Pick a Card, Any Card!

[FLICK]

ooc;; It's icccckkkkky! Well, I don't like it, but I promised Chi, so...

ic;;
The smokes still hung over Valley Town, hovering like an enormous dark vulture, ready to pick at the remains when nobody was looking. Even from this distance, Will could tell it wasn’t natural – there was something malevolent in the way it crept down his neck and into his lungs, scraping acridly at the back of his throat and bringing tears to his eyes. About a kilometre south of the town, from where he was approaching, it hung low to the ground, and Will guessed it was slowly moving off. It wasn’t a comforting thought though – that meant he still had to make his way through a kilometre of the choking, scratching smog.

When he emerged, Will’s hair and clothes were lined with soot. A vigorous shake got rid of the most of it, but still William couldn’t help but wonder how the smoke had formed. The soot should have dispersed over the town, shouldn’t it? He was no expert on fire, but it seemed to him that something was wrong.

With worried eyes, he came up to Valley Town’s gates. They were closed, alarmingly – he had never seen that before… Well, on his previous visit to the town. He avoided towns as a rule. They were too enclosed, too claustrophobic, and there weren’t enough trees to slake his thirst for the natural world. But every so often, a small, niggling urge would drag him to a town, for whatever reason. This was one of them.

But the guards had no hesitation in admitting a young, snivelling boy with an affected limp crying that he’d lost his mummy. He allowed a small chuckle under the shadow of the gates at how easy it had been. No wonder it looked like they were just recuperating from a disaster.

The side street Will took to the centre of town was practically empty. The one woman he ran into gave a muffled squeak, like a fearful mouse, and darted back to the safety of her house. Something had happened here to really spook the residents… But what? When he reached the centre of town, it became clear.

The town hall was in ruins. What had – to Will’s childlike mind, at least – been an enormous stone edifice was now practically destroyed. Fire still smouldered in corners, and there were dark stains on the ground that the boy could tell were blood. This had to be the source of the cloud – what else but magic could destroy such a formidable building? But most interestingly of all, there were people standing in the rubble. Will couldn’t resist – he clambered up a ruined wall, plonking himself down on top of it for a closer view.

There they were. They looked like simple townsfolk, but the sprites knew otherwise. As soon as they caught sight of the pair, they honed in like bees to flowers. Will knew that they were eating at an illusion, and couldn’t help from giggling – a sound that echoed alarmingly in the still cavernous ruin. Perhaps these were the murderers themselves!

[Angel ♥]

Evelyn almost seemed to dance across the wrecked square, seeming rather oblivious to the devastation that surrounded her. She was just far too happy and far too...damaged to pause to consider the death that they had caused, and how much sorrow that would have spread. In fact, that sort of knowledge would have just been the cherry on the top of her great mood, but that was because she was Evvie and no matter how innocent she seemed, her mind really was twisted. "I know! It's great! We should do this in every town in the whole of Syrunn! And write our names on the floor in blood so that they make sure to remember us." She agreed with him, her tone light and carefree in comparison to what she had just said.

The sound of the bells on her skirt tinkling in the square was down right disrespectful, not that the little shifter actually cared at all; the dead were gone, off into oblivion, it was only the living that counted things as being disrespectful. "Psht, you do realize that shifters live longer than regular humans, right? We heal slower but when we get to about...my age we start to age slower too, so you have longer stuck with me than you thought." She grinned to him mischievously before suddenly just stopping, blinking at Vyncent in confusion, ignoring his comment about the nobles as she tilted her head to the side, her eyes shifting into slits to show that she was concentrating on something. She had just heard someone laugh, and close by too.

A growl rumbled in her chest as her gaze suddenly flickered up to the child crouched on the ruins, her nose twitching a little as her gaze sharpened. "Vynce, he can see us like we're...us..." She mumbled under her breath, not taking her gaze from the child, seeming to tense suddenly, a predatory look dancing through her gaze. She stepped forward swiftly, hopping up onto the low wall that Vyncent was seated upon, almost seeming as if she were waiting for permission to go and catch the child, not wanting to go running off and loose her demon. No, that wouldn't be very good at all.

