocked down onto the ground as tears welled up in her eyes. She then clutched her nose as a slow trickle of blood ran down her face. Vanille was seemingly speechless and all she managed to say was, "I-I....weak." Tears began to stream down her face as she still clutched her nose. She then managed to say through her tears, "B-be quiet...I'm weak...so d-don't complain...I need protection...because I'm more fragile than you would think..." She then sat silently thinking about how useless she actually was his entire journey so far. In all of the fights she had mostly been there in moral support, and she thought that to be enough. But to some that wasn't enough. She then made the decision that she would attempt to become more active in the group and help out in combat situations. "I-I can try...but don't expect much..."

"Ooooh...You're weak? You're...fragile? You need protection? You're useless. You're a burden. You're a waste. You're a parasite." Malina started saying before pausing and looking down at the crying wreck of a girl. "By the looks of you....I'd say..what?...seventeen? You seem like you're a student at beacon, you do have weapons, despite you not using them." Manticore dropped down and began making circles in the dirt around Malina's feet as she spoke. "If I'm right, and I usually am, you are training to become a huntress. Hmph.....You better try to help us from now on or I'll make sure you get stuck here." Malina says before turning to walk away. She stops mid-step, however, and looks back at the girl. "And if you want my advice? Give up on your petty dream of becoming a huntress. People like you just die horrible and leave the rest of us with more shit to clean up."

"That's enough from you, Malina." Hunter stepped in between the lady and the tramp bitch. The ringing in his ears had stopped by the time Garrus began gouging out his clone, and he heard and saw everything that happened afterwards. "Every sentence I hear out of you does nothing but put people down. You don’t know what Vanille is capable of doing. You barely even spoke to her since we arrived in Wonderland. By the Pit, I think you just increased the number of sentences you said to her up to fourteen. Fourteen sentences in about two days, and all of them negative." He walked over to Vanille and, taking out a black handkerchief he always carried, started wiping away her tears while still watching Malina. "You want out of Byron's world, right? Then stop being the alpha bitch and help patch up Garrus. Otherwise, you can go find your own way home. If you're lucky, Eliza won't find you and give you leather goods."

Hunter walked behind Vanille and turned her around, allowing himself to keep an eye on Malina as he focused on Vanille. "Okay, Vanille. I'm going to stop your nosebleed. I just need you to hold still for a few seconds, okay? Trust me," he says as his hands began to glow with aura, "I'm medically trained. And don't worry, I'm helping Garrus next." Hunter shot a brief glance at the hammer wielder, who just coughed up a bit of red fluid as he stood next to the player of heroic spirit. Wait a minute... Another player... But didn't Alice say that everyone here was corrupt? He brushed that thought aside, focusing more on the injured girl in front of him.


OOC : Would one of you kindly notify an administrator to give me my minion status like Cheshire has? Kooplah kinda forgot to add mine, and I think I've sent him too many PM's.-- Thank you, whoever told him.

Malina halted as Hunter's voice popped up behind her. She turned back to Vanille and the boy. She locked eyes with him as Manticore wrapped itself back around her waist. "You know, you're one to talk about 'enough'. Tell me again how you're so apt to lead anyone here? You seemed to be so full of hubris that before any other discussion was given to the matter, you stepped up as the leader. You stepped up not knowing the abilities of anyone else. You have trusted every single person we have met outright despite being told that Alice is the only one who March hasn't touched. You put us in unnecessary danger because you wanted to be nice to a child. You think that you can just come in here and play the nice hero just like Garrus, and look what happened to him. Do you have a plan for if anyone we meet tries to kill us? Do you have a plan for if Alice, of all people, betrays us? What about March, how do you plan on dealing with him? D you have any god damned plans at all?" Malina paused for a moment, looking down down at Vanille, still crying to herself, and then to Hunter, who was trying to help her. "Medical help is important on any battlefield and you proceeded to completely ignore the man coughing up blood in favor of someone with a god damned broken nose. Garrus has internal bleeding and Camina knows what else from that beating. How do you know he doesn't need immediate treatment? Tell me, Hunter, why do you think you can be a leader if you can't make simple battlefield decisions like these?" The chamber inside of Manticore cycled through her poisons before stopping on her sedatives. "So you stay here and tend to her. I'm going to go take priority of a major injury over a girl with a broken nose." With that Malina turned on her heel and began to walk toward Garrus.

