A new life brings new friends

[William von Engel]

Chapter I - The story of the nameless one

That night. That very night of freedom, the night when he had managed to flee in panic in order to survive the constant beating, the constant abuse and the lack of touch and love that he didn’t know existed... that night that changed his life completely. The monster had managed to flee the cave which held him captive.

The constant tormentor was dead now. His mother’s new husband who he had understood must have been called Tobias because sometimes when the man came to deliver his food and after several blows to the boy’s body, did his mother call to him with that word, that name and he had turned towards the door and left with only one word on his lips ‘Monster’ while glaring at the boy before he once again walked up the stairs to disappear until the morning and breakfast time when the beatings would start all over again. He was getting beat at least three times a day, sometimes more if Tobias was in a bad mood and his mother wasn’t much better even though she rarely hit him but showed him nothing of her heart more than stone and ice in her eyes, disgust of what he was and disgust of what he looked like. He was filth that had come from her loins, filth damned by the looks of the devil, which was what he had told him even though he hadn’t really understood the words.

That was what he was, wasn’t it? A monster… He had learned it must be his name and it must be something bad because of the cold eyes that always looked at him while saying the word… yes, he knew that now, the boy who had looked at himself in the broken mirror shard he had found in the basement he was forced to life in and saw a face that seemed to be part human and part something else, had he known what cats looked like, he would have said so, alas… he didn’t. At first he hadn’t understood he was different, not until he was ten years of age and he had developed both fangs and claws which neither his mother or his stepfather had. That was also the first time he found the broken mirror shard in the basement behind a shelf and saw what he looked like. When the light fur had appeared on his body at a later date, he knew he was different since neither Tobias, nor his mother had that much hair on them.

No, he was nameless; no name could be given to the monster he was unless perhaps he was called just that... ‘Monster’ or possibly ‘boy’ which his mother called for him with, that must be his name, wasn’t it? He reacted to that the same way Tobias reacted to that word as if it owned him, or possibly he owned it?

The nameless creature wasn’t sure. But what he was sure about was all the scars that adorned his body all over, both new and old, some still healing others healed since long but still showed their ugly red thick lining – telling their own story of what had happened and what weapon had been used; a belt, a cold branding iron, a cigarette… the options were many; they were all there for a reason and the reason was that he was different, not like others and he was sure he earned them all and especially those who bleed and hurt the most. His ribs on his right side had been broken a few nights ago and a bad slash was half healed and leaped across his left underarm from protecting himself from a screwdriver that had been aimed at him but missed his target.

The nameless one had killed Tobias two nights after that, he had waited for him one night when he didn’t want to stand there and take the beating like he always did... he wanted to get away, get free and the only option he had was through the same door which his mother or Tobias entered and left through, so… he waited until it was time for his dinner to arrive. One could wonder why two people being so cold hearted would give him food, but his mother hadn’t had the heart to neither kill him nor leave him at birth and gave him just enough to survive, Tobias had been begged to by his mother not to kill the boy even though she despised him for what he was. A Guiseless Demon, unknown to the world of other demons. The reason? His mother had given birth at home and never showed the child to anyone and hid him away in the house up in the mountains on the far end of the small city of Gresham, not too far away from Portland.

Tobias was the one to open the door that night and as soon as the door to the basement was unlocked, the nameless one grabbed it and attacked the man before him inhaling as much air as he could and roared the loudest roar he could possibly let fall from his body while the man tried to fend for himself in shock. The man was stunned and couldn’t move and the tray of porridge and water fell to the floor with a loud bang, the windows shattered by the loud sound that left the boy’s lungs and at once, the nameless came clawing at his tormentor, tearing, hitting in rage that had been built up for so many years now. Tobias had fallen back first straight to the floor with the nameless one on top of him, clawing him and shredding his skin in defense from all the abuse he had adorned ever since he was five. Now he was 16 and almost a man, had he known about how the growth of the body and how the mind worked.

