FUCK (Dunstan, Arty, Molly, Iris/OPEN)

[Toss Ivanova]

Every single day was like trying to hide from your reflection and yet not because it was just so damn hypnotizing. Sometimes he wondered if down to every follicle of her hair she was just perfect. Staring at the sun, it was better to keep staring rather than to look away and go blind. Wandering about the apartment day in and day out, was a pink-haired girl he couldn't let go. After he landed at the festival, she was there, pushing past the crowds to him. Security guards en masse held her back from him, still they were able to meet again. Words were exchanged--he couldn't even remember what he said, but she had a plane ticket back home. Home. It wasn't even his home and he lived there, yet it was beginning to feel that way now.

He stared at the wall: a scrape in the paint. He felt like that scrape. So many things in his grasp, but none of them tangible enough to hold. Now that he had something, everything else was grey. Iris tainted the world, yet brought the color. It was hard to explain--hard to think of, but when it rained, it was like that. Beauty in the drisery. He touched it; he felt it; he was able to hold her hand without looking away. He could keep breathing and keep steady around her, watch her without ducking behind corners. It was okay now, he'd tell himself, just as soon as he had landed back in Carraig. For him. He'd left his little sister faraway to die just to go to work another day. He was a monster. That realization ate him away each passing moment despite there being a bucket of fresh paint ready to take away that undeniable scrape. It couldn't go away because it had to keep going. Without her--without Hanna's laugh, Hanna's smile, Hanna's beautifully pure innocence, there was himself: that shell leftover from being human. That was all. And under those covers of pale skin and breathing machines, there was that moment--that soft memory of her waking up once. That was just a dream--a terrible nightmare of misplaced magic...

He woke up that day already knowing that he was--FUCK! The calendar glared at him from across the way. Iris was out somewhere. Savvy was pecking at the window with a darty, evil bird look that said let-me-in-or-I'll-tear-apart-your-cereal-boxes. OH NO! Toss threw the covers back, finding himself in a pair of white boxers and NOTHING ELSE. Horrified that he had to take the time to get dressed, he spent another three minutes staring at the clock and willing it to go slower. TO NO AVAIL. In a terrible panic, he fumbled through his piles of cellphones to find AT LEAST ONE with Iris' number. BUT WAIT she was in Carraig now with a previously AMESTRIAN cellphone, thus IT WOULDN'T WORK. Using his brain was a terrible thing, but it was the truth so he had to abide by it despite it completely screwing him over. He had no choice!! Throwing on a pair of baggy black pants from last week's laundry he didn't fold, Toss scampered into the bathroom wherein he spent twenty minutes debating on which toothbrush to use. There just was so many options and--and he hadn't used that one and that one in almost two months! They were both pining for attention and ARRHGHHH! He blindly chose one and then chose the other instead, slamming it around in his mouth long enough to call it clean. His toothpaste was now empty so he threw that away and added it onto the grocery list in chicken scrawl. Panicking more, Toss spent a whole ten minutes walking back and forth between the counter and the refrigerator, retrieving different cereal b--FUCK. He let Savvy in and blurted apologies that were ignored. Cold shoulder. BUT BIRDS DIDN'T EVEN HAVE SHOULDERS.

He was frustrated--beyond ready to EXPLODE, but he didn't have time too explode! He kicked over a pile of pillows to sate his anger for the time being and bent down to retrieve a shit ton of booze. That booze would be consumed come PM. The day was planned to be spent at some Gokart place in the main city crawl. He was both excited and terrified considering all who was going. It could be fun or it could be chaotic. All he knew was that it was an all day thing and that they were coming back her afterwards. This was so that Iris could meet his friends and fellow Creig militants or whatever Gavin called his slave monkeys. All the same to him, Toss just flew aircrafts and shit. He was just there for the ride--or in this case the drive. Iris could have fun, meet people, stuff. Yeah. Savvy was about to chew his head off so he should probably feed the poor deprived creature. Getting out the food, he went about the daily rhythms, and ate two bowls of cereal. In case you were wondering, it was the fruity pebbles and the cheerios. Separately, mind you.