[Vyncent Schwarz]

"In every town throughout the entire of Syrunn... names written in blood. Why Evelyn, one might think you're turning into me! I didn't know such big ambition could fit into such an innocent mind." he laughed softly, drumming his fingers back on the crumbling stone as he watched her dance among the ashes and destruction and blood, her footsteps light enough on the floor to him to make it look as though she weren't touching the ground at all. This is how it would be then, would it? Vyncent would kill, get angry and twisted and bitter all over again and again, and Evelyn would smile. People died, and Evelyn danced. He could certainly get used to this. He lifted a brow at this news about shifters, tilting his head at her curiously as a smirk lifted one side of his mouth.

"I thought you didn't know any other shifters? Who could have told you that?" he asked softly as he watched her. It didn't matter to him how long Evelyn might live, he had all the time in the world unravelling at his fingertips for him to use. She could live as long as she wanted, especially if she was going to amuse him like this every time they destroyed something, or killed someone of importance. He scowled a little as she rushed past him to perch on the wall, that hushed sound of a giggle barely passing by his ears, but it was clear enough. Someone was there. He glanced around suddenly, the sprites that had fluttered away from Will now gathering around them, he could feel them dispersing the illusion spell no matter how many times he would put it back up. What the HELL?

He turned, glaring up at the direction Evelyn was looking as he finally allowed the illusion to slip off them - no point in wasting energy that was just going to be fed to parasites. They would appear probably from the head down, Evelyn's fiery hair all too noticable in the deserted, colour-less ruin, and the deadly glint in Vyncent's bloody eyes would be equally as vivid now. Just... fantastic, really. He was having such a good day too. "Evelyn. I want that... thing. Here, now if not even sooner if you please." his voice was low, a soft growl under his breath that he knew the shifter would hear perfectly. He couldn't stand interference, no matter who or what it was. He wanted to know exactly what was going on, who this kid was - he couldn't be more than a child, after all.

But a child with sprites? That meant something. And that just made Vyncent want to know all the more.

[FLICK]

William wrinkled his nose petulantly as he regarded Evelyn, dancing across the scene of destruction with an expression of such obvious glee. Silly little girl. Death wasn’t meant to be fun – not normally. The man, too, seemed to enjoy the idea of this much destruction spread all throughout Syrunn. Will tutted. Only when bitter Will was around would the boy pause to consider killing as a worthwhile pastime. At the moment, he was definitely more in the mischievous sector of his personalities. Although he leant more towards bitter than friendly, he wasn’t feeling particularly malevolent. Leave that to the more capricious Unseelie, not young boys stolen by benevolent fey to be the children they could never have.

And a shifter, was she? He knew of them – many of the fey creatures could change their shape, although he had never met anybody who professed to it as if it were their race. He giggled again, this one a little more quietly. The sprites had returned to him by now. He realised the man had actually dropped the illusion from the rather dejected tone of their buzz. He, too, wasn’t what he appeared to be. With the illusion gone, Will’s eyes could pick out his demonic heritage. And better still, he had seen them in drawing, plastered side-by-side all throughout town! They must have been the people that caused the mayhem in the first place.

With a tickly jolt, he realised that both their eyes were on him, and not with the best intentions. Vyncent of the Black Flame, as the posters declared him, had a surprisingly violent glint in his eye, and his voice was a sinister growl. William giggled again at the suggestion. Her – Evelyn, wasn’t it? Catch him? It would be just like the games he’d played with the siblings he’d had, once, long ago. They could never catch him – and neither would she, for all her tricksy shape-changing. Evelyn’s eyes were less openly malicious, but she had taken on a predatory stance, as if she was a hunting cat trying to sneak up on an unwary bird.

Well, she wasn’t going to catch this sparrow.

William chuckled again. “A man who isn’t a man, and a woman who isn’t quite a woman,” he mused, his voice carrying clearly through the ruin. It was the sweet voice of a child, spoken with a laughing, sing-song tone. He swung his legs impatiently, as if waiting for the game to begin.

