Groceries - Part 1

Antionette walked into the base, happy to see that Lyrebird, Puppy, as they called him, was still chained to his table leg as normal, fast asleep. She checked his pulse. Okay, he's not dead
She checked the fridge, hoping to find some kind of snack, but all there was nothing but ice cubes and a God-knows-how-old sandwich. She scowled, and tossed it into the trash bin.
"What newbie forgot-" but she stopped.
Oh yeah, we haven't recruited anybody new yet...
She cursed herself inwardly.
"This time it's my turn to do groceries," she announced to no one in particular.
And she turned and headed out the door.

Hone scowled as he snatched up a couple of the mushrooms that grew almost everywhere in his home.  He was approaching his destination; a large, rotting wooden door, which was set into the ceiling.  He shoved it aside, then flinched as sunlight spilled down and lanced across his skin like fire.  He hissed and quickly pulled his hood up before acceding through the door.  He emerged into the upper world and glanced to make sure nothing was watching, then sealed the door behind him. (Which was a located in a grave, on which were encribed the cryptic words,)





He wrapped his cloak around him tightly, and lowered his headband, just in case his hood fell down.  He stomped, took a moment to survey his surroundings, and took off towards the cemetery gate.

Ten seconds later he tripped over a bush.  

Stumbling and cursing silently, the underworld dweller stomped again, re-angled himself, and started off again.  Now he remembered why he hated coming topside.

Antionette glanced around. She was nearing the cemetery. Devil shrimp knew why the normal route to the market was near a cemetery. She should have that changed.
Antionette heard a loud crash and rustling as something tripped over something. "A bush," she assessed, "And a person."
A really clumsy person. Who is in a cemetery. Or a zombie. If those exist.
Not willing to find out, she sped up her pace.

Hone growled, a low, guttural rumbling from deep within his throat. It had only been five minutes, and already he had crashed into:

Bushes (x3)
Trees (x2)
Tombstones (x5)
Gates (x2)
Walls (x8)
Squirrels (x1)

This was starting to become annoying. He stomped rapidly and caught 'sight' of someone passing by. Out here he could only judge their posture roughly, and details were little more then guesswork at best, but he could tell that they were walking quickly. He crouched down, then released his coiled muscles and sprang into the air, traveling over the gate and landing silently on a rock roughly six metres away. He straightened and approached the figure.

Antionette was listing off the things she needed to get. Which meant basically everything. "Bread, milk, honey... oh, and of course, I have to check out that new shipment of neurotoxin for Lyre... and... beef..." Antionette furrowed her brow. "Beef, or pork? Well, I'll just get both then. And what about fruits..." The girl muttered to herself a bit more before she sensed a presence. She looked up to see a rather eccentric looking boy walk her way.

The other individual was looking at him.  He pulled a stone tablet and a piece of chalk out of his pouch and scrawled a quick, 'Excuse me?' onto it.  He hoped that they wouldn't notice that he most probably came out of the cemetery.  He REALLY hoped that they didn't see him come out of the grave...

"Excuse you," Antionette said in a hurried tone, "Did you need something?" She scanned the boy briefly. Pale and rather... sloppy. Rather and sloppy were hardy the words for it. Such eccentricity could be counted as normal in this city, though, a small thought came to mind.
Zombie boy.
Well, either way, Antionette was currently more interested in the prospect of proper food.

He wiped the tablet clean and sensesed that she was probably looking at him.
He ran through his mental list quickly.
Eyes? Covered by blindfold.
Blindfold? Shadowed by hood.
Neck scars? Hidden by high collar.
Flute? Strapped to his back and hidden beneath his cloak.
Facial scars/bruises/cuts/boo-boos? Hood... Hopefully.
He then wrote, 'Could you please direct me to the nearest location where I may trade for food and possibly fabrics and weapons?'

"We're headed for the same place then. Just over that way." Antionette briefly considered the fact he was blind (at least, blindfolded), and probably couldn't tell what she meant by 'that way'. "Should I... go with you?"

Hone weighed his options. He could stumble around for an hour or more, or he could go with the stranger. He chose option B, nodding his head sharply. And he might learn something about the current going-ons in the city...

