Morning Coffee And Sweet Surprises (Closed to Poprockz)

[Poprockz]

Though she wasn’t sure why she needed to move, Sayori allowed herself to be ushered to the other side of the room. Surely the fight wouldn’t escalate to the point that they needed to get out of the-

“Shit!” Sabastian flinched as Cora pulled what almost seemed like an MMA move out of her ass and got Quint pinned. He hadn’t resisted when his lover had pulled him away from the two warring siblings, and now he was thankful for the man’s quick thinking. That being said, he wondered if he should break up the fight now that it had turned physical. He could feel some of the punches she was landing through their link, but it was nothing compared to the slices he had endured on his back, resilient as he was.

He gave Vin a concerned look and twitched his head toward them mouthing, “should I separate them?” While he didn’t want them to fight, he also didn’t want to stick his nose where it didn’t belong.

 

[Drobabes]

Vin shook his head vigorously for a brief moment before answering out loud.

"No, let them finish it themselves."

Cora was breathing hard, shouting profanities and throwing punches and jabs wherever she could land them. Meanwhile, Quint didn't seem to remember that he had extra arms. Or, perhaps because this was simply an old fight for them, felt as if they needed to go through the motions before ending it.

His arms were useless at the moment, so he started trying to pull his knees up under him. Cora, seeing it coming, reached down and physically shoved them back. This left her in a vulnerable position though, as she had to basically lay her cheek sideways on his ass in order to reach far enough to do it. She started to try to sit up again, but just as she began to lift up, Quint threw his ass up and slammed it into her face. It didn't really hurt, per-say, but it definitely knocked her a bit off balance and severely pissed her off even more.

She growled, trying to shove herself up, and once more was met with the ass crack of death.

"You fucking! Asshole!"

Pulling her arm back, trying desperately to regain her advantage, she didn't notice her ankles unlocking. And then, swiftly, Quint managed to yank his left arm down and get enough leverage to shove and roll them both over. Now he was laying on top of her with his butt sitting squarely on her chest, and her knees dangerously close to her face. He didn't have much time, as already she was fighting like a trapped cat, clawing, scratching, and trying to smack him with her knees. He wove his hands under, and then over, locking her legs down with an iron grip, and then scooted himself down enough to simply be sitting on her stomach. Then before she could squirm out from underneath him, he pinned shoulders down with his legs. Now that he was on top, he took his time, huffing and catching his own breath as he let her wear herself out, expending all her energy trying to fight him even though they both knew she had lost.

"YOU KNEW!" she yelled, giving one last thrash of violence before stopping and breathing hard, her face a smoldering storm of anger and defiance.

"I did" he huffed, finally feeling her settle down. Then he tensed up once more as he felt her move, but this time she was only lifting herself up enough to glare into his eyes.

"You should have told me, Quinton!"

"I didn't want to lie to you, Cora."

"You didn't need to lie!" she half yelled, half squeaked, as her hand slammed the sheets and she let her head drop down. Then her chest started to heave as she began to cry, and she heard her brother say "shit" just before she felt him let her go and get off of her.

She wanted to curl up in a ball and let it out, but instead she scooted to the edge of the bed and shoved his hands away when he tried to pull her into a hug.

"Get away from me! I'm so...fucking mad at you right now" she sobbed, turning her face away.

Quint couldn't help it. As much as he thought that mutt deserved whatever punishment he was getting, he didn't think his sister deserved this. Was she stupid? Yes. Ignorant? He thought so. But did she deserve to be having her heart torn apart for this? Well, one could make the argument that she did it to herself, but this was still his sister.

"I'm sorry. Cory, I'm sorry."

He tried again, reaching out to attempt to take her hand. And again, he was rebuked. Though this time she at least turned to look at him.

"You need to stop hiding things from me! You need to stop trying to protect my emotions Quinton! You're stronger than me, you could have stopped me from going out the door. You know that! So stop doing this shit to me! I..I shouldn't have had to learn it from a fucking bird of all things, I should have heard it from you!" she sobbed again, the tears coming hard.

 

[Poprockz]

How many times had they hidden things from each other in order to protect the other person? Would it ever become easier to open up? Sabastian had a somber look on his face, a tinge of sadness and pity in his eyes. He himself had been guilty of this several times: hiding his zombie status, distancing himself from Vin, running away... It was hard to know whether one was truly doing what was best for someone else, or whether one was just taking the choice away from the other person. It was a mistake born of love that ended in heartache more often than not.

