Nooses

[KoYue]

"Please do not worry," Mineko said with another ghostly smile as she slowly climbed the stairs. "I will be all right."
She wanted to add more, but decided against it for fear that it might make her sound childish or cowardly. The ironic thruth was that heights frightened her to near-phobic hysterics. Anything that might make her dizzy was to be avoided at all costs. However, Mineko felt that admitting to this awful weakness might break the kindness spell. Why oh why was the unease still there? Would she even be able to fully trust a single being after all that had happened?
After a few painfully slow silent seconds that went by even slower than her walking, Mineko felt that silence to be overwhelming and broke it by asking, "Do you . . . do you have a home?"

[kukutaru_ookami]

Craven was walking ahead of Mineko when she asked her question causing him to bite his lip. Their ascent was slow, and it was clear she was afraid of heights and now she was asking something like that. He couldn't be sure if it was just to break the silence or if she feared some kind of trap, like he was a street rat who got money from bringing pretty girls to pimps or rapists. He silently wondered why that even came to mind as he kept walking, he took a moment to compose his response.
"Well, I suppose yes is the right answer but at the same time no." He chuckled nervously, "you see I was kinda kicked out of my home. Believe it or not I used to be a pretty bad kid, nothing as serious as murder of course minor things like defacing of public property." He laughed slightly and picked up the pace ever-so slightly hoping she'd keep up the idle chatter keeping her distracted. Though saying his crimes were minor was much like saying elevators only slightly impeded conversation. The defacing thing wasn't technically a lie there wasn't much of a face to many of the buildings Craven had targeted in the lower ring.
"So I was kicked out of my original home and came to a boarding school here. There a politician kinda spotted me and quickly found out how familiar I was with the streets and people and put me to work. He decided I deserved a better place to stay so now I'm living at his expense." He let out a slight snicker, "from rebel-rouser to political aide in five easy steps sounds like a book doesn't it?" While none of this was technically untrue a lot of it was exaggerated and he made the time spent between kick-out and boarding school quick in truth it had been about 13 years.

[Demyx]

Z looked at the sky "i think its going to rain"

Cyan looked at Z "are you sure"

Keita smiled, nodding. "Good to have you aboard." She turned to Cyan and Z. "Rain? Really?"

[Nyko]

Z sighed as it began to down pour "i hate being right"

Cyan pulled Keita and Z under the covering of the roof "yea sometimes being wrong would be nice" he laughed trying to make her feel better

[Demyx]

"Well, I guess we should go inside." Keita said, laughing. She opened the door, and flicked teh lights on. "If you need, I've got extra clothes."

[Nyko]

Z smiled as she walked inside "ugh" she shook her head like a dog drying her hair "i could use some new pants"

Cyan looked at Z after her shake soaked him even more "yea i could use dry everything thanks to Z" he looked at Keita with a polite smile

Z looked at him "well its your fault for standing there" she smiled

[Demyx]

Keita laughed. "This way." She lead them to her bedroom, opening the closet. There was a small variety of clothes in various sizes.

[Nyko]

Z followed her then hugged Keita "seems uve been doing well here"

Cyan laughed "yea very well"

[Demyx]

"Well enough." She laughed.

[Nyko]

Z smiled "its good we can hang out again i missed u when u left" still hanging over Keita in a hug

Cyan laughed "yea its good times again"

[KoYue]