Antionette looked over the boy one more time, and decided there was no harm in at least walking him over. "Okay then, follow me. Just remember, if you get lost, I'm not going to bother finding you." She turned briskly and began off towards the market.

The stranger led him through a narrow alley, and Hone took the time to click his tongue. The stranger was a bit shorter than him, but it probably looked as if he was at least a head shorter because of his hunched appearance. He could sense the annoyance in her (he had identified the voice as female) tone as she agreed to help him. He could sense the same odor of rust and grime and dirt and fire that all inhabitants of this godforsaken city wore in an unusually strong presence around her, as well as dagger polish and something else.

Antionette glanced around the alleyway. There wasn't anything special about this alley in particular, in fact, it could be counted as normal in this area. She noted disdainfully at the fact that the walls which were once her's were covered in the spray-painted logos of this gang and that gang. (Though this area was considered neutral now.) She felt the unbearable urge to pull out her knife and slash the walls, though it was pretty much a waste of all the time she had put into cleaning off her weapons earlier.
"Just bit further ahead," she said as they stepped out of the alley. "What are you going to buy anyways?" She never usually felt the need to ask such questions, but this boy just looked rather... odd.

As soon as they stepped out of the alley, he smelt them. The only reason he hadn't done so before was that the whole place stank of them. The foul reek of sweat and alcohol. It was one of the small gangs that occupied neutral territorries and hung around bars and such, threatening the innocents for food, shelter, and, of course, alcohol. There were seven of them, and they were waiting to ambush random people. They were idiots, but they were also huge, beefy, drunk, idiots that hunted in packs. Goddammit, of course they had to be armed, too. They had knives, crowbars, and hammers. Oh, and he was half blind.

"Che." Antionette pulled out her knife. If she knew she was going to be attacked by a random group of drunk thugs on her way, she would have brought a machete instead. (Not that it really mattered, but a machete would have probably got her through them faster. Literally, if you catch my drift.) She sighed to herself in annoyance, noting to add an extra bottle of dagger polish to her list.
"I trust you can hold your own?" she said, not taking her eyes off the drunkards. Anybody could hold their own in this city, but beefy drunkards were not exactly the easiest of possible opponents. Besides, the other boy was rather skinny (again, rather was not the best description) and shorter than she was. (Though, the way he was hunched over, it was hard to tell.)
She was hoping she wouldn't have to take down all of them at least.

Hone noticed the stranger draw a knife. Good. He hoped he wouldn't have to kill all of them. He paused. 'Strike that.' he thought. That was exactly what he was hoping. He drew in a long, deep, ragged breath, then let out a soul-chilling laugh that could make even the strongest man shrink back in fear. The thugs froze in their tracks, stopped cold in sheer terror. He felt the female tense and tighten her grip on her knife. A grin cut across his face. It was time to kill. He rushed forward, his hood blowing back from the sudden acceleration. Hone barely noticed. He reached back and unstrapped his flute from his back, twirled it, and brought it to his lips. He played a few quick notes, then twisted the bone and separated it into two halfs, the two, long daggers flashing into view as he jumped, kicked off the wall, and sank the first dagger into the flesh of a drunkard's neck. The second buried itself into another thug's chest. He ducked under a pair of legs, then brought his legs up into an arching kick that snapped the man's head forward, killing him instantly.
It wasn't until five bodies lay around him that he realized that his blindfold had slipped.
Revealing one larger-than-average blank eye.

Antionette finished off the other few and dusted herself off a bit. She turned her attention to the boy. Well, luckily he was a good fighter (by Antionette's overly raised standards, which meant to any bystanders, he probably seemed inhuman). She caught sight of his eye, which was huge and completely white. Being an orphan growing up in the city, barely anything seemed to frighten her anymore, but it made her freeze momentarily, before she gave a small grin. (Which is the closest thing to a smile you would ever see her do).
"You're good," she said, sheathing her knife. Antionette kicked the thug at her feet twice, just to check he was dead (or at least completely traumatized). "But I should hurry and get groceries done."

