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Darkseeker
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Just as he’d suspected, he'd barely gotten a wink of sleep. When he was awake, his mind had been racing, a million different thoughts flooding his head, and when he finally managed to fall asleep, it only lasted for a few minutes before someone made a sound and woke him back up. It was hard to tell if he was even more tired after the night or not. He definitely wasn't well-rested, that was for sure.
Niké rolled over on his back before sitting up and grabbing the hoodie that he'd taken off at some point during the night and pulling it over his head to put back on. He didn't know what the time was, he was hoping it was a relatively reasonable time to get up because he definitely couldn't continue trying to sleep, he was driving himself insane with all his own thoughts.
The man got up on his feet and looked around, there were a few people awake by the looks of it but he couldn't tell if they were night guards or not. Instead of speculating further about what time it could be, he headed toward the exit. He planned on going out for a cigarette, hoping to be able to do so before someone could stop him.
He stood near the door for a bit, looking around slightly before he quickly slipped outside before anyone could stop him. Once Niké was outside, he leaned his back against the wall, right next to the door so in case someone had seen him leave and he wasn't allowed to, they could call him right back in.
The grey-haired man lit a cigarette from the pack that he'd gotten from Alleya, hopefully she was doing better today. He put the cigarette between his lips as he leaned his head back and looked up at the sky, it was still relatively dark out so by the looks of it, the sun had just started rising not too long ago.
The main two things that had been on his mind during the night was whether or not he was doing the right thing and then he'd been thinking about his brother, he knew what Dion would be doing in this situation and it was the exact opposite of what he himself planned on doing…
Niké let out a sigh, why did things have to get so complicated? The job was easy, become part of the gang, collect evidence of anything illegal going on to help build a case against them, help arrest Theodore and the rest. Spending just one day as part of the gang shouldn't be changing everything, he was part of the police now, he had to put his own feelings to the side, it was usually easy for him so why did it have to be so hard now?
The man smoked a few more puffs of his cigarette, he needed to get everything over with as quickly as possible, the longer he was here, the harder it would be for him to do his job. He felt guilty almost and he hated it, he wasn't supposed to feel guilty for doing his job, he was trying to protect other people, it wasn't something to feel guilty about.
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Neutral
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Some point in the night, Alleya had fallen asleep. Her arms were still wrapped around her pillow and her head was resting on the wall. It had been a rough night for her. Most of the time she was worrying about Theo, knowing he had to be in pain. She was also worried about those burns becoming infected. That's the one thing she learned the most when coming here, they had the supplies to treat every wound but when infection started, that's when things became serious. She woke up to the sound of movement and footsteps behind her. She opened her eyes to see Nike walking toward the door. Some of early patrols were starting to wake up. Some of them glanced at Nike as he left as if they were going to stop him. It wasn't quite dawn yet, but pretty close. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair and got to her feet. She didn't want the man to get in trouble for leaving without a buddy before dawn. That's how the gang worked. At sunset, you could go out with a buddy. At night, nobody was allowed to leave unless they were a night guard. Just before dawn, people could leave with a buddy or their early morning patrol. Nike probably wasn't aware of all the rules in this gang. He would learn in time. So she made her way out the door, giving a nod to the few people that had watched Nike leave. Hopefully they got that she was his buddy. She slipped outside and immediately smelled cheap cigarettes. She closed the door behind her and leaned against the wall next to him, on the opposite side of the hand holding the cigarette. She was ever so slightly leaning against the side of his arm. "Morning," Her voice was low and soft. She didn't know where exactly she stood with Nike about last night Last night had been an overreaction of her greatest fears A trauma response from being forced into a relationship with her ex partner. She didn't know why trauma made her act out and do things that were relatively against her character She just hoped she got her knife back soon. She sighed and glanced toward the horizon line, seeing the sun start to rise It was another day Days in the gang felt like they lasted a century and one day could change a person in a blink of an eye Definitely a new adventure each day, that was for sure. "Did you sleep well?" She asked this but she thought she already knew the answer Nike had tossed and turned a lot She had also heard him wake up with every sound of movement that another member made. He probably slept just as well as she did
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Darkseeker
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Niké saw the door open out of the corner of his eyes and he turned his head to look at who it was. When he saw that it was Alleya he looked back in front of himself and continued smoking.