Vanille said to Malina, "N-No, I'm not giving up...you can't tell me what to do..." Her eyes suddenly began to glow a bright green as her tone of voice changed for but a second. "No one can..tell me what to do..." She then realized what was about to happen and attempted to calm herself by taking deep breaths. For the most part her nose had stopped bleeding for now, but still hurt like hell. She now sat still as she prepared for Hunter to heal her nose. She then said to Malina, "Could you be any more negative than you are now? I know Garrus should be the priority here...so Hunter, you can go...I need this a lot less than he does..." She then looked over at Garrus who looked to be in a lot worse condition. She then continued at Malina by saying, "You're such a...such a....

"This only takes a second. Now, close your eyes." Hunter held his hand up to Vanille's face and a quick burst of blue light happened. "Your nose is no longer broken." Hunter stood up and began to think. He had two options. Option one : he goes to help Garrus and risk fighting Malina, which is something they don't need right now. He watched as she slowly closed the gap between her and Garrus, and, realizing that his efforts wouldn't help that much anyways, he went with option two.

"Calibur." Hunter walked toward the personification of heroic spirit. "How do we know you are not corrupted when everyone else in this place is? Your employer previously attacked us. How can we trust you when Cheshire fought us before?"

"Oh, Cheshire said you would probably bring that up," Calibur said, pulling out a folded piece of paper and opened it up. "Okay, she says that that was only to keep you guys from fighting something that actually does want to eat you, so be thankful nyan."

Calibur folded up the paper and looked back up at Hunter. "Well... I never said I... wasn't corrupted..."

Calibur lifted a hand to his helm and lifted the visor, showing his eyes. His right eye had white irises while his left one... was sewn shut. Calibur quickly dropped his visor back down and looked at the ground shamefully.

"Heroic spirit is not as strong as I'd like it to be," Calibur murmured, "After that day, all meaning in the very word hero was lost and I... my image... was tainted... But please believe me, I am not like Blood. I am still an ally of justice... and so was my wife... before Blood took her from me..."

Calibur lifted his hand and in a flash of light, a short pistol appeared.

"I swore on my existence that I would cleanse this land," Calibur stated. "My first victory was against Blood's brother, the player of gunsmanship. I took his being into mine so that I may fight... but as you can see.... I am not exactly a remarkable knight..."

Calibur dropped his hand and the gun disappeared. "March was the start of all of this. If your aim is to take him down then I will be there to make the finishing blow. A player will only die when slain by another player. As long as you have me, then you will have the chance to make the finishing blows you need. I can not give you any other assurance besides my word."

"Back up. 'I took his being into mine?' Did you just say you absorbed the essence of someone else?" Hunter took a step back. "Every encounter, every single encounter we've had with someone else here in Wonderland, we were greeted by someone who didn't seem in the slightest in helping us leave unless we get injured in some way. As much as I'd like to let you join us, Calibur, I cannot. Unless we decide if we can allow a player who absorbs things to go with us, I'm sorry." He looked at Emerald and David, silently asking them what their opinions are about the new arrival.

David simply sat back watching the man talk. He was a bit tired from the fight so he was just sitting away from the group. Watching them talk. ....wonder if I will ever get out of here. He thought as he listened to them.

Calibur stared at Hunter for a while before raised his hand and pointing a finger at Alice. "But you let her come."

Alice looked at Hunter nervously, her head lowered while her eyes looked up at him, her bunny ears flopped over her face.