[Angel ♥]

"Nah ah, I'm not like you at all." She pouted at him ever so slightly, only glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, her gaze too focused on the boy on the roof. "And my mind isn't so innocent...you're silly to think my mind is innocent Vynce." She giggled her innocent little giggle, that just totally wrecked whatever illusion her words had just created. Evelyn was innocence wrapped up in a bloody and murderous outer shell; which made it obvious that she wasn't born this way but had been forced into being how she was. Evelyn could have grown up to be a perfectly behaved and boring young woman if she hadn't been sold by her parents to a collector of 'exotic' creatures who had ruined her childhood and any confidence she had in the human race. The poor little shifter was just lost wasn't she? Lost and abandoned with only Vyncent to cling to so that she didn't just get washed away by the tides of time.

"Gypsies." She nodded to Vyncent in his question about how she knew that little snippet of information about her race. "I was spying on them, and they were talking about shifters..." She murmured, running her fingers through her hair. "I don't believe lots of the things that they said, but some of the things were stupid...like they said that there were hardly any of us left. I mean...that has to be a lie...right? I don't want to be one of the last ones." She mumbled to him absent mindedly, too focused on the boy to think about what she was saying. Damn Vyncent, he could trick her into telling him anything and she wouldn't notice.

"Want it dead or alive?" She questioned in a low and rather malicious voice as she suddenly moved forward, her clothing fluttering to the ground behind her as she leapt up onto the top of the ruins where the boy was perched, landing elegantly in her favorite, fiery red tiger form, easily finding her balance on the loose stones. Her muscles tensed as she crouched, slowly stalking toward him, stalking her prey. Psht, Vynce would be lucky to get this boy in once piece if Evelyn actually let herself slip into her predators state of mind then Vynce might have to fight her for the boy.

[Vyncent Schwarz]

"Evelyn, you are just a walking conflict, I'm afraid to say." he threw her a mock sigh and smirked over at her for a moment, before his deadly gaze returned to the boy. "Alive." he told her, "There's something odd about him... kids don't eat illusions." he murmured as she leapt away, slipping from the wall to stand on the other side of it, his hand travelling to rest on Amor absentmindedly. There would be no point in him going after the boy when it was clear Evelyn was dying to - he didn't want to wreck her fun, did he? Ah, and it was good to see that her neck had healed from the collar while they'd walked; he'd hoped it had, he didn't want to deal with a miserable shifter for the next few days... that would really get on his nerves.

The boy looked almost... not human, he realised as he narrowed his eyes up at the wall, tilting his head in that trade-mark curious way. He looked almost... well, it was ridiculous to say, he hadn't heard anything of the Eternal Children in all the time he'd been around Syrunn, he'd just dismissed them as a silly myth that parents made up to cover the excuse that they couldn't raise a child. But this 'boy' wasn't quite right in many aspects, there was a lot of magic around him, he could sense that much. Hmm. "A man who isn't a man, a woman who isn't quite a woman and a child who isn't really a child. A child that will stay a child forever." he mused with a light smile to himself, eyes flitting quickly around the ruined square for a moment, to check that nobody had arrived while Will had made his entrance.

No, it didn't seem that anyone was there. After a week and a half, people had cried and wailed and payed their respects. It was in the quiet phase now, when they avoided the place like the plague. They'd be alright, at least for a few more minutes. He didn't like the idea of being without an illusion, that would wreck their cover completely... and to boot, it would make him rather angry. And he was in a good mood right now. "Gypsies." he laughed inwardly, letting his mind absorb that idea for now. Those damn gypsies seemed to know everything, where they got their information even he didn't know. Oh well.

[FLICK]

William liked gypsies. They were a friendly people, and very accepting of strangers – even the stranger than average kind. He had travelled with gypsies once, in the past. They hadn’t seemed to mind his eccentricities, acknowledging his abnormal background, but still quietly getting on with things. He was quietly disappointed that he couldn’t remember more of his adventures with them. They were clouded by the same god-forsaken, mind-numbing fog that blurred all but the most recent of his memories, making them feel like he was watching them from a very long way away. He was a little cross, too, to hear that Evelyn had been spying on them. Didn’t the girl know anything about common courtesy? No, he supposed, and had reason to believe that even if she had he wouldn’t care. But she had her redeeming points, too… Like her genuine reluctance to accept that she was one of the last of her kind. He, too, knew what it felt like to be alone. She would be quite sweet, he decided, if only she’d been brought up nicely. But as things stood, Evelyn was almost more animal than human – and the human she was was bloodthirsty and confusing.