The man leaned against Vin and put his arm around the back of his waist, his hand resting on the opposite hip as he sought the comfort of the other man's warmth. His head rested on the top of Vin's tattooed arm and he simply remained silent as he watched the two siblings. The universe had conspired for him to reunite with Vin despite all the dumbass shit he had pulled to try to protect him, so he was one of the lucky ones. Still... he was still hiding a very big secret from the big man, and this troubled his heart.

It wasn't his secret to tell, he supposed, the information about Francisco being the inside man for the resistance. The knowledge he had wasn't being kept from him to protect him, it was being kept from him to protect the countless people who depended on Francisco's years and years of well-laid plans. It was for that reason that he would take that secret to his grave, regardless of how close he got to Vin. The less Vin knew about that, the better.

Sayori held her tongue, but she couldn't help but think to herself that the information that Damien was being sodomized behind closed doors was useless to them. Regardless of what was happening to Damien, it didn't alter their plans, nor did it change anything. The only thing to be gained by telling Cora would have been possibly putting her off her game. There was no way Quint would have had any foresight regarding the bird, not unless he was some sort of mystic. There was something to be said for trust, but she could sense that Quint really didn't want to see her sister hurt by this knowledge. Cora, for all her talents, could be brash and head-strong, just like Quint. She was smart too. Who was to say that after Quint restrained her that she wouldn't just bide her time until she was able to get away from them and try getting him out her own way?

She took a step forward though and said in a soft voice, “we’ll get him back one way or another- we can’t let her win the bet. Maybe if we can’t find Damien, we can take Angelique’s fiancé as a hostage.”

“She has a fiancé?” Sabastian questioned, wondering how exactly that worked when Angelique herself humped anything she could get her tentacles on.

“Yes,” Sayori nodded, “her name is Sophia. When we were with the egg-mothers, they told us that she keeps the lady away from everyone else on the highest floor because she’s too weak to be around people - she has a frail immune system and her mental health is fragile. I feel bad about involving someone like that in all this, but as long as we're careful with her, I think it would be okay..."

 

[Drobabes]

Delvin placed a comforting hand on Sabastians newly dyed hair, leaning back against him as well. While he wondered if his lover was perhaps feeling a tad guilty over the exchange of the two, he didn't hold any harsh feelings towards the way their relationship had progressed. At least, he thought he didn't. After all, he understood why Sabastian had done what he had done, even if Vin didn't agree.

As far as Cora and Quint went though, he simply felt bad for them both. None of this was easy, but they all needed to work together in order to leave with the same amount of people they had come in with.

Deeper, though, in the back of his heart, he felt a shiver of something worse than simple cold. Cora might have been crying for Damien on the outside but underneath his tattooed ego, Delvin was truly concerned for Damien.

He remained quiet, simply waiting for when his part in whatever plan they came up with would need to be played.

"we’ll get him back one way or another- we can’t let her win the bet. Maybe if we can’t find Damien, we can take Angelique’s fiancé as a hostage."

Quint hadn't said anything after the Las outburst, but there was a kind of look on his face that was difficult to read. Was it guilt? Sadness? A hint of anger behind those stormy eyes? It was really anyone's guess, but he was grateful when Sayori stepped in with her soft voice. It gave him something else to focus on.

Closing his eyes for a moment, he seemed to regain his composure and stood up to walk around Cora, leaving her to get herself under control. He came and stood with the group, placing his hands in his pockets as he gave a small shake of his head.

"No, she's not fragile. While you two were out, I fell asleep and got launched into a dream with her. She's been changed in the same way as me and Sabastian, and Angelique is keeping her here against her will..."

He proceeded to tell them every detail of the dream that he could clearly remember, leaving out only the most intimate details of Sophia's lost love. He didn't feel it necessary for them to know something that was as private as that, but they needed the description of the room that was provided, and how she was being given drugs.

When he was done, he took his hat off for a moment to give his head a good scratch before putting it back on.

"I believe we could get away with a partial kidnapping. I think she would be more than willing to cooperate with us, but jail breaking her is going to be difficult while she is in the state that she is. I would say that we could try to figure out how she is being drugged, to stop it from getting into her system, but the problem with that is that Angelique would likely be able to smell the lack of it on her..."