"All Players have that power," Alice explained, "If a player overtakes another, that player can take over the other's persona. Remember Hattah? He used to be only personality and madness but when he killed the player who domains over sense of time, he took that over as well. It's like a game of chess. The players are the kings and the everything else are their pieces. You can take out as many pieces as you want and nothing will happen, but when the Player captures the king, he controls the board."

"I don't kill without reason," Calibur added. "Taking upon another's persona is a grave act and only certain players can do that to another. I took gunmanship in the name of heroic spirit. And I am confident that heroic spirit can overcome darkness."

Calibur sounded determined.

Vanille looked over to Hunter deciding whether to allow Calibur to come or not. She knew her opinion didn't matter much, but she always thought the more the merrier. She also didn't know who this person really was in the first place, and all she really knew was that he could absorb a persons essence, or something relevant to that. She then said, "I think we should allow him to come! I don't really have an alibi, but as I always say. The more the merrier." She then gave one of her bright smiles, even right after the events with Malina that just took place.

"You've never said that since we got here," Emerald deadpanned. "However, Hunter, did you not think I already thought of that? Really, I see no difference on us allowing him to come along rather than him just showing up out of the blue. Frankly, if he ever did have malicious intent against us, it is better if we can keep an eye on him." Emerald finishes with, "Now, can we get moving again, or does Garrus still need healing?"

[[OoC : Mobile post. Colors : maybe later]]

"Bitchpants McGee says she's taking care of Garrus. Meanwhile, I'm not certain a corrupted player should be allowed to join us." Hunter folded his arms. "Alice, do you vouch for Calibur? Have you ever met him after the darkness struck?"

Alice paused for a while, seeming unsure of how to respond. Finally she answered saying, "Yes. I was there when he fought Blood's brother. In fact, I was the reason. I was attacked by Redd Night when Calibur came and saved me. He told me to run and that is what I did. I haven't seen him since, so I thought he had died. Now that he is here, I am certain he is a good person."

"The White Kingdom may not be the same," Calibur added, "But I stand for what I believe in. If you insist that you cannot trust me then I will go."

David looked at the knight and shrugged. He thought the man seemed okay to him. Sure a player, but he did aid them in their fight. After long consideration he finally spoke up. "See that he did aid us in the fight with blood, I feel he should be given a chance. Corrupted or not, the extra firepower would be a nice support asset." He said from the back of the group.

Hunter put his hand on his chin and tilted his head down, brainstorming. One of the film reel snakes they saw from before slithered between his legs as he immersed himself in thought. As the breeze flew by and made a part of his trenchcoat lift up, he closed his eyes and sighed, dropping his arms to his sides, his right hand unintentionally tapping his empty gun holster with an audible "Clink" from the impact. What seemed like months passed before he spoke.

"Calibur, what you did against Blood, the actions you did... You put your life at risk, and although it didn't do too much, you bought us time. But before your grand entrance," Hunter said, raising his head back up while the wind began to die. "You were turned to the darkness. You became a part of the dark side. That's a very difficult thing to overlook." His coat stopped fluttering in the wind and went back to pointing at the colorful dirt, a part of it unknowingly hooking to the back of the holster. "I'll give you the chance to fight with us, Calibur. But if you let us down, or if you turn against us, or if you leave one of us to die, your personal mission against March will be ended by my hand. You can save my own life seven times, and it won't make a jot of difference. It may be against my beliefs to kill another living person, but that won't stop me from disabling you." He walked forwards, stopping less than two meters from the new arrival, and looked directly at the player's visor, focusing on the side that had his good eye. "To be less abstruse, in words I believe would come from the scorpion girl," Hunter raised his left arm diagonally across his chest and deployed his knife. "Betray us and you will be handicapped forever."

Sheathing the blade, Hunter turned around counterclockwise to see how Garrus was responding to Malina's treatment. His sudden rotation made his trenchcoat unhook itself from the holster, covering it once again as he walked.

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