To think rationally, it was probably the raging hormones in his system that had made him decide and think up a plan on how to get free and how to escape. The body beneath him wasn’t moving anymore, nor breathing but he kept hitting it, that was until he leaned down and grabbed the man’s windpipe between his canines and locked his jaws before he tore it out to make sure his tormentor would be dead and not come back to life. A gurgling sound was heard and blood smell entered the hallway’s air while the nameless one’s naked form was sprayed in red.

Just as he did so, his mother who he had learned must wear the name Elysa came into the hallway and screamed in terror at the site. Glass shatters all over the place, blood lingering on the floor and on the creature sitting on top of her husband, the walls were red stained as well her eyes fell on the nameless one, who just spat the windpipe out and turned to look at her with a wild look mixed of panic and survival instinct while breathing heavy.

The boy inhaled and roared at her as well and the same result appeared there as well, she was stunned and couldn’t move but her look of complete terror was enough. The boy never touched her but took off through one of the broken windows and ran naked as fast as he could to the direction he just felt was best… towards the sun that was slowly setting.

So many hours he had worked out in the basement, climbing the walls, lifting things just to see how much he could take on at the same time and every month he could take more than the month before, he climbed the beams in the ceiling and everything else he managed to get hold of and sometimes he even ran in circles on the floor for hours until he collapsed just to do the same thing again after a few hours of resting up.

The naked form of the cat looking man ran down the mountain that had been his home but no one knew about him there and now, he was protected from their judging eyes by the sun setting more and more the longer he ran to keep his life, he wasn’t even sure if he was hunted or not and the world he had just entered was frightening and huge, much bigger than his world in the basement had been which reached just as far as the walls went.

A few more miles and he just couldn’t run anymore, he couldn’t move a muscle and fell to the ground in panic; he had to get away but his body wouldn’t move, wouldn’t do his bidding. Knees bent and hands fell to stop the fall to the ground by the side of a road he had found himself running on. So many nights had the nameless boy cried himself to sleep, so many times his heart had felt so broken that no one could repair it ever again. Had he known a language better than a few simple words much like a two year old could, he would have described it as agony, the very agony of living a life he didn’t understand and with an abuse that was beyond mortal limits.

“mama…”

He sobbed and broke down in more tears he missed her but something told him he couldn’t go back. He had never been allowed to call her that, he wasn’t allowed to address her with anything or talk to her and especially not Tobias. If he had opened his mouth when he was there, he would have gotten an instant beating until he was fighting to stay conscious, to stay alive to keep breathing just a bit longer.

The nameless couldn’t stand anymore, couldn’t sit because the body was simply too tired to do anything from both previous beatings and now running, not to mention the lack of food that only made it worse. Where did you get food if not on a tray on top of the stairs to the basement where he had lived his entire life?

“mama… I sorrie..”

He sobbed while tears fell to the ground, soon followed by his shoulder and the rest of his body when his mind couldn’t take it anymore and decided to shut down and he fell unwillingly into unconsciousness.

[William von Engel]

Chapter II - curiosity let the cat survive and it earned a name

The nameless one had barely registered the car that drove up the road and stopped by him, leaving his naked abused and lightly furry form. The nameless one had managed to glance up at a blonde man who didn’t look like Tobias at all, the man had said something that the nameless boy didn’t understand but darkness had taken him again and the next time he had woken up he was inside a big metal box that moved forward in a faster pace than he had managed to run and it had a low roaring sound. He had a blanket over his form that warmed him comfortably.

The next time he had woken up, he was in something soft, a better mattress than the two blankets he had been sleeping on in the basement and a warmer cover than the coat he had used to warm himself under. The same man as before had come into the room and spoken to him but the nameless one didn’t understand and only frowned while looking at him.

The blonde man had pointed at himself and said ‘Cedric’ then he pointed at the boy who had simply responded ‘Monster’ since that’s what he had known himself to be called more times than he had been called ‘boy’. Apparently that had not been good enough to the man and he had tried again, the nameless one had then told him the word ‘boy’ instead but that hadn’t really been good enough either even though the polite smile had been kind and the eyes were soft and not cold and filled of disgust which he was used to which quite frankly confused him.

