Who

Clementine, Sa'mael

What

Sa'mael and Clem are both where they're not really supposed to be.

When

It is evening of the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month of the seventh turn of the 12th pass.

Where

Catacomb Ruins, Southern Weyr

OOC Date 07 Mar 2016 05:00

 

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"If I were someone bent on slashing and killing people, I could have already stabbed you."


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Catacomb Ruins, Southern Weyr

Claustrophobia gives way to higher ceilings and the promise, somewhere of natural light. From that place where light enters, the shadows are drawn long across this expanse of hall. Thick columns provide the support for alcoves that might have once contained benches, but now hold nothing. A disused grate lies against the floor, near to an old ventilation shaft. Echoes and noises from the other tunnels can be heard very faintly. While it's clear that this area has been cleaned up, it's still obvious that time has taken its toll. Crumbling bricks and cracked foundations aren't uncommon sights. At the end, there's nothing. It's a dead end! Such a cruel joke. Except where it's not, a 'trapdoor' is set into the ground. A few good tugs can break it open and lead to a short staircase and a tunnel beyond.


Turmoil has the weyr churning beneath the wake of so many voices wondering what the fuck is going on. Sa'mael has been dragged into this two ways: via R'ik and via Ione, who's potential lover was slain like so much meat at the opening that lead to the catacombs. So here the bronzerider is now, with a damned light and his knife, slogging through the ruins like the rage fires of hell were chasing him. He's made it to this room, following some trail left behind by someone (hopefully not somewhat) and pauses, one hand braced against the wall. The other hand raises the light to better cut past the shadows of the dark catacombs. It doesn't help that it's dark outside, now does it? He's lacking any knot or rider's paraphernalia, rather he's got loose trousers on and a loose white shirt over an undershirt, just long enough to partially hide the wicked knife at his hip. Sa'mael consumes the world in his defiant belligerence, lacking no amount of confidence that whatever is in this Faranth-forsaken place, he can OWN IT.

Clementine is on a one way road to getting her ass handed to her and grounded to the weyr if Hannah ever finds out that she's down here. It probably should have been suspicious, her lack of interest in what was happening during that struggle at the party. What it really meant? She was playing dead until she could make her next break. Under the cover of dark and after evading her guard, she made it to the back end of this series of tunnels, working her way up the river until she found where the men were aiming to go. Of course this all occurs where Sa'mael can't see or hear. What's important in the immediate moment, is the trapdoor that suddenly pops up and the shadow form of a woman illuminated only by her dim little basket of glows.

Hannah is so going to tan your hide, Clementine… However, luckily she's not here and maybe Sa'mael might provide the break from that virago when he sees the trap door pop up and thus steps to the side. Like a dick, the bronzerider is going to lie in wait until he can clearly catch sight of the shape of her face. Then, from the darkness: Shhhhhhhhhhhh. The sound of his knife leaving its sheath. Then: Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappppeeeeeeee. The metallic sound of a blade scraping across the rock. Then, heavy breathing.

Yeah, Clementine wasn't planning on coming across anyone here in the full out DARK of this cavern. The sound of metal scraping on stone brings her into an immediate stance of caution, lifting the dim glow and casting it around as she moves to put her back to the wall. She probably has like… a utility knife on her. But she's not exactly prepared to get into a hand to hand dual with a grown man.

"You know," a man's textured baritone rumbles from the dark, slipping from the contours of no accent to allowing the Benden origins to infiltrate the shape of the words. Some repressed anger is held in what he says, when he continues with, "If I were someone bent on slashing and killing people, I could have already stabbed you." Maybe Sa'mael's voice will be recognizable but even if it isn't, the flicker-light of the glow reveals his bearded face, countenance in full on disapproval. "You have a guard for a reason," that snap escapes on an exhalation of anger.

"What are you, my mother?" However Clementine does visibly relax when it's just her potentially homicidal knife wielding friend meeting her by surprise in the pitch black cavern. "Whoever killed that stupid," Sorry Sven, RIP. "Harper? They're long gone." At least she's assuming that they're long gone. She doesn't really know that, now does she? That part about the guard is convienently ignored so that she can ask her own question, "What are you doing down here and how'd you get in?"