But the man – or demon, as Will knew he should really be thinking of him – was just as interesting, if less confusing. He was more straightforwardly evil. Will could tell, and he hadn’t even spoken to him. A slight shiver ran down the back of his neck. Perhaps the game wouldn’t be as fun as he’d hoped… and perhaps he’d be playing for his life. But perhaps not. Vyncent had just said that he wanted ‘it’ – as they were so charmingly referring to him – alive. That was a start… but Evelyn, to be frank, didn’t look like she would be able to control herself. She seemed a savage little creature – more savage than he was. He seemed like the kind of person to go for cleaner violence, if there was such a thing... But these were all just observations. For all his intuition, Will didn’t really know anything for certain about either Vyncent or Evelyn’s personality.

But the next thing the demon said made him sit up a little straighter. A child who isn’t really a child… A child who will stay a child forever. So the demon knew what he was, did he? That was a surprise – few people outside of rural Demia ever recognised him as one of the Eternal Children. He stood up, balancing like an acrobat on the crumbling wall, and giggled his endearing laugh again.

“The man with the red coat knows, doesn’t he?” he said happily, his voice taking on a riddle-like air. “But Thistle knows the truth about you too, Vyncent Schwarz.” He struggled a little on the pronunciation of the name, wrinkling his nose. “The pretty bugs ate right through your illusion, didn’t they?” It wasn’t all the time that William spoke in such a juvenile fashion. His speech, like his personality, seemed to fluctuate at random. One day he would talk like an eight-year-old, the next, a man who’d lived too long and seen far too much. As, perhaps, he was.

With another small laugh, he skipped a few metres back along the wall, further a way from Evelyn in her tiger form.

[Angel ♥]

Evelyn wasn't really a bad person; if people were nice to her then she would generally be nice to them. However, what Evelyn counted as nice was a totally different mater, and her opinion of someone could change in the blink of an eye. If you dared to touch her or say something that she didn't like then snap, she hated you and there was nothing you could do to change that until her mood swung back to cheerful Evvie, if you were still alive when her mood swung back that is. The shifter just couldn't experience any emotion in moderation, everything with Evelyn was extreme, especially her emotions. Then again, with her background it was hard to expect her to be stable. She had always been forced to suppress her emotions to extent of pretending that they didn't exist when other people where around, only ever being allowed to feel in private because no-one wanted a slave that actually had feeling. Tsk, of course not, Master's didn't like to think that their property had feelings did they? See, when you thought about it Evelyn really had turned out pretty well when you consider the fact that she never had a role model, never had someone to teach her right from wrong or teach her how to cope, instead she had a Master that told her what she could and couldn't do without reason and made her survive, not cope but survive. In all honesty Evvie was lucky that she hadn't drown herself before now...

But now she had Vyncent and he was her constant. He had become her role model, the person that she could look to for an example of how to behave, and he may not be the best of role models for her to have but he was better than none and he would be able to save her from slipping fully into the clutches of insanity, whether her realized it or not. It was probably that Vynce would never realize how much his company did for Evelyn, which was a good thing really because she didn't want him to think that she was weak, he could think that she was stupid and ugly and uncultured but never weak. Ugh, the mere thought of him thinking of her like that made a cold shudder chase through her body and her fur bristle.

However, right now Evelyn's mind was focused on only one thing, all the sophisticated and human parts of it having shut down to leave basic, animal responses. She was functioning on the most basic of instincts; run or fight. It wasn't a difficult question. She was bigger than William and her muscle mass was much more, she would be able to rip his neck open before he could even think to fight back, but he was small and he would be quick, something the bulk of her tiger form made harder, but not impossible. She was still crouched as she lifted her front paw from the ground, not counting on the boy having any strong, magical abilities as she moved toward him at a slow pace, every one of her movements controlled, muscles rippling and quivering beneath her fur as she slunk forward. William was in her sights and soon he would be caught between her paws, she could almost feel his flesh tearing under her claws as she watched him, ear flicking ever now and again as her nose twitched.

Then came the pounce. She released the tension in her muscles to spring at the boy elegantly and swiftly, those deadly claws glinting in the light as her front paws stretched out toward him. Ha, it was just like hunting birds...

