[Odin Wolfram]

"P-Please! I don't know anything about this man you are talking about! You don't have to do this! I beg of you" A horrid shriek came from the mouth of the man as another session of torture was inflicted upon the individual. Odin simply stared as with lifeless eyes as the screams echoed repeatedly within his mind. Time and time again. Another day, another task. Sometimes pain was inflicted on those that were meant to be punished, while others were for information that they might or might not have.

Clutching the great axe tightly in his grip as he pierced the flesh of the defenseless victim, deserving or not, felt...hollow now. In the past, it was always to improve...or survive. It wasn't a challenge anymore. Nor was it with purpose. Purpose to Odin at the very least. He cared little for the reasons why he was expected to do the tasks he did, but if it put him forward towards finding the man which destroyed all he cared for, then so be it.

Blood leaked down the shaft of the ebony weapon, warmly coating the blonde soldiers hands in a red sheen. The struggling figure eventually went limp upon the end of the pike before Odin eventually forced the corpse off the end with no remorse or interest. Looking down at his deed, he simply snorted in frustration of wasting his time before shambling to his next destination. Like he was ordered to. Like the mad dog he was...

Pressing a hand against the wall he walked along, a strong sense of vertigo hit him and Odin staggered, only barely catching himself as his weapon fell out of his hand. Looking down at his shaking hand, it was only then that he remembered that this wasn't the world he currently lived in. It was merely another of the haunting memories that served to torment him. His hand and weapon, clean of a life for some time, only felt like a fragment of reality.

The Asche Syndicate had stopped contacting the young soldier of war for some time now, months actually, and Odin had only just now begun to realize how empty his life was. The syndicate was his life, if only for his own selfish purposes, and now that they were seemingly gone, he had nothing once again. No leads to his father. No Rose to spark his drive.

No will to live. For the first time in years, not since he betrayed his rival in an attempt at revenge did Odin feel so...meaningless.

The blonde male breathed heavily as he stared down at his weapon of choice, the sole remaining claim to his past besides his nightmares, along with Fenrir, the last remaining relic of the syndicate he once served.

Dry heaving, Odin could no longer remember how long ago he had eaten. Days? Maybe over a week? The already ragged male now looked even more ghastly, to the point of being the specter he thought he actually was. Rain poured down upon the broken Odin, drenching the man and streets with the sounds of storm, wailing winds attempting to drown the ghost of his past. Instead, it only served to cause the world to seem to spin further.

Stepping slowly forward, Odin dragged his feet forward before leaning forward to try and grab Ragnarok. His body failed him, Odin slipping upon the damp street next to the large blade of his axe, and crashing hard on the ground. Odin trembled for the first time since his imprisonment, helplessly weak to the elements surrounding him.

So this was the fate of the once proud warrior of vacuo. The once equal rival to the bandit queen.

The death of a stray animal. Alone and starved, shattered mentally and physically. Odin would have laughed in the face of death, if not for his empty amount of energy. The death of a betrayer. Seems...fitting, considering his second chance on life was filled with nothing but vengeance and hate. 

Instead of begging or praying for forgiveness, Odin lay silent and defeated. Acceptance was all he could do considering his sins. Erikson was dead, and soon, Odin would go with him. Washed away, much like the two deserved. Forgotten, just like Vacuo.


WC: 708

[Hinata Tsurya]

❝Show me colors of the sky,

But all I see is gray❞

711 w./ 711 w. total

Oh no, oh no, oh no! Mamma was going to be so mad if she didn't get the grocery shopping done, but shoot where did all of this rain come from!? It had seemed so calm and peaceful when she had left, but those gray clouds seemingly came out of nowhere to spoil her day! The girl had taken cover inside of the market and dragged her feet with shopping in the hopes of riding the storm out. No dice, unfortunately. In fact, it looked as if the wind was howling with even more fury!

"Oh bother..." She murmured, stepping out of the store with her grocery bags in hand.

