Azai's Story

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Azai had been enjoying a night's rest in his web just moments before and now he was falling... and falling... and falling. He wasn't a fly! He didn't have wings! How the hell did that ominous voice think that it was a great idea to have him spiraling down in the darkness like this? He had tried to use his webs to cling to something but this inky blackness had no ledge, branch, or ceiling. It was just emptiness. He did have a strange bag that appeared beside him but that wasn't helping him right now. He almost wished he was back in the mansion he despised. At least things there made sense! Why was it that he was the one that always got snatched away from his home and brought somewhere else? This was the second time, damn it! And this time, he hadn't even done anything to warrant his capture!

Suddenly, the shadow seemed to break open and spit the spider out and he continued to drop. The ground and people were fast approaching. "Ah!" he cried out a bit undignified as he landed on one of the creatures below. Both he and the stranger hit the ground hard though Azai had to admit, he was lucky this guy cushioned his fall. He winced and started to try and get to his feet but the damn bag dropped on his back then and he winced as he hit the man beneath him again. He groaned and shook his head, his dark strands falling against his pale skin. He looked up, his deep amethyst gaze catching a glimpse of the dog in front of him. He had never seen a creature like him before. His eyes widened as he got on his hands and knees, careful to actually use the ground as leverage instead of the man. He pulled himself off the stranger and dusted himself off, his gaze never leaving the strange four-legged beasty. He wondered how the creature's innards tasted like.

The black widow then realized there were others in the strange place he found himself. He tensed and crouched low. He gave a hiss and bared his fangs. He really didn't like meeting strangers as of late. The voice said he was in a different world, but was it really a different world or was the master of the house toying with him? Punishing him for biting that patron? He wasn't supposed to bite or harm the others after all but it really wasn't his fault the man kept poking his face. The guy was asking to be bitten. He didn't recognize anyone or anything here. And being out in the open like this put him at a disadvantage. His only true weapons in this situation were his fangs and claws but he couldn't take on all of these strangers. Some of them looked like their skin wouldn't be easily penetrated.

If it wasn’t for her own common sense (and a well-placed pinch), Dawn would have been long convinced that the stress had finally gotten to her. That she was having some surreal fever dream, where dragons and suits of armor and cyborgs walked about as if they weren’t typically products of fantasy. There was another part of her that mused the possibility of them being some odd variety of Gifted, which, admittedly, made more sense. It still didn’t change the fact that voices were apparently coming out of nowhere, or that all of the surrounding group seemed more fit to be in a novel than actual flesh and blood- or, in some cases, metal and oil.

Dawn had found herself pausing instead of pursuing the exit, given the fact that only a few seemed to be trying to leave at the moment. The girl had sat herself in one of the warmer patches, focusing on pawing through her bag and getting tabs on the supplies she had overlooked before. As expected, the duffel contained the basics of survival that many others held- although in contrast to the same majority, hers held no weapons at all. Of course, there was the basics of tools and some knives, although it was clear that all were used more for survival than not. There were clothes, rations, iodine drops and matches, but little else.

However, she was hardly bothered by the lack of supplies inside. After all, the raven didn’t have a reputation for her skills with a knife or gun or anything of the sort, meaning that any such items would have been pointless. Rising from the tile, Dawn allowed the bag to hang over her shoulder in the same fashion as the others, listening with interest as one girl who looked to be about her age, and one of the more...brow-raising profiles, began to reason that they should leave. That the world outside would be completely safe. Considering that she still lacked quite a bit of knowledge on what was happening, she merely contented herself with listening to the argument, attempting to get her thoughts better settled on the events of their apparent capture.

That was, until a familiar voice caught her attention. A familiar presence, which she knew did not belong- shouldn’t even exist for that matter. While Dawn didn’t have the best education in regards to biology, she was positive that after some time after being dead and covered in a few feet of soil, corpses didn’t have brain waves. Or working vocal cords.

Dawn turned.

