Rorian the Scholar

"You are right about one thing, KnightMare Tallen: You were made for Nekria."

Rorian walked onto the roof from the doorway, seemingly at a perfect time. It was a little talent of Rorian, one that had been perfected many years ago: the art of simply appearing, seemingly out of nowhere. In reality, he had just finished getting information from his informant, and needless to say Rorian was disappointed in Mr. Kangley. The man barely had enough information to shrink his debt down to Two thousand, one hundred and fifty-six dollars, so Rorian changed the deal to $2159. Mr. Kangley wasn't impressed, but Rorian didn't care: in fact, Rorian had been even drawn the deal out longer than normal, hoping the little man would break and the butler could kill him. Recently, Mr. Kangley's information had become less informative, and more trivial. The only thing that Rorian really had gotten from the man was a street, and that wasn't very useful to him. It wasn't until he saw that stupid dragon Vernigan that Rorian decided to talk to the Knights.

Rorian had followed the dragonoid human carrying the purple haired knight all the way through the city, and when he saw the decent he instantly raced up the stairs - but it wouldn't even look like he had. No sweat covered his brow, no heavy breath came from his mouth. Rorian looked the same as always as he emerged from dark doorway of the somewhat deserted building. The metal roof's resonance of his footsteps almost echoed the emptiness of the building, but that meant nothing to Rorian. After all, this building was practically useless.

"Greetings to you, KnightTruth Vernigan, or in this case Veritas. Knightmare Tallen." He gave a small bow when he had stopped, as was his custom. Naturally, he didn't mean it in any form of respect: Rorian just went through the motions. He gazed at both Tallen and Veritas, and gave them a dry smile. Veritas was by no means intimidating to him, even if he was some dragonoid freak. Tallen had seemingly restrained the beast, but that also held nothing to him. While her power over the shadows would be unnerving to a human, to a man that created the illusion of duplication just by staring into another's eyes it was simple.

"It seems that you did require the assistance of Knighttruth, Knightmare. Nekria sends her regards." While she never told him to send her regards to anybody, Rorian did so anyway to remind those that he spoke to that Nekria was everywhere, and disobeying her was punishable by death. "However, I am not here for simpilties: I have my own matters to attend to. Money to collect, blood to extract." He gave another dry smile, and then it disappeared just as fast.

"You're mission was to head after the Prince, if I am not mistaken. And from what I have heard and seen, is that you ran into some trouble along the way." That dry smile was back. "Tell me, Knightmare - as you would so avidly like to be called - where is the entrance to the Underground?" He did not care if she wanted to know why he was headed towards the Underground, and he would answer if she asked. It would be better, however, if she just assumed that it was not any of her business and answered.

Corvin McMordy

Corvin gave a sigh of relief mixed with annoyances as he peeled his eye away from the scope. It felt like a four year reunion from hell, and Corvin wasn't there to join the party. There were two uninvited party guests, but they flew away with that dragon thing as the plane - weird as shit, if you asked Corvin. Then you had Keir getting all emotional, and Corvin was happy that they were all quite loud so he could pick up the vibrations of their speech. So, Keir was screaming about how Morgan was a dick, Morgan was going all feral and stuff, and the red head looked like a complete idiot. Corvin stood up to leave just as Morgan was starting to go a little psycho, and he knew that it wouldn't be that funny to watch. Corvin gave a puff of his cigarette, and slowly made his way down the stairs, back down to his home.

However, when he made it to the bottom, he instantly picked up very angry sounding tones. While they weren't loud enough for him to catch the words, he could catch the loud vibrations in his hypersensitivity, and his jawbone caught the anger. (Yeah, it is kind of weird to talk about his hearing in his jaw. So many people are completely confused as to how a guy can hear with his jaw bone, but it isn't his fault that the Nobles wanted him to be some sort of snake freak). Corvin sauntered his way towards the sounds, slowly picking up words that were none too tasteful. When he finally found out where they were coming from, he was somewhat shocked: The angry voice was Diaren, who wasn't an angry person to begin with, and Keir, the other end of the yelling. Corvin shoved his way through all of the losers that had crowded around as Diaren parted his way through the crowd. Now, with all the information he needed, Corvin spat out his cigarette onto the ground and spoke.

