"Oh, I don't care either. Stay wherever you want." Damian shrugged, turning his attention to his next task: finding some dead people. It was never hard these days. He closed his eyes, extending his senses outwards. It didn't take him long to find some in the next building over. Damian opened his eyes, flicking his fingers towards the wall. The sound of rubble moving sounded faintly from the outside, and a few seconds later, a small group of skeletons surrounded by silky black magic walked in.
"You, guard that door." Damian pointed at the biggest skeleton. "The rest of you, stand around the outside of this room. No one in or out." Damian looked up at the stranger. "Except for him," he added, waving towards him. All the skeletons turned to look at the stranger, then marched off to their assigned spots. "You can leave, if you want. They won't stop you." Damian dropped to the ground, looking up at the stranger.
Nich looked up worriedly when he heard noises from the outside, and bristled upon seeing what appeared to be a group of dead people approaching the door. He relaxed a little when he noticed that Damian appeared to be in control of them, but that didn't make him feel much better. So he's a necromancer, I guess… at least he seems to not be aggressive for now. I'll keep my guard up. He seemed uneasy, but said nothing, simply sitting on the floor after a few minutes so that he could remove his prosthetics. He lay them on the floor beside him with a soft sigh. "S-So, um… I guess we should get to know each other a little bit, even if we're only knowing each other for a night. Um… my name is Nich. You?"
Damian turned his attention to his own preparations when it became apparent that the stranger would be staying. That was a new one. Most people sprinted away the moment they realized what kind of magic he did. It was refreshing to not have that happen for once.
Damian took off his backpack and set it down beside him. He was planning on getting out a bit of food, but before he could unzip his backpack, the stranger started talking again. Introducing himself, no less.
"There's no need to sound so nervous, darling. I don't bite," Damian said, leaning back slightly and peering over at the stranger. Well, Nich, as he said his name was. "Nice to meet you, Nich. I'm Damian Rosewood." Damian gave Nich a half-smile, half-smirk, and a little wave because why the hell not.
"Excuse me for being wary… most strangers I run across aren't quite so passive." Nich laughed weakly and looked down at his prosthetics, and then the stumps to which they connected. He'd lost his legs when he was young, so he was used to it by now, but that didn't really make it any easier. He was just glad that he was able to get around pretty well despite his injuries.
"So, uh… sorry if this is too personal; you don't have to answer if so, but… what brought you here?" He asked. "You survived, after all. Not everyone is lucky enough to say the same."
"Heh, I suppose that is true." Damian shrugged, remembering the many meetings he'd had that hadn't turned out quite so… passive, so to say. Now that he was thinking about those, he shouldn't be so quick to trust Nich. Damian turned towards the smallest skeleton he'd raised, which had taken up residence by what used to be a window. Keep an eye on that one. He glanced towards Nich. The skeleton looked towards him as well. Wake me if he tries anything funny. The skeleton let out a small hiss of agreement and turned back towards the window. It wasn't exactly the most subtle way of letting one of his minions know what to do, but hopefully, the knowledge that he was being watched would dissuade Nich from trying anything at all.
"Oh, me?" Damian blinked serenely at Nich. "It was pure luck in my case. I happened to be out of the country when the war reached us. Nothing more." His tone was light, but he couldn't help the small bit of anger that entered his eyes at the thought. He couldn't have done anything about it, regardless of where he was at the time, but that didn't stop him from being furious over what had happened to his home. "It's not exactly easy to stay in one place these days. Especially if you have my kind of magic. People don't take kindly to it." Damian let out a soft laugh, twisting a bit of silky black magic around his fingers. "You don't seem to mind, though."
Nich swallowed nervously as he watched Damian and the skeleton, but again elected not to draw attention to it. He lay down on the ground with a soft sigh, staring at a hole in the ceiling above him. Without his prosthetics on, he wasn't much of a threat anyway. He was clearly trusting Damian enough to not attack him by leaving himself vulnerable like this.
When Damian mentioned his magic, Nich shrugged. "I'm not going to lie; it isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world. I don't think most people are at ease with skeletons getting up and walking around them. But you haven't tried to kill me yet, so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. My hometown was all but destroyed, honestly; it was already an active war zone when I was born. A lot of people died there, and I'm sure it's pretty much destroyed now. I left years ago since we figured I'd have a better chance of surviving as a drifter. My parents refused to leave; they're very attached to my hometown."
