[Kuzan is on a mountain, looking for a broup of bandits who stole something gooood so he’s gonna steal it from them!] -03:48 Feb 22
[Claire is driving to a party!] -03:52 Feb 22
Claire: It was the first party of the summer. If she missed this party, not only would it be social suicide, but she was going to miss an opportunity to be at the mansion home of GARRET BRADLEY. The sexiest movie star on the planet. Her bestie scored her an invite thanks to a little flirting with someone in wardrobe at his latest movie set. Claire was PSYCHED! So psyched she might have been driving her mom’s black convertiable a little too fast as she speed around mountain road curves. Her cell phone rang and she fumbled to the seat beside her to reach her purse. "HEY! Oh my god, yes, I’m on like, mountain highway 65. Crap I think it’s trying to rain!" she squeaked out as heavy drops started to pour. She held the wheel with one hand and fumbled to raise the hood. Wind picking up was trying to wretch her invitation from her purse. "Oh no you don’t." Her phone slipped out of her hand and in to the floor as she grabbed her invite before it blew away. "TAM I CAN’T HEAR YOU, I DROPPED THE PHONE." Down she went to grab her phone. Her wheels turned. Then next thing Claire knew, she was screaming. Flying off the edge of a mountain upside down…! -03:56 Feb 22 Claire
Claire: Oh god, death was cold! Wait a minute… Claire sat up, finding herself sitting in two feet of snow. "Holy shit…! Where’s my phone?" She crawled and fumbled until the found the little pink brick. She also found her purse laying a few feet further. And… "YES! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU GOD!" Her invitation to Garret Bradley’s party still intact and not water damaged! Maybe if she could call a tow truck, she could still get to the party in time. Her fingers, though ice cold, were already trying to dial. -04:00 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: Not fie feet in front of her was a bush with tracks in the deep snow leading up to it but none leading away. Things were not going as planned, a peasant from the village below had tipped off the bandit and they wwere charging down the slope. Good thing the snow was deep and slowing them down. From the bosh a man rose, dressed in green armor and without a word raised his bow. He barely spared the firl a glance, obviously a spirit, before he notched an arrow and loosed, the shaft penetrating a bandit’s chest who fell on top of the spirit. "I have known several spirits in my time but none who show up DURING a fight." he said drawing another shot. "If you want to feed on the corpses you can wait until after I’ve killed them." -04:05 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: What on ear-FWOOMPH. Claire landed in the snow again, this time with a BODY on top of her. "Pervert..! aiie!" This snow was getting cold, her dress was getting wet and uugh. She swatted the guy off her and all he did was land in the snow. Bleeding. DEAD. "Holy shit…! He’s dead! You just killed this guy!" Now she had to call the police too, some crazy hunter was murdering people and- Craaaap. She wasn’t getting any bars. Claire tried to make a run for it but only got a few feet before slipping in her heels and falling in the snow again. How did it snow THAT much in the summer so fast, it was only raining a few minutes agio. -04:12 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: Five men died on the snowy slope, the last one leaping at Kuzan who dropped his bow to grab the man’s wrist before the hatched could comecrashing down. The two men wrestled before Kuzan got the upped hand and drew a knife from his belt, plunging it directly into the bandit’s heart. "WHem peopel try to kill me I tend to try ti kill them back." he said, finally free to take his eyes from his oponents. "What kind of spirit aare you?" usually people feared the spirit creatures of the land but Kuzan had met, and fucked enough of them to know so long as you treaated them with respect they wouldn’t harm you… usually. He searched the leader and found what he was after, a small black stone in a leather pouch and slipped it into his belt. "I have to say of the spirits around here you’re thebest looking." -04:18 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "Murderers don’t get to hit on me!" She fell off a mountain and had to be in the country somewhere, where al the inbred crazy murdering mountain people live. Blood made a pretty obvious mark across white snow and she was flipping out. Why, why, why wasn’t she getting a signal? "And don’t you get any ideas about making me your mountain wife, sicko!" Ahah! Claire jerked open her small purse and whipped out a small, really small knife. Well. It wasn’t actually a knife, it was just the file part of her nail clippers. But it was a weapon she was now brandishing at him! -04:23 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: Kuzan rolled his eyes and knelt in the snow, best to get this over with. The spirit was obviously crazy and the proper rituals needed to be follored. "There’s only one woman I would mary." he said as he worked a tie open and reached into his bag to pull out a cloth dundle. Opening