It was a long walk back to Heaven's Gate, but there was nothing that could be done about it. So the brunette took a deep breath and made the plunge into the miserable weather! The rain poured down upon her, beating down with intensity and drenching her clothes within seconds. Her worn out white blouse clung to her humble chest and her bare legs were shivering in her torn blue skirt. As she hurried along the cracked sidewalk, Hinata's socks sloshed uncomfortably in her pair of loafers which made her cringe with each step.

"Achoo! Oh shoot, this is not pleasant. Hey sky, could you not!?"

The girl rubbed a finger under her nose to wipe away the snot that was leaking and, unsurprisingly, her shout to the clouds above did nothing to abate the storm. It was truly an awful night, but at least she had splurged on some hot cocoa! It was a well deserved treat, she thought, for braving the treacherous storm for the good of the bar!

She turned the corner to hit a side street which would lead into a back alley where the bar's dumpster was located. It hid the backdoor of her home pretty well and Vesper was really the only other one who used it besides her. It was dark back here and her momma always warned Hinata against using this route, but the girl was naïve and never expected something too awful to happen.

Except tonight was different. There were sounds coming from the dark...scary sounds. Hinata immediately halted as a grinding sound scraped across the ground, getting closer and closer with each beat of her heart. What in the world was it?

A flash of lightning lit the sky up brilliantly for a moment, revealing a ragged blonde man leaning heavily against the wall of the alley! Hinata nearly jumped out of her skin from the sudden reveal and her eyes went straight to the axe gripped loosely in his hand! Her first instinct was to run and that is exactly what the girl did! Straight for the safety of the back door's overhead light where she could channel Shinedown!

"EEP!"

As she ran desperately, a heavy thud echoed through the narrow passage followed by shallow heaving. Hinata looked back, now bathing in the warm illumination of the light and could barely make out the man's body collapse like a sack of potatoes. Blinking curiously, Hinata's sense of compassion soon overrode her fear and the small girl hesitantly tip toed towards the collapsed warrior. The axe frightened her, but not enough to make the girl change her mind.

She channeled her aura, forming a golden outline around her frame and a halo of light encircled the girl's forehead. She reached out to the light and pulled it along the air like a long snake. Working the construct in her mind, it slid underneath the vagrant and flattened out to create a stretcher. Groaning with some effort, Hinata forced it to lift up into the air and follow after her inside of the bar.

Her mind was straining from the weight of the man and it was starting to hurt. Yet Hinata wouldn't give up! She dropped the wet bag of groceries onto the kitchen counter and carried the blonde through the room and toward the stairs down to Hinata's room. It was small, for sure, but she was able to lay out a towel on the floor before dropping him gently onto it.

"Phew! You sure are heavy, mister...now, let us see what is the matter with you. Hold still, okay?"

© SETHANIEL OF adox 2.0 + WW.

[Odin Wolfram]

Odin lay limp upon the ground, not letting go of Ragnarok despite his current state of living. Or unliving. Odin could no longer reasonably tell. It was difficult to tell in the hazy divide between consciousness and the realm of death, but Odin's eyes lazily rolled around his surroundings as he finally noticed he was no longer in the storm filled streets...or alone.

A girl's voice spoke nearby, making difficult to know what any of this meant anymore. Had he...finally moved on?

Taking what little note of his surroundings the barbarian could, it was far too ordinary to be heaven....not that Odin expected any chance he would get a spot there. Hell? If this was the afterlife he earned, Odin's expectations were...perhaps more punishing and harsh than being tended to in a small room of living.

Which only meant one thing...he yet lived. Disappointing to a degree, but Odin had given up knowing whether or not death was what he truly wanted or even deserved. The revenant likely still wanted his revenge, and he would get it...eventually, at the cost of the vessel that it held dominion over. A uncomfortably dragged out groan leaked out of Odin's mouth as he forced himself up despite what his body and mind might have wanted.

Despite being asked to hold still by the girl, Odin knew he couldn't do that. A man of independence and solitude, to a rather extreme fault, wouldn't allow himself to impede on another persons life if it meant he was a burden to them. Vacuo taught that such things were a sign of weakness and Odin was no different, if not even more so.