She had been holding some amount of expectation that when she did, there would be nobody there, really. Even with the oddity that this world was shaping out to be, she was skeptical in regards to it bringing people back from the dead. However, as she completed her rotation, she found no one else than a certain Coleman.

“Drake..?” The word was quiet, but the shock was prominent in her tone nonetheless. It was like seeing a ghost- the other stood as if she hadn’t seen him buried only a short time ago. Dawn did little more than stare for a few moments, unable to comprehend the sight, before breaking herself out of her trance at the sight of familiar green outfits. Erubescian military garb. While she would have been surprised, seeing a dead friend suddenly back among the living had left her a bit numb to shock at the moment.

Dawn said nothing more for another few moments. Silent, processing this information, before suddenly pulling on a smile- somewhat strained, but a smile nonetheless- and bringing her attentions to the man who had fallen from the sky- seemingly out of nowhere.

This was seeming more and more like a trippy fever dream again, or like some Gifted had decided to drag her into some bizarre...thing. She would fully decide which one at a later time.

Khojin gazed up at the sky for a moment, considering. If she were alone, then sure, she'd go out no problem, probably get 20 malms by the end of the night. But with a group of... how many people were there? Here, Adira, Rasteva, the four or five from the same world, Stride, Lightning Hei-Senn, armor dude 2, white hair boy, girl with worse black clothing than her, Shao in the dress, a dog, and the new guy who apparently fell on... Who was that? Regardless, their number was easily around a dozen, far more than she felt comfortable travelling with.

She clicked her tongue and dropped her arms, swinging them a bit at her sides. "Fine. But I still think we should split into smaller groups. If Rend has somethin' he wants us to do, I'm sure he can organize it in stages. Besides, three of the others already bolted, so..." She flicked her finger to Stride, Rasteva, and Adira. "I call these three. If we do go with that idea."

She picked her bag back up and slung it over her shoulder. No use leaving it in the dust. She lifted her leg to begin walking before another thought struck her.

"Hey," she began, resettling her foot. "If we are s'pose to work with each other, shouldn't we know what everyone brings to the team?"

“Oh, aren’t you gorgeous!” Verge held out a hand for the dog to sniff while the other fumbled out two of the treats, which he offered flat on his palm to the large canine. He was already soaked, so he didn’t mind the droplets thrown and he examined the animal, an unknown breed but seeming healthy enough, lots of fur, bright eyes, wet nose (he’d read somewhere that was a good sign) and a healthy appetite.

“Ah, too bad.” he muttered, turning to look at the lady as the dog bounded to her, “But I guess I wouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to explain. Think she knew this Rend being could take away powers? Name’s Verge, by the way.” he introduced, while looking into her eyes. The skills that gave him a Mirror of Deception gave him a feeling that she might be lying, but he didn;t push. He assumed the lady would be kind enough to share, if there truly was a solution in the box he’d seen passed over. “And ah, no, she’s not mine. The bag wasn't labelled, so I was curious, and I guess she smelled the treats?” he offered by way of explanation. And then, with a shout, he stumbled back as a man fell from the sky, right onto the lady he’d been speaking with.

Verge blinked golden eyes and stared at the black haired being now raising himself off the squashed lady (she appeared to be alright, if maybe a bit winded). Pretty purple eyes locked on the dog hungrily, and Verge took another step back. His summon, which had appeared in his panic, did the opposite and stepped forward. A friendly silhouette of a Peter pan style, it waved, gestured back at verge, and then spun a finger near its head in the gesture for “crazy”, before shaking it’s head as if with exasperation. Verge, standing behind it, rolled his own eyes as he glanced over the true form, a tall spindly demon with razor sharp claws. “Um, hello?” he greeted, already regaining composure. “I’m Verge, I’m not going to hurt you, what’s your name? We need to find your bag.”

Kora folded her arms and rolled her eyes upon her point getting met rather..well very dismissively.

"Fine. Believe whatever you like. By all means just stroll out and eat whatever you find on the floor if it suits you. No-one is obligated to follow though. If experience has taught me one thing, it's that running into a place with no idea what's waiting for you is the best way to get you, and other people killed. I'd vote for Madison's proposal, but splitting up suits me fine, though Glowstick and Saika are staying with me regardless."

