Best laid plans

[deathisacard]

(previous and Death came to town)

By the time Todd had his faculties back in order and managed to sit up, the Royal was long gone. What he was left with was the absence of metal pressed to his sternum and a hand on his chest, and the piece of shirt he had been clinging to. If all else failed, the blood on it could be used to track the Royal down again. However, Todd was certain he would not be that difficult to find.

Todd never stayed in one place for long, but he was not worried about using his room for the night. Whatever would move against him next would at least wait until the next day. After a merger shower that got him clean enough not to turn everything into a bloody mess, he collapsed into a dreamless sleep. Bright fingers of daylight assaulted him into waking. Getting out and into the city helped shake off the remaining aches that chased him from sleep.

This was not Todd's first rodeo, and he was well aware that even the people who were not related to the Wands would protect them, at least wherever the shadow of their Empire fell. So he turned his attention to the streets controlled by the city's Swords. He had no desire to encounter any of the Royals directly, but of all the people of the city, those who lived and worked there were more prone to value the truth.

All it took was time, which Todd had plenty of as long as the Hierophant did not need blood spilled. He was able to learn that the name of the Wand with the bright hair and eyes was named Felix, and he had a reputation for chaos. A reputation well earned, Todd thought if their brief encounters were any indication. When the shadows were thicker, Todd lurked among them on the streets of the Wands, watching what he could to build a better picture than the broad impression he had.

Inevitably he received a summons from the Hierophant. The meeting was one without substance but intended to put Todd at ease. He was praised for his work in disrupting the Wands, which Todd did not accept. What he was doing was not for the Hierophant, but as long as it benefited the Arcana, it meant more freedom for Todd and that he would accept.

As he was leaving, the Hierophant said, "Your appearance is not up to Our standards. See to it."

Todd had to admit that his attempts at mending his clothes were far from perfect. His fingers were not made for mending; that was for others.

There was a quaint tailor's shop in the good part of town called Nine in Time. The dark wood of the interior and the no-nonsense proprietor put Todd at ease. The proprietor was a small, quick, dark-haired person of indeterminate gender named Kartik. They had the grace not to ask about the bullet holes in Todd's jacket but to comment, "You seem a man who needs freedom of motion." Todd had to agree that was so.

It was when Todd was leaving Nine in Time after his final fitting and charging the new set of clothing to the Hierophant that Todd felt a change in the air. The day had been grey and cold, with iron-colored clouds pressing down on the city. People hunched against the cold around Todd, but he barely felt it. What was in the air was not cold but impending violence. Something that sang to the very core of Todd.

The feeling grew as Todd made his way from the good part of town and out into the rest of the city. If shadows had not been his long-time friends, Todd would not have been able to step into them so seamlessly as he entered the shaded alley. A moment later the Royal named Felix entered the same alley. Not seeing Todd there the Royal slowed down, but before he could change his course, Todd slid up behind him.

Todd had selected a shorter blade for this, easier to press to Felix's neck--using the flat of the blade for pressure and the edge for threat. Not wanting to take another blow to the face, Todd pressed his shoulders and chest to Felix's back, which left very little room between them elsewhere. His free arm he brought around Felix to foil any attempts to draw his gun. A casual glace at them and an outsider would mistake them for embracing.

"Were you looking for me?" he asked.

Comments

[pageofwands]

The cut from Todd's blade had not needed stitches, but it was a near thing, and probably would have if not worse had Felix not been a Royal and made of tougher stuff. He saw to a medic that Brutus insisted on, spent a little time recovering in one of his many bolt hole type safe houses, then hit the streets again to hunt down Death once more. Even when he was trying for subtlety, Felix was hard to miss. His greatest stealth asset was simply to create so much chaos he could slide through it under the cover of all the extra noise.

The streets were not calm those nights, but there was always a reason for growing disquiet.

He tensed up the moment he felt the blade - and yeah had Todd been a second slower to press against his back he would have gotten another headbutt to the face, narrowly avoided a second time. So he could learn. Interesting, if annoying. Felix would have to actually try here.