"Morning."
She appeared calmer today which was good, that meant he probably wouldn't have to deal with her lashing out again.
"Did you sleep well?"
He scoffed before he blew out some smoke, “I barely even slept, I usually have trouble sleeping so it doesn't even matter.”
Niké stayed quiet for a bit as he finished the cigarette and put it out before flicking it onto the ground, “You didn't sleep much better,” he finally stated, turning his head to look at the red-haired woman next to him. He’d heard her most of the night and whenever he'd looked over, she’d seemed to be awake.
The man didn't really feel like talking to her, he did still remember what she'd said yesterday and even if she hadn't meant to say it out loud, she'd still thought it. And it's not like he could say that she hadn't been herself due to stress and a traumatic experience, he didn't know what type of person she was and that was the problem, he'd let a stranger get too close.
“Why did you follow me outside? I don't need a tail,” he asked, his tone a bit more hostile than he'd intended it to be, most likely due to the fact that he had been awake for most of the night, he tended to get a bit more irritable then. He didn't say anything about it though or apologize for his tone, if it upset her that much then she was free to yell at him and insult him it made her feel better.
He had also made a promise to himself to put his personal thoughts and feelings aside so it didn't matter to him what she thought about him, if anything, her being upset with him would only make it easier for him to do his job without her clinging to him.
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Neutral
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She wasn't sure where exactly she stood with Nike. She had seen him go out of his way to save her twice already. One when she almost got shot by a rebel, another when she almost got shot by Mitchie. She has seen a little of what type of man he was. She knew deep down he did care for her, at least a little. If he hadn't, he would have just had Mitchie shoot and paralyze her. Instead he chose to bring her back to reality and talk her through everything. However, when he spoke to her today, his voice was hostile and his face emotionless. She couldn't tell if it was from lack of sleep or if he was angry at her. She was used to people being angry at her so his words didn't have any effect on her. She wasn't even sure if they were supposed to. "Actually you do need a tail. There's still rules placed and you heard what Theo said yesterday. Buddy system. Under normal conditions, you must have a buddy with you after dusk and before dawn. You can't leave once the moon rises unless you are with or you are a night guard. Everyone was staring when you left," She explained with a small meaningless huff,"I was simply saving you from getting a bullet stuck in your ass." She pressed closer to Nike when the door opened and early morning patrols ran through. One person stil managed to shove her hard enough to knock her down to the ground. She didn't see who. She just snorted and stood back up, swallowing her anger like a pill. "Hey since you two are awake, you might as well make yoirselves useful," Oh great, early morning patrols fun. The command had come from Mitchie and the commander seemed to be glaring at her,"Alleya, go with the hunting patrol. See if you can find something better than canned tomatoes to eat." "But I'm not a hunter!" She protested but regretted it. Mitchie's eyes narrowed and she grabbed Alleya by her wrists. Alleys couldn't help but shriek at the pain of how tight the grip was. "You are today and if I see or hear anything else from you today, you will not eat for 48 hours," She stared wide eyed at the night guard's tone and actions. Mitchie shoved her into the hunting patrol and surprisingly, Taurus caught her. Great patrol with Taurus. "Newbie, go scavenging with Tia's group. We're looking for knives, scrap metal to make bullets with, and wood for heat," She turned her back to him and went inside. Great patrols, hunting patrols. Her favorite. She would rather be scavenging.