Now, walking around shirtless was getting a bit chilly in the spring morning zephyr so he decided to throw on a tan-colored man sweater, knitted. It felt like comforting like a grandmother or something. Whatever. Feeling productive and oddly somehow on time, Toss milled around his apartment some more waiting for the crew to arrive (hopefully late because he had some Breaking Bad to watch).

[Dunstan Hue]

Four wires curled around each of his fingers, a needle lightly gripped between his thumb and middle finger. The needle slid across copper, leading a small shimmering bead to his will. After a second of fiddling, the tip of the needle slid under the copper bead, guiding it off the green and gold panel, and gently dropping the bead into a cup of water. Now the hand twirled the needle into the wires, spinning them around and turning a long web into a mesh, and soon all the fingers were free, leaving a ball of metal and with a sharp point. All four fingers wrapped around this new shape and slashed towards the handcuffs holding the other hand to a metal box. The hand was very quick, exactly pointed at the fulcrum, and it drove it off centre, buckling the cuff. The two pieces fell off the now free wrist lazily, and with its new found freedom the hand slammed into a clock.

1:05:201

"Well, at least I'm not dead but I could've done better." Dunstan murmured, writing his time down. Ever since the Central City Festival, Dunstan had been busy. Specifically, waiting and practising for disarming jobs. If someone wanted to put a bomb on a Carraig spaceship, that usually meant that they had an axe to grind. And yet, there was nothing. Not a blip on the map seemed to come up anywhere. So, Dunstan got restless, and he started to disarm bombs in increasingly elaborate conditions. He practised disarming every bomb he knew, and then invented a few new kinds just so he could disarm them, and he had done this in the backs of vans, while driving, while underwater, with one eye closed (and it was his only eye, too), and most recently handcuffed to the bomb he was disarming. His goal was to be fast without sacrificing precision. The two most important qualities for disarming bombs, and the two that refuse to go hand in hand. Still, Dunstan had practised plenty. Now he was sure that if any attack came in a package, he'd be able to disarm it.

However, the bomber had other appointments before he could celebrate his little victory. No, Dunstan had to go to Toss' house, to meet up with some people. Apparently there was going to be Artemis, Molly and an Amestrian girl. Well, Dunstan thought, three women shouldn't be left in the company of someone like Toss; he didn't respect women in the same way Dunstan did (respect being a word only he used), nor did he appreciate them like he did. So, Dunstan felt that it was duty, not frivolity, that motivated him to go. He went to Toss' apartment, getting there as fast as he could, before looking through the keyhole with his beady eye.

"Toss, if you don't open the door, I'm going to blow up the door!" He shouted into the hole, trying to get the pilot's attention. "And how are you, by the way?"

[Toss Ivanova]

HOLY FUCK was someone seriously looking through the keyhole? WHAT THE FUCK?! Toss nearly had a heart attack as he paced about his apartment awaiting the others (who were effing slow as FUCK), which was okay because he was totally watching an episode of Breaking Bad because yeah. At this time, he had risen to retrieve a pillow which had been previously launched far from its initial location, landing it in front of the door where SOMEONE WAS WATCHING HIM. Toss was stuck in cardiac arrest, meaning he wasn't dying, but he felt like he was. His blood ran cold, red eyes widened at that single, beady eye staring back and--AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

"Toss, if you don't open the door, I'm going to blow up the door!" Oh, it was just Dunstan. He exchanged looks with Savvy, his albatross, whose eyes were equally as beady as his friend's. WHY COULDN'T PEOPLE HAVE NORMAL EYES?! Toss slammed down his face into his hands and wiped off whatever shock, horror, and bewilderment that had been there. "And how are you, by the way?"