Lifting Ragnarok weakly, he now had the clarity to break the weapon down to it's individual parts for ease of carrying. Securing the two parts upon his body, the disheveled and feral looking blonde turned his singular eye towards the girl with a stare. With any decent amount of understanding and awareness, it wasn't difficult for one to see the robbed soul behind the visage of savagery.

Years of isolated loneliness. Years of tormented regret and depression. Years of wishing for some kind of salvation from the chains that bound him to the monster he was expect to embrace. Redemption of the irredeemable...

Not even taking notice of the Shinedown, Odin simply gave a dull nod and stood up slowly.

"I have already wasted enough of your time here. Do not concern yourself for my well being." Odin said in a gravely, muttered voice. Shambling towards the only exit he could see, the soaked Odin prepared to return to the underworld outside. 


WC: 438

[Hinata Tsurya]

❝Show me colors of the sky,

But all I see is gray❞

411 w./ 1,122 w. total

A soft squeak escaped her lips as the man slowly rose up from the ground. He looked awful and completely soaked! There was absolutely NO WAY that she would allow him to go back out into that downpour of a storm! Nuh uh! Hinata rushed for the door leading up to the ground floor of the bar and threw her arms out in defiance, cheeks puffed out to look angry but coming off as more cute than she would have liked.

"No! You stop right there, buster! Sit your rump back down and park it! I may not know much about your life and stuff, but you look hurt. So please...let me try to help you."

Hinata held her hand out to Odin, a look of worry on her face as her eyes widened slightly. She studied his weak, malnourished body up and down slowly to take in just how dire his situation was. Hinata nodded sternly.

"I have a small bathroom over there. It is a tad cramped, but go ahead and take a shower. In the meantime, I will get you some clothes somehow and fix up a meal. Just..."

Hinata held her hands up to him as if to command him to stay.

"Please do not leave. I will be right mad if you do, Mister. So please get cleaned up, okies? Be right back."

She winked at him happily and gave a very gently, but firm push in the direction of the small bathroom that was connected to her room. It was definitely small, with only enough room for a toilet, a shower with cute dolphin curtains, and a sink with a slightly cracked mirror. If Odin would listen to her, then Hinata would rush back upstairs to raid the kitchen's fridge for anything that Camilla had whipped up recently. A quick pop into the microwave would easily solve her problems when she yanked out some leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Perfect!

And as far as clothes went...Camilla probably had some of her husband's clothes on hand. Hinata was sure that he wouldn't mind if a poor, beaten down soul borrowed them for a bit while she did laundry. Right? Getting the meal onto a plate and into the microwave, the girl couldn't help but hum a soft tune as she got the stuff all prepared for Odin!

♪Food food...take me away...take me away far away. To the future we will go...where it stops? No one knows...♪

© SETHANIEL OF adox 2.0 + WW.

[Odin Wolfram]

Stepping towards the door at a snails pace, Odin was halted by the girl that had pulled him from the storm outside, jerking his walk to a halt. Odin's lazily held open eye tilted from the ground before him to directly look at the small framed lass with a defiant look upon her face.

Between the height difference, the puffed out cheeks and determined look in her eyes, Odin was, for what felt like the first time in his life, at a loss for what to do. Living in Vacuo usually meant solving your problems with fist flying. The only people that tried to show some kind of defiance to said system usually winded up buried in the harsh sands or eaten by Grim....if they were the lucky ones. Determination only lasted as long as you could prove your might to whatever gods stared down at them from their thrones that sat above the savage desert.

Yet, this girl that chipper looking girl that appeared like she was doing her best 'woodland animal trying to defend its stash of food' impression, barred his exit from whatever realm of disbelief Odin might have been yanked into. The same girl who lacked both the muscle to combat him and the height to stand eye to eye with him. Did she really believe that she could stop Odin from leaving? Did she think that willpower and charisma could ring through whatever hell still permeated the warrior's mind?

"What...?"