it he counted gor many stewed rabbit dumplings he had left before taking one, putting it on another small peice of cloth an setting it down on the snow in front of her and with that done he stood up. "Now, I am heading back to town. They’re all yours." he gestured at the bodies before turning and starting down the slope. There was a blizzard comign and he did not want to be outside when it hit. -04:28 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: This guy was completely insane. Were they supposed to have some kind of picnic out here? She pointed her litte file at him until he was walking away. "Good!" she called after him. "You better be gone, before the cops get you! I already know your face!" He was actually just going to leave her there. With all of these dead people. In the snow. Claire tried using her phone again, a frustrated almost frightened squeak slipping out when it refused to work. She was freezing! -04:35 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: He half turned to look back and shake his head. An insame spirit for an insane mountain… she was shivering, spirits did not shiver… "There’s a blizzard coming." he said suddenly worried, there were legends about this mountain. People appearing, disappearing but not since the golden queen… the golden queen. He strode up to her and grabbed her shoulder and gripped ehr chin with his other hand. "By the clans…" he whispered before throwing her over his shoulder and starting to jog down the slope. "There’s a cave not far from here where I plan to take shelter. You should too." -04:39 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "Holy crap!" she exclaimed, immediately beating on his back and trying to stab him with her nail clipper file. All the damn thing did was keep folding back in! "No, no, no! You’re NOT kidnapping me! I’m not going to be your mountain wife! I have to meet Garret Bradley!" she squealed and fussed, but was quickly running out of energy and it wasn’t easy catching her breath upside down. He lived in a CAVE. A crazy murdering hillbilly living in a cave! This was so 80s horror! -04:44 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: He ignored her shoulting and her beating, his mind racing. This crazy wierdly dressed girl was a splitting image for the golder Queen. This was the find of the century… imagine how much GOLD he coould make off of this. Thousands waiteeed for her return and not this had fallen right into his lap. He was giddy with the thought. It too twnty minutes to make it to the cave, just as the sind started to howl and the snow started to come down. "I have no interest in marrying you or taking advantage on you… your highness." he said with a deliderate pause. He needed his brother’s help for this. "PLease accept my humble help as you haveclearly lost your way.: First things first he dropped his back on the ground, intied a fur cloak from the bottom and threw it at her. "So you don’t freze to death. I will get the fire going." -04:49 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: Had she not been shivvering enough to make her teeth chatter, she would have thrown the fur cloak right back at him and taken off running in to the snow. But it was really falling down now, she was wet and freezing, and she didn’t think freezing to death would up her chances of survival. She’d just have to befriend the murderer and run when there was a better chance. "…what, you highness?" Claire pulled she cloak tightly around her, lightly bouncing on her heeled feet trying to warm up. He thought he was some kind of mountain king or something, weeeeird. "Help would be nice…" she started slowly. -04:53 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: "You are the golder queen, aren’t you?" he asked, reaching into his armor and taking out a bronze bedalion with her image in relief upon it. "Named because youe hair raadiates golden light and your eues are round to see heaven’s message." he tossed the medalion at her before he staarted piling kindling into a stone fireplace, apparently he had already colelcted enough firewood. A pale of water also stood nearby as lerr as a drying rack of meat. "Rightful ruler of the Empire who ascended to heaven to become a godess after defeating Fi Yu Chen, the black Tyrant?" -05:00 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: Claire barely caught the coin with her frosty hands. "Dude, I’m not the queen of anything. Unless you mean the Queen of Hollywood, in which I WILL be after I meet Garret Bradley." She squinted at the coin which totally didn’t look anything like her. Maybe like her MOM with that sharp little nose, but pff. Craaaaazy. Claire inched a little closer to the almost ready firepit. A heel could break along with her ankle and she’d probably not even feel it. "Did you like… get war trauma in Vietnam or something?" That was the last war, right? -05:13 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: He looked at her. "I have been aall over the Empire aand I have never heard of Vietnam." he said. "I have seen the foreverwar the crab wages but I did not fight in it." once the fire was lit he tended it before pulling a pot close to himself and unwrapping