"Yeah, sorry I ran out on you last time sweetheart," he shot back, pressing against the hold to see what kind of range of movement he could get if any.

[deathisacard]

Felix, of course, had the freedom of his arms, but too much movement there would get a sharp reprimand. Feeling the testing of the hold, Todd took away what little space Felix found. He was not excessively strong but much stronger than his slim frame implied.

"I was not in the best of moods," Todd said, as if the two of them had previously had a minor disagreement. Using the blade, he forced Felix's head back incrementally further. "Felix, do you want to be my personal problem?"

[pageofwands]

Felix felt his range of movement adjusted, suddenly limited further. Ah, noticed that, did he? He still twisted in the hold just to see if it would hold him, only to pause as the blade forced his head to tilt up and back.

"Sounds pretty sexy when you put it that way, darling. Don't threaten me with a good time," he replied. He couldn't reach his gun, but he kept a few small knives on himself and if he could just reach one…

[deathisacard]

Some distant part of Todd did wonder why he had not slit the Royal's throat and walked away. Normally he did not tolerate probelms. However, the majority of him was focused on keeping his hold on Felix. This close he could feel the lines of tension in Felix's body and tried to guess at where his hidden weapons were.

"Not a threat. I could send letters written in blood and the hearts of those few you love. Or maybe you prefer more personal gestures," Todd replied. He would not involve others in their conflict as long as Felix did the same.

[pageofwands]

It would be so easy for Todd to cut his throat open - for Felix to lean the right wrong way and part the skin just enough for a hot line of red to appear.

"I can get awful jealous, got me figured out there sweetheart," Felix said with the cavalier flirtation of before still strong. Nobody sane would want the full focus of an icon of Death, but if his attention was on Felix, that would leave the path clear for Brutus to move forward. A little further-

His fingertips just brushed the grip of one of his knives. A thin small one, practically just a glorified letter opener, but sharp as a whisper. Felix didn't take time to think - touched the handle and had it between his fingers, shoving it into Todd's flank. The damage was secondary to the surprise of the action, meant to give him a chance to get one of his better knives or better yet his gun.

[deathisacard]

Todd hissed as Felix's knife found purchase. That was surprising and unfortunately fortunately for Felix, it was the kind of surprise that he enjoyed. He jerked back, releasing Felix but not before drawing Felix's gun from its holster with nimble fingers.

He put enough distance between them to prevent Felix from making an easy grab at him. The gun slid easily into his hand--a hand well accustomed to wrapping around instruments of death. He pointed it at the sky and, tilting his head touched his tongue to the cold metal. Licking things was a time-honored tradition among children to juvenilely claim ownership of a thing. However, the way in which Todd applied his tongue to Felix's gun was far too sensual to be completely childish. He had kept an eye half open to watch Felix and felt the edge of a smile as thin as a paper cut touch his lips. "Oh I do, sweetheart," he said and dropped the gun into his between space.

[pageofwands]

Scrambling forward to put space between them, enough to draw, Felix's hand went to his gun a second too late. He could feel it, that it was someone else having their hands on his gun. He staggered like he was struck, ducking to pull a knife from his boot that was more significant in size than the one he'd stabbed Todd with, getting a sudden rush of cold as his gun vanished.

"You heinous bullshit maggot," Felix spat before dropping low and rushing Todd to tackle him to the ground. "Give it back!"

[deathisacard]

They were far too close to easily avoid being tackled. Anyway, Todd was more concerned about the knife in Felix's hand. He curled himself toward Felix and as they hit the ground he uncurled, dispersing some of the impact and preventing the wind from getting knocked out of him. In the chaotic moments following, he scrambled to get a vice-like grip around Felix's wrist with the knife.

"Make me," Todd snarled before striking out at Felix's ribs with his free hand. There was not much room to get a strong hit in, just enough to bruise and hopefully get him a bit more space to work with.