Just a step at a time. Keep your hand on the railing and take a slow step, one at a time, and nothing bad will happen, Mineko thought as her eyes slowly wandered down to the steps. A sudden wave of dizziness caused her step to falter and she quickly improvised another rule for herself. Look straight ahead.
The intense concentration on something as paltry as going up the stairs meant she was only half-focused to what he was saying. A bad thing to do, especially if something incriminating were to leak into the conversation, but keeping herself from falling concerned Mineko more than what his response was. However, she did manage to catch bits of the conversation.
"Kicked out of your home? How tragic," she murmured sympathetically. That was the only point she truly grasped from all that he had said. He probably did not know it, but something of the sort had happened to her. A few petty to major troubles had gotten her kicked out of her world and into this unfamiliar one so of course she knew the meaning of home loss. However, some words, such as politician and boarding school had almost no meaning for her. Yes, she had encountered them before, but only as brief snatches from the conversation of strangers. There was no need to learn their true meanings since the conversation had never concerned her. Mineko winced at her thoughts. She had been in this world for quite a while now. Shouldn't she know the meaning of such words?
"So, you say you went to boarding school?" Mineko asked out loud, hoping the chatter would give her more insight into the words that had no meaning for her. "Emm . . . what was it like?"

[Aiden]

Kyo followed Keita even though he felt this urge to help this lost soul. At that moment he relized there was nothing he could do for that person for it was dead.

[Demyx]

Keita laughed. "I missed you guys too." She looked at Kyo. "Do you need some dry clothes? Or didn't you get that wet?"

[kukutaru_ookami]

Craven continued up the stairs picking up his pace a little more. The question was clearly meant to distract her from the height. How the hell is an angel afraid of heights! He thought bitterly before making a sound as if he was thinking before shrugging. "Well you know basic stuff, a large campus to support its elevator function and the number of students. I suppose you don't know what an elevator school is right? Basically its a school which supports all grades up to high school.
The place where the students live is on the campus so bonds are pretty tight between everyone. Well normally anyway truth is mine was more of a detention facility than a school checked for all manner of destructive items. It was a real hassle dealing with the suspicious teachers everyday ." At this point Craven was more or less making it up as he went but it seemed this girl had little knowledge of the world she now lived in. Even at the painfully slow pace they were setting they had already reached the 11th floor only 4 more to go.

[KoYue]

"How um . . . interesting," Mineko murmured thoughtfully. Truly she could think of no other adjective to fit what she had heard seeing as how she understood little of it. In a way, she supposed to the school subject did interest her. Just the idea of being with others that were in one facility for basically a single purpose made her smile ever so slightly.
Oh, how much longer until they reached the floor? Really, the walking was starting to make her legs weak and although she had abided by her rules faithfully Mineko still felt a twinge of dizziness every now and then upon recalling that they were pretty high up. Quickly she searched her mind for another question to take her mind off the height problem. Something normal, something that would not make her sound too curious or naive or even stupid.
"Um, what were your parents like?" Mineko finally asked, wondering if the question would be considered prying.

[kukutaru_ookami]

Craven almost stopped at the question but decided to press ahead. The girl's question was out of sorts so far she had kept to fair distance questions and let Craven spew off Lan's story as a way to distract her from his true identity. Now she made a straight bee-line something he hadn't expected the nervous and odd angel to do.
The truth was not many people got too close to Craven and thus he had never really needed a good cover story for what his parents were like. He could make it up on the fly and hope the girl's ignorance of this world made everything seem normal or tell her about his real parents. Of course in the former as he was making things up he would have to keep track of several lies at once and ensure that he was careful with his words even the slightest slip-up could ruin hours of work.
He decided the latter was the safest venue, besides simply clamming up, and he needed to show the girl he had some trust in her at this point so she could trust him back. "Well my parents were very militant so I grow up in a very strict environment. Failure wasn't an option and they let you know it in no uncertain terms if you catch my drift. I guess their overly strict manner gave me some authority issues which manifested in the petty crimes, so its kind of ironic I work for a politician now, huh?" He almost threw in another sentence but quickly bit it back it was a sentence that boarded on suspicious especially since three high-ranking officials had died in the city in the past 4 weeks with another added tonight.
None of the deaths were terribly strange and all but one were due to a medical condition. The final one was killed with a "suicide" bomber, which was in truth a golem Craven had made, not that the police would ever figure that out. Even that wasn't terribly strange with the way this world was shaping truly it needed someone to forcibly grip the reigns of power and lead it to a much more peaceful state.