forum The Bad Part Of Town // O/O // Closed

Started June 30, 2020 by @MarDeColores this is not it kids

tune

"I'm going to be doing what?" Kuno stared at the queens, his eye widening.
"Keeping the prince company. Showing him around. Making sure he isn't going to do anything stupid." Elia leaned forward. "We can count on you to do that, right?"
"Well, yes, but why does it have to be me? I mean, I'm literally the worst person to do this." Kuno took a step towards the queens, frantically trying to think of a good excuse to not do this. "I mean, I was the one–"
"Not another word." Laini interrupted, narrowing her eyes at him. "From now on, you had nothing to do with that. Just stick with him. Maybe try and slip some actual history in your conversations."
"Right, because that's going to work wonderfully. It won't be suspicious at all." Kuno sighed, rubbing his forehead. He couldn't believe that the queens would pick him to do this, of all people. He was supposed to be done with everything! He'd finally gotten used to normal life, and now they had to throw this on him? By Sol's name, he loved the queens– he would give his life to them– but this was insane.
"Kuno…" Elia pleaded. "We don't have anyone else we trust enough to handle this!"
"Fine! Fine. I'll do it. When am I supposed to be meeting the prince?"
"Today. Right now, actually. We told him to wait in the library for you." Laini gave him a smile. "Thank you." Kuno let out a breath.
"Very well. Solunei." He gave them a quick but respectful bow and turned towards the door. This would be absolutely terrible.

Kenji’s aura was absolutely black at the moment. If possible, it would be as endless as a black hole and as solid as the pavement. That morning, he had been in the pub with Atticus, sipping from a glass. It was the morning, sure, but it was eight at night somewhere. Currently, he was chatting up a dark haired and skinned woman. He was introducing the woman to the main lady in his life, Brazil. The two and a half foot long snake was rested across his shoulder and down his arm, it’s head brushing along his hand.

He was soon interrupted by a voice, telling him to get up and follow them. He didn’t know the individual, but was visibly annoyed that he was interrupted. When he was informed that he would be going to the palace to meet the queens’ right hand man. At first he was vocally resisting, telling the individuals to get out of the pub, Atticus laughing in his bar stool.

But soon he was removed from the pub and taken to the palace. He was close-to-shoved into the library before the doors were shut behind him. They hadn’t even given him enough time to put Brazil back in her tank, so she was still curled around his hand and bicep.

That was how he was stuck in that current situation. He didn’t know much about what would be going on, but he already was scowling as he looked at a shelf of books.

As Kuno walked, he tried to straighten out his appearance somewhat. Hair got pulled back into a braid, and clothes got smoothed down as much as possible. He normally didn't care, but it was always polite to look decent when meeting someone new. Kuno's hands stilled. This was no ordinary person, however. Why did he need to make himself look presentable for his sake? Kuno tugged the tie out of his hair and put it back into his usual, very messy bun. All he had to do was act nice. And it didn't even have to be that nice. He would aim for tolerable, at least.
"Meli," Kuno greeted the two people guarding the doors to the library. They nodded at him and let him pass. Kuno opened the doors, closing them softly behind him before looking around. There was a man with what looked like a snake wrapped around his arm glaring at a shelf. That must be the prince.
"Kenji Creed." Kuno resisted wrinkling his nose in disgust and instead walked closer to him. "I suppose you're wondering why you're here?" He stopped a good distance away from the prince, not wanting to get any closer on account of him being the prince. Honestly, if it had been up to him, Kenji would have been killed along with his parents. But no. The queens had insisted that he was innocent. Kuno couldn't imagine how that could be, but he trusted the Laini and Elia.

Kenji turned on his heel to face the individual that came into the room. Kuno. He sneered before tilting his head away again, properly ignoring the male. He brushed two of his fingers against Brazil’s head gently, clicking his tongue softly in a rhythmic manner. Unlike Kuno, he had no moral responsibility to be polite to anyone in the palace. Why would he be? This should be his palace.

Kenji tilted his head to look over at Kuno, his rings glinting in the slight as he lifted his hand in a dismissive manner. “Save the fancy talk, I don’t give a shit,” he hummed, lowering his hand. “I was in the middle of doing something important when I was so rudely interrupted by the her majesties little men.” The way he addressed the queens was obviously in a sarcastic and mocking sort of manner.

“I could be getting laid with a pretty stranger right now, but instead here I am, with you,” he smirked wildly as he laughed, rolling his eyes. Oh well. He would have that chance another day. “Now tell me, Kuno, why am I here?”

"I'm terribly sorry you were so inconvenienced by the queens' summons," Kuno said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "But they have decided, out of the kindness of their hearts, to let you move into the palace." This move, contrary to Kuno's words, had more to do with keeping an eye on the former prince. After all, he was sure to be resentful. They simply couldn't let him run around, planning things against them. "You will have to put those plans on hold for the time being." Kuno let a small smirk appear on his face for a second. "Out of their concern for your safety, they have decided that you will not be allowed to leave the palace without both their permission and my presence." This situation, while inconveniencing both of them, was probably much less favorable to Kenji. "People are getting your things as we speak. Shall I show you to your new rooms?" Kuno gestured towards the library doors, another small, satisfied smile flickering across his face. Although this imprisonment couldn't even begin to compare with what Kenji's parents had put him through, it still felt good to get even a little bit back at them.