She'd cast a glance toward Makorai upon the mention of 'experience'. She was rather less concerned about individuals getting themselves killed, that was, ultimately, their own choice. She was however more concerned about one person's hubris being paid in the lives of others. She'd seen more of that than she really wanted to think over.

"And it sounds like me, Madison and Masky there are all on the same page about it. I dunno how everybody else feels."

At least partially she was more inclined to stick with these people, even though them being aware of her name was.... a little disconcerting...because they'd been taking her concerns even moderately more seriously. Also one of them hadn't just tried to kill her.

Plus now they had Skip in tow, and environmental extremes were a bit of a problems for someone with his rather....unique talents. Triggering Skip's special skill would end the game for all concerned, she was pretty sure of that.

At the point the new figure fell from the sky.
Kora took a moment to dwell on the fact that that would probably have really surprised her maybe an hour ago, and now was getting to be sort of an everyday occurrence. Like a rain shower or something.


---

The Dog had padded up to Madison upon being called, and, almost immediately flopped onto her back, all four feet in the air, and was enjoying being petted through the talking.

She was perfectly contented with this during the speech.... right up until the moment when something landed on its new friend.

Dog scrambled to her feet, gazing over at the thing with mismatched eyes for a moment before skittering back in alarm and standing, feet planted and hackles raised, some distance away.


----

Over by the edge, the figure in the skins and paint lifted its head from the puddle, coughing feebly and pushing itself onto the edge of the shallow dip with its elbows, making it far enough to avoid the imminent thread of drowning before dropping its head again, resting it on one arm and attempting, rather vaguely, to make some sense of all the non-sensical things that were taking place through half-lidded eyes.

It was all strange, but she was quite used to strange.

He didn’t know.

Even without looking within his mind, his obliviousness towards...well, what had happened was obvious enough. Drake was just as animated as before, as alive as before, just as Dawn had remembered. He brought up the presence of the Erubesco troops, but it was the thing that he had added after that truly caught her attention- the idea of an alternate world. Of them having been taken as the voice had said, and thrown into a place where the beings they had seen were completely natural. It didn’t take long for the girl to put the pieces together, to work out the implications of what had been told to her, and what she had seen with her own eyes.

If they really were in an alternate world, then…

Dawn had already seen proof that others had come from her world already. The woman, Kora, and another from the attack, the radioactive man whose name had slipped her mind, and now Drake. Given the fact that they were currently surrounded by walking suits of armor and actual dragons, this...being having the ability to take some from alternate timelines- even alternate dimensions, perhaps- didn’t seem too far-fetched.

Or perhaps the fever dream theory was still plausible.

Either way, there would be no point in making any dry comments of actually seeing ghosts, or even bringing up the subject of what had happened in her own time. Dawn only turned to look at her company once more, put up a smile that was- hopefully- more genuine in appearance than the first, and did her best to steady her emotions for the time being. Brooding over all of...this would only bring more problems than they already had, after all.

“I’m fine,” she lied, a soft, breathy laugh escaping her. “I’m just...a bit surprised at all this, really. Nothing too bad, really- we just need to focus on what ‘Rend’ wants from us, right?” Before Drake had a chance to answer, however, Dawn’s attention was once again drawn away. Not by the brewing tensions, or even the fact that the person who had fallen was now eying a...dog? as if it were a piece of meat.

No; while the eerie nature of how the man was observing the canine was something to be concerned about, Dawn was more focused on the girl currently drowning in a puddle. Eyes widened, she quickly muttered a “hold on” before practically sprinting over to the person. With as much gentleness as she could muster for the situation, she dragged the girl out of the water and onto a relatively dry section of tile, and began to check to see if her airways were blocked. While Dawn didn’t have the same medical experience that others could boast, she at least knew well enough to perform the basics- namely, how to keep someone from choking to death if necessary.