The smile… that was something he hadn’t seen before, what was that? It made him warm inside and it felt like he was safe, had he known the word and what it meant. It was the same feeling with the kind voice and the gentle movements, even though if the man came too close, the nameless one tensed and shied away towards the wall which the bed stood against. When the man had seen that— this man that owned the name ‘Cedric’, he had backed away or squatted down to make himself smaller and not look frightening, tilting his head and looking at the nameless one with kind eyes and a light smile, speaking to him with words he didn’t understand like the word ‘friend’ he had used to point at himself with.

The nameless had for the first time mimicked the word, tasting it and it felt like a nice word when he said it and the man had nodded with a warm smile before he picked the tray up from the floor where he had knelt beside the bed, bringing the boy his warm food. warm food. The nameless one didn’t even know food could be warm and was quite surprised to realize this but it tasted so much better then…warm, and this ‘juice’ that Cedric called it when he pointed at the glass, that tasted so much better than the water he had been drinking from the basement sink.

A few weeks had passed and they had taken up daily story reading by someone called Shakespeare which the nameless one had indeed loved to listen to as well as they had listened to some classical pieces of music, one in particular that had taken to the nameless one’s heart was “Giacomo Puccinis song from Turandot named Vincero or Nesun Dorma” which it was also called. He had liked that a lot but he had loved to listen to the tales and plays of Shakespeare even more.

Cedric had some to him one day and decided that he needed a name and the boy had tilted his head and Cedric had once again explained that just as he was called Cedric, the boy should have a name too. He had pointed at one of the books just as Cedric had suggested “Vincent” since he liked Vincero so much but at the same time he had explained that “Vincent” meant “to conquer” and no matter what the boy had been through to actually live through the abuse his body told about, he had conquered his fear to get away from there – which in turn was a quite fitting name.

“Villam”

He had said after nodding, liking the name on the man who had written the big book and the plays in. That was how he got two names “Vincent William” but the name Vincent was mostly used by Cedric alone while he himself used William, depending on what he felt like of course. Two new names to replace the two he thought he’d had. ‘Monster’ and ‘boy’ to ‘Vincent’ and ‘William’.

A few more months had passed and Vincent or, William, had begun to understand more words when Cedric had told them, the nameless one pointed at things and Cedric said the word that belonged to that thing. The injuries had healed but the mental scars were still deep, as soon as someone else but Cedric came along he had shied away and hissed at them but had calmed once Cedric had said the word ‘friend’ and pointed at the person in the doorway or where ever they may have stood but that didn’t mean the boy would trust them.

Months passed to years, and now, Vincent had grown into a young man in the age of 20. He was still shy and he still didn’t like walking far from Cedric’s apartment where he had spent most of his time instead of in his own apartment which was assigned to him by Ryuu, the Curator of the place where others that were different could walk around without anyone hitting them or abusing them.

This was where Vincent was at the moment, shying away in the corners of Thruveil where no one really noticed him while he watched them. He had spent hours in here just watching people interact with each other. At first he hadn’t dared to come here at all and it had taken Cedric several years before he had even dared to poke his nose outside the apartment they lived in.

The young boy was clothed in a white button up shirt and a gray long leather-like vest and brown leather pants that snug his form but yet not too tight to hinder him from moving around and crouch down like he usually did while watching people. His hair flowed down like a lion’s mane from the top of his head and to the middle of his back, his ice blue eyes scanned the area but he soon ended up outside the apartment but crouched down by a table to watch people walk around in the dim light of the Thruveil.

He was seated just behind the table in in a far corner while glancing at people going back and forth in the ever changing lights that changed to the music on the dance floor, some dancing which he had almost learned was a way of socializing, others with cell phones in hand trying to speak over the music.