a bundle of vegitables and drawign the same dagged he had killed with and cleaning it in a bowl of water beforehe started to slice them up after a bag of rice was emptied into the pot and it was put over the fire. "Where are yu from and how did you end up here?" not the queen, but close enough. -05:18 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "Did you not SEE my car fly off the mountain?" Really, who could miss that? Claire wasn’t exactly sure how far she had been thrown from her car either, now that she thought about it. All she had seen was snow and the dead guys. She sank down to sit, wrapping the cloak tighter around her exposed limbs and only poked out her feet closer to the flames. She couldn’t forget she was talking to a murderer here. He could go psycho at any minute. "So… why do you kill people? Like were they stealing your stuff or something? Or are you a Satanist?" -05:23 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: "I am a ronin." he said dumping vegitables into another pot and reaching for a dried peice of meat to start chopping that too. "They did steal." he said, not lying. "And kill, and the village will be happier without them." and they had a reward on their heads. He was concentrating more on his cooking than he was on the conversation. "Killing is part of life… I have no lord so I have to feed myself somehow." -05:27 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "So you’re like a vigilante Robin Hood and they were thugs?" That actually made her feel a LOT better. …if it were true. It didn’t change the whole murder thing, but it was protecting people. Maybe. "My cell phone isn’t getting any service here. How long do we have to wait out the snow before we can get to the nearest town? I’m missing a really important party." A once in a lifetime chance was slipping through her fingers..! They could die out here and he was just… making food. Claire watched curiously. "Do you just live out here in the wilderness? No power or tv or anything?" -05:35 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: "What is a cell phone?" he asked, pronouncing the wword like he had never done so before. "I have the power my sword brings me but I don’t live here. I just set up camp in this cave to track down the bandits two days ago… if the blizzard has passed tomorrow morning then it will take us until nightfall tomorrow to reaach the bottom where the village is. After that I’ll be heading north." no one in thier right minds would have a party up here. She could have been lured up here by the bandits. -05:38 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: At least he didn’t live in a cave. Then again he had no idea what a cellphone was. Sadly, his answer meant there was no way she was making it to her party. Even if she DID escape being murdered by a psycho. Or group of bandit psychos. Whatever. Claire slumped. "This SUCKS. The first time I FINALLY get an invite to a hot party and I crash my mom’s car. ….Oh god. I crashed mom’s car." That little fact finally sank in. Her mom’s shiny convertable was probably smashed to pieces on the mountainside somewhere. If it was going to take until tomorrow night to get back, her mom was going to DIE. "She’s going to hate me…!" -05:44 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: So she had family… but where? "SHe will be relieved to see you again and not care about a.. car? Where DO you come from, anyway?" If it was soemwhere close he’d have to convicne her to come with him, if it was far away and she didn’t know the way then he could mislead her and tell her they were going home and play his con. -05:48 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "Outside of Toronto. I’m not sure how far from here. I guess I could figure it out when we get to town. Is there a taxi service there?" Ugh, she didn’t want to take a bus. Did she even have enough money for that? Claire flexed her fingers to get the blood flowing, then dug around in her little sequened purse. MAYBE enough money for a taxi. "That’s the thing, she’s going to freak because I’m missing, and then freak about the accident, and I don’t want her to get upset." Claire huffed and dropped her purse down next to her feet. "She’s so annoyingly over protective." -05:56 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: "I could always explain things." he offered putting the pot of vegetables in the fire and striiring it before getting out another both bundle, this one filled with pouches of herbs and spices the filled the cave with thier scent. "I know the way to To-ronto, and will take you there." Perfect. -06:00 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "Really?" Oh man, she was the luckiest girl on the planet. Not only did she NOT die, but the murderer wasn’t a crazy serial killer AND he was going to help her get home. …that still didn’t quite ease the sight of DEAD PEOPLE, but getting home alive was the top priority. "I don’t have a lot of cash on me, but I’ll totally pay for the fuel and maybe a little extra. Or my mom will, she’s like, loaded anyway and will be happy I’m back in one piece." Relief kicked in. It still sucked she was missing that party, but the smell