Caged bird blues [Closed to Forcie and Ouroboros]

      "Well...I appreciate the honesty." Ouroboros said with a smile. His eyes flashed and in an instant his Ethereal energy had activated and any security camera in the vicinity had begun melting from the inside out. "Dice? I suppose...after all..I assume we can act civil..." Ouroboros said, unsure of what the meaning od the word was.. He let his blade down and drove the tip into the ground. His activated powers granted him certain insight that made his eyes narrow as he looked at Ailill.  "You're little rant about a charade is rather cute, but ultimately you are operating under an assumption. I never claimed I would help this spirit. You know nothing about me and yet you act as though you are above me. You don't even know what I'm capable of." Ouroboros said, he would not digress into another rant, this Hale would not hear him, and as such Ouroboros would not waste the time of day. The Spirit, however was one worth paying heed to.

      "I will confess while I did not intend on freeing you from your bond, I did not know the nature of the energy I followed. I will not lie to you that I also have very limited knowledge on things of the Occult, although I have allies that are assisting me with a similar sealing curse. I will also be quite clear right here and now. I will not promise you freedom. Your freedom is pending upon the reasons for you being sealed in the first place...I cannot allow you to run freely if you're a genocidal maniac." He said to the spirit, he had completely turned off Ailill after his asking the creatures name.

      "So...I am rather...embarrassed to confess that I have no idea how this game is played." Ouroboros said as he cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his Hydras skin. He tried to not let his embarrassment redden his face. He thoroughly hated that he was so out of touch with the current status quo of society. He walked over and made himself less hostile, thought with Misanthropy in the ground he could easily alter the situation whenever he wanted. So far this had been a situation where it was all bark and no bite. Thankfully Ouroboros' bite was far more fatal than his bark. "I haven't exactly existed for very long...there are a lot of foreign concepts to me." He confessed. He seemed more mellow now, at least the hairs that had been standing up on end had gone down. He somehow felt like he was...being observed. He was not worried as the nature of his energy was safe, though it was still unnerving.

”My name?” The question within itself was one that he had not really thought up an answer for, since the last time that he was given a name was long ago. It was something that those mage people called him, before they sealed him up anyway, and that was a fuzzy time indeed. It was something that started with a D, and that was as much as he knew, considering that his English alone was something that took a good decade to actually learn. Humans liked to add more words for him to try and learn; which made the whole process harder than it had to be. Something about their continued hostilities bothered the daemon, but then again humans always had a way with their hostilities. Fingers curled around the dice that were within his hand, as he considered an answer for the questions thrown at his feet.

”I don’t really have a name, but the mages that sealed me up called me Diluvium, some kind of Latin name or something. They called me a daemon, but I prefer the term water spirit, sounds much nicer if you ask me.” With a flick of his wrist, the dice would whirl into the air, before falling into his palm, and one bounced as it would clatter along the floor rather nosily, until it came to a stop. It took a moment for him to notice this little misstep, and the diminutive male would scramble for the dice, scooping it from the ground and examining it for anything a brief moment. With that small tick taken care of, he would turn to Ouroboros who spoke of a seal and how he knew little of the occult.

”Why I was sealed? It’s hard to remember why now actually. I think the humans did something…bad to someone, and all I remember is alot of..blood.” He seemed to drop off into a slight ramble, dice held between the fingers on his left hand, as the right would be raked through his hair, massaging his scalp carefully. Perhaps it was something that he had repressed, a painful memory or something along those lines; but all Diluvium knew was that something bad had happened to him. ”The magic people came, tried to kill me and realized that they couldn’t. So they sealed me up in the sword. Had some kind of weird last name, like that frozen water that falls from the sky and hurts.” That was when his brain decided to stop trying to look for memories that would only hurt his head, and made his chest feel all heavy.

”The games easy enough. I’ve watched enough humans play to know what to do, and something; though they seem really fond in cutting things off of each other from what I’ve seen. Not that I’ve seen much dice playing these days, so not sure if I’m doing it right.” he realized that he was talking more than needed, but when one did not have a sense of time, they did not know when they were wasting it. ’Well anyway, I roll the dice, and hide it under something, then you call evens or odds. Wait…I don’t have a thing to hide anything under.” He began explaining, and ended up with a tone of stark realization. That was when he realized that he had made shoes for his feet, since he had seen do many humans wearing such foot covering. Kneeling over, he forced one of his shoes off and placed it on the cold, and hard floor with a slight clop.

