On a c[o]ld winter morning in the time before the light

[Lucifer]

Lucifer wouldn't call himself damaged. Cruel, spiteful, envious, or any other emotion connected to sin and debauchery, sure he was definitely those. Broken, damaged, depressed... those were words that he felt were synonyms to weakness. If the world had gone on in a totally different way without restrictions, though, he liked to think he would've turned out differently. It wasn't his fault, that he was how he was. It was dad had wanted a villain to make him look good, and had let the Mark corrupt Lucifer without even telling him what was happening. He'd been God's best soldier before that.

Now? Now he was in a different universe than the one he'd been living in. He'd gone from top dog to bottom feeder on no less than three separate occasions. He'd been denied pleasures and comfort more times than he cared to count. He was done with 'plans' because those just ended in shit heaps at his feet. He was done caring, because every time he did, those he cared about disappeared on him and left him for dead.

If society was only going to ever see him as evil, though, then at least he'd have a reputation. Perhaps that reputation was all he had left. Besides, he hated probably 95% of everyone who was here. Some of them didn't give a shit about him and that was fine, but while everyone was content to live in anarchy or at least, without some clear chain of command, Lucifer was not. So as he sharpened his claws on a rock in the pitiful mountaintop that they called camp, he thought who he'd recruit to him, who he'd shame so others would despise them as much as he, and who he'd kill as soon as he was able.

[QUIETUS]

[align=center][div style=" background-color: transparent; border: 0px solid black; width: 500px; min-height: 9px; font-family:georgia; line-height: 110%; text-align: justify; color: black; padding: 20px"]Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Quietus did not weep the loss of leaders - he had none, being a loner, and the ones who had gotten some kind of authority beforehand proved to be as pitiful as the clans they had led. Though, could he really say much? The only one he'd met thus far was Lucifer, the swarmy, no-good male that had been adamant in sparring despite being warned not too not only by the mass majority of animals that had been there, but by a healer, too. Needless to say that hadn't stopped him and left a bad taste in Quietus' mouth afterward, both for him and for the male that had humored Lucifer in the first place.

Group life was nice, though.  He liked the members to some extent, and all of them were polite, and despite the lack of a leader they went along nicely - it would be a shame if they separated one day, although all of them had different allegiances beforehand and he assumed this was a temporary affair. It pained him, because this had begun to feel like... home. He slept here, talked here, entertained himself here, ate and drank and hunted here. It was all the things he'd begun to associate with a home since he'd left his own three years ago. Looking back now, it felt like a century since he'd been shoulder-to-shoulder with his siblings, and not corrupted by the radiation and the world that the humans had since destroyed.

Quietus had not seen Lucifer for quite some time. He was happy to assume that he had finally left after realizing that he was probably not going to be wanted here if he continued acting pompously, but here he was - alive, and, well, breathing. He wondered what the former leader was thinking as he sharpened his claws like some movie villain: to take over? To prove his power over all of them? To kill them? Or to run? There were so many paths to take. Unfortunately for Lucifer, Quietus was not one to be bossed around and taken advantage of, so there was little hope for camaraderie between the two in the present or the future. "Brood somewhere else, if you will. Not all of us care to witness such displays after doing something useful." like helping everyone. Now, that was a start. If Lucifer cared about anyone but himself - actually, he didn't even need to care. Quietus didn't care about much of the people here. All he did was hunt and give to the people who were weakest. It didn't require much emotion behind it, now did it? Dropping the two wiry mice he'd found on his hunt, he'd throw them on their meager kill pile before lying down, resting his head on his paws.

/ ic opinions!

[nuclear repository;]

  /ic opinions here too
  /tw: suicide mention in second paragraph

  Admittedly, Seija found it somewhat strange that of all the survivors that had ended up on the mountain, only two of them (as far as she knew) were former leaders, and one of them was herself.

  Then again, perhaps the lack of surviving ex-leaders made some sense. The leader's job was to be responsible for an entire clan, and so any leader worth their salt would've died before allowing their clan to be nearly or completely destroyed. Failing that, some of the ex-leaders might have actually committed suicide; she knew the prospect had tempted her, and it was unlikely that anyone else had a Michael that they had to avoid turning into.

  Meanwhile, Lucifer's presence on the mountain could be explained by either a) the fact that he still had some former ShadowClanners with him that he needed to protect, or b) the fact that he seemed to have little regard for anyone but himself, and thus would have no shame in what had happened earlier. The latter was more likely, but keeping the former possibility in mind would prevent her from even considering the prospect of assassinating him. Which, considering that Lucifer thus far seemed uncannily similar to the BloodClanners and Exilers in the old region, was seeming a more and more necessary prospect by the day.

  Perhaps it was nothing; perhaps he was simply full of hot air, and liked to throw his weight around in an effort to convince everyone that he was stronger than he actually was. However, given that End Game had apparently started from a group of individuals' obsession with purging the weak, and belief that it was their divine right to enforce the laws of nature by doing so, she couldn't allow someone with a similar mindset to go unchecked. If Lucifer did indeed wish to destroy the "weak" to benefit the "strong" ones, she couldn't allow him to gain any followers, lest another End Game arise in this region.

  By this point, her only reason for living was to pass on LithiumClan's history, and to ensure that no other group befell the same fate- and preventing another terrorist organization from rising up fell under that goal.

  Fortunately, Lucifer seemed to have far more enemies than he did allies as of yet, so any threat he might have posed was probably minimal at the moment. She'd have to keep an eye on him, but hopefully that would be all that was required of her.

  ...Speak of the literal devil. Walking into camp with a cluster of herbs that she had found closer to the base of the mountain, Seija glanced over at Lucifer, eyes narrowing. Thinking about it logically, if the ex-leader was going to go after the weakest targets, Quietus was probably not in any danger- he was level-headed and presumably capable enough in combat- so allowing the two to stay within the same proximity wasn't particularly risky. No, more likely, Lucifer would try to kill one of the many children that had found their way here; or, alternatively, he would try to kill her first, knowing that a half-starved and sleep-deprived canine with no formal combat training would be an easy target. If he went after her, that was fine, provided that she told at least one individual about the record books beforehand and that said individual actually bothered to find and read said books.

  With a sigh, she headed toward the medic's den, but kept her gaze on Lucifer. He likely wouldn't try anything here, but she couldn't help but be the slightest bit paranoid; it was the easiest way to stay alive.

[bxhemia]

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"you know, call me crazy but the whole brooding teenager thing really doesn't suit you," the comment slipped from his mouth ever so casually as the leopard approached, tail swishing back and forth leisurely as he walked. lavender had no prior knowledge of this lion, nor did he have any regard for his actions, both past and present, for all intents and purposes lavender was an outsider looking in- and what a wonderful perspective that was. to see this clearly powerful and arrogant lion being looked upon with disdain was quite an interesting scene, it made him wonder what exactly this lion had done, who he was and what made him tick. it was a tempting situation, to say the least, and one that the snow leopard had no trouble sliding himself into.

he kept the same relaxed gait as he walked, circling the lion with almost predatory grace. pale lavender eyes observed lucifer the whole time, picking out flaws with a practiced harshness before they returned to their casual half lidded state. "not to be overly critical, but if you're trying to strike fear into my heart, it's really not working." he deadpanned, coming to a halt in front of the larger wildcat, a small, apologetic smile playing at the corners of his mouth as he swiped his own metal paw against the rock, before bringing it up to inspect the sharpened metal claws and waiting to observe what the other would do.

.

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[abbr=template © asuka]AMBER SWEET IS ADDICTED TO THE KNIFE[/abbr] — [color=black]TAGS [ JANUARY 02 ]
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