"I didn't know you were a pansy, Diaren." Corvin had his back to Diaren, and then turned around with the same dull eyes that he always had before nighttime. "It's been four years, kiddo, Four Fucking Years. That's one hell of a long time for a friendship to splinter. But apparently you don't understand that." Corvin narrowed his lazy eyes, and said a little more softly. "Best friends hold the longest grudges. Best friends make the worst enemies." He started walking away when he piped up. "Now, if you're not too busy bitching, help me find those restraints so we can go save that dumbass red head. It's either that, or get Keir to kill him, after all." Corvin's words held no remorse, and no excitement. He would truly hate it if the Underground had to go to war against Morgan, but if that was a stepping stone to killing Nekria, he would take it - regardless of his feelings towards an old smoking buddy.

Clyde Maxum

Morgan wasn't answering him. He looked like he was in pain and Clyde wasn't sure he liked that wild look in his eyes so much anymore. Clyde felt a whole swarm of emotions--all of which he wasn't sure what to do with. Overall, he really just felt like pulling chunks of his hair out and setting this whole entire Underground on fire. So what if Prince Jerk said he wasn't allowed inside? That guy ran away with tears in his eyes and his tail between his legs. If he broke down into an emotional mess just from seeing Morgan, then what could he really even do? Who cared if he was a mind reader or all-knowing knowledge whatever. He'd be nothing but ash if Clyde set his pretty clothes on fire. ...He had a feeling Morgan wouldn't be too happy about that, however.

So what was he supposed to do? On the inside, the Prince had probably shut himself away and he wasn't allowed inside without causing more ruckus than he'd like and here on the outside, Morgan was changing and being weird and not talking to him and--what was he supposed to do? There was a reason Clyde wasn't the leader. He was second in command because he could control a group. He could handle people and get them to do what was necessary. But in a time like this...he was at a loss. He couldn't just smack Morgan upside the head and tell him to snap out of it, could he? That probably wouldn't go over well. And there wasn't enough time to fight through the Underground idiots and convince that jerk of a prince to help him out with a situation he was obviously well aware of.

"Morgan, you have to--"

Shit! In a flash, Morgan had him pinned against the wall. Clyde stiffened, staring back at him and wondering what he was trying to do. He looked angry, but what was he angry about? If he was mad about Keir, then he should go attack him, not Clyde! Clyde was only trying to help. He was only trying to figure out what the hell was going on. All he wanted to do was get the groups together. All he wanted to do was get them to go against the Nobles. That's it. He didn't ask for this. Nobody warned him about this--especially not the one person he thought he could trust to tell him. If Morgan ever settled himself back down to normal, he was never going to hear the end of this.

"Morgan, you're starting to piss me off." That's what he said, but...honestly, Clyde wasn't really sure he wanted to do anything about it. Morgan was clearly ticked about something. It was obvious he wasn't in his right mind. He knew the change could sometimes take over him, but he'd never seen it this bad before. "Don't kill me for this." Reaching up, Clyde grabbed Morgan's wrists and gave them a sudden, sharp burn. It didn't last very long since he didn't want to give Morgan any permanent damage, but it was enough to get released. He stood and held his hands up defensively, looking around. What happened to all those people that were here earlier? How come nobody wants to help me now? He glanced down the entrance of the Underground and swallowed. "Screw it." Morgan will kill me if I stay out here! I can't knock him out. There's nothing to hit him with, so.. "I bet you can't catch me!" I really hope he doesn't. With that said, Clyde turned tail and ran straight down into the Underground, ignoring the warning Keir gave him earlier. If they weren't going to come out and help him, then he was going to bring the problem inside to them. They wouldn't have a choice if they were in danger too.

