Right At Home (Open)

[Person]

It was the middle of the afternoon. Sunshine forced its way through faults in the canopy overhead and onto the forest floor, much to Chase's dismay. Chase loved the Dark Forest. For one, much like its name suggested, it was dark, or at least, should be dark, making for a perfect place to nap, and that was what Chase was doing. But, Chase was a master at solving problems when they interfered with fun things like Scythe Golf or sleeping, and so this wasted afternoon he was cloaked in his cloak, his face shadowed in the black hood's obscurity. There was no other perfect use of a sunny afternoon than spending it sleeping in a Dark Forest filled with feathered centipedes.

While not snoring, his breathing was certainly loud. His mouth was open, something that Discovery Health told him would either create sensitive gums or give him some sort of disease, he forgot which. Thanatos had fruitlessly been trying to break him of the innate habit of sleeping with his mouth open, but the bird was not around at the moment to correct his sleeping habits.

But sure as the sun rises, a ruffle through the leaves made Thanatos's presence known to the now awoken Chase. The raven, quite irked, landed on one of the handles of his scythe that had been leaning on the tree next to him. "Chase! You said that you were practicing your Necromancy, and here I find you sleeping in the woods! Honestly, you will never advance in your magicks with this kind of attitude. Deceitful, and even worse, lazy."

Chase yawned awake, still exuding a slothful atmosphere. He slowly reached inside his pocket and then over to the talkative raven with pronounced movements. He had taken out one of the small rubber bands his Master Teacher had given him. With his fingers, Chase stretched the rubber band large enough to fit around Thanatos's beak, and with one, uncharacteristically quick movement he put rubber band over the raven's beak.

The bird fell to the ground and wriggled and writhed as it attempted to remove the rubber band in vain. Underneath the enchanted darkness of his hood, Chase smirked as he slowly drifted back to sleep.

[Noro]

Kisara sat high in the canopies above the person sleeping below. She was in her animal form, an unusually small and dark panther, about the size of a clouded leapord and her coat's brown was almost dark enough to be black. Her mouth opened slightly, a habit of hers when she was in human form. She didn't laugh all that much verbally. When she laughed, she seemed to do so with her eyes. Hence, the twinkle in the dark blue orbs. The black-feathered twit, which she had dubbed the bird due to the overwhelmingly irritating personality that she could sense even from her height, seemed to be bothering the stranger. Well, stranger to her. Kisara nearly fell off of her resting spot when the boy finally silenced the bird and all his racket. A purr crept into her throat as she watched him struggle. She didn't even noticed the other as he fell back into sleep's comforting embrace.

Suddenly, the wind blew a branch above her into a new position, allowing sunlight to warm her fur in a very uncomfortably manner. She ignored it for the moment, but then decided to move when it came to be too much. She moved lithely, unnaturally quiet as she leaped from one tree to the next. Kisara continued down until she walked upon a nicely shaded spot a few feet above the odd pair. Her mouth parted again in silent laughter.

[Person]

Thanatos scrambled around on the ground, dragging his beak along the ground attempting to remove the infernal rubber band that had been placed around its beak. Much to Thanatos's annoyance and disgrace, there was one side of his sleek black coat of feathers that was now dirtied with bits of decaying leaves, dirt, and even small pieces of twigs that fell from above. Somewhere in his helter skelter scrambling along the forest floor, Thanatos noticed the panther that seemed to be stalking the pair, despite the human quality that its eyes possessed. The bird jumped up upon Chase's shoulder and began lightly pecking Chase's head. The teenage youth ignored it, that is, until the pain gently crescendoed to a point where Chase angrily awoke yelling at the bird's face, "What?!"

It was after this explosion of animosity that he saw the panther that was looking at the pair. Chase was not what one would call a "Panther Expert". The closest knowledge of a panther that he had was seeing lions stalk and kill gazelles on the Serengeti on Animal Planet. How much different could they be? That precise and logical reasoning was what Chase shoot up from his position against the tree and grab his scythe. Right hand on the handle near the blade, and the left on the staff itself. "Okay, black lion thing, you just better back off before I have to necromance the hell out of you," he somewhat sputtered out.