[Vyncent Schwarz]

...Hunting birds. Vyncent was suddenly reminded of the first time he'd laid eyes on Evelyn, leaping down from the large tree in the Twin Mountains cradling the broken corpse of a little bird in her hands, talking to it as though it were some long lost friend of hers. He doubted this would have the same outcome, but it was eerie how similar it looked - the little shifter was even more damaged than he'd thought. He rested his eyes on them both to watch for a while; this was guaranteed to be interesting, if not just entertaining.

Having been around as long as he had, Vyncent knew much about Demia, and this included tales of the mysterious Eternal Children. He hadn't found it necessary to travel at all, Demia was where he was known best, where he could go and people knew his name and reputation, and... well, life was just full of excitement. Though, he supposed, because of this constancy in Demia, the continent was growing smaller to him, confining him to a single place. He would have to move on soon no doubt, he couldn't stay there forever as much as he'd like to. He frowned now; self reflection was really annoying to the demon. Vyncent lived in the now, the years before were gone and dead and lingering on them just wasted time.

"Yes, those pretty bugs were quite the problem." he purred up at the 'child' for lack of a better word, "I may have to scorch them out of existence if they decide to interfere with me again." he smirked. The boy knew his name, that was a surprise even with the idea of hundreds of wanted posters floating around Valley Town. He, of course, thought that Eternal Children preferred to stay out of cities and public and bustle and... everything that Vyncent loved, really. How unusual that their paths would cross. It seemed a shame now that Evelyn would probably kill him, despite the fact that he'd asked for the boy alive. She could be reliable, that shifter, but only if you wanted someone DEAD. If you wanted them alive, it was like a fifty-fifty chance. He sighed.

But Will, or Thistle, wouldn't be easy to kill. Vyncent knew that much without even looking at him. But it would be amusing to see Evelyn give it her best shot. Like hunting birds, yes...

[FLICK]

William couldn’t help but feel mildly annoyed. Why were they both so angry all of a sudden? It wasn’t like he had done anything wrong… But then, neither had the rest of Valley Town, and look what had happened there. Apparently Vyncent and Evelyn weren’t the sort of people to work right and wrong into their moral calculations. Huh – if they had morals at all. He doubted it. But Thistle – sweet, innocent little Will – knew how to be angry as well. He could be very angry, in fact, when the time was right for it. He had the resentment of who-knows-how-many years of loneliness simmering away inside him, ready to burst forth like a breaking dam. He could already feel the anger stirring in the pit of his stomach, sending tentative fingers out towards Vyncent, still on the ground, and tiger-Evelyn, uncomfortably close.

Will was still a little surprised that Vyncent Schwarz had bothered to learn what most regarded as Demian folk tales. He didn’t realise that Demia was the creatures initial home, despite the obvious Marmösian inflection to the name. The man probably knew more about William’s heritage than he did. He had only been treated to a very vague, one-sided view from Lacewing, the faerie he had been closest to in childhood. He wondered absentmindedly what had become of Lacewing, but that train of thought was cut off by Vyncent’s malicious purr. Perhaps this wasn’t the best time to be absentminded.

Outright dismay crawled with surprising speed over Will’s face. Burn the sprites? Nobody had ever done that before. He wouldn’t really, would he? They were so much fun, and rather nice to look at besides… Almost as if sensing Vyncent’s intentions, the sprites whirled dementedly back from where they were perched around the ruin, settling like jewels in Will’s hair and clothes. The boy shook his head angrily, not bothering with words this time. Angry Will was getting more and more restless, and he didn’t want to goad the unpredictable Vyncent any further. God knows what the demon might do.

But then Evelyn pounced, and everything was lost in the raw exhilaration. Will wondered dully if she had even noticed that Vyncent had asked for him alive as her claws shone brilliantly, scything through the air towards him as she pounced. His instincts kicked in from the last moment, and he lunged forward, ducking at the same time to dodge elegantly beneath her, his moves full of the powerful grace of a dancer. But he misjudged his timing, and one of her back claws scored a glancing blow his cheek, scoring three shallow lines across his cheek. He could feel the blood on his cheek, combined with the stinging pain, as he regained his balance.