Odin finally growled through his confusion, the only word he could muster. Only one person ever stood up to Erikson, Rose, and certainly not anybody since Odin was awoken. At an crossroad with his own mind, most of what the girl said tuned out from his mind, save for what she sternly asked him to stay. Almost as if commanding him. Though most of what was happening was a haze to the young man, he couldn't help but understand that he had little room to argue.

Just like with the Syndicate, Odin followed orders without question. He never really felt like he was in control of his own actions anymore, and when he was finally able to...he was hopelessly lost. Like an inmate finally let free to the world outside. An prisoner...

Before Odin realized it, Hinata had gently pushed him in the direction of the bathroom she spoke of, and left him to his own devises before scurrying off elsewhere. If Odin wanted, he could easily have attempted to leave again, yet....here he was.

Staring at himself in the mirror, it took the young man some time to realize that what stood before him was really....him. In fact, Odin couldn't remember the last time he saw his own reflection. It unnerved him enough to want to break the mirror. To look away and just expect to wake up from the unending nightmare. It was a wish he knew would never come true, but it was the only glimmer of hope in the deepest recesses of his mind that kept him...sane? Human? Perhaps just a fragment of Erikson that struggled to remain alive.

Unmoving as the water poured upon his figure, Odin rested his forehead against the shower wall with a dull look upon his face. What was likely years of dirt, grease, sweat and probably blood drifting down the drain as he took his first proper shower in...ever. Bathing was never quite the same luxury in Vacuo without a running water system...

Enough time passed to where Odin believed himself clean enough, shutting the shower off (Which thankfully was about as easy to understand as turning a sink on and off) and stepping out of the tiny-ish stall to the equally humble bathroom. Looking again at himself as he dried himself off, it was both difficult to tell he was the same Odin as before and impossible to not recognize. Guess being caked with filth for years did a number to ones appearance, though not enough to shed whatever preconceptions one might hold for somebody.

The crack in the mirror overlapped with his severed eye, and Odin snapped away from the sight subconsciously before throwing on the towel over his lower body and throwing open the door without much thought to continue whatever game this girl had still decided to lay out for the disgraced warrior.

WC: 722

[Hinata Tsurya]

❝Show me colors of the sky,

But all I see is gray❞

422 w./ 1,544 w. total

It was but a simple thing to climb the stairs of the building, letting the boards creak and groan as she ascended her way to the rooms above. Like a quick little thief, Hinata slipped into Camilla's room as she slept...after all, there was no way she was going to wake the lady up to ask about giving clothes to a random vagabond! Hinata tip toed her way across the room with her tongue bit down in quiet concentration. She clutched the dresser drawer and slid it open carefully, just barely enough to eye a plain t-shirt and a folded pair of jeans.

The girl was in and out like the wind, dashing down the stairs excitedly in time with the microwave. It had beeped loudly in the quiet of the night, sounding far louder than it should have! Hinata cringed from the noise, but there was nothing that could be done about it. So she held the small pile of folded clothes in one arm as she popped open the microwave door to retrieve the food and plop it on top of the clothes. At the very least the warmth of the plate would feel pretty nice for Mr. blond guy. It felt nice to her, but maybe she was just weird?

Coming down to her room, Hinata paused at the last step. The man was standing in the middle of the room in...nothing but a towel.

"Oh...oh my um..."

She coughed as her throat suddenly seized up from giving him a once over...and then a second over. Okay, maybe a third over, but that was it! Wow, he sure cleaned up nice! Of course Hinata very quickly realized that she was staring and blinked rapidly before rushing towards the bed to shakily set the clothes and food down.

"Ha ha well these should fit you! Yup! Ha HA HA! Go on and get changed and we can talk and stuff and see how things go and stuff, okay? Not now, obviously! I mean, unless you are comfortable with that? No no, what am I sayin!? I will be waiting upstairs when you are...decent. So take your time and feel at home, then we will...talk?"

Hinata spun on her heel, flourishing her skirt about her waist and climbed back up the stairs when she stopped abruptly. The girl swiveled her head back and smiled widely with red brightening on her face.

"Oh and my name is Hinata, by the by! This is my home, so make yourself comfortable okay? Hee hee!"