[Noro]

Kisara's muscles tensed up as her body shook with laughter. She really did fall this time. She landed with a thud on the forest floor and rolled over onto her back. She transformed, still laughing, and curled into a ball. Her short cropped black hair fell into her face as she attempted to right herself. She was on her hands and knees, her whole body still tensed. Finally she managed to choke in air and turned slowly to look back at the boy behind her. The corners of her mouth were raised in a sly smile.

"Black lion thing?" She chuckled. "Oh, I believe that was my fault for assuming you were smart." Her blue eyes radiated the strength of her amusement. "If you want to fight though..." Pause. "Well, I cannot assure you that it would be fair, but I guess we could." Another smirk appeared upon her lips.

[Person]

"Hey, hey, hey. I'm smart, I'm just not used to cat-lady-things. Maryland tends to lack those, surprisingly," Chase said with a whip of sarcasm stirred into his words. Chase was not AP class smart, but smart enough to make his way into a couple of Honors classes during his normal school tenor. The threat, well, that had been issued when he thought he was being attacked by some inhuman black lion thing. Now that he knew that the stalker had been a human with the uncanny ability to change into a black lion thing, his perspective changed. Chase retained only a small amount of lessons in manners and courtesy that his father had taught him, but one of those retained customs was not fighting girls.

"Yeah, I don't fight girls," Chase said at her suggestion as he dug the bottom of his scythe into the ground as to lean on it. "Personal motto of mine." He paused as he collected the words for his next sentence. "And plus, I don't fight people that don't have names," he said with a small, internal smirk. "Another motto."

[Noro]

Kisara straightened up to face him. She walked slowly and deliberately, coming closer and closer until she was right under his chin. He was average height for a male, but she was only 5'4'', which was a lot shorter than he was.

"Excuse you, but I do have a name," She spoke lightly, with mock courtesy, "You just don't know it." She continued, the false sweet tone creeping out of her voice little by little. "And I hope you'll excuse me for saying this, but your inability to fight females will be your greatest downfall. Who knows, it may even lead to your premature death." Kisara wasn't necessarily trying to be hostile, but she enjoyed toying with him.

[Person]

From underneath the magical darkness caused by his robe, Chase smiled. The smile continued as he flipped off the hood, revealing his face to the new, unnamed acquaintance. "Well, my name would be Chase. And I think that you, m'lady, are flirting with me." Now, he was grinning from ear to ear in a sly manner. He looked down at the catwoman as he contemplated the possible outcomes. A: He gets slapped across the face. B: He gets kicked somewhere that no pain should ever come to. Or C: Something good. The odds were against him and his flawed skills, which was why one hand that was on the scythe nonchalantly dropped lower on the staff of the weapon, in preparation for the worst.

"Mghhmmm! Mggghgmmmghhmmmm!" Thanatos mumbled through his closed beak. It started pecking at Chase's sneaker, probably going to tell him to start training or to get the rubber band off of his beak, so, Chase pushed it away forcefully with his foot. The raven only became angrier. There was just no pleasing this bird.

[Noro]

Kisara stopped for a second, about to let reflexes kick into high gear and usher out the automatic pain-inflicting response. Then, she decided to let it drop and see what would happen if she were to play his game. She watched out of the corner of her eye as his hand dropped on his weapon. A scythe, she mentally laughed at him. You'd think it was halloween and he's dressed up as the grim reaper with that ensemble.

"Oh, dear," She said, sarcasm irritatingly heavy upon her voice. "It looks as if you've figured me out." She backed away and began to circle him, ignoring the raven. She batted her eyelashes overdramatically as she spoke. "Well," her voice became high pitched and she began to remove a heavy silver chain from the depths of one of the pockets on her cargo pants. They were clearly made for guys, but that didn't seem to stop her from wearing them. "I guess I was going to have to do something about this sooner or later." She cut her eyes at him then let them move slowly off of him again.