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Darkseeker
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The man rolled his eyes before closing them and leaning his head back against the wall as he listened to Alleya explain why she absolutely had to follow him outside. It wasn't as if he’d ran off into the city, he was right outside the door. It did however mean that he would have a hard time sneaking off alone to go meet with his supervisor.
"I was simply saving you from getting a bullet stuck in your ass."
He opened his eyes again with a sigh and turned to look at the female. “I’m guessing you won't leave me alone even if I do say thanks but I was raised to have some manners so thanks, for saving my ass from a bullet,” he told her before looking up when the door opened and a few people walked outside, amongst them the woman who he recognized but still couldn't remember the name of.
Niké watched as the woman ordered Alleya to join the hunting patrol and when Alleya protested the other woman reacted by grabbing her harshly by her wrists and then pushing her towards the hunting patrol, where one of them luckily caught her.
"Newbie, go scavenging with Tia's group. We're looking for knives, scrap metal to make bullets with, and wood for heat."
“Alright,” he muttered back, not exactly excited about it but there were also worse things to do, like restroom duty, it was the one thing he was really hoping to avoid. Instead of wasting any more time, the man walked over to Tia, nodding at the other people in her group, not bothering to introduce himself despite not having met those people before. He was happy just being known as ‘Newbie’, it didn't make any difference to him, if anything people might just leave him alone if he didn't talk to them.
He glanced over his shoulder at Alleya before looking over at Tia who seemed to be the leader for the group, following her quietly while fumbling with the lighter in his pocket out of boredom. It didn't seem like there would be much, or any even, illegal activity going on if they were just supposed to go scavenging. Once again that feeling of doubt and guilt started creeping up on him, even if he'd decided earlier that he was going to ignore it and go through with this job. It didn't change the fact though that in front of him was just a bunch of people trying to survive on the streets and he was supposed to want them behind bars.
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Neutral
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And so their day was off to another start. All she wanted to do was check in on Theo but of course that wasn't possible so instead, she wiggled out of Taurus's arms and started to walk in the direction of where the gang was permitted to hunt. When she passed the leader, he handed her a pistol. Great, nothing like hunting down animals and shooting at them. She really wasn't skilled for hunting. She hated killing another life for her own. Before she ran away to the streets, she was a vegan. Now she was just eating whatever she could to get by. The hunting patrol was out well beyond noon trying to get as much as they could to feed the gang tonight. The gang was used to one meal a day but sometimes in winter, they didn't even get that one meal and if they did it was canned goods. Food was scarce, well animals were. It was getting colder outside which meant soon it would be canned tomatoes for about three months. While they hunted, she had ended up right next to Taurus again. She ended up apologizing to him and the two made up. They also hunted together which meant she had to use the gun less and feel better about her morals. However, when she did have to kill something, she always looked away and ignored the nauseous feeling it brought to her stomach. They decided to call it quits and head back. Each of them were carrying two small animals each. The biggest thing that they managed to kill was a raccoon by the looks of it. Ary herself carried two small rabbits and the whole time she had to swallow the feeling of vomit. Mitchie probably gave her this task as a punishment. She would rather be with Nike and gathering items out of dumpsters. Some of the scavengers did participate in pick pocketing but she never did. It just didn't feel right stealing another person's belongs. Neither did carrying two rabbits though. She focused on listening on Taurus talk and tell her a story. He could probably see her disgust on her face and was trying to distract her. She appreciated the efforts and his forgiving nature. However, she still felt relief whenever they made it back to base and sat the prey down in a pile for the cooking team to take care of. They all headed inside and Taurus continued his story. He was telling about the time he super glued his underwear to his sister's face whenever she was sleeping. She couldn't help but laugh at the thought of that happening. "No way you did something so horrible," She entered the basement and nudged him once he was inside,"You don't have a mean bone inside your body." "But it's true. You'll have to ask her-" He trailed off when he looked and saw every one of the gang members not in patrol staring at them. "Ignore them," She grunted her response and moved to her sleeping area to tidy it up. People loved to stare. They would probably be staring for a long time.