[Seth Burgoyne]

Inard wasn't entirely sure why he had come down to the club that night. He mostly didn't go unless there was something big or special going on. And as far as he knew, there wasn't. So, in his mind, there was no reason to go. But there he was, walking down the street from his house towards the club. Maybe he was just bored at home. But when he went to the club, he mostly just ended up staring at demons dancing. He never really got into that sort of stuff. He much preferred classical music, and not dance music at that. Plus, the branches on his shoulders tended to coat-hanger people a lot. Always unintentionally, but some people got offended by it.

So, making his way past the doorkeepers, he reached into his pocket and checked that he had some money in there in case he wanted a drink. Inard didn't really like the concept of money. He much preferred trading - you give me some wheat and I give you some eggs. And better than that was free property. He still couldn't get over the fact that people sold water to others. Water should be free. It's easy enough to procure, so why pay money for it? Sometimes, humans mystified him. And rightly so.

Moving into the more...exclusive...section of the club, he dropped his guise, his branches unfurling from his shoulders and letting off a very faint but pleasant aroma. Ahhhh...how he loved to be himself. He was so sick of being 'human'. It made him feel ill, and unattached from the world. But he'd rather be unattached than dead, so it was necessary for him to pick the lesser of two evils, and simply get on with his life. As painful as it was sometimes, especially in winter.

He scanned the room with his eyes, and noticed a man sitting in one of the corners looking distinctly out of place. Relatively speaking, this man looked like a child in the way he stared out at the people with an intense curiosity. He could almost draw parallels with him and Akki. She was curious, naive and innocent. You could see that demon had the exact same qualities. It was the way he held himself. Nervousness was almost as physical a facial feature as his nose. So, determined to not just sit by himself and make them into two loners, he decided to head over there and become two demons having a conversation.

Making his way through the moving obstacle course that was the dance floor, he made sure to keep a close eye on the locations of the branches on his shoulders at all times. Reaching the table, he sat down on a chair and said in a cheery voice "Hello. I'm Inard. What's your name?" He tried adopting a body language that was as un-intimidating ((OOC:Is that even a word?)) as possible - there was something almost animalistic in this cat-mans behavior. Which was fair enough, considering what he was.

[William von Engel]

William hadn’t seen the man approach, he had been too taken by watching two girls chatter to each other while glancing at another boy farther down the bar where they were. He tried to understand them and he tried to understand the looks they gave towards that man and the looks he returned to them but it was hard. This social thing was hard and that was even after Cedric’s teachings on how it worked.

He leaned up a bit more to get his head above the table where he crouched and saw them a bit better just as he heard a voice behind him at the same time a chair was pulled out. He gasped and swung around and backed away a few steps before almost falling over on his bum but caught himself just in time.

William grabbed the other end of the table and held the table leg with his right hand and peered at the man that now sat by his chosen table. Ice blue eyes watched him while he spoke. William glanced down the floor for a moment seemingly to think or possibly to try and understand what the man said.

What was it Cedric said? I’m… I am….. am, yes the man said his name and asked him of his own. The young cat-man looked up at the man with the trees on his shoulders and looked the branches over; it really did look like…trees?

“I...I Villam...”

He said quietly but weary, grabbing the table leg with his other hand as well, remaining crouched down where he was. His cat slit eyes looked the man over. He didn’t seem to be harmful, his body language was calm and collected and he didn’t seem to move more than he had to, perhaps for him? Perhaps he was that way in person. He sat still for a while before he realized that the man didn’t make any sudden movements and it made William relax a bit. He slightly pointed much like a child would, towards the branches on the mans shoulders.

“you… is tree?”

He asked with much of a child’s curiosity and confusion and let his hand fall back to rest on the table leg again. This was the first time he saw a fae look like that but even if he had known what a fae was (despite the fact that Cedric had told him about them) he didn’t really know how they looked or how they appeared.

[Seth Burgoyne]

He was almost like a kitten who had grown to much too fast. The way he startled and whirled to look at him and almost ran away suggested an almost intense fear of the unknown. Inard was glad he had adopted a very calm and soothing body language. It seemed sudden movements startled him - again, just like a cat. And it seemed to take him a while to either think about what he said and what to say back.