Kisara's walk came to a halt a little ways in front of him. "My name's Kisara," she spoke, licking her lips into another quiant smile. "And it's a shame, because I really don't think we are all that compatible. I don't think you would be able to please me." Her head turned back so that her eyes could meet his. The deep ice blue seemed to get colder as the twinkle stopped in lieu of a more malicious sparkle. "You see," the chain in her hand had embarked upon a revolution around her hand, and the spinning metal whirred faster, picking up speed. "my fondness for violence just might prevent that." Pause. "Terribly unfortunate, don't you think?"

[Person]

There are many ways for a woman to get a man to do what she wants. She could give him some extraordinary meal, flaunt a body, or in this case, threaten his manhood. Kisara could have stopped everything after being saying Chase was "unable to please her". The panther lady could have told Chase the only way to please her would be to go fight a rabid bear with all of his limbs tied behind his back, and he probably would have done it. No longer was this just a failed attempt at flirting, because now the outcome affected the integrity of his manhoo. That was something that Chase would not want to let go of without a fight-in this case, literally.

"Well, Kisara, I suppose I could make an exception to my motto just this once," Chase said, "Although, I'll need some help. I'm not much of a fighter by myself. My doctor says that it is more of a running build." This Kisara character knew how to push buttons on teenage Reapers-in-training.

[Noro]

Kisara dropped the chain and put one hand over her stomach. Then she proceeded to cover her face with her other hand and prop her elbow on the arm laying across her torso. She almost walked away. She probably would of if it wasn't for the fact that something told her to stay.

"Nevermind, just forget it," She almost sighed. It would have been no fun if he couldn't hold his own against her. "I have a feeling you need help with more than just fighting." She looked up. The blue in her eyes was completely normal now, not showing malignant intentions of any kind. She turned around and climbed swiftly up the tree behind her. Once upon a branch, she layed out across it.

"Well, I'm not sure I could fight you if I know I'm going to win," she spoke matter-of-factly. "There's no fun in that. But I guess you could go back to your necromancy practice so that your bird friend over there can stop losing his mind. That way, I still get to laugh at you, the raven is happy, and you won't have to fight a girl. Works for everyone... I guess." Her eyelids sunk down a little so that her eyes were half-covered, giving her a bored expression. Kisara folded her arms under her head and waited for his response.

[Person]

"There's two things wrong with what you just said. Number One: I don't really practice, persay." The muted Thanatos shook his head in agreement. "And number two: I wouldn't lose to you." Chase nodded as he agreed with himself. Yes, it was one thing to transform into a panther, but it was quite another thing to have control of macabre and chimerical deceased beasts.

The raven flew up to Chase's scythe. Thanatos rubbed the rubber band constraining his beak against the sharp edge of the farming tool-turned weapon. The rubber band snapped loudly, and Thanatos tested out his beak by opening and closing it, testing to make sure he still had movement. The bird was angry he had not thought of that anti-band maneuver before. "Master Chase, you should be practicing your necromancy, not frollicking in the forest with some panther. Forget her and focus on your studies now!" the raven yelled.

Chase, lucky enough for him not to scold him about the rubber band, smirked a bit a shrugged. "Fine, I'll do a bit of 'practice'. If I practice, then you stop talking, deal?" Chase offered the raven.

"Fine, but you need to practice throughly." the raven responded.

"Deal," Chase said as he found a good amount of rocks, placed them into one place, and began using his scythe as a nine-iron.

"Chase!--" Thanatos exclaimed before he was cut off.

"No, you said practice. Never said what kind of practice. So now, you be quiet and I practice my drive," Chase retorted as he drove another rock deeper into the forest. The rock crashed through the canopy and reached its peak above the tree leaves, before crashing through the canopy again and landing somewhere beyond view.