"GLORIOUS," Toss replied, kicking open the door with a flip-flop. "There is a doorbell, you know?" Note to self: put piece of duct tape over keyhole. He shuddered, thinking of whatever other monsters might be stalking him through that singular window into his apartment. UGH NO. He shook his head to disperse the unwanted questions. "Everyone else isn't here yet so it's just us." He looked at Savvy again and then as the mess of seeds he made. "And Savvy." And his mess. He bent to retrieve the bowl of skeletons (ie empty shells) and dumped it out in the trash. His eyes moved to the vacuum cleaner that just so happened to be out of the closet and looking at him with pure and innocent eyes. He sighed, hanging his head like a child asked to do too many chores. FUCK IT. "Iris isn't even here yet. I'm starting to get worried. Was there traffic?"

[Iris]

Traffic was ridiculous. In fact Iris had never seen a more disastrous day when she was out early and STILL nearly got hit by some jackass that didn't know how to drive. So much for a stop sign. After Iris had started crossing the lane, a car sped through; never hesitated at the sign. She was lucky she could duck out of the way in time. Not like it would matter. She was pretty sure it wouldn't have really killed her anyways... Yeah.. she still wasn't one hundred percent sure on that. In fact, her mind began to wander while her eyes tried to make sense of the road signs.

Why was she here? She didn't know this language or really any of the people around here. Most of them seemed friendly enough, but Iris saw way too much red. Not that she was racist, but it was just odd to be around so many people with a hair color so similar to her own. On the positive hand, she didn't have people asking her if she dyed her hair every two minutes. She wasn't an attention hog and so much of it was relatively annoying: especially when she was trying to get work done.

Her appearance apparently left people confused. She wore her usual hat, a beige skirt with knee-length leggings of black. As her top, was just a simple t-shirt and for once she wasn't wearing her scarf and boy did she feel naked. Magenta eyes scoured the streets for signs or guides to where she needed to be. She was simply lost. Despite having been around a while, she was still completely useless when it came to finding her way.

By the time she'd reached the place, she was already twenty minutes late. Normally it was okay if the woman was late: in fact it was expected, but Iris despised when she wasn't on time. Punctuality was normally such a strong suit. From the jumble outside the place, there didn't seem to be many people inside. Weird. Although, she couldn't complain, because that meant she could focus on Toss a little more- which.. she wasn't really sure on how she felt about that. She felt strange, but she was sure it'd go away.

Her hand rapped twice on the door, and then she spoke. "Toss?" How humiliating it would be to have knocked on the wrong door. She was fairly certain, she'd been there quite a few times, but all apartments looked the same.

[Molly McCafferty]

Molly idled down the street, with relatively little porpoise, just sorta tuna'd out, in her own little world, as she skipped merrily. Noticing a fisherman's little shack, she stepped in, just for the halibut, She had a strong eel'ing she'd find what she was looking for, and she nearly bass'd it by, but soon she found it; a pair of lovely carp! She just couldn't kelp herself, she decided to buy them, and had them wrapped up by the strangely twitchy fisherman, who kept looking out is window, as if he was urchin for someone in particular. A loan shark, probably. Ah well, Molly left the shop before anything too fishy happened. Raising the fish in the air in triumph, she grinned for all the world to see. "'M'OFF TA FEED TH' ALBYTROSS~" In return, she received quite a few odd stares, but it was fine, it was worth it.

And off she skipped once more, headed straight for Toss' place. Why couldn't she just normally walk like a normal person, why did she have to skip, you may ask; well, she's Molly. Molly never walks, or does anything in a normal fashion, not with her bouncy cheerfulness, nope. It was, in fact, physically impossible for her to walk in a boring manner, thus skipping was as normal as she could manage to do. Though she did certainly look a little strange, skipping around with nicely wrapped fish tucked under her arm, as she hummed a little tune to herself. And soon enough, she got to the apartments, and cheerily greeted the doorman, unless the doorman just happened to be some guy who was leaving the building. Probably the latter, given the unemployment rates of doorpeople and such.