While all this was going on a, a brown haired man entered the arena, strode to the center, looked up at the sky, cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled. "HEY REND! MIND TELLING ME WHAT THE HELL YOU DID TO MY POWERS?! THEY AREN'T WORKING RIGHT AND I DON'T HAVE TO PATIENCE TO FIGURE THIS SHIT OUT!"

He then lowered his hands and head, brushed his hands off on the t-shirt he was wearing, and spun around 360 degrees, waving. "Hello everyone!" he called out. "Sorry about that. Rend decided my powers made stuff too easy so I don't have them anymore!" he announced, looked around once more, and trotted to the group arguing about location. "Missed the first part of the argument, so explain to me why making camp out in a desert -and yes, I checked- is better than in a place with walls and a roof defense? But loudly okay? You're all really unobservant, because a guy fell from the sky over there, and with the yelling going on, you'd think it would draw heads. Aaaaand there's kinda a girl drowning over there, I'm going to go help out, so yell your explanation." he then moved over to the girl in the mask, where another was already lifting her out of the water and onto a drier piece of land.

"Does she have water in her lungs?" he asked with concern. "Or do you want to lie her down?" He asked Dawn, his powers clearly not working right, or future sight would have already given him the answer, instead of him waiting for the answer like a normal person.

An argument- a polite one, as one would expect from the vampire, but an argument nonetheless- was on Madison’s lips in response to Rasteva’s. He had been ready to point out the position of the sun in the sky, note that he only thought that the arena would make a better camp for the night instead of the outside- after all, as he had mentioned earlier, there was far more defense in the construct than going out in the open. Someone, he would have said, could have stood watch, and awoken the others if necessary. It could serve as a base until they had come up with a proper course of action, instead of merely charging out into the wilds completely unprepared.

However, he had no chance to say any of this, for as soon as the first syllable had sounded into the air, Madison had found himself abruptly carrying the weight of another out of nowhere. He stumbled, hands moving to secure his hat to his head before he collided with the ground. Hopefully, he thought, the dog wouldn’t end up injured in his fall- she was quite the sweet thing, after all, and it would be a shame if she getting hurt.

Luckily, from what he could see, she had managed to get away before he had fully hit the tile- while she was obviously startled by the suddenness of what had happened. Smiling at the creature, Madison moved to lift himself from the ground, finding it a much easier task when the weight rolled from his back. Curious as to see what had fallen onto him, he rose, brushing himself off as he looked down at the being.

It was another humanoid, by the looks of it. Not human, that was for sure- his scent gave him away as something...else, although Madison could not tell- but humanoid enough, especially when in comparison to some of their other company. The man had no wings, however, making it a bit of a puzzle as to how he had ended up so far in the air anyway. The researcher looked up, peering at the clouds above for a moment before lowering himself a little and extending a hand to help the fellow up.

“Well, that was quite the entrance you made!” He said chipperly, apparently not fazed at all by having someone fall onto him. “Are you alright, there? It seemed you landed a bit hard, there.” Seeing as he had not had the chance to answer his other companion before the little surprise, Madison briefly turned his head, flashing a smile at Verge yet again.

“At any rate, my name’s Madison. She may have known about what our host had intended, although she had left too soon for me to really tell-”

It was this moment that Madison had laid eyes upon the odd shadow that had begun to dance about Verge, causing another flare of goodnatured curiosity in his features. He didn’t get the chance to ask what it was (a shame this kept happening, really, he needed to sit some of these people down and properly interview them) before the sound of shouting rose into the air. Blinking, he looked over, took sight of the person- a human, most likely-, and regarded them for a few moments before turning back to the one on the ground. Didn’t want to leave him hanging, after all.

Nevertheless, it was still rude to ignore someone, so Madison once again raised his voice in order to properly reply. “Our company has a feeling that we’ll end up in more danger here than outside, because they believe that this world is made up of parts of ours.” An odd logic, really, given that there was no evidence of such an idea, but there was no point trying to figure out a puzzle that didn’t need to be solved so shortly. “They also think we should all split up for the time being- and, oh, I'm fine, Kora, thank you for asking."