Damian watched Nich lay down. It seemed like his subtle threat had worked. That was good. Though it was funny that he was trusting Damian so much. He didn't know if Damian was a bad person or not. What if he was just waiting for Nich to go to sleep before stealing all his stuff and stabbing him to death? He wouldn't, of course. He wasn't that kind of person.
"Most people are idiots, but that's beside the point," Damian sighed. At least Nich wasn't immediately assuming he was a terrible person just because he used the kind of magic he did.
It seemed that he and Nich had a similar reason for becoming a drifter. Though he supposed it was quite worse to have to live in an active war zone for your entire life.
"Huh," he said, instead of anything constructive or helpful. It wasn't his fault, though. It was hard to think after not sleeping for almost two full days at this point.
All Damian wanted to do was fall asleep, but he still had to eat something. Not his favorite activity, but he knew he would be dead in a blink of an eye if he didn't eat something every day. Maybe one of these days he could figure out a spell that would eliminate the need to eat food. "Do you have any food?" He wasn't asking because he didn't have his own food, but he didn't really want to be eating while Nich watched, hungry. That would be very awkward.
Nich curled up on his side, facing the wall rather than Damian. He allowed himself to get lost in his thoughts for a while until he heard Damian address him again, at which point he looked over his shoulder to face him. "Mm? Food?" He repeated. "Uh… no, not really. I kind of just go day by day since everything around here rots almost immediately. Sorry." He apologized, figuring Damian was asking because he was hungry. He wasn't lying, though; he really didn't have anything to offer.
He sighed softly and lay down on his back, staring at the ceiling again. He liked to imagine what it might have looked like before everything happened. What happened in this building before it was destroyed? What kind of business did people carry out here? Surely anyone who lived or worked here was long gone by now. Nich shook his head a bit and closed his eyes.
"I see." Damian nodded slowly. This was starting to seem like it was going to be a very awkward dinnertime. However, he was saved by the fact that Nich seemed tired as well, and didn't seem to care all that much about eating either. Maybe he'd figured out how to not get hungry. If that was the case, Damian would have to ask him his secrets the next morning. Or he just didn't have anything to eat. That was a bit unfortunate for him, but there was no way Damian was sharing his food with a stranger. Not when it was so hard to come by.
Damian reached into his backpack and pulled out a half-eaten bag of crackers. They were most defiantly stale, but at least it was something to eat. He opened the bag and picked out a cracker. At least they were plain.
Nich could hear rustling from some kind of packaging, but ignored it. His ears twitched a bit involuntarily, but he kept still with his eyes closed for the time being. Honestly, food wasn't exceptionally hard for him to come by. His fox characteristics made it possible for him to safely eat raw meat if necessary, and he could survive on that. However, having minimal control over fire meant that he did usually cook his food anyway. But regardless, even if most of the people were dead, there were a decent amount of wild animals lurking around the abandoned cities.
Eventually, Nich drifted off to sleep on the floor. He was silent and completely still, but the steady rise and fall of his chest confirmed that he was alive.
Damian ate a few handfuls of stale crackers as quickly as he could, glancing over at Nich every once in a while. It seemed like he'd gone to sleep, or was falling asleep. How he could just fall asleep on the ground like that was beyond him.
Damian carefully rolled the bag back up and shoved it into his backpack, pulling out a small blanket as he did. It wasn't big enough to cover him, nor thick enough to give any warmth, but it worked as a pillow. He didn't like putting his head on the floor, as stupid as that sounded. It was true that using that space for a makeshift pillow was a bit unwise when it could be used for other supplies. He wanted a little comfort though, so it was worth it in his mind.
Damian set the pillow down and laid down on the ground. It took him a few minutes to get comfortable, but after that, he was out in an instant. It helped that he was dead tired.
Nich awoke early in the morning and fitted his prosthetics back onto his legs with a yawn. He kept one eye on Damian and his skeleton bodyguards, still not entirely trusting them. After all, he didn't really have any reason to be completely trusting of the strange necromancer. He didn't trust any strangers, but especially not ones that benefited from being around dead people.