But there was no time to contemplate his suffering. Will was already moving again, dancing away from her up and down the unique topography of the ruined wall, his feet finding footholds of their own accord as his eyes stayed locked on Evelyn. His eyes were sad now, not angry – the eyes of a child tired of being pushed away, but tempered with the maturity of one much older. He contemplated the tiger for less than a second with a melancholy expression before raising a hand at her. As if they’d read his mind, the sprites reacted. They launched themselves acrobatically off their perches, tumbling and rolling with excited squeals towards the tiger – no longer a spinning mass of harmless insects, but a swarm with the intentions of a cluster of angry bees.

[/center]

[Angel ♥]

Evelyn landed heavily as the child dashed out of her way, skidding around just in time so that she didn't go tumbling down from the unstable ruins that she was balanced upon, loose bits of rubble brushed over the edge so that they clattered down to the ground beneath, little puffs of soot rising up from the ground as they hit before settling back into their black, carpet like state. The back of her paw was to the edge of the wall, long and deep claw marks scored into the already scorched stones, but she looked composed again as she straightened up and shook herself off. Annoyance flickered through her emerald eyes as she watched Will carefully, her gaze hued with mild confusion. He had got out of her way, but how? The child didn't seem to have it in him to move so quickly, yet she had hardly even caught him with her claws before he had scampered out of her reach. Vyncent was right, of course, there was something strange about that child, but Evelyn was less inclined to talk to him and her mind was racing more along the lines of studying his insides.

That low, rumbling growl escaped her chest as she tensed her muscles again, her tail swishing through the air behind her as she looked as though she would move forward before suddenly freezing with her paw hovering just above the ground. How...strange, the air around the boy seemed to be glittering, and she could feel that odd tingle to the air that always seemed to accompany the use of magic. Magic? Now that really was cheating, swords and pistols were bad enough but this boy was cheating even more and using magic against her? Tut tut, now she would just have to turn to Vynce as get him to use some of his cheatsy magic on the boy, then they should be more evenly matched.

Her gaze flickered down to Vyncent for a moment, as if asking him what to do as the air between her and Will shimmered with those sprites, ears presses back against her head as she bared her ivory teeth, her growling intensifying as if she were attempting to scare away those shimmering sprites that were weaving through the air toward her. She swiped at them with her paw angrily, not quite sure how she was supposed to fight magic...and she was running out of wall to back onto...

[Vyncent Schwarz]

Vyncent stirred a little as the tendrils of anger reached him... ah, he knew that emotion well... He lifted his head a little, as one might if another was caressing their skin, a rather pleasant smile settling over his handsome face. What would strike fear and intimidation into the hearts of most, Vyncent simply adored. Hatred, anger, all negative emotions, it was like a drug to demons. They simply thrived on it. "My my, boy, who would have thought you could be so full of rage." he pushed his silvery hair out of his face, that little smile having turned into that trademark debonair grin, which showed his elongated canines. His temper may be deadly, and could change with the drop of a hat, but this mere child had an anger in him that was deep - too deep for a boy of his age. So, he wanted to play 'who could throw the best tantrum' did he?

He was fairly convinced by now that Will wasn't human at all; when you had been wandering the earth for as long as Vyncent, you learned that even folk tales had an element of truth to them. Usually it was more than just an element, but that depended on whether you chose to pursue what could, after all, only be a myth... Vyncent would know, in some places, he WAS a myth. HIM! And the surprise when people heard an Avalan accent; his father had been Marmösian, but had died before he was born. Having wanted to honour his once ruthless and bloodthirsty parent (and honour among demons was a little bit of a paradox), the young Vyncent had taken his father's last name. Not that he dwelled much on his childhood, he was quite firmly living in the 'this very second'. It almost seemed that there was no depth to him, which was technically true, since he refused to remember the years that had gone past. They were dead, and never coming back...

He watched, fairly amazed as Will slipped from Evelyn's grasp as though he'd turned to water, or merely air... disappearing into nothingness only to appear again somewhere else in the blink of an eye. That was a neat trick, even he had to admit - he must be one of the Eternal Children, then, that simply confirmed it. What other child could do that? He smiled a little to himself as they stopped to stare at each other, his arms folded across his chest and his red coat billowing out with the soft breeze. And then of course, the sprites. He'd almost forgotten Evelyn was even there, lost his own thoughts, but seemed a little annoyed now that she was going to plummet down from the wall. Hm, perhaps he should do something.