Ahhh... it made sense now. Inard had seen one other human like this. A poor girl from the early 1900's was kept in a tiny cellar for her whole life until he had bought the house from an elderly couple. She was their child, and they had locked her up and sold the house with her still in it. The woman was 20 but had the emotional level of a 6 year old. Something similar was going on with this man. Maybe he had recently escaped from somewhere. He should find Cedric and make sure someone was taking care of him. Or maybe he could take this cat-person under his 'wings' so to say. He liked that idea.

The question he asked pretty much screamed confusion and childhood curiosity. And fair enough - not many demons had branches growing from his shoulders. But it was how he said it that really spoke volumes of his emotional level. He obviously had very little working language skills. So, in order to make him a little more comfortable, Inard decided against any complicated words. Laughing a polite, gentle laugh, he said slowly and clearly as if to a slightly deaf person "No, I'm not a tree. I'm a Fae - an Earth spirit. What are you?"

[William von Engel]

William watched the man while he watched him and he shied away a bit under the table but kept one eye on the fae before him. He wasn't sure how to react when the man sat silent and not moving like he did but at the same time, he didn't seem to want to hurt him.

When he spoke he explained what he was and that he wasn't a tree. William tilted his head and peeked out a bit more from the table again, eyeing the man and the branches that was stuck on him, a part of him wanted to reach out and touch them and see if they would break, but he wouldn't get that close, you never knew if they started to beat you once they were in grab-range of you.

"..fae... you is... fae..?"

He repeated after thinking about the man and how he had explained what he was and, he had asked William what he was as well?William had never really seen a fae before and the only faes he understood were basically the ones he had heard about when Cedric was reading out loud from books.

He wasn't sure how to react and his eyes flickered about for a moment, looking here and there while his mouth worded something unheard.

He got a bit stressed and seemed to fight with himself about what he was to answer while his breath picked up a little. William leaned back somewhat under the table, still holding the table leg on the other side of the table from Inard in both his hands.

"monster..."

He said quietly and looked up at Inard with a lowered head, looking at him through his lion mane like hair before he looked down the floor.

"I ... I is monster..."

He said again wit the same a low voice and looked to his right side and in under the table seemingly ashamed. As he did so, the white tunic looking shirt moved aside a bit by the collar and revealed a part of what seemed to be some kind of old slash wound, and old one yes but it was still visible and ugly much like so many other scars he had on his body.

"but...Cedric says.. I is demon.."

He added and glanced up at Inard again, still with the shy eyes while somewhat nibbling his lower lip.

[Seth Burgoyne]

He smiled and nodded gently when the man seemingly confirmed out loud that he was in fact a Fae. He was so innocent and shy - almost as if something had happened that had cut off any ties he had with other people. But when he said 'monster...I ... I is monster...' Inard thought to himself 'Ah ha. That seems to be the problem here.' Of course. It all made sense. He was born to parents who didn't understand/want him, and they obviously did something to him that destroyed his emotional and intellectual aging. Maybe even beat him - if the scar behind his collar was real.

The poor man. It was likely he had never understood love and happiness ever before. Inard could imagine what that was like - his long lifespan had showed him the worst in people time and time again. This was just another example of this evil that dwells in the heart of man. If anything, they were the monsters in this world. Not Villam.

Smiling still, he reached a hand slowly across the table, open, flat on the table and calm. Making sure his eyes showed exactly what his eyes were he said gently. "You're not a monster. Monsters don't exist."

[William von Engel]

It was strange that facial feature, that... pulling up of mouth, Cedric called it 'a smile' but it wasn't something he had really seen, not without an intent to harm at least. But the eyes were soft and warm but still the smile appeared.

William tilted his head and quirked a brow, wondering what to make of this strange look. The eyes didn't want to harm and maybe you could use a smile to both kind and mean intent?