”Anyway, as I was saying, you call evens or odds. Whichever is shown by the dice wins. So any questions? Wait, no questions, I think I was pretty clear.” He continued, rolling the plastic dice about in his hand. ’So..evens or odds?”

Ailill chucked under his breath. Then laughed out loud for a second. Oh that worked out exactly as he thought it would. Well, mostly. He knew what to look out for from the moment he started speaking. Testing the guy further had been completely unnecessary. Ailill had already learned what he was like early on. Everything else he had done had been pointless. Just further evidence to support his theory. This ouro guy was so full of himself that it was laughable. Probably stares at his stupid self in the mirror for hours on end. Just what game was he playing? Was all of this nonsense just a ruse? Ooh, at this rate somebody was going to die. That was looking to be the most likely outcome. All this for a sword that was not important enough for this.

The attempts to destroy the cameras that would provide evidence to refute the idiotic attempts to blackmail the mage were all for naught. Ailill kept them safe with a spell. Something Ouro did not seem to have noticed. He was too busy with his pointless games. Ouro tried to speak to the spirit known as Dilivium in private. It did not work however. Ailill was listening in through another spirit that was hidden nearby. With help of this ally of a spirit, he was able to hear every word spoke with pure distinction. Just more pointless speaking. Might as well be speaking gibberish with all the nonsense that was being spoken. Not that it mattered. It wouldn't help anyone.

More important was the spirit's decision on what to do. Dilivium wanted to decide which of them got the sword he was bond to via a game of dice. Must not be the most brilliant of its kind. What, did it not want to keep the sword for itself? Did he not even care? It seemed almost sad the way this thing left its fate in the hands of a game of dice. A game it did not even know the exact rules too. Oh well. Not like he could do anything about that but help out as best he could. Ailill looked at the spirit calmly as he spoke "Well then. There are a lot of different games that involve rolling dice. Each with their own customs to them. Some are simple, some are complicated. Though, I see no point to even playing the game. I can remove the magic that binds you to this blade. I could probably do it here and now. Providing I have the opportunity to do so." he said glancing aside at Ouro. "Even if I can't do it now. I assure you that I can still free you from this here sword. I have a much greater supply of resources available to me elsewhere. I also have experience with removing enchantments like this one." he told him confidently. If an ancestor of his was indeed responsible for casting the sealing spell, then the information on it would be available in one of the family record books. Once he had that knowledge, it would be easy to undo.

Would that be enough? Or was it too late? Perhaps Dilivium was far too set on playing the dice game to decide who gets the blade to be negotiated with anymore. Had he spent too much time dealing with the arrogant one? "If you still insist on this game. I call odds." he told him as he held the blade tighter with great focus.

 
       “--I can remove the magic that binds you to this blade. I could probably do it here and now.--”
 
 
 
        Oh, this was perfect actually. Someone was going to break the seal right here and now. How kind of them, seeing as that provides more help to Ouroboros than anything else. It was perhaps in the best interest for the blade that this other man take it, provided that he got to see this seal release. If he didn’t it wasn’t of consequence really, he was just missing out on a chance to observe something he’d never seen before. It made him squirm a little, as he realized that he had gotten his blood all pumping but didn’t get to fight anything. It would be interesting for him later to look back on this event, there was a nice little goodie bag of lessons hidden in the events, especially when he realized that his Ethereal energy could not overheat or destroy the camera’s. Granted, the man’s threats were useless as to “exposing him” as the man forfeited that advantage the second he brought the camera’s to his attention. Though even Ouroboros could not deny that it was rather clever…. And he hated the man for outsmarting him like that. Still so much to learn it seems.
 
 
        ”Hail? Granted you killed someone though…” Ouroboros mused out loud a little, of course he realized that it was a reference to the Hale family…of which he was well aquatinted with at this point.. Oh this was getting too good now. His mind started racing, his eyes narrowed slightly as he began thinking over possibilities. He suddenly had a growing suspicion of this man who claimed that he could break one such seal. Of course this was only another lesson for him to learn, never underestimate anyone….ever. ”I suppose it is what it is though.”
 