He decided to wait until Damian woke up to do anything. He was a bit hungry, but he didn't want to leave the building while the skeletons were still standing guard. Honestly, he really didn't want to be in any close proximity to them. So, he could go hunting once Damian was awake and could make the skeletons go away.
Damian woke up shortly after Nich. He hadn't wanted to wake up, but he couldn't sleep in. He'd tried, but it hadn't ever worked. After spending a few minutes staring up at the ceiling and trying to convince himself to get up, Damian remembered that he'd gone to sleep with another person in the building. Damian sat up suddenly, staring towards the place where he last remembered Nich being. To his surprise, Nich was still there.
"I thought you'd be long gone by now," Damian commented, casually waving his hand towards his guards. The silky magic that had swirled around them flew towards Damian and dissolved into his skin. It was a strange feeling, like being dunked in ice water for a second. The first time he'd felt it he'd yelped out loud, but by now he was used to it. It was refreshing, actually.
"Mm?" Nich looked up when Damian addressed him, blinking a couple times. "Oh… yeah. I figured I should stick around until you woke up, I dunno. Didn't want to just ditch you somewhere unfamiliar." His ears flattened back against his head when some sort of magic seemed to absorb into Damian, and he paled a bit. Since he didn't really have much magic himself, he wasn't quite used to being around something like this.
"Um… I'm guessing you probably don't have much to eat. I usually go hunting whenever I get hungry." Nich cleared his throat awkwardly and stood up, shifting his weight from leg to leg to ensure his prosthetics were secured properly.
"Aww. You're quite sweet, darling. Worrying about a total stranger." Damian let out a soft laugh and pulled himself to his feet. It was strange being in the presence of someone who merely looked unnerved when seeing his magic instead of attacking him. It was a nice feeling, though. Made him feel just the tiniest bit more human.
Damian had been planning on leaving the moment he woke up. It didn't matter if Nich didn't react negatively towards him right now, because eventually, he would. Damian would do something too strange or unnerving, and Nich would turn against him as well. But then Nich mentioned food other than stale crackers and he didn't want to leave anymore. "Hunt? What do you hunt?" He knew there were creatures out there, but he'd never thought about hunting them for food. Well, he'd thought about it, but deemed it too hard at some point and never tried again.
"I mean… I dunno. Even with all of this going on, I still have morals." Nich shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets, looking over at Damian. This guy was weird, sure, but not being immediately aggressive put him a step above other people he'd stumbled across. Most humans tried to kill him when they noticed his fox features, presumably because it wouldn't hurt them as much mentally since he wasn't human himself.
"Yeah, hunt. How have you been surviving if you haven't been hunting for food?" Nich asked, clearly confused. "There's plenty of wild animals running around. Mostly herbivores since they can eat the grass and survive. All you have to do is make traps or just be quick enough or stealthy enough to catch something. Then you can cook it, of course. I presume you know how to make fire."
"Huh. Glad to know someone out here still has them." Damian stretched slowly, letting out a soft yawn. He still felt half-asleep, but he'd wake up as soon as they started walking. He'd wake up faster if he did some more magic, but… Damian peered at Nich. He hadn't liked when Damian used magic, and he currently wanted to keep on his good side. Just in case he got some food and wanted to share it with Damian.
"I've been eating whatever I can find. Mostly shelf-stable food with a light coating of dust." Damian also stole food from any survivors he could find, since there was no way he would be able to team up with them. Might as well use whatever they had to his advantage and get out of there before they got the chance to try and kill him. He didn't want to tell Nich that, though, since he might assume Damian had stolen or was going to steal from him, too. "I can make fire."
"Well, you're going to have to learn pretty quick." Nich stretched and headed towards the door, hesitating until the skeleton guards were out of his way. He led the way out of the building and away from the city. There were sometimes animals in the city, but he knew they would have better luck out in the vast, overgrown expanse.
He walked around in the grass as quietly as possible, his ears swiveling to try and find anything to eat nearby. He sniffed the air as well and narrowed his eyes to watch for movement. "I don't have anything for traps right now, so we'll have to improvise." He whispered to Damian. He crouched in the tall grass, watching closely, and when he saw something move, he quickly and precisely threw a throwing star at the spot. Upon hearing a pained squeal and a thump, he knew he'd been successful and stood up to go retrieve the rabbit he'd killed. "See? Simple as that. Now we can gut it and cook it."