A bit of a summary for both him, as well as any who had missed a majority of the argument. It wasn' t the most complete, really, but as long as they were there, they would have to learn how to work together on short notice.

---

Azai's narrowed eyes scanned the rather numerous members of this arena at a bit of a loss. Most had ignored his appearance which suited him just fine in this situation. At this point, being ignored or missed was a good thing. That meant he could find his way out of this situation as quickly as possible without being attacked or something. Then he could sit in a corner and watch what was happening and try and piece together the events. Right now, absolutely nothing was making sense. There was a tin can speaking about powers and talking in the third person maybe? She was odd. There were a wide range of humans and non-human looking things around and some had wings to. He couldn't tell who was friend and who was foe in this situation. He couldn't be back at the manor that was for sure. Kenner would not approve of this and though the man had threatened to put him in the arena if he didn't shape up, this wasn't the arena he spoke of.

The spider began to calm and shift out of his defensive position. Without everyone distracted he could slip away. Unfortunately a couple did spot him and spoke to him. The one he fell on even extended a hand towards him. He instantly crouched and hissed, baring his fangs again in panicked defense. He glanced to the side when he heard a commotion and saw a couple of people saving a stranger from drowning but quickly put that out of mind. That didn't concern him. He turned his gaze back to creature that extended a hand towards him and sniffed the air. Huh. Strange. He smelled male. Why did he wear female attire? It did look good on him but he was sure a male's outfit or perhaps something more revealing would suit him just as well. Azai's own clothing was airy and exposed to show off the elegant markings on his body. Kenner had refused to allow him the gems that normally adorned his body to accent them, but whatever.

He glanced at the two that had spoken to him. One had asked about his name and baggage? Was he talking about that thing that had fallen on him? Why did he want his baggage? He didn't know what was in it, but still. He said he didn't want to harm him but he did call up that... thing. Whatever it was. It was shadowed but it didn't look very friendly. Its motions confused the shit out of him though. What did he want? Verge... that was an interesting name to. He wasn't sure how he wanted to respond.

"Who are you people?" he asked the strangers then. "What is happening? Desert outside?" He glanced around at everyone again and backed away a bit to keep people in his line of sight. He didn't trust any of these people. That voice had said they were from different worlds. That meant he wouldn't know anything about these creatures. But if there was a desert outside, he preferred being in here. there were darker corners that he could tuck himself away in. It was safer than the open. He didn't care if these people died. If they died, more food for him. He didn't exactly want to go back to his world either. This place meant he was free from slavery. He glanced down at the black ribbon on his arm marking him as a black-tier slave. He grinned. He didn't need that anymore. He quickly ripped it off and let it fall to the floor.

Perhaps he wouldn't be attacked. No one here seemed to be attacking each other. He straightened himself slowly. He could easily spring and run away if he needed to. "Madison was it? Interesting...And Verge..." he mused. "You may call me Azai. Why are you wearing female clothing, Madison?" He glanced at Verge again. "And what is that shadow thing? Is that part of you?"

Even with Stride’s face still completely hidden, it didn’t exactly take rocket science to tell she wasn’t pleased at Khojin’s choice in team-building. Another snort had broken free from the hybrid- this one more of indignation than anything- and, uncrossing her arms, took a step forward before voicing her opinion on the matter.

“Look, Kho-gin, you’re kinda fucked up, but you’re still pretty cool. But she,” a jerk of a thumb in the direction of Adira, “actin’ like she’s, uh, havin’ her ‘time ‘a the month’, and Alphonse over there reminds me too much of a patronizing dick I work with. Gotta pass on that, sorry.” As the dragon rider of the two went on to speak of her various list of abilities, Stride couldn’t help but wish in the back of her head that the girl was a guy; if she had been, Stride could have whipped out several “overcompensation” jokes by now.