He only lifted his left hand gently, his pale flesh glowing against the sunlight as he flicked his wrist, extending his will... and four or five sprites dropped like pebbles onto the crumbling wall, each encased in its own little sphere of pitch black flames. "Call them off, boy. Or the rest are going to go up in smoke. I can't have you killing Evelyn, now." he warned, not quite knowing himself why he hadn't just burned all of the sprites - they irritated him anyway. His eyes were locked on William's now, fixing him with that twisted glare of a demon, that insane little dance of joy that came from massacre and destruction. Because, in the end, Vyncent really was just insane. He was just sane enough to know it, and that's what made him dangerous.

[FLICK]

William still had his eyes locked on Evelyn, but he could feel Vyncent’s focus like a bruise. He almost fell off the wall when he realised that the red-cloaked demon could not only feel his anger, but respond to it. He shot the demon a furious glance, his eyes suddenly as dark as deep tunnels, but still with the ever-present glint of green. How dare he presume to understand. Will shook the messy red hair out of his face, raising a hand towards the demon. A nexus of silver sparks swirled at his fingertips like a spiralling galaxy. His eyes narrowed, and he let the spell fly. Of course, he didn’t think it would do much. It was just an illusion – Will’s offensive magic was only a minor irritation to an ordinary person, let alone a demon as powerful as Vyncent... but if he dodged out of the way, he mightn’t realise the magic wouldn’t hurt him, and that would give Will the upper hand.

Evelyn was still preoccupied with the sprites, but not for long. As he turned his attention back, Vyncent let a spell fly, burning five of them into balls of ash. He felt their deaths as five sharp prickles to the skin on his chest. They were bound to him, and it was his responsibility to keep them from harm. He had failed, in more ways than one. He had been foolish to approach Vynce and Evvie – but then, what was a child if not foolish. A smile cracked the melancholy of his face like the sun rising again after a long night. Everything was sure to work out in the end. His parents would take care of it, if the worst came to the worst.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t mad. He could feel his angry self straining to be loose, to fly at his enemies with the fury that only an angry child could emulate. But what good would that do? Vyncent and Evelyn would shred him alive I he tried. It was only the sliver of admiration he could feel in Vyncent’s appraisal of his dodge that kept the darker side of his personality from coming out in earnest. That, and common sense. But his little sprites… Vyncent had killed them, just like that.

“I’ll call mine off if you call off yours,” he growled, suddenly sounding a lot more like an adult. “An interesting fact – sprites live off magic. The more you throw at them, Vyncent, the less it works.” It wasn’t strictly true – if Vyncent varied his spells enough, the small, unintelligent creatures wouldn’t be able to adapt. But anything, anything, to get Evelyn, who was suddenly a pressing problem again, off his back. “Get your little friend to change back.” Not very eloquent, or threatening, but it would work. If it didn’t, he didn’t know what to do – he could only dodge so much.

He turned to Evelyn. Even if he couldn’t convince him, he might be able to convince her. “Don’t you ever think for yourself?” he asked angrily. “Or are you just a little painted puppet for him to play with?” He didn’t think that he needed to name ‘him’.

[Angel ♥]

Will could have said whatever he wanted to her, called her almost any name under the sun and attacked her with all the magic he had and there would still be a chance that she wouldn't have left his body as an unrecognizable corpse, she might even have let him live if Vyncent had coaxed her into it. But now? Now little Will had just crossed a line, a mental line that Evvie had drawn around her mind and he had just shattered that. Any reference at all to her being under someone else's control sparked a blind rage in her that she just couldn't, and didn't want to, even attempt to control. She was a puppet to no-one, not even Vyncent. They were friends and she was free, free enough to make her own decisions and free enough to snap whatever strings the child thought that she was being controlled by for at least long enough to rip him to shreds.