"No, I'm not your mother," Sa'mael's ire isn't lessened by the woman's lip. "But I kind of actually find myself not wanting to see my clutchmate cut up into tiny pieces either." Exasperated, he slides the knife back into the sheath, "And you have a guard for a reason." The emphasis is in the hard cast of his tone and the way he gives her the STINK-EYE. "That stupid harper, as you put it, was killed by someone who's framing - or trying to frame - R'ik." A few boot-crunching steps later and he's close enough to Clementine to loom and try to put a hand on her upper arm, "So don't be stupid. And I came from that garden area, walked right through Sven's dried blood." Hammer, hammer, hammer, the point home. "Where did you come from?"

"Oh, lets not get sentimental." Clementine exhales, chronically uncomfortable with legitmate forms of concern. Still totally ignoring that thing about the guard. If she doesn't respond to it, maybe he'll stop bringing it up! La dee dah. "Is it possible that R'ik just… dropped some of that stuff in a bad location?" She hasn't spent a lot of time talking to the other bronzerider, but she's also not quick to jump to a conspiracy theory. "Maybe you shouldn't be stupid either? I get that you're a big tough guy, but." She waves around at the desolate cavern. "I came from the direction the party crashers did. Up the river and through the caves. There's a really great pool that way." Helpful pointing.

"I would have thought that except that the host of assholes called out that they recognized him," Sa'mael drawls, leaning up against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. "I'm not really into the authority," even if Clementine is kind of the authority, "but I swear I will out you unless you tell me you realize how phenomenally stupid it is to wander around here alone." Beat. "As a girl." Extra beat. "With no fight training." Pushing away from the wall, he gives her a look, adds in an irritated mutter, "I know how to handle myself in a fight, Clem." He stares down the trapdoor that she came from and frowns. "Towards the river?" Glowlight shines off the blond of his hair when he turns and looks back the way he came. "I found another tunnel that lead further direct east, but hadn't stumbled on any going down to the river, thus far." Which suggests he's been at this a while.

"They weren't saying his name? Maybe it was a coincidence?" Clementine counters, much happier with the idea that this is some weird mix-up. At his threatening her, she crosses her arms over her chest. "Why? What good does it do you if I admit to anything like that?" She's stubborn and she doesn't want to admit to any wrong doing. "Yeah, K'ane's got some map that they had on them. I haven't gottten the chance to look at it yet, but I hear it's of this." She gives the hall they're in a wave, more to indicate the catacombs in general. "I figured they were haulting that boat upstream so they could get in here, maybe hide out of sight?"

"Think about it, Clem," Sa'mael spares a look, while digging his favorite flask from his back pocket, "If you can come up from the river, then Sven was probably murdered by whomever was doing whatever with our guys at the party." Where he ended up accidentally being the rescue fairy. He sighs, "But you know what? Do whatever the fuck you want. You want to off yourself and ditch your guard, fine. Just…" He clenches his fist around that flask and guzzles more of it than he intended. "It'd be nice if you thought about what ditching your guard really meant." He caps the flask and shoves it back into his pocket. "I don't know if that boat would have fit, but there could be a lot of things in here." Again, a glower, "A lot." Echoing through the empty tunnels comes a soft sound, kind of like a clatter. Surely, it's nothing. Surely.

"No, Sam. I just don't need you lecturing me when you're doing the same thing." Well, sort of the same thing. At any rate, her tone is cool and not anywhere near flush with annoyance. It's probably wrapped under layers of repressed emotions. Also that's all the energy that Clementine is going to dedicate to this particular argument, seeing as how she seems content to move past him to investigate the direction that he came from. "It was just a rowboat, you know? They could have covered it in the bushes, taken the goods in here and hidden them until it was safe to move them again." The noise onlys draws the barest of attention from her as she glances in it's direction before refocusing on S'amael.

"It's different." Sa'mael mutters, but he doesn't elaborate nor does he continue the particularly fruitless vein of conversation - that or he's not really going to be quibbling if someone wants to put themselves in danger. "I didn't get a good look. I had your sister's ass in my face and I was trying to keep Ione from offing herself, but little good did that do either." And throwing her shoes at her, but whatever! "They could have," he allows, bracing his weight against the wall so he can step over a particularly uneven patch. It's just as his boot slips on the dewy, wet rock and lands with a loud, echoing thud that more noises drift up from the tunnels. Not just noises, but people voices, this time. And they aren't coming from the way Sa'mael came, nor are they coming up the way Clementine came, but from a different tunnel and the sound is harsh, angry. Seconds before the sound of a body hitting the wall can be heard. Splat.