He looked around the group, curious what ideas they might have for proceeding.

From the bed, Cora stood up and went to the sink to wash her face. She had been listening intently, and while she was slightly embarrassed about breaking down and crying like she had, she was feeling a bit more hopeful with what Sayori had proposed. She didn't like the idea of holding someone hostage...but at this point she was willing to do whatever it took.

...

Bowie, having gone largely ignored by the group, looked up into Cora's eyes, and for once, the snake didn't seek out to be with her.

 

[Poprockz]

"Why go through the trouble of stopping her drugs?" Sebastian responded with a shrug. "I mean, if she's weak and mentally out of it, that would actually work better for us, wouldn't it? I know you said she's willing and all, but the weaker she is, the more scared Angelique might be that she'd get hurt."

Sayori scrunched up her eyebrows in thought. "She said she wasn't drugged today, but why? I'm sure Angelique still gave her the drugs to keep her body weak, but she wanted her to be fully aware. Earlier, when Cora and I were outside, Bowie suddenly acted very agitated and I saw something being hurled out of the window at the top of the resort, probably the floor she's being kept on. I couldn't make it out, but it looked like a small ball or a box or something... Why did she do that?" It was a mystery, and try as she might, she couldn't make sense of it. It was as though she was missing a piece of the puzzle.

At that Sebastian's eyes widened. "I felt that too! I was watching a movie and I was just dozing off when I woke up pissed." He looked to Quint to see if the other man had felt the surge as well. It had been quite odd, waking up and instantly feeling like he wanted to kick the shit out of someone. Thankfully he hadn't been holding Vin's hand or anything, or he might have squeezed it too hard or something. As it was, the pillow he had been spooning had been scrunched rather roughly by his impromptu rage before it passed and left him feeling groggy and confused. He had chalked it up to a nightmare or something, but he honestly couldn't remember having a dream that would've caused that sort of reaction.

 

[Drobabes]

"Yea, I felt it" he confirmed the unspoken question.

"It felt almost similar to what happened at the mall, but the loss of control wasn't quite as bad...I did still react though."

Cora came to stand with them, her eyes now dry if a bit puffy and red.

"It affected Bowie too. He squeezed my shoulders pretty hard and hissed before he was able to stop."

Quint looked down at her, only just now noticing the new bruises forming on her upper arms. With a little sigh, he turned back.

"Well whatever it was, I'm not sure there's much we can do about it right now. But Sayori, you said you saw something being thrown out the window-do you think if we build a rough blueprint of the place you could show me which window? Or better yet, do you think you could point it out from outside?"

 

[Poprockz]

She nodded, "yes, I remember which window it was. When we search for Damien tomorrow, I could point it out to you." Sayori had a pretty decent memory, and it was enough of an odd occurrence that she had taken note of the whole thing.

"Oh, also. Before I forget, Cora and I did get some information from the egg-mothers. It was mostly gossip, but they mentioned that they're not allowed to go to the club due to party drugs, and that Angelique has two other zombie assistants that we haven't all seen: Frederick and Artemis. I don't really know anything about Frederick, but we saw Artemis in the gym and he looks to be a strong zombie like Sebastian. They said that he knew Angelique from the same school. He seems like he doesn't like taking orders as much, he's over-protective with his phone, and that he's possibly gay." Sayori counted the last facts on her fingers as she recounted them.

"Pft." Sebastian made a noise of disbelief and waived his hand dismissively. "No, he's definitely straight. I knew him in school too back in the day, and he had a girlfriend he liked making out with in the hallway. He was also raised in a really religious family." Anticipating further questions, Sabastian added, "I didn't go to the same school as the rest of them. I went to a regular public school with Artemis and at one point..." he shuffled uncomfortably, scrunching his eyebrows and crossing his arms. "Well, he got promoted to a private school by a sponsor."

"Angelique?" Sayori asked?

"No, Margaret," he answered quickly. "He used to bully me, and when she heard about it she took an interest in his education." More like forced him to switch schools under the guise of helping him out. He was sure that Margaret had probably made some pretty horrible threats against him and his family, as even though the guy had switched schools he had never called or texted him, and had deleted and blocked him on all social media platforms. Contact had been completely and utterly cut off. It was scary how effective Damien's mom could be sometimes.