Nevertheless, she didn’t get to lament the wasted opportunities for long, as another, more interesting event, had suddenly sprouted up- some random asshole suddenly falling from the sky, and crashing right into Madison. At once, her hand planted itself upon the butt of her gun, but upon seeing her coworker get up not much worse for wear- even going so far as to try and help the guy up- she relaxed, only to be taken aback yet again by another person walking into the arena and starting to yell his head off.

“Jesus H. Christ,” she muttered, although the fighter was very much pleased at the man’s affirmation that not much was really out there. Depending on how far the apparent desert went, it would only make sense for them to stick around a while longer to figure things out. His comment on someone drowning, however, brought more surprise from Stride, and she began to look around in search of this someone- only to spot some girl getting dragged out of a puddle by the same guy, as well as another, smaller girl.

Looks like the problem had been taken care of, then.

At Rasteva’s impromptu concert session, Stride bit back yet another curse and turned to look over at the being, squinting as it began to rant about how it wanted them all to pay attention. At first, she was tempted to go back to talking to Kora or someone else (after all, it seemed that all Rasteva wanted was to say that they were now totally cool with changing their mind), but at the mention of “sparring”, she visibly perked up. Of course, while it was hard to say what the others had in store combat-wise, Stride had a personality fit for her occupation, and her blood quickly began to pound at the chance of getting a good brawl.

“Hell yeah, I wanna see some action ‘round here! We goin’ hand-to-hand, or what?” Grinning broadly, the half-breed cracked her knuckles and glanced around to look for any volunteers. True, she was no pro wrestler, but she had some amount of pride after facing off against some of the more brawnier members of the supernatural world.

The man seemed quite obviously wary of Madison, even with the gesture being made towards him in all good intentions. His behavior was reminiscent of a cornered animal, tensing and baring now-visible fangs as if he expected the other to try and strike. Blinking in surprise, Madison drew his hand back again, not wanting to startle the poor soul any further. He had had enough experience in his days to know better than cause more stress in such a situation, so it was with a open smile that he backed away a few steps, providing the stranger with enough room to breathe.

As a flow of questions broke loose from the man, Madison merely waited, patiently listening until there was a large enough lapse for him to answer. “Like Verge said, we’re not here to hurt you or anything of that sort,” he replied. “We’ve all been...taken, you could say, by Rend- the voice you probably heard before you fell. Like you. Apparently, everyone here has to work together to escape.” He paused, going over what questions had been asked within his head, before going on once again. “And, yes, there’s a desert outside- I don’t think we know for sure how far it goes, but some of us are planning to camp for a while here before taking everything on.”

Upon the other’s introduction and following inquiries, the researcher brightened, and moved to rise after his company did so- taking care not to move too fast in the process. “My name is Madison, yes,” he beamed, apparently delighted that his words had been taken into account. “It’s nice to meet you, too Azai- and as for why I’m wearing woman’s clothing…”

Taking a hold of his skirts with both hands, Madison gave a bit of a twirl, the fabrics moving cleanly along with his action. “They’re very comfortable,” he chirped, once he had fully completed his little show. “I’d be glad to let you try one of my outfits if you’re curious. Since I’m currently away from home, I can’t really get out some of my better ones, but I’m sure that they’ll be something that can fit you in there, somewhere.” Even when in the face of danger, and held under the thumb of some omnipotent being, Madison was still focused on wardrobe choice by the sound of it.

Rasteva’s suggestion caused him to turn once again, eyes bright. His second love, just behind fashion; the pursuit of knowledge. What gave meaning to his immortality, drove him to avoid stagnation instead of embracing it like others of his kind. “Personally, I would love to hear any reality theories, if it’s possible. I’ve come up with a few of my own, but I’m very curious as to any other opinions on the matter.” A part of Madison wondered if he should ask to participate in the little spar-session, as well; while he did not count himself among the fighters of SCION, he, admittedly, enjoyed a bit of attention once in awhile. However, the thought was quickly dismissed- after all, showing his hand now would only give away what surprises would liven up the experience later.

So, he chose to abstain. He divided his focus between both current company and Rasteva, eager to gain information from both- because, really, it would be a shame to miss any opportunity to learn in a situation of this sort.