She quickly found the elevator, and casually punched in the floor number, and upon arriving at the proper floor, skipped once more, to a quite familiar room number. Hearing a pair of voices inside, she noted that Toss must have compa- OH, RIGHT, HE'D INVITED HER OVER TO MEET HIS NEW GIRLFRIEND. Deeeeeeeeeerp. Here she'd been prepared to just come visit him for no reason whatsoever, but that was quite convenient; she'd honestly completely forgotten about the little party! Ah well~ Flinging the door open, she stepped in, not bothering to knock, or really even acknowledge Toss or Dunstan, instead skipping straight over to Savvy, who was indeed, far more important and handsome than either of the two. Dat sexy albatross. "Hiya Savvy!~ Brought'cha somethin'~" With a smile, she pulled from the wax paper or whatnot first one carp, tossing it up above the bird, like one would feed a dolphin, as Savvy caught it in his mouth, gulping it down, before she tossed the other.

It was then that she turned to the two men, blinking at first, as if she was wondering why they were even here in Savvy's apartment, before remembering that Toss was the ACTUAL apartment owner, and the other guy was Dunstan, whose name she finally remembered. Grinning, she flung herself mercilessly at Toss, wrapping him in a huge hug. "Tossy!~" Butchering his name was such fun, if only because it was a privilege only she could enjoy, though his girlfriend probably could too. Speaking of which, the lass seemed to be running late. No matter! Quickly after hugging Toss, she turned and tackled Dunstan in a similar hug. "Dunny!~" And now he had a nickname! Bwahahaa! After a moment, she stepped back, grinning at the pair, turning specifically to Toss. "I'm gonna assume he's not yer lady, aye, Tossy?~" She gave a mischievous giggle, just as a new voice arose from the door, a female's, to be exact, asking if Toss was there, in Amestrian. "Well speak'a the devil~"

[Dunstan Hue]

"Everyone else isn't here yet so it's just us... and Savvy... Iris isn't even here yet. I'm starting to get worried. Was there traffic?" Dunstan cast his mind back. He never really noticed traffic, seeing as he usually had the Princess do an insanely illegal manoeuvre on the motorway and he could slip by traffic without hindrance. To him, the other vehicles were merely objects in the corner of his eye, though he still nodded.

"There was a bit." He walked straight in to the room, looking around Toss' messy apartment. Dunstan certainly didn't remember that Toss was a hoarder, but he was pretty sure that he might have found out before the accident. He had at least twelve mobile phones. Twelve! He can't have gotten them legally, not that Dunstan could talk, given that he blew up people and buildings for a living...

... they'd run if they knew just how much...

Dunstan immediately whipped his head around, unsure of where the soft voice came from, or even if it was there at all. "Did you just hear that, Toss?" He asked aloud, but then a distraction came in Molly. Dunstan remembered going drinking with her that one time. He couldn't remember what happened, or where all his money went, but he assumed it was on booze. Still, the night can't have ended badly, seeing as she gave him a hug right after doing the same to Toss. Dunstan did the polite thing by very subtly grabbing her ass, before she moved away. It was a reflex of his, one he did little to control.

"I'm gonna assume he's not yer lady, aye, Tossy?~" Molly said to Toss.

"He wishes," came the bomber's reply, giving the musician a wide grin. "Though if the traffic's as it was earlier she might be a whi~"

"Toss?"

ALERT, HOT GIRL 10 O'CLOCK, 9.4/10, JUNK IN THE TRUNK

In a flash, the door was gone. Torn right off the hinges. Dunstan gave the woman at the door a very wide grin, his single eye focused as it pierced her reddish-pink gaze, her thin, tall feminine form a stark contrast to the portly man, but he didn't allow this to deter him. He instead pulled two cocktails from behind his back (he wasn't sure why he had them, or that he even had them at all) and offered one of them to the pink-haired beauty.

"Honey, it's not Toss you should be calling for." He said, taking a long sip from his cocktail. "The name's Dunstan Hue. Rightful king of Carraig."

[Jay Furor]

~BUMP~

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