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Darkseeker
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Niké followed Tia as she led the group into the city before some of the others in the patrol took off on their own in pairs. The grey-haired male just continued following Tia who now had started giving him a few tips to keep in mind while scavenging, nothing he didn't already know but he kept quiet about that part. The less people knew about his past experience, the less would be expected of him and he didn't like digging through dumpsters, so if he could do less of it, then that would be great. He actually preferred pickpocketing, it was less dirty and not as much physical work but he was a cop now, he couldn't break the law just because he didn't want to go dumpster diving.
He was starting to get annoyed with himself more and more, he constantly had to remind himself that he was a cop while trying to convince himself that he was doing the right thing. This had to be the right thing though, otherwise he wouldn't be here, right?
Quickly he pulled his hand back when he felt something poking his hand. Hanging over the edge of a dumpster and rummaging through it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do while he was distracted by his own thoughts. Niké frowned and looked at his hand to make sure that whatever had poked him hadn't broken skin, which it luckily hadn't.
As he and Tia continued scavenging together he did his best to push any and all thoughts of doubt to the side and even attempted some small talk with the other.
Luck wasn't really on their side that day since they spent hours scavenging and trying to find the supplies they needed before Tia finally told him that they had enough and they could start heading back, something that he was more than happy to do. Currently the man had a few knives in his pockets and was carrying some wood under one arm while, ofcourse, holding a cigarette in his other hand.
He and Tia talked on their way back to the gang's hideout, well Tia talked and Niké listened for the most part. On their way back, they ran into the other members who were part of the group, no one had wandered off too far which was understandable given yesterday's events.
Soon, they had all made their way back and together they made it over to the room where all the supplies were kept. Niké was shown by the others where everything had its place in the room but he didn't pay much attention, it wasn't too hard to figure out so he didn't need a whole explanation.
Once everything was done and he was finally let off, the man was quick to make his way back to his sleeping area, hoping to be able to get in a few minutes of rest. As he approached his sleeping spot, he saw that Alleya was back too and that the woman was busy tidying up her own sleeping area.
The grey-haired man walked over, pulling his hoodie off as he did due to feeling warm. Since he was only wearing a black t-shirt underneath, the tattoos on his arms were revealed for anyone to see. Niké threw the hoodie on the floor next to his pillow and laid down on his side, looking at Alleya quietly.
“Is Theo better today?” He finally asked after a moment of silence, assuming that the woman had already checked up on her oh so beloved Theo since yesterday she'd barely been able to leave him alone for just a few moments.
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Neutral
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She felt Taurus watch her while she tidied up. People were probably staring because they hadn't expected the two to still be friends after what happened last night. But then again, Taurus wad forgiving in nature and friendly toward everyone. He wasn't really that fit to be part of a gang, he wasn't a fighter and was definitely too nice. He was a good hunter though, well he was good at pretty much any task that was handed to him. Lucky duck. "Is Theo better today?" She had just finished making her sleep area clean and tidy when she heard Nike's voice. She jumped a little, not hearing him approach because she had been lost in thought. She turned around to him, her gaze briefly studying the tattoos. She wondered how long he had been back. Clearly long enough to catch her off guard. "Wait? What's wrong with Theo?" Taurus questioned. The man had sharp hearing. She gave Nike a glare for asking the question with Taurus hovering over her shoulder. Then again, another person knowing wouldn't hurt a fly. Taurus didn't even gossip to his shadow about other people. Sighing, she stood up and whispered everything in Taurus's ear. Not actually everything, just that Theo had been beaten by the Rebels and wasn't actually gone during the event. The man's eyes widened in response. "And we just got back. I haven't had the chance," She pulled back and answered Nike. However, when she answered, she heard a few gasps and murmurs from the gang. She was confused until she looked and saw Theo walking out of his room. She couldn't help but stare in amazement. Yesterday the man had been beaten and now he was walking? Unbelievable. "Wow he must be made of steal. Are we one hundred percent sure that he isn't a robot?" Taurus joked in a low voice. Alleya pinched his arm in response. "Can i have your attention everybody?" His voice range out but he really didn't need to say anything. He had the attention of everybody already, with the burn marks and bruises on his body. "As we all know, we were attacked yesterday by the Rebels. Until further notice, we will implement the emergency buddy system," His gaze locked with Alleya for a moment before he started listing off pairings. "Jasper and Taurus." "Tia and Elliot." He kept on listing them off until the very last names. "Alleya and Nike." Edited at August 1, 2022 08:32 AM by Ashes of Night
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Darkseeker
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Niké glanced up at Taurus when he heard the guy ask about Theo, realizing his mistake when he felt Alleya glare at him before getting up to tell Taurus what had happened.