At first, he hid under the table again but his head soon appeared just above the table edge, ice blue eyes looking at Inard, then at his outstretched hand on the table that William couldn't really decide if it meant harm or not.

He tilted his head at Inard when he said monsters didn't exist, he existed didn't he? This was so confusing, but that hand was interesting! William whiffed the air his way, feeling the soft aroma of the branches on his shoulers and it smelled nice and a bit sweet, much like the red flower Cedric had given him to smell, it had sharp thorns that had cut his thumb when he touched it, and small round but pointy leafs and the petals felt like velvet to the touch.

William took a moment or two before he slowly moved closer by the long side of the table, his right hand still holding the table leg while his left hand rested on the table edge as he moved closer but carefully.

His tail moved in slow movements much like a cobra but it wasn't lowered to the ground at the moment which would show submission, but it showed his curious side by the light twitch and twirls of the tip.

He reached the middle of the table and was just by Inard's hand now, sniffing it while keeping a watchful eye on the fae before him just in case he'd attack him when he least expected it.

"you is tree.... that is..fae.. but smell almost like red flower"

He said, almost managing to say it out right just before his eyes glanced to the outheld arm, he simply couldn't resist and moved a clawed hand towards him slowly, soft lion-fur collored hairs lingered on the top of his hands and slightly on his fingers on the hand the carefully poked Inard's hand before yanking his own hand away from him again to see of something happened or not.

[Seth Burgoyne]

Inard didn't fail to notice the wary glances that Villam was giving him. He was obviously very suspicious about other beings. And if he had the past that Inard suspected he had, fair enough. Inard would too. But this poor creature was obviously confused by his statement of monsters don't exist. Obviously, the parents didn't understand him, and for the first however many years of his life was called a monster. That would be enough to destroy anyone's self-worth and emotional growth.

He started moving closer and closer to his hand on the table. Inard made sure to keep it relaxed and calm. Many people thought that keeping an arm rigid and stiff while near an animal meant it was still and that it was more likely to trust it. Well, they were wrong - animals could sense fear and nervousness in other animals. Better to keep it still and relaxed. Especially if you suddenly clenched the muscles. That was a no go.

"you is tree.... that is..fae.. but smell almost like red flower"

That puzzled him for a moment as he thought about what the man meant by red flower. But then it clicked. He worked in the rose garden and grew roses at home. Obviously this man had a better sense of smell than he did, and could smell roses on him.

"You mean a rose?"

Inard made sure to keep the hand exactly were it was when Villam reached over and touched it and recoiled. The cat in him was obviously checking to see what the hand would do if he got close.

[William von Engel]

William kept his eyes on the hand that still didn't move after he poked it. He blinked and tilted his head to the other side simply, taking the hand in. It was a delicate hand but if you looked close enough you could see it was a hard working hand, a hand that knew tools and how to work them.

"nh.."

He nodded and grinned lightly, agreeing that it was a rose he was talking about he just hadn't remembered the name of it when Cedric had mentioned them.

William moved a little closer but still with the right hand on the table leg behind him and poked Inard's hand gently again and still nothing happened.

The cat like demon blinked twice and tilted his head the other way while he straightened his back a little to see the hand better. It didn't take long before he let go of the table leg and came up close and poked the hand again before he placed his fingers on top of inard's while being careful with his claws so he wouldn't accidentaly harm him.

"...rose"

He repeated a moment later as if the word came back to him just then. William slowly took Inard's hand in his, turning it around and bringing it off the table to look at the palm and lines on it.

He remained crouched by his back was much straighter and he wasn't trying to coward and hide at the moment. His tail was slowly waving back and forth at the tip, showing only curiosity at the moment.

"it.. it no.. hurts me."

He mumbled a bit more relaxed and turned it around a few times. William tilted his head then realized he had the same kind of hands on the inside and compared his own lines in his palm with Inard's beore looking up at him with a light feral grin, revealing his canines.

"we... same!"

He said and held up his own palm to show his own lines and then held up Inards hands by holding his index and longfinger in his right hand, showing the left to the fae.