"Move into the palace?" Kenji repeated, arching a brow. He should already be living in the palace. It was supposed to be his in the first place. "Who says I even want to live here with you snobs anyways?" His voice was dripping with obvious disdain and annoyance. When it was soon revealed to him that he would not be allowed to leave without asking for permission and bringing Kuno along, his jaw dropped. "You kidding me, right? Tell me you're fucking kidding. You people can't just imprison someone in this hellhole!"

Kenji crossed his arms over his chest, being mindful of Brazil. "I have a home- I have a life. Taking all of that from me is just inhumane," he spat. He might be forced to stay, but he sure as hell wouldn't make it easy. He vowed to himself to cause as much trouble as possible- for the queens, for Kuno, for literally anyone who agreed to keep him at the palace.

"It's not up to you to decide," Kuno said, sighing loudly. Kenji was taking it just as well as he'd thought he would. A little better, actually. His mouth turned down at Kenji's next words. "I am not kidding you. And if you are so naive to think this," he spread his hands out to indicate the palace, "is a hellhole, then you've obviously never been to Hell." Kuno started to turn, but quickly paused. "Everyone has had a home and a life at some point. Your parents managed to take one or both of those things from a lot of people in their conquest for power and control. And they were called heroes. You aren't allowed to decide what is and what isn't right in this world." He bit out the words, seriously considering killing then man then and there. But his orders strictly prevented him from doing that. "Now, are you going to follow me willingly or am I going to have to drag you out of here?"

Kenji seemed to visibly seethe at the mention of his parents. "Keep their names out of your filthy goddamn mouth," he snapped. "You don't know shit. You don't know it like I do. And who are you to judge what's right and wrong? Think your some kind of high and mighty god?" He scowled heavily and scoffed out a dry laugh as he tilted his head away from Kuno, looking back up at the shelves of books. At the threat of having to possibly drag him out, he sighed in a purposefully dramatic and mocking way, looking down at Brazil and stroking her head gently. Her tongue flicked out, brushing against his rings a couple of times. "You're a prick, you know that? But you're lucky I have my little ange with me, or else I'd kick the shit out of you," he hummed, not looking at Kuno as he stepped towards the door.

Kuno had to make an effort not to yell right back at the prince. He didn't know? Know what? The good side of the dead queen and king? Of course, he didn't. It had never existed for him. "I am no god. I only know what I have seen." Kuno turned and started leading Kenji towards the doors of the library. "Right. So lucky." He opened the doors, giving the guards another nod.
"How'd that go?" One of them whispered, glancing back into the library at Kenji.
"Leyi vin-ka li jena," Kuno answered, gritting his teeth.
"That bad, huh?" The guard shook her head. "Sorry, res-Kuno."
"It's fine." He took a few steps out of the doorway and turned back around to wait for Kenji. He wasn't going to risk letting that man have more than a few seconds out of his sight.

Kenji took his time with following after Kuno, purposely dragging behind just to get on the male's nerves. He apparently had to do this, so he would make it as annoying and frustrating as he possibly could. He ignored Kuno as he held his hand up to his face, tutting softly to Brazil. He threw a look to the guards, giving them a proud and careless sort of smile. "Say, do you people let weed in here? Probably not him, though he could used a blunt to loosen up," he started, addressing on the guards and obviously meaning Kuno when he said 'him'.

Kuno let a small, calming breath out and slowed his pace slightly until he was walking even with Kenji.
"Hana da vin-olum-ze yele ule han inpa," The guard who had spoken to Kuno said, glaring at Kenji. What she had just said was quite the insult, and Kuno couldn't help but smirk a little at that.
"We do not, at least not to the likes of you." The other guard answered Kenji's question, lip curling a little in disgust. Kuno knew that both of them had suffered during the war, so their reactions were expected. It was just the thing he needed to get his mind off how annoying Kenji was, at least for a little while.

Kenji sneered at both of the guards. He had no idea what the one guard had said, so he glanced over at the other one. "Well, better start then, big man," he hummed, grinning smoothly to expose his cunning smile for the first time he had been at the castle. He turned away and kept walking ahead, brushing past Kuno for a short moment. "Can you hurry up? Goddamn, you kind of suck at this tour guide thing," he commented to Kuno, throwing a glance over his shoulder momentarily.

Kuno sent a silent prayer to Sol pleading for enough patience to deal with this absolutely terrible person and sped up slightly. He led the way through the hallways, making his way towards one corner of the palace. Kenji's room wasn't terrible, aside from the add-ons designed to stop him from getting out of there. It was a prison, but a very nice one. One could hardly even tell unless they were trying to get out. Kuno pulled a small ring of keys from the pouch hanging at his waist and unlocked the door. Through it was a small, open-air courtyard, the rest of his rooms branching off of it in the style typical to the country. "Your room." Kuno stepped to one side of the doorway and waved Kenji into the courtyard.