"And we just got back. I haven't had the chance."
Niké was just about to reply when he heard people gasping and he saw how Alleya looked up and past him. The man rolled over on his back and put his arms behind his head, raising his eyebrows slightly at the sight of Theo. The man had barely been able to stand up less than 24 hours ago and now he was up and walking, he looked like hell, but he was still walking.
"Can I have your attention everybody? As we all know, we were attacked yesterday by the Rebels. Until further notice, we will implement the emergency buddy system."
Niké let out a soft sigh as he closed his eyes, he’d already heard this yesterday and he was almost certain that he knew who he'd be paired with, someone he wouldn't be able to avoid which was unfortunate for him as he needed to figure out how to get out alone.
There were constantly guards keeping an eye on the exit, probably even more now after the attack and if what Alleya had said earlier this day was true, then he wouldn't be able to just leave whenever he wanted.
"Alleya and Niké."
He opened his eyes and glared at the leader for a brief second before closing them again with another sigh. It didn't come as a surprise at all but he would still have preferred to end up with someone less nosy than the redhead next to him. If he did anything that she found even slightly suspicious then he was sure that she'd go running to tell Theo immediately. Maybe that's why he'd been put with her..?
The man opened his eyes again, his pale blue eyes studying the leader. He couldn't be suspicious of him already, could he? He turned his gaze away and stared up into the ceiling as he went through yesterday's events, trying to figure out if he'd said or done anything that could be seen as suspicious in any way. He had been careful, at least he thought so…
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Neutral
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Theo was a little wobbly and in quite the amount of pain. He couldn't let it show though, the gang needed him. He was strong and used to being beaten so standing up right now didn't see questionable for him. It was just a matter of time for how long he would remain standing. He felt someone's eyes bore into his spine and looked in that direction. His gaze landed on Nike but when the man was looking anywhere else but him. Maybe he knew how quick Theo could catch the man staring. He didn't know. He turned his gaze back to the crowd. "And remember that the Rebels may have trespassed on us yesterday but they will not today. They may have the numbers, but we have strength and compassion which is something they will never understand," Theo looked at every single member,"They are nothing compared to us. Never forget that." Theo turned to head back but paused when he was close to Taurus, Nike, and Alleya,"You three, with me, now. " Alleya and Taurus exchanged nervous looks. Were they in trouble? Well there was only one way to find out. Alleys stepped toward Theo and watched as the man started to walk toward his room. She had an idea that he wanted to talk to them about what happened yesterday. It made her a little nervous, knowing that Theo condoned voilance with other members. Of course that didn't mean it didn't happen. Normally it was a few shoves or kicks time to time. As she was walking, someone stuck their leg out to trip her. She didn't catch it in time and tripped over the leg and into Nike's backside. She angrily muttered a few nasty curses and went back to walking normally, casting a hostile glare at the person who tried tripping her. The person was trying not to laugh. "Alleys, let it go," Theo ordered,"This gang is your family, don't make it your enemy." Of course now she was in trouble for their actions. So unfair.
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