Blind rage sparkled in her eyes as her gazed sharpened on Will, everything else fading into the background, senses focused on every minute move that the child made. She swiped at the sprites in that buzzed around in front of her with a heavy paw, knocking them out of the air, ignoring the unpleasant stinging sensation that they had left playing over her paw as she stepped forward. Her every flex and tauten of her muscles carefully controlled, Evelyn slipping from being a twisted and rather angry shifted to an enraged and dangerous predator. Her claws scraped over the stone beneath her paws, tail flicking behind her in an agitated manner. Her teeth were bared and she was growling again now, the deadly sound rolling from her tongue.

This was the kind of rage that you only experienced a few times in your life, and our darling little shifter had only ever experienced it once before; when she had murdered and mutilated her Master. Her mind had gone blank and she hardly remembered half of the horrors that had unfolded between those four walls, but the memories of her Master's pain-filled screams still brought a smile to her lips even in her lowest moments. It was strange that a mere child could invoke such a violent emotion within her again, then again. Evelyn's mind was unstable and damaged, it was a surprise that this kind of rage didn't happen more often, but it was lucky that it didn't. If this happened more often then Vynce might have to kill her because it was doubtful that she would even be able to stop herself from hurting him to get to her target.

Evelyn moved suddenly to run at Will, not pouncing so that she had more control over the attack, fur rippling as she bounded toward the child, closing the distance between them in two, long bounds. Ready or not, here she comes...

[Vyncent Schwarz]

Yes, it did seem that Vyncent really couldn't be bothered to conjur any magic to fend off the swirl of sparks, he didn't even bother to scan it as he stepped to the right with a speed no mortal could manage, letting the swarm of silver disappate onto the ground a foot away from him. So Will was safe for now - the demon thought he could use offensive magic, he even seemed a little interested in the boy as he frowned lightly, tilting his head to the side a little. He took the rage-filled glare as though Will had given him a gift, a soft chuckle escaping his lips.

"Call her off?" he mused, flitting his gaze at Evelyn and then back again, "What do you think I am, her keeper? I don't control her, we just generally tend to have the same opinion on things... especially when those things involve the destruction or annihilation of another being." he told him innocently... well, as innocently as a man like Vyncent could sound. The result was rather like trying to put a circular puzzle piece into a square slot - it was detatched and rather malicious instead of virtuous. Then he smiled again, Amor slipping from her sheath as though he hadn't even touched her, the gleaming ebony blade catching the light like fresh ink. "That's alright, boy. Magic isn't the only thing I'm adept at." he informed Will, holding the sword at his side as if to prove that he would use it if the boy dared to venture down from the wall.

He winced as Will spoke to Evelyn - he hadn't known the shifter for long, but he had gathered a few main points to watch out for when it came to her. Number one; she adored colour and silver bells and could possibly be bribed with them, number two; she loathed being touched and number three; you never, ever called her a puppet or a doll. And then suddenly there it was. That blast of pure anger that poured from Evelyn hit him much in the way as a physical blow might have, the demon having to take a step back to stop himself falling. Why was everyone getting so angered today, it was becoming addictive! The red in Vyncent's eyes might have gotten a little brighter then from that shot of violent, bloody emotion - the demon was on a high now, and that would probably mean something very bad for anyone who even spoke to him. He turned lazily back towards Will, smirking and then---

"OH MY GOD, IT'S THEM!" Vyncent spun on heel, the woman's scream having caught his attention instantly, his over-bright eyes focusing on her in seconds. A little crowd of people had gathered around the ruin by this point, and a rallying cry of disbelief was slowly rippling across it. Well, he could thank Will for this too, he supposed. His bastard sprites had made him drop the illusion spell, and now they had been found. He could just forget any ideas of stealthily finding those nobles who'd poisoned them, couldn't he? Not that he was thinking of that at the moment, he was still relishing Evelyn's rage... hell, he doubted he had been in this good of a mood in YEARS! His insane laughter rang out over the desolate wreck, his back to Will and Evelyn as he glanced over the townspeople, who admittedly shrank back under the sheer madness of his gaze.

"Evelyn..." he murmured loud enough for her to hear, the sheer heat of the flames just waiting to burst from his hands making the tips of his silvery hair stir. "Leave the boy a minute. This is more exciting." he told her, not bothering to glance over his shoulder. They were both in particularly bloodthirsty moods, faced with the civilians they'd only recently terrified before. This was going to be... fun. And Will was safe... for now.