[Noro]

Kisara laughed again at the poor bird's dismay. Suddenly, moving almost unnoticeably from her layed out position to a crouch, she pounced upon the squawking black ball of feathers. Then she sat so that she could watch Chase comfortably and still hold the bird down. It ended up being that from waist down she was on her side, but her torso was horizontal to the ground, one arm draped across the raven's body, the other across his beak. Her eyebrows raised along with the corners of her mouth.

"Continue?" It was almost like a question, but more of a suggestion, open for denial. She looked over and noticed that her chains were still laying on the ground. She extended her tail out until it wrapped around one of the links and pulled it back. Dragging it forward, she draped it over the raven and wrapped it so that he was bound tight enough to keep from escaping, but not so tightly that he couldn't move at all. After, she took the other end and secured it around a tree.

"Oh," Kisara looked back at Chase, "I hope that was okay with you... is it?" She remembered her courtesies as she didn't always like being rude, even though sometimes it came naturally. Her hand remained on the chain as she waited for an answer.

[Person]

Thanatos, very unlike his pristine and proper nature, began to squawk violently in response to being grabbed and held captive by something that would probably eat him. He flapped his feathers in vain, even losing a couple of feathers in the process. Soon, he was wrapped up in a chain prison that could only be contemplated by the inner workings of Kisara. This kind of entrapment was even worse than the dreaded rubber band which Chase had used earlier. The blasted Gaap...

As if Chase had lost all of his senses, he ignored the going-ons behind him with Kisara and the raven. The raven needed someone to bring it down to its rather small size, and Chase could not do it. There would be too much trouble to be had at the Corbeau household if that were to happen. Now, however, he had plausible deniability. No, he could not help his dear raven, because Kisara, the Panther Woman overpowered him. Well, that was what he planned to tell anyone who asked.

"It's okay. Now he can't just free himself and start talking again. Just make sure you don't--" he grunted a bit as he hit one rock particularly far, "--hurt him." Chase momentarily stopped misusing his family heirloom as he turned around. He flipped over the scythe so the blade was at the top and leaned on one of the handles. "So, 'Kisara', why're you out here, anyway?" Chase asked, curious.

[Noro]

"Uh..." Kisara pondered the question, deciding to lean against the chains instead of retreating from them and proped one elbow upon the raven's head, momentarily forgetting his presence. "Well, I was tired of everyone in one of my random fits of irritability and I decided I should get away before I just killed the whole lot of people surrounding me." Kisara paused and looked as if a light had come on in her head. She smiled and began to sing under her voice. "And I raaaan, I ran so far awaaaay. And I raaaan, just to get awaaaay..." She chuckled as the song faded. Kisara was rather fond of the song for some reason and thought it fitted the situation perfectly. That amused her.

"I guess that's why I am here. Was my answer enough to satisfy you?" The hand that she layed her face upon had begun to tap against her temple lightly.

[Person]

Chase's face looked as if he were listening intently to every word Kisara had said; however, the teen was applying the ancient adolescent art of faux-hearing, useful for any and all situations. In fact, he only caught a couple of the words she had said, most notably the ones about killing people because of irritation. He counted his blessings by the fact that they did not fight, because that already violent practice could have turned fatal quickly.

The song was strange, probably because he had never heard it before. He had supposed that it could be one of the chord monkey Disney hits that were single-handedly destroying America and transforming the youth into puppets of corporations. Or not, he could always have been wrong.

However, her final sentence Chase paid close attention to, because it allowed him to respond with a Shakespearian reversal of fortune, "I don't think your answers could satisfy me." His mouth was outstretched in a sly grin.

Chase returned to his golfing position as he struck another rock. This one did not get nearly enough lift to break the canopy. It collided into a tree with the sharp edge. Chase waited a moment for the rock to fall from its hanging position; but, when the crack of decaying leaves and twigs never came, he simply smiled to himself and said, "Well, you don't see that everyday."