Kenji could very quickly tell that it was something like a prison. His nose scrunched up as he looked at it with disgust. This felt completely inhumane. Why was he being locked up when he didn't even do anything to deserve it in the first place? He would surely raise hell in the palace in return for that. He narrowed his eyes at Kuno, brushing past with his head held high as he stepped into the courtyard. At least Brazil would enjoy this open area. Maybe he could get himself more snakes or arachnids to fill the space so no one would come and bother him.

Kuno entered after Kenji. "Your things should be coming shortly. While we wait, would you like to look around the rest of the palace?" He sincerely hoped that Kenji wouldn't agree. That way, he could get back to his own things and forget he ever had to meet Kenji. Hmm, maybe he could head to the gardens and practice the new spell he'd discovered recently. It might be very useful in the coming days, and even if it wasn't, it never hurt him to learn a new spell. And he needed to get some more things for spells from the market. He was running low on golden dewdrops.

Kenji could tell that Kuno wanted to get away from him, and as much as he wanted to do the same at the moment, he also wanted to keep pushing Kuno's buttons. "Actually, I would love if you showed me around a bit more," he hummed, a sly smirk twitching onto his lips. He reached his arm up, allowing Brazil to slither off of him and up into some tree branches in the courtyard. "But if we come back and my snake is dead or some shit, I'll kill every single one of you and burn this whole place to the ground, m'kay?" he hummed, raising his eyebrows.

"Alright." Kuno turned away from the prince, letting his face settle into a scowl for a second. "Don't worry, no one is going to come in here except for the people with your stuff. As long as your snake stays out of their way, it should be fine." And he was dreaming if he thought he would be able to get very far with his plans to murder everyone with Kuno there. "We'll go to the gardens first." He started down the hallway. If he had to deal with Kenji, it could at least be in a nice place. Maybe he could drag him down to the beach as well. That was somewhere he totally needed to see. All those steps would be a nice workout.

“Should be the other way around with them staying out of her way, you know,” Kenji started. “She’s pretty calm most of the time unless strangers get all up in her area. She’s not venomous or anything, but she’s a constrictor, so someone could sure as hell still get strangled to death.” He stopped talking after that, realizing he got a bit caught up in talking. Snakes were a big interest to him. He knew a lot about different kinds of snakes and often hyper fixed on them. “Gardens, that’s kind of boring,” he said after a moment of silence.

"I'm sure they'll know better than to go poking around a snake," Kuno answered, finding it interesting that Kenji had broken his 'being annoying as he could' in order to talk about snakes. Maybe he could distract the man every once in a while by mentioning snakes. "They are beautiful, though." Kuno shrugged. "Besides, I'm the one leading the tour. And I say you need to see the gardens." He shrugged slightly and continued towards the nearest entrance to the gardens. They were quite large, and he'd almost gotten lost the first few times he'd gone in them. He'd gone there so many times since then that he could probably find his way around there in the dead of a moonless night.

"Ok, fine, I will rephrase what I said. The gardens are nice looking. You are boring," Kenji retorted, looking around as they entered into the gardens. He would most likely bring Brazil out there at some point just for her to have even more breathing room. Maybe he would even find another garden snake out there that he could take in so it wouldn't get its head chopped off with the end of a shovel. "Are you going to show me any of the interesting and useful places?" he pressed.

"Oh, thank you for that clarification." Kuno shook his head slightly and friend to focus more on the gardens than on Kenji. "What do you have in mind when you say interesting and useful?" He asked, leading Kenji further into the garden. It was quite full of beautiful plants, and relatively empty, as per usual. Right now, while everyone was getting used to the new way of life, not many people had time to come here. "Because I clearly have a different version of interesting and useful than you do." He glanced over at Kenji. "So?" Kuno hoped that wherever he said was somewhere Kuno couldn't take him, so he could still drag the prince down to the beach.

Kenji hummed at the question, thinking to himself. "Got a wine cellar or anything here? You know, a place where you keep the liquor?" he asked. He had to stay occupied some how if he were to be trapped up in his little area of the palace all day, every day. "Really anything along those lines would be interesting to me." He glanced Kuno over skeptically before continuing to speak. "Do you even drink? You give me the vibes of someone whos sworn off alcohol."

"We do." Kuno nodded. "But… it's all being saved for the taveni-holu celebration later this week. Not even the queens are allowed to go in there." The celebration he spoke of was a sort of huge party, celebrating the end of the summer year and welcoming in the winter year. It would be the first one anyone had celebrated in a while that wasn't reserved due to being in the middle of a war, so it was understandable the queens would want everything to go perfectly. And it gave him no small amount of satisfaction to deny Kenji's request. "I have not sworn off alcohol. But I know it's best to drink in moderation. Now, I think you definitely need to see the beach next." Kuno turned abruptly, heading down a path that would take them towards the cliffs.