       Of course this man would go on to explain that dice had different cultures and backgrounds, and it wouldn’t surprise Ouro if he went on to say more, but Ouro was busy thinking and pretending to listen. If he could break this seal it put Ouroboros just that much closer to ending his own predicament…the one that the Hales were no help to. The man had gone on about Ouroboros having his own agenda and that he would use Deluvium to get it, yet actually this man would prove most invaluable in his own right, how…..ironic.
 
       ”Evens.” Ouroboros said as he arched an eyebrow and watched the dice roll across the carpet, until the grand unveil of the numbers rolled. His eyes widened, he was slightly shocked, yet somehow pleased about the roll. He smiled and shrugged at the other man and leaned on the nearest wall. "Well...I suppose it is what it is."

He could remove the seal upon the blade here and now? That sentence was something that surely got through to Diluvium but he was already in the middle of his juvenile game, and there was nothing that could really stop it at this point. Even with that thrown into his face so openly, something within him would not allow this to stop now, and so he would go along with this; and it was just fun to see what the fates had in store for the daemon. With a flick of the wrist, the dice would roll along the floor loudly, as the clacked and whatnot, until they found themselves under the shoes. Hazel eyes stared upon the container for a moment, before he then decided to pull it up and see what had happened.

”Hrm let’s see what we have here.” Whether or not the other had already realized the score of the roll, Diluvium was busy counting out what was on the little white dice, finger jumping from one dot to the next with certain slowness. One thing about the daemon was that he had no formal education, since spirits did not really need that kind of thing, and he was sealed up for most of his life, so that also impeded his education. Sure he could count up to ten, but then again the dice could potentially go over ten, but that did not happen very often, and so it was not put into account.

In fact this number was indeed over ten, and that meant that he would have to think this over more and more, until something clicked. So with that not working, he tried to employ logic of some kind, as his head only began to hurt once again from the large amount of thought he was attempting to use. He glared at the dice, running many thoughts through his head until he at last figured out what he was dealing with and smirked lightly. ”Okay it’s odd’s which means that you win.” He motioned towards Ailill, raising an eyebrow as he considered what he had said moments ago with a large smirk.

”So is it true what you said, about removing the seal?” he said with a wide smirk as he pulled his knee’s to his chest and wrapped arms around his knee, looking at Ailill with what one could call sparkling eyes.

If he were to legitimately look back at this night, he probably should have just mentioned his ability to break the seal on the sword earlier in the conversation. That may have saved him a bit of trouble and grief. Ailill could deal with as little drama as it was possible. Now then, while it was certainly true that he could break this little seal on the sword, there was no guarantee he could do it here. It might prove tricky. He was not fully prepared for such a task if it were more complicated than it should be. If it was indeed one of his ancestors whom cast the sealing spell, then it was probably a powerful spell that would not be easy to break. He had to wonder though. How much would any of this benefit him? Unless this blade held information of great significance, this whole ordeal would have been a complete waste.

Time for talk had temporarily come to an end. The fate of the sword would be decided on a game of dice, and the roll had been cast. Now, they could only wait. Ailill took a few steps forward to see the results when the shoe had been lifted off the ground. He had called odds, and it was a good call. The dice showed six and five, totalling up to eleven. So, he had won. How fortunate. Perhaps even for him. Now what? Attempt to do what he said he could? Ailill turned around and walked back over to the display and laid the sword down across it. Even though he had won the dice game, he wasn't convinced he'd be able to simply walk away with this thing even if he were to break the seal on it. No, it was not a guarantee. He would have to keep his guard up. These preparations would be a complicated procedure.

Ailill began to examine the blade as he prepared the process of breaking the seal. "Yes. I just might be able to free you from this blade's confinement. It depends on the power behind the seal, and how it's designed. Important factors I will have to consider while undertaking this little task here. I will also need to concentrate. Which means nobody should interrupt me during all of this." he said sternly as he looked at both of them. "Somebody should keep a lookout for security. Just in case you know." he said as he finished examining the sword.

Now he knew what he needed to know. Ailill knew what kind of seal this was. His attempt would either succeed or fail. He knew what he was up against, and what to do. There was just no guarantee that it would work. He ran his hands over the side of the blade. The unsealing had begun. It would be his magic against the seal's. Hopefully. He may have to rethink this. This, might kill the spirit whom was bound to it. Or it might destroy the blade. He was not liking his chances right now. It was not unyielding, but it was proving to be quite the challenge. The blade started to glow, then bright, blinding flashes illuminated the room. Oh, this might be trouble. Then, it grew dim, and the light went away completely. The blade's magical structure had been altered. It seems he had done it, but he could not be sure. It would have to be tested first.