"Mmmhmm." Clementine directs a skeptical look his way in the dark, but she lets it die. His next ellictis a little round of laughter from her, "I did see that happen. I heard Vi screaming something about shoes as you were carrying her off." She'd ask if she was okay afterwards, but maybe she's afraid that's going to open up a can of TMI worms. The sound of voices in the tunnel freezes her and the look that was once skeptical grows concerned. Her glow is extinguished under the protective layer of her cloak and the goldrider is quick to blend into the shadows behind a pillar. Sa'mael may have come prepared to fight his way out of someething like this, but she didn't! It's subterfuge and hiding all the way.

It so would, Clem. It so would. (Maybe). Sa'mael might be about to say something about her sister (sharing is caring?) when the sounds reach his ear. Also immediately dousing his glow, he shoots Clementine a look as she hides herself, the spare light from oddly placed light sources limning the shape of her body. "Stay here." It's hissed, but Sa'mael isn't about to stand around and hide. Besides, he's quite a bit bigger than Clementine so it wouldn't work out so well. He slinks off, but not before the wicked length of that knife flashes in the dark. This can't bode well. Someone makes a sound, another angry muffled voice, and as Sa'mael's shadow disappears around the corner, all goes QUIET. Drip. Drip. Drip.

It's fine, Clementine will just stand down here in the dark as Sa'mael potentially stabs some guys. If she's very lucky, he won't murder them and she won't find herself sitting across from Johannes in some very awkward interview. The goldrider waits in the shadows. The length of time between when he was last scene and the now growing increasingly longer, at the least it feels as if it's been centuries.

Clementine will be SAFE. However, it doesn't stay quiet for long, because there comes a sound like startled chickens, and then a scuffle, and then the sound of someone in pain. And then, the sound of rushing footsteps. A shadow rounds the corner, and looms like a scary heebie-jeebie before it surges forward and tries to grab Clementine's wrist before she can squeak and run away. "We gotta go," The unmistakable sound of Sa'mael's voice, at least. Is his hand… GOOEY? "Run, Clem." And maybe he tries to give her a little push. "We got seconds. Seconds to get out of here." Down the trap, baby!

Somehow the fact that they now only have seconds to get out of here is his fault! The chicken people probably would have stayed wherever they were! "Sa'mael!" She hisses, it's just a precursor to whatever she's going to say later. Because she doesn't get to the scolding just yet, he's grabbing her wrist and pushing her along. "Fine." That comes muttered, at least she knows where the trapdoor is? She hustles to it in the dark, disappearing down the dark stairs into the even darker tunnel below.

Listen, it's not Sa'mael's fault. When she goes first down the trap door, he follows suit, but stays up on whatever ladder there is to hold the door shut. "I found them down a different tunnel," he pants, looking over his shoulder at Clementine - who has hopefully opened the glows again, "And then one guy shanked another guy, talking about a missed delivery." As he speaks, he's trying to tie something around the door's handle to maybe at least stall the men after them. "And the guy turns," he falls down and tries to usher her forward, putting that gooey, warm hand on her arm. Some of his weight comes to bear, as if he uses her to prop himself up. "And out comes this other guy. I heard the name Sven, and then it was quick, they found me." C'mon, this tunnel doesn't go on forever. "We need to get out of here. Nemekath needs to be waiting for you," he hisses, urgently, leaving behind something slick and shiny on the wall, but let's hope Clem isn't looking too close. "Counting on you, babe, to get us out of here."

"Ew, don't call me babe." But also and more importantly, "Is that blood on your hand Sam?! Is that your blood?" Clementine's voice is equal parts disgust and fear when she comes to realize what that wet, slick substance has to be. Thankfully he can't see how pale her face has gone. Also, she doesn't need to be told twice about getting out of here. It's fortunate then that she knows the way and was just here recently, because she only stumbles a little as she leads them out of the catacombs and into the jungles. Nemekhath, big as she is finds a place to wedge her fat ass nearby so that can pick them up. It's a quick flight back into the weyr, where she'll hang around with the bronzerider long enough to make sure he's not dying before sneaking back to her weyr.

Sa'mael is good at pawning it off as something entirely different: "Paltry scratch," before parting ways. Not before being ass about just about everything. Of course, he, too, will SNEAK BACK INTO HIS WEYR. Maybe there was a "what happens in the catacombs STAYS in the catacombs pact." And thus, the curtain closes on yet another escapade wherein the unlikely pair still manage to make it out alive (and also don't die a few hours later). The. End.

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