Keir Craig
The sound of bolts being ripped out of where they should have been made Keir open his eyes just enough to see what was going on. Just in time to get punched in the face. Perfect. As if this day wasn’t crappy enough. “You…you…fucking…piece…of shit!” God dammit Dairen, the stupid annoying child. Keir rolled his eyes, as best he could, as he was pulled up into Darien’s face. Could he just hurry up? The longer he annoyed Keir, the more severe his punishment would be. “When did you get so damn spineless?! I thought…you told me once…that Morgan was your friend and that you would do anything to save him, even though he had left. Where’s that now?! Are you going to just let him die?! Or have you forgotten what happened last time organ tried to fight the changing?”

Stop it. Just stop it. Keir narrowed his eyes and over his shoulder, glared at the other Undergrounders just standing around. Everyone would pay.
“And to think I actually looked up to you once. But because Morgan didn’t agree with you years ago and left, you’re just going to throw him at the mercy of something he didn’t and doesn’t want, and jeopardize your own people. You’re no better than the Nobles you say that you’re against.”

Along the way, Corvin had come along and talked to Dairen, but Keir was too engrossed in the beautiful punishments he was thinking up for the little bastard that he heard next to nothing. Oh well, they were gone by the time Keir had emerged from this thoughts.
Keir stood on his own two feet when the kid let him go and stared after him, his face set in stony anger. Glaring into the crowd, he saw Lily making her way through. A tense smile tilted his lips as she glanced at the blood on the floor and hurried off to clean it with something. “If you don’t get the hell away from my door, I will personally punish every single one of you.” He stated, his voice cold with fury. It was safe to say they cleared out pretty quickly after that. Only Lily came back, patting him on the shoulder lightly before cleaning up the blood and calmly walking out of the room.

He glanced around the room and his eyes settled on the door, broken from the hinges. First thing the brat did, fix the damn door. Huffing Keir pushed the mask off his face and let it crumble into one of grief. He had been doing fine without Morgan. He had moved on. He was getting happy again. He was healing. And he just comes and pretends like nothing ever happened and it hurt. He wanted to punch him until he died, yell at him until he went deaf, hug him until he lost his breath, and just breakdown and cry. He felt like shit. And with Morgan it wasn’t going to ever get better. He wanted to repair their friendship, but he couldn’t trust him. He wanted to be the way they were, but life was hard on Keir, and he was sure it was less than kind for Morgan the past 4 years. Neither was the same person they were when they parted ways. Neither wanted to apologize. Both wanted to forget, but neither could. It was a horrible circle of…horribleness and Keir couldn’t find an end to any of it, unless one of them died, or was put in enough danger to make their old actions seem childish and stupid.

A shrill scream sounded from the Underground. Keir turned his head and listened closely. It came again, followed by pounding feet and claws. He cursed loudly and placed the mask of fury back on his face, making his way to this closet, Keir pulled out the cuffs he had kept from Morgan’s days there. Of course he kept them, hidden in the darkest parts of his closest.

He walked out with a purpose, his eyes alight with the cold fire of anger and a touch of nostalgia. He found Clyde in no time and with a growl of anger, he yanked the boy out of the way and stood in front of Morgan, who stopped for a bit. “Morgan.” He started slowly, the tenseness of his muscles fading, “Hey I know you can understand me. Fucking think about what I am saying you asshole.” He snarled. Well it wasn’t like all the anger left his body, “I want you to stay still while I put these stupid cuffs on you until you calm down.” He took a few steps toward the tiger-man, “and if you touch me with any part of you, I swear to god I will kill you myself and leave you to bleed out slowly.” Darting forward he wrapped the cuffs around the tiger and chained him tightly to the nearest wall. Thankfully they weren’t in a heavily populated area of the Underground. Maybe Clyde wasn’t so dumb.

Speaking of Clyde, Keir turned to him with a scowl, “I believe I told you to not come in here, did I not?” he growled low in his throat and stalked over to the boy. He lightly hit the back of his head and sniffed, “Idiot kid.”