"Got it boss." Ouroboros said as he held out a hand and Misanthropy pulled itself from the ground and flew to him. He then walked over to the threshold where he had come from and let the blade there in the air as he turned to watch the rest of the little light show. Ouroboros' visor manifested on his ear and he began processing energy changes in the area, measuring the energies of this strange magical character and the littlest sword. Misanthropy still levitated and seemed to be able to keep itself on guard With the dang light show it seemed like confrontation was inevitable, though no one came while Ouro watched, so that was good. The data was processed and he smiled, hopefully the occultists back home could figure out what needed to be done. Then again, it was possible that the data was not even useful and the seal was still in effect. Ouro watched eagerly as to see what happened to the spirit. His visor still processing data as he watched.

        Ouroboros was proud, he was intelligent but he was not so proud or arrogant as to believe that he knew more on the subject than the man before him. He also understood the concept of total concentration without interruption. His own interest in the sight, the bewilderment was...strange. He had finally seen something he couldn't explain. Not at the moment at any rate. How odd. When it was finally safe to talk again, Ouroboros wouldn't be the one to ask the trivial 'did it work' rather he would ask them.

      "Any complications?"

So cutting out all of the magical babble that Diluvium could not understand, what he got from all of that was he could probably break the seal…maybe. Part of him really wanted to believe what the male said, but then again he knew nothing about the power of those that had sealed him away, but then again this guy seemed pretty powerful within his own right, so now he had to see what would happen. All he needed was time to himself, and the juvenile water spirit could give him that much, for now at least he until he was sure that things were not going in a favorable direction, and so he would follow the blond about. He slunk only a few steps behind, looking about with a certain interest as the magus was working his mojo on the seal in question, hoping that something came out of all of this.

There was none of the museum guards about this part, only them and that was strange within itself. Usually there was at least one or two of them walking around, especially around such an important exhibit as this one was, but then again that showed how much he knew. Fingers intertwined as he felt something within his chest, a something that both burned and felt strangely tingly at the same time. One of his hands flew up to what looked like a small part of his body glowing, something that was coupled by the sword itself glowing brightly. He could feel another sensation running through his body for a moment, one that was of both painful loss and of separation; followed by an overwhelming sense of freedom that he had not felt in so many years.

He gasped lightly, running a hand over where a person’s heart was normally, feeling the warmth fading away, and smirking widely in response. Without really thinking, he dashed over to where the magus looked over the blade in question, not a single crack within the thing and overall he was fine. ”You did it!” Without even thinking he pressed a hand against the blade, and within that moment he didn’t even feel any pain, flesh did not sizzle like it used to and he was allowed to touch what was once his prison. That went into him wrapping Ailill into a quick tight hug before skipping back a few feet, and perhaps reacting as what a kid would when something amazing happened to them.

It had begun. Ailill had begun the ritual to undo the sealing spell. He knew not if it would work. He was kind of going in blind. Well, not blind per say, but with no idea if this would work. The blinding light coming from the blade he was trying to disenchant seemed like a sign of soon to be success. The sword gave off a light that illuminated the entire room until it faded away. When the light went away, so did the distinct energy he felt from it during the unsealing process. This suggested it had worked. Did it though? He had tinkered with the method he was using so many times that by the time he had finished, Ailill was not even sure he had even performed a spell to break the seal, let alone actually accomplished the task.

Ailill stared at the blade in the aftermath of the spellcasting. Still in good condition. That suggested the blade wasn't specifically made just to contain the spirit attached to it. The connection that Dilivium had to it was more of a circumstantial thing. Perhaps this ancestor of his that supposedly cast the spell had just used the closest viable object he could find.

He continued to contemplate the possible results in silence until somebody spoke. He didn't recognize who was speaking at first. Not until he looked up and saw that it was Ouro whom had spoke up. He was asking if there were any complications. Ailill was mostly sure that the answer to that question was none. Not that he was interested in answering anyways. Instead he looked back down at the sword and gazed upon it once more. He began to check it for the remains of the sealing spell. All seemed to be okay. His thoughts were confirmed by Dilivium's reaction to it all. He outright said it had worked. He would know since he was the one whom had been connected to the blade after all. The spirit came over and examined the thing himself. Then, he hugged him quickly and started skipping around. Yeah, seemed like the reaction that could be expected from a child. Now perhaps, he could finally leave this place. Ailill picked up the sword and started to back away from the display case.

