do you know the way? [closed]

"As I've said a thousand and one times, what shall we do from here? Your plan ended in failure—” Red eyes slid to consider the Raven as it perched upon her knee, “—Not that I blame you for that. I don’t think either of us foresaw… any of it.”

A sigh escaped Verbrennung as she let her head fall back once more, the Arrancar resuming her lounging upon the quartz armchair. How long had she been in this state now? How long had it taken to heal the wounds inflicted upon her by that Shinigami? There’d been so much blood… so much of her blood, that is.

“Yet you think staying here in isolation and wasting away is the answer?” The bird shot back—it’s tone sharp and questioning, “Just as we were before? Is the being’s message so quickly lost?”

The woman’s body tensed in the slightest of ways—a finger twitch here, a leg pulling inward there—muscle memories from her encounter with the green-eyed one. She gnawed the inside of her cheek in contemplation and silent shame at the Raven's statement.

“No…” The single word was murmured as if it’d come from a child who'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, “But we let it get to our heads, thought we could do what it had done for us—”

“Not WE! Not US! You.” The bird scolded with as much of an authoritative voice as it's little body could must, “You listen not to me, Verbrennung, and if you do not listen then I am but a passenger in your mess. Just like before.” After a breath, the Raven’s tone softened some. “You’re shifting from one extreme to the other: utter sloth or throwing yourself at powerful beings like Kasu—”

Before the little creature could finish delivering it's words of wisdom, both it and Verbrennung were shaken from their back and forth by a blast in the distance. The Arrancar was quick to throw herself into a regular seated position upon the chair, albeit on the edge of her seat while her Raven had repositioned itself to the floor after being flung from its knee-perch—it’s eyes keenly focused on the door to the ‘bedroom’ they now resided in.

Neither being dared to move or breath, Verbrennung gripping the arms of her chair with a white-knuckled grasp as she waited for further noise or a signature to tip her off as to who—or what—was currently invading her isolation chamber. When no clues presented themselves naturally, the Tercera stood up and began to make her way across her chamber.

“We have guests, it seems.”

If birds could frown, the Raven would have at that. Nevertheless, it hopped along after her as it always did and always would.

Verbrennung made little effort to keep her presence hidden, neither muffling her steps nor stifling her spiritual presence. No doubt whoever laid ahead would smell the Tercera before she showed up. Either way, the sound of plodding, bare steps to stone floor ceased when the Arrancar laid eyes upon her kin who was soundly reading a book from one of the few pieces of non-quartz furniture left in the castle.

Eyes sliding from the Arrancar to her blasted open door and back, Verbrennung pursed her lips thinly, “What do you want? And is there a reason you broke the door?”

The Arrancar jumped a little when the voice pierced her reading. The book slipped from her grip and then less than graceful hands flailed about in attempts to grab hold of it once more. It spun awkwardly in the air, bouncing of her fingers once. Twice. The third time it bounced, a few papers ripped against her hand, spraying out as the book tumbled to the ground unceremoniously. Before it could even hit the ground, the woman had turned on her heels, hands held behind her back, and was smiling at the owner of the decrepit tower.

"I didn't think anyone lived here," the woman answered honestly. "I thought all the Arrancar moved closer to the castle."

Arrancar came in all shapes and sizes, though most looked pretty human by most stretches of the word. Aside from their mask fragment and the hole that pierced straight through their body, they typically stood on two legs, had hair spewing from the tops of their skull, two eyes, two ears, a mouth, a nose... all the works of a typical human being. But, once in a while, a gem of a Hollow would show up. One that retained their more primal form and formed a strange mockery of what their human form should have looked like.

"By the way, you're really hot!" The woman blurted with a wide-eyed, impressed stare. She didn't hesitate in stepping closer, head tilted as she eyed her fellow Arrancar. "Is your blood made of lava? That's really interesting. Does it hurt?"

[254]

“Not everyone,” she tutted—a brow visibly perking as the other Arrancar fumbled severely with the book, “I suppose a lot has changed out there? Is Levi no longer around? Or Cazador?”

What a great relief their absence would be upon her mind. An Arrancar who liked playing human and a Hollow who deemed itself all powerful, and both fancied themselves Kings. Disgusting.

Verbrennung had little time to mull over her old hatreds (again) as this new specimen had begun to give her that look, the one she’d grown to know all too well. It came in two flavours: curiosity or disgust, and sometimes a mix of both. The dark woman’s hands closed into fists as her form became visibly tense. A tightening of the chest and a spark of disdain all drizzled in resentment, none of which was eased when Verbrennung’s kin began encircling her and started up a round of verbal prodding.

“... I am, yes. I— maybe? Not literally, but it could be compared to lava. And no… it doesn’t hurt.” Her words came out as weak and without effort—tired even.

She took in a deep breath as her personal space was being invaded and stole a few moments to examine this other Arrancar as she’d barely taken the time to look at her. Usually Verbrennung avoided such things as it only agitated her mood.

The woman was a decent amount shorter than Verbrennung whilst bearing a surprising amount of features other more ‘humanoid’ beings might describe as 'out-of-place'. Shockingly pale skin covered the Arrancar’s form while hair of equal blackness to Verbrennung’s sat upon her head, framing eyes that mirrored the Tercera’s. At that moment, her own red gaze fell upon the woman’s mask, particularly how it formed horns of bleached bone upon her forehead. Verbrennung felt something she'd only felt once in her Hollowed existence; a sense of kinship.

A dark hand reached out towards the pale woman’s forehead, stopping short of her own burn radius. For the first time in months, a weak smile appeared upon Verbrennung’s face.

“You look different from the others,” She noted aloud, more so to herself than to the opposing woman. A bitter chuckle left the dark Arrancar as she let her arm fall back to her side,

“But I bet they’ve already informed you of that.”

The exasperation had no effect on the clumsy, yet friendly woman. Still just as enraptured as before, she made her way around the woman a couple times, eyes sliding up and down the body of the Arrancar. Not in a suggestive way, mind you. It was more like someone examining a painting, deciding if they truly wanted to buy it and, if they did, where they would hang it in their home.

"Mmm?" The woman stopped when the lava-girl reached out towards her mask fragment. To most, it would have been a threatening gesture; if an Arrancar were to break their mask, they would die. And yet, this curious, young woman just stood there, head slightly tilted as she stared at the slightly spread fingers.

"Ah... Different?" The woman repeated, tasting the words. Her expression scrunched at the sour flavor and then she shrugged. "I don't get out much." As plain and as blunt as it could be. "But I guess I do look pretty different than most of the people I see coming into Las Noches. I don't know why so many people give up their monst--"

The woman's eyes had wandered away from the lava-girl while she was speaking. Bored, maybe, or thoughtful given the context. It was always hard for her to tell and even harder for the bystander who was stuck interacting with her. Regardless, in her absentminded wandering, her gaze had slipped down to the ground and behind the lava-girl where the raven had stood quietly. The woman's eyes lit up and, with no hesitation, she dropped down to a kneeling position and reached out a hand to the bird.

"I didn't know regular animals could even exist here in the land of the dead!" She exclaimed. Truth be told, she couldn't even remember the last time she had seen a bird, let alone be this close to one. She grinned a bit more. "What's his name?"

[322]