Verge resolved to speak to Madison in private and ask again, maybe the other didn't want to share the fairy's secrets in such a public place.

However, at the moment, he was preoccupied with being told that Madison, the lovely woman he was chatting up, was in fact, a man. He looked at "her" again, blushing just a bit, then decided to stall, speaking to the newcomer that had fallen upon Madison.

"I'm an ordinary human." he said, calmly so that he wound't agitate the scared being. "The only thing not ordinary is that I can summon that shadow thing over there. It's part of me, in a way. I've been told it represents my mind" he shrugged.

Hopefully, that would lead the others to underestimate him. The shadow they saw, now dancing and playing around, gave off a much different impression than the twisted true form hidden under all the illusions. "That guy over there," he waved towards the group by the puddle, "the one without wings, he came in yelling that it was a desert. If he's telling the truth, then yeah. It's a desert. I haven't left yet myself. And yeah, we don't really know what happened, but there is a powerful being keeping us here until we complete some kind of tasks it's set. Are those tattoos?" he then asked curiously, referring to the webs on the black haired boy's pale skin.

And then, having exhausted his list of things to answer, Verge had to face Madison.

"I'm not going to apologize." he said slowly, "because I don't think you're insulted, or else you'd have corrected me when I first called you ma'am. You do look very good though, and clearly." he laughed with just a touch of awkward, "you had me fooled. Nice to meet you, sir." he greeted, and the moment of not knowing what to say next was broken by a glowing man offering him a pill to prevent radiation poisoning. "Um, thanks?" he said, then looked around at his two human companions as if asking what they made of this.

---

My, there was so much happening. All around people were talking about battling each other and testing their abilities. He did not find any appeal in that. He had just marginally missed being thrown into the arena in his own world. There was no way he was willingly going to participate in this fiasco. He didn't have much physical ability and he wanted to keep what talents he did have secret from these people. Though he did come to realize that no on here was indeed going to hurt him, he didn't trust them. He straightened himself completely and made a show of dusting himself off, loosing interest in most of the others around him. They were all strange to him but he only took real interest if they themselves came over to him.

He looked between the cross dresser and the human with the shadow creature. Thus far they were the only two that took an interest in him so they would have to be watched. Why were they interested in him? There were other manner of creature here that were far more interesting than him. He crossed his arms and gave them both a fanged smile. He was momentarily distracted when one of the others came to him and offered him a pill. He accepted it and rolled it between his fingers. He didn't want to just swallow something. The man said something about being radioactive but he didn't really know what that meant. What if this pill was the real threat? He did note that others had swallowed the medication but just as many didn't. "Thanks," he offered before pocketing the pill for now. He'd decide if it was worth it later.

"I won't participate in this battle royale thing you are doing. I find it quite the bore. And that lecture sounds even more so. I'll pass thanks." Hell, maybe he'd be lucky and they'd all kill themselves. Fights like this never went well in the end. He would leave, but if there was a desert outside, staying in the arena sounded more appealing. There were walls all around and could choose a better vantage point. The desert sounded hot and annoying.

The spider turned his attention back to Madison and Verge then.

"I'll leave the dresses to you. You do look ravishing in it," he grinned. "And these aren't tattoos. They are natural markings," he explained to Verge. "Did you want to touch them?" he asked suggestively and let one of his fingers trace one of the lines on his exposed abdomen. He couldn't help it. He loved flirting with others and see how far he could get them into his tangled web before they realized their mistake or good fortune, depending on whether he was actually hungry or had a deeper desire.

Azai walked over to one of the bags on the ground and picked up the one that had fallen on him earlier. He didn't know what was in it but if it was something useful, he wanted to keep it. "I'll go to the benches," he said then to the two interacting with him and walked over to the wall. One his way, he made sure to reach a hand out to caress them both. He tossed his bag over the tall wall and easily climbed over it thanks to his sticky hairs and dropped down on a seat. He rested his feet on the row of seats in front of him and pillowed his head with his hands, effectively stretching himself out a bit.