This was an enlightening experience to say the least. There was no true way of telling how this would impress upon Ouroboros yet, it was far too soon to have sunk in. Though there was one thing for certain, this man just very well may have been his savior in a sense. Granted, Ouroboros eventually would have figured it out, but this man just sped up the process exponentially. Ouroboros kept a calm guise but he was careful to remember that face. He owed this man, unfortunately, and one day he would make good on this debt. He didn't worry about forgetting, He never forgot his debts...but he needed to place it on the back burner for the time being. He looked to the elated water daemon and smiled at him.

       "Well congratulations." Ouro said with a genuine happiness to his voice. He then held out his hand and the blade Misanthropy came to him without delay. Ouro looked to Ailill an smirked before walking off with a dismissive farewell wave to the strange male. The blade in his hand warped and faded from reality, and he began to walk.

Diluvium stopped amidst his celebration to think for a moment. This was the first time he was free in a long while, but the daemon had no idea what to do after that, he was lost for a lack of better words. There was a word for the feeling that was running through him, but at the moment he could not quite place what it was, this strange sensation that was coursing through his currently solid form. That was what put a temporary dampener on his fun, but then again that was only a temporary thing, seeing as how he could easily find something to do. The water spirit would find a purpose for him, though when was the question really.

One thing he knew was that he would not want to look upon that sword as long as he lived, considering that it was solely responsibly for stealing his freedom for centuries, so now it was time that he slunk off into the city or something. A large body of water would have been preferable though, anything not heavily polluted with….pollutants. So the sewer was off his lift of potential homes, and that meant that he would have to keep searching, maybe leave this city and go straight to the ocean. Sure it may have been a toilet for fish, but not like it was very obvious, and something about the ocean just drew him.

”Well….no reason for me to sit around here anymore.” He took note that the blonde male was already leaving, so that meant that he could as well. He looked back to the mage that was responsible for freeing him, making sure to remember his face, and in that instant his entire body became a puddle of water before flowing away into the nearest duct and he was gone.

So, it worked. Just as planned. That was his plan right? Well, it worked out in his favor. The sword was his. Just as he had intended. Ailill could finally leave. Things had been far more complicated that they should have been. If it weren't for all the distractions in the form of the spirit that had been attached to the blade and that other annoying guy, he would have been out of this museum a long time ago. Finally, he could leave. The others had departed, leaving him there alone, holding the stolen sword in the dark.

"Okay then." he said after they had left. Well, time for him to depart too. Ailill opened his dimensional storage pouch up and placed the sword into one of the slots for organization purposes, and easy access should he want to take it back out. Ailill then carefully snuck out of the museum via the same method he used to sneak in. A few minutes later, he was out of the building and travelling through the night.

It took awhile, and by the time he got there he was tired, but Ailill finally got home. He walked up to the door and put the key in the lock, only for the door to be opened for him. It was his aunt Arianna, staring at him amusingly.

"You're out awfully late now aren't you?" she asked him so politely it didn't feel right.

"Uh, yeah, I guess. What time is it?" he asked her as he walked into the house.

"It's nearly 1 in the morning." came a voice. As Arianna closed and locked the door, Ailill turned to see Aaron standing in the doorway to the living room. Laying on the couch watching tv was Brandon. Though it looked like he had already fallen asleep.

"Guess I lost track of time." he said innocently enough.

"You should try checking your watch more often. It does help in keeping track of time. That's what it's there for. It's not a decoration." Aaron told him as he walked back into the living room to check on Brandon real quickly.

The conversation ended right there. Neither one seemed to care enough to ask where he had been or what he had been doing. Not that he was complaining. Ailill headed off to his bedroom. On his way there he passed the kitchen where he saw Milla getting a glass of water. He hadn't seen her much since she came back. Though now was not the time to be catching up. He reached his room and opened the door. First thing he saw was Mirshann laying on his bed waiting for him. The moment she saw him she got up and exclaimed his name excitedly as she rushed over to hug him. Ailill quickly pulled her off and said "What are you doing in my room? Get out." as he kicked her out and locked the door behind him.


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