Hone nodded his agreement, casually wiping his daggers clean with a rag from his cloak.  He then reattatched the two sections and raised his flute yet again.  He paused for a moment, then blew and let his fingers dance across the holes furiously.  The notes flowed together and overlapped until they spoke.
"As should I."  He said, pulling the blindfold back into place, and moving his hood back up.  "I long to be finished with this tedious task."

Antionette was a bit surprised to hear him speak, but nodded.
She reached around in her pouch to double check she still had everything but found nothing except a gaping hole.
'Damn,' she though. 'I must've lost my stuff along the way...'
"Actually, you don't mind if I ask, but..." the girl sighed, "Do you by any chance have any spare items on you I could take?"

He rose to his full height, joints popping.  Hone 'spoke' again.  "Absolutely.  What sort of things do you need?"

"Well, anything works," Antionette said, staring at him in interest as he rose. 'He really does look kinda like a zombie boy if I think about it.

Hone rummade through his cloak pockets and pulled out a few random things: a smal vial, a couple of knives, a rag, a small bundle of... bundles, a bunch of mushrooms*, and a brown paper bag, and a small, white object with holes that looked suspiciously like a human jawbone.  He passed the girl a couple of the mushrooms, a knife, three of the dully-colored cloth bundles, the bag, the jawbone, and the vial, which was filled with a strange orange liquid.  Hone pulled out his flute, gesturing at each object in turn.  "Someone told me a while back that these glow in the dark.  Even though they don't sell for too much, they could be useful, I suppose. I myself have no practical need for them, and they grow everywhere in my home.  They're surprisingly resilient, they only need darkness, moderately cold temperatures, moisture, they don't burn, reproduce one spore on the full moon, and don't burn." The underworld dweller shrugged and moved on.  "The knife is a knife, obviously.  The bundle with the triangular pin (blue) on it is a very nice little mental stimulant drug.  Just a tiny pinch at a time, and I made sure to incorporate something I call reverse-addictiveness.  It tastes pretty much as bad as anything can taste, but if you can stomach it, it helps clear and enhance the mind for around ten minutes, as well as curing drunkenness, and has no side effects whatsoever.  The bundle with the circular pin (green) is a sedative, and the one with the square pin (orange) is a cure for infections.  Just rub it into an infected wound, and give the patient rest.". The boy held the vial up to his eye, then said, "Right.  This is a powerful medicine, and just a drop is nessecary.  Now, this..." He told the girl.  "Is a little whistle I made.  Follow the instructions on the bottom*1 to use it, and, as long as I am in the vicinity, I will come to you.  You can also use it to prove to some friends of mine that you know me."  He chuckled to himself.  That bag has an apple, several assorted poisons, and a sandwich in it.  Now, then, shall we be going?"  He strode forward, then winced slightly in pain as his scars flared up again momentarily, and he fingered his throat.

* The mushrooms give off a phosphorescent blue-green light, about as bright as a lamp.
*1 Scrawled on the bottom of the jawbone whistle are the words, "Let the dead man speak for you, and cry for help, the dead man shall, friend of Hone Kumo."

(*le reads through post*
*le forgets pretty much everything*)

"Thank you..." Antionette took the items, and briefly considered gulping down the sandwich right there and then. Then she remembered the fact that there was Puppy, chained to the table at the base. "We should hurry-" She paused as Hone winced.
"You're not hurt are you?"

'Gah. Ow, ow, ow. Arrrrgghhh.' Dammit. It was hurting more than usual. Alright, that was a serious understatement. "Grh- No, just a little nick- ow." He managed to play. I'm... Nyegh... Perfectly fine..." Hone was barely aware that his breath was coming out in harsh, ragged rasps. He moved his scarf up a bit to make sure his neck was completely covered, as it had been slipping down dangerously far. Talking hurt. Hell, breathing hurt. With titanic effort, Hone gritted his teeth and straightened, pushing the pain in his neck away to focus on the task at hand. 'Damn...'. He thought. 'It hasn't hurt this bad since years ago...' "I- I'm alright..."

"Yeah right," Antionette muttered, looking over him head to toe twice, "Should I bring you back with me? There are painkillers back at our base."
'Damnit, I had brought some with me... Argh, there are too many delays...'

(Pfffffffttttt our characters haven't even introduced themselves yet, lol.)