© SETHANIEL OF adox 2.0 + WW.

[Odin Wolfram]

Odin had only just left the bathroom a minute or two prior, letting his eye wander lazily around the feminine room without much rime or reason. At this point, he was already committed, and something deep down inside Odin's mind made him get the impression that whomever this girl was, she would be the type to follow after him if he decided to leave for real.

Whether to guilt trip him, for her own selfish desires, who knew. Odin certainly didn't. Not like he cared much for or even could consider the concerns of others anymore. For so long, Odin was used. One person after another. One group after another. Time and time again. It left him feeling like...anything but a living, breathing person.

Despite this though, Odin couldn't help but just...accept whatever this all was. Maybe a sign from some higher being? A test? Not that Odin was exactly religious...rarely anybody in Vacuo was, save for possibly cultist...

Her room was....a stark contrast to anything he had seen before. Definitely nothing matching himself, or even Rose for that matter. Though, after she abandoned Vacuo, who knew how she changed. Odin certainly had.

Odin's eye fell upon his weapon, still resting in the same spot he had dropped it. Maybe this wasn't a trap after all...

As he stared at the barbaric weapon amongst the more light and cheery atmosphere, Odin heard the voice of the girl once more. Sounding taken aback, Odin didn't pay much heed to her, transfixed on the relic of his past instead. He probably could have pick up on the reason for her sudden jittering, if not for his lack of 'civility' adopted from Vacuo.

Quickly, she raced over to the bed to dispense the clothing and food she had gathered for the former warrior. This was when she started talking again, and at this point, Odin finally turned his head to stare coldly at her. She was rambling. Something he never really had experience with prior, from both Vacuo and the Syndicate. Not even when she first brought him in did she babble so incoherently.

Others might have gotten frustrated. Annoyed or mad, but Odin was...unsure. Maybe he was just tired of it all. Tired of...living, even. So to have someone just talk freely, a lack of a filter was almost refreshing, in a way. Almost like Rose.

It always went back to Rose, didn't it...

Only made sense for Odin's personal reaper. Still, Odin could hardly muster any kind of emotional response as the girl sputtered out her frazzled statement before scurrying off up the stairs once more, leaving Odin with a name to connect with the face. Hinata.

Normally Odin wouldn't have paid it much attention, but after spending so long with an organization that kept it's cards close to it's chest, the name stuck in his mind quickly as he stared at the empty stairs, hearing the creaking rise and rise before fading out. Time seemed to crawl as Odin remained unmoving before waking up once more and turning his attention to the bed. Food was certainly welcome at this point, but it should probably wait until he gets changed as she asked.

Odin threw on the clothing without much effort, despite his lethargy, getting a small second wind from the mix of the shower, warm, clean clothing and hot meal. Flopping down hard onto the bed, Odin felt the relief of just resting for a moment before picking up the plate and gazing at it.

When it came to food, Odin was hardly experienced. Vacuo was hardly flowing with resources in that department, and most of the "extravagant meals" were either stolen goods, or taken by force. Needless to say, Odin had consumed enough sand rodent and reptile to not have much of a sense of taste for what was delicious. So whatever was served to him was probably better then that. Surely.

Taking a small, shaky forkful, Odin planned on spacing out his eating to aid his empty stomach. However, plans fell apart once his starving self actually got food into his mouth, beginning to shovel the meal unabated down his gullet. As he neared the end, Odin's chewing slowed and he looked upon the nearly empty plate, watching as a drop hit the dirtied plate. Odin assumed it from his still drying hair, however, the trail running down the one side of his face told a different story.

It was the first homemade meal he had in...well, since before leaving Vacuo. It was the first actual meal for that matter he had in what felt like ever, and Odin, without knowing it, was impacted emotionally.

Odin might not have known it was reheated, or leftovers from the night before, or even what a microwave was. All of that paled in comparison to just having food in your stomach. A warm dinner. A roof over your head. A soft bed. Running water.

All things Odin never had, or lost long ago, and only a dead man from Vacuo ever dared shed tears...

WC: 842