of food was getting distracted. It actually smelled really good for something getting thrown in a pot. "I guess you do a lot of camping." -06:08 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: "It is better than going home where my brother squats on out inheritence and acts just the same as father did." he said carefully adding a pinch of yellow powder and letting the pot simmer. "That is why I travel, that and to see everythign I can." her mother was rich? it didn’t amtter the money he could lake off of her was worth way more than any reward… he just needed to convince her to play along. The ruce was reacy and taken off the fire to cool as the vegitables finished cooing, a few of the bumpling put in the rising steam to heat through, chopstick dancing in hsi fingers as he manipulated them before placign them on a chipped plate, filled a bowl with rice, topped it with vegitable and meat sauce and panded it to her -06:13 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: The thought of being lied too, drugged, and then being tossed in to a bag crossed it mind for a brief second. But the scent and her grumbling stomach was enough to quell those fears. She took the plate, and was quick to shove food in her face. Maybe a little too fast cause she had to cover her mouth with the back of her hand when she hiccuped. "Good!" she mumbled between bites and the occasional hiccup. "You don’t look like a rich guy. Um… Actually…" What the hell was he wearing, anyway. Cosplay? -06:20 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: "My brother has the family money." he said bishing himself a portion. "That’s why I take what I can." and she was going to make him rich enough to kiss his brother goodbye and reture. Now that they were cut off from everything and everyone by the storm be set his meal aside to get comfoteable, removing headband followed by the carefully shaaped plates on his armor leaving him in nothing but and undershirt and trousers, before he moved closer to the fire, the girl having his cloak and all. He had to wonder what she meant though his armor adn especially his sword were expencive… the sword and irriplacable family hierloom. -06:24 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "What’s your name, anyway? I’m Claire." She decided she wasn’t going to ask about the clothes. He might not be a serial killer, but he was still a crazy person who went out for vigilante justice and slept in caves. Maybe he was trying to be a super hero. She resumed eating until all that was left was a few puts she pushed around, and glanced down at the floor. They were just going to sleep on the rocks and dirt? No sleeping bags or even a pillow? How was she supposed to survive the night! -06:30 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: "Kuzan." he said reachign out to grab a dumpling, tear it in two and shive half into his mouth. "Ca-lair is not a name I have ever heard before…" that could be a problem. Unisual anmes would attraact even more attention and he did not want his prize stolen. "Have you truly never heard of the Golden Queen in to-ronto?" he asked suddenly, it had to be beyind the SHadowlands then, far out beyond the borders of the Empire. He would have to visit the unicorn clan and ask for stories from thier exile sometime and see if they knew it. "Are you thirsty?" he asked as well, unhooking a canteen from his bag. It wasn’t the best Sake but it warmed a body up at night. -06:36 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "Ca-lair?" she giggled. The first time she had relaxed enough to find any amusement in all of it. Maybe because the shock of the evening was finally kicking in, because she was feeling really sleepy and worn out, and tired of being tense and freaked out. Claire nodded at the drink offer. "You’re not actually from here, are you? Toronto isn’t far from here. It’s a city?" -06:46 Feb 22 Claire
Kuzan: "No I am not." he admitted. Finishign his meal and putting the rest aside for breakfast and standing, shiverign slightly as he stepped to the other side of the fire and kicked open a bed roll and then walked back around to erect a makeshift windbreak. "I only have one bedroll and one cloak to sleep under." he said sitting abck down to tend the fire. "Unless you want one of us to freeze to death we are going to have to share." that was that news broken. "If you want I have something more modest you can wear to sleep in." he actyallu had a few outfits but the one he was refering to was an acrobat’s uniform, why he had it was anyone’s guess. -06:53 Feb 22 Kuzan
Claire: "What." she said flatly. Claire was estatic to discover there WAS a sleeping bag, but the sharing business wasn’t going to fly. He KILLED people. You don’t just cuddle up to a killer, no matter how cold you were. She leaned and eyed the snow coming down from outside, frowning to herself. "You can have it and the cloak, but yes I’ll take something warmer to wear." She was a little insulted by the ‘modest’ comment. He dress wasn’t slutty! But it was way too cold to sleep without the extra cover. "I can’t believe it’s snowing this close to summer, even for Canada." she muttered to herself. -06:59 Feb 22 Claire