[pageofwands]

The alleyway was not a good one to fight in. Too narrow, with plenty of debris to cut into both combatants. He tried to swipe at Todd with the knife, to get another stab in, but there just wasn't enough room. He still avoided getting his arm pinned until the hit, just enough to rattle him, to slow him that let Todd grab the wrist holding the blade in a grip like iron. Frustrated and angry, Felix bit Todd's hand that gripped him

[deathisacard]

Most people would let go at the shock of being bit. Human teeth were not especially sharp, but they could do serious damage when the owner of them was not shy about using them. Todd growled and tightened his grip, fighting the natural instinct to let go. He twisted under Felix, attempting to throw the other man off balance, and reached up to get his other hand around Felix's neck.

[pageofwands]

Felix fought less like a man and more like a rabid animal backed into a corner, determined to make this a fight everyone involved regretted. He locked his jaw, growled low in his throat, eyes flashing like molten gold. With Todd preoccupied with that, his other hand was free - no knife, but that didn't stop him from bringing his fist up into Todd's face. Like Todd's punch, there was not enough room to get proper momentum going, but there was something to be said about a willingness to take on injury to ensure another took it too.

[deathisacard]

Most people who had spent any time around Todd would have the impression of sharp, cold calculation. Everything was measured and thought through. Which was not wrong. He kept tight control of himself as a way to keep himself safe. People always thought of the cold as something quiet and still, but if it was cold enough, it could be just as wild as fire--it could burn just as badly. That was the kind of cold that lived inside him. What little control he still had slipped from him between Felix's growl and the fist in his face.

The punch did not have a lot of power, but it was enough to snap his head back for a second. His nose would be bleeding in protest, and he could not care. His free hand found Felix's neck, which was tense with the efforts of trying to relieve Todd of part of his hand. He easily found the small space between windpipe and muscle and pressed his thumb into Felix's artery with all the strength he could muster. Growling and baring his teeth, he twisted his shoulders, pushing into Felix's neck as he yanked at the wrist he still held onto.

[pageofwands]

A credit to Felix, he held on tight well past the point most could - it wasn't until his vision was going gray at the edges that his jaw let up without him even saying so, lightheaded from the lack of blood flow, dropping the knife in the process too. A fire starved of oxygen, at least for a brief moment, slumped against Todd.

[deathisacard]

If Todd was in his right mind, he would keep denying Felix proper blood flow or at least draw one of his many blades. But he was not remotely in the vicinity of 'right.'

Instead, he rolled over with the briefly limp Felix. Straddling him, Todd got a good and proper punch into his opponent's face. He wound up to strike again, not caring that Felix would very likely recover enough to counter before he could connect.

[pageofwands]

Pain exploded across his face, the first hit causing a gush of blood from his nose or a cut lip or something else - face wounds bled like a bitch. The pain helped sharpen and focus him though, let him break the surface on his swimming senses enough to see the second blow coming and twist his head to the side so Todd struck ground instead. Rather than grab for another knife or try to recover his fallen one, he aimed a punch squarely at where he had already stabbed Todd with the smaller blade.

[deathisacard]

The pain in Todd's hand shuddered up his arm. The skin on his knuckles split more than they had when striking Felix's face, and some jagged bit of debris opened them further. Connecting to the ground rather than Felix had left him wide open for Felix's punch. The pain was electric and rattled through Todd, highlighting all his other injuries. All ability to breathe left him, and as he gasped for air, his thoughts managed to pull out of the feral need for blood and pain. If he kept pushing like this, he would end up losing an unknown amount of time, which would be deeply unsatisfying.

Letting the momentum that Felix had just put into him, Todd awkwardly shifted to no longer be sitting on Felix but to his side. Some distance would be helpful while he tried to get his breath back.

[pageofwands]

Felix scrambled up as soon as Todd was off him, and there was a moment that was just a heartbeat while also stretching an infinity while he crouched on the other side of the narrow alleyway barely more than an arm's length apart, gasping, figuring out what to do next.

He rabbited.

Running was not Felix's style. He'd never run from anything, except to get more space between him and his target to cause a bigger explosion. He'd also never had his goddamn gun taken from him though and still felt it missing. A cold pit in his very core that refused to warm.

He never lost before.

He had to find Brutus.