07-01-2009, 05:31 AM
[html]
| http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_disorder.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat;"> Dated early, early morning of July 2, 2009. Like, 3 AM. xD OH YEAH, and so I don't have to send you a second PM and spam your inbox literally, please don't reply to this until Thursday or when you have time, damnit! You said Thursday, and I only put this up because I ran out of threads to reply to and things to do, and yeah. xD The coyote exhaled noisily, distress and anger apparent in her features and the way she carried herself. Her head was low and her ears were back, her single golden eye dark and clouded with rage. Her encounter over on the coast had only served to infuriate her, so she pushed it to the back of her head and carried on, targeting the city. She knew she could find something there to quell her rage and put her to sleep—alcohol, a cigarette, or maybe even someone's abandoned private marijuana grow, kept alive by the automatic irrigation system and grown to gigantic proportions. Stranger things had happened. As the coyote stalked down the wide main street of the city, her gait slowed, and she took in this marvel. This city was in remarkably better condition than the previous one—that's not to say things weren't in a wretched state of decay, but somehow, the buildings here seemed better-preserved and the entire city simply appeared deserted. The Citta Umana of the previous territories had obviously been wrecked with riots and terror before the humans had died out, but perhaps everyone here had been evacuated. Or maybe they just died where they were. The coyote meandered down an alley, her eyes darting around and studying the human graffiti and debris left behind. There was a door here, and the coyote read the sign above it. Bar. She knew what that meant, and eagerly tried the door, only to find it was firmly locked. Annoyed, the hybrid growled beneath her breath, and followed the alley to the other side, where she found the front door. Thankfully, that was open, and Kaena wandered inside in a rather carefree manner, though she did take care to smell the stale air and listen before she made any noise. There was no one here, she realized confidently, and she leapt atop the bar, crouching down as she took stock of its contents. There was plenty here, though most of it was unusable as it was already opened. Even liquor didn't stay that long, and most of the opened bottles were either black with dust or otherwise clearly indicating they would cause some extreme discomfort and pain if they were consumed. She had no particular tastes when it came to alcohol, nor any affinity for them. The bottles and their extensive revealed nothing to her; she could identify what she liked by taste and a sort of rudimentary knowledge about color. She hated most of the clear stuff, and the red stuff was the absolute worst. It was warm and far too bitter. The dark brown stuff she tended to like, though she'd come across a few that had been yellower that she had disliked almost as much as wine. Her eye wandered, and she pried an unopened bottle from the bartop, tearing the foil from around the cap with a single claw. She sniffed it after opening it and took a swig, prompty spitting it back out, capping the bottle, and putting it back. The hybrid rubbed her pink tongue on the roof of her mouth, growling her displeasure. That was the yellow stuff she disliked. Better luck next time. &nsbp; The ashen canine leaned a little further over the bartop, and almost lost her balance, jumping not-so-gracefully from the wooden bartop to the tile beneath. She caught her landing and straightened herself, growling again. Today just hadn't been her day—the encounter with DaVinci had made her very angry to start. She plucked another bottle and repeated the same process, only this time, she merely winced and swallowed. It was acceptable—the hybrid tucked it under her arm after replacing the cap, and took two more bottles, though she didn't bother trying them. These were gifts for packmates, and it didn't matter whether she liked them or not. She put a folded piece of cloth between them to lessen the clinking, and set on her way out of the bar, her bottle now securely in her hand as she walked. Her general direction was Inferni, though she wandered lazily up sidestreets and took the long way as opposed to the straightest path through the city. The coyote was unfamiliar with this city, and it seemed she would never escape the tall, decaying buildings of the urban city. Before long, however, she found herself in suburbia. Neat rows of houses confronted her, and the Lykoi peered around for a moment, studying the cookie-cutter homes with their rotting cars still parked in driveways, their front doors hanging ajar and most of their windows busted out. There were a few houses in better condition, however, and the Lykoi made her way towards one. The rain hadn't stopped since she'd left the bar, though it wasn't pouring and storming like it had been earlier. Most of the brutal parts of the storm had already blown over the bay, though Kaena's old wounds ached, and she doubted the rain would cease tomorrow. The hybrid figured she could stay the night in one of these and make her way for Inferni in the morning. There was relative safety here; though her scent trail was easily discernable among the foreign smells of the city, she was comfortable enough to sleep in one of these abandoned homes for one night before making a return to Inferni. The hybrid jiggled the front door, and it opened easily. She peeked her head inside, and found the scent inside musty and stale. All of the windows and doors had been securely shut until that moment for many years, and the breath of air Kaena brought with her into the house stirred a layer of dust from everything in the living room. A magazine still sat undisturbed on the coffee table, though Kaena was only interested in the couch. It was usable, and she placed her bag carefully on it, heading back outside. She left the door hanging open to air the place out. The ashen coyote settled on the small covered porch, relatively protected from the rain. Some stray drops still fell on her fur, though she wasn't bothered in the least. She took a swig from her bottle and stared out over the severely overgrown lawn. The bushes that had once neatly lined the front of the house were almost as tall as the building itself, shielding the windows and pressing close on the porch, threatening to spill over in the coming years. The grass on the lawn was almost to her knees in some places, unkempt and wildly uneven. It was patchy yellow in places, and the sidewalk was cracked, the tree in front of the house destroying parts of the walkway with its root system. The hybrid surveyed all of this, setting her bottle down by her side for the moment, sorely wishing she had a cigarette. She'd forgotten to look for them deeper in the city, and it was unlikely she'd find any here that weren't too stale to smoke. A heavy sigh escaped her chest, and she leaned against the wooden handrail of the porch, her golden eye half-lidding with tiredness. |