Damian was pretty sure he didn't need to learn how to hunt, since he was doing just fine so far. Still, it would be a good skill to have. After all, he couldn't rely on other people to have food all of the time. Damian packed his small pillow quickly and swung his backpack over his shoulder. He followed after Nich, idly wondering if the other was leading him into a trap. Nah, he didn't seem the type.
Since he'd gotten a lot of experience sneaking around, he didn't have any trouble following after Nich and being quiet at the same time. Damian nodded at Nich's words, not wanting to mess anything up. The thought of being able to eat something that wasn't stale crackers was just too good.
Damian crouched down beside Nich, watching for movement as well. He spotted the creature a few seconds after Nich did, and by then, it was already dead. Damian stayed where he was when Nich went to get the creature, which turned out to be a rabbit.
"Very nicely done, darling." Damian stood, looking at the rabbit with approval. "Still, you could do a bit better on the teaching part. If I didn't have sharp eyes, I would have missed it." He grinned at Nich, leaning towards him slightly. "Still, you could make up for it with the next part."
"Ah, well… teaching wasn't ever my strong suit." Nich chuckled awkwardly and looked down at the rabbit in his hands. "Although I suppose I haven't really ever needed to teach someone how to do something before. I've always either been the one being taught or figuring it out on my own." He sighed and looked out at the field before him. "If you think you can do it, you can try and catch another one. One rabbit isn't really enough food." Nich hummed and looked around, his ears swiveling again. "There's definitely more hidden in the grass. Let's say… if you manage to catch one, I'll show you how to skin and gut these things. Seem fair?" He asked, smiling slyly. He definitely wanted to make sure that Damian was pulling his weight and not just taking food and leaving. Nich could easily have ditched him already without any food or teaching, after all.
Damian let out a laugh. "I suppose that's a decent excuse, darling." He glanced towards the field as well, lips pressing together. He hadn't really seen anything other than Nich seeing a rabbit and killing it with a throwing star, which he didn't have.
It wasn't like throwing a sword was going to work, and he wasn't going to be learning how to throw a throwing star in two minutes. The only long-range weapon he had was magic… which could work, actually. He just needed to create a small bolt of magic and that should take care of the rabbit. The only problem was finding them.
"Alright. You're on." Damian nodded, sinking back down in the grass. Now all he had to do was wait for a rabbit to make its move.
It didn't take too long for him to find a rabbit to attempt to kill. Something moved in the grass off to his left, making the grass quiver slightly. Damian turns quickly towards it, extending his finger towards it. A bolt of black magic flew towards the thing. For a second he wasn't sure if he actually hit the thing, but then he felt the thing die. "First time lucky, I guess," Damian muttered to himself, standing up and smiling to himself.
Nich leaned against a tree to watch Damian get to work on killing a rabbit of his own. Like he'd said, one definitely wasn't enough to feed the both of them. If they could, it would be better to get more than two, scattered, but he suspected that most of the game had left now that two had been killed. Rabbits didn't have a ton of meat on them, but it was filling enough, and a good way to get some protein.
Nich hummed in appreciation as Damian succeeded in killing a rabbit. He hadn't really expected him to get it on his first try, but he supposed it might be easier with magic. It also wasn't exceptionally difficult if you knew what you were doing, but Damian made it sound like he was a complete newbie. "Nice job. You want to see how to prepare them now?" He asked.
Damian skipped over to the rabbit and picked it up. "Nah, I think I want to skip breakfast and keep this as a pet instead." He shook the rabbit at Nich with a grin. "It's cute, isn't it?" Damian held the rabbit up, staring into its eyes. Other people might find it a bit strange to stare into the eyes of the creature you just killed, but Damian didn't really mind. He didn't mind death in general, since he was constantly in contact with it. "You're going to taste so good, aren't you?" It was probably also strange to be talking to his food, but sue him. He was hungry. Damian looked back to Nich, still smiling brightly. "Okay, teacher. Show me the way."
"Mm… most people prefer their pets to be alive. Dead ones don't last very long. Or do very much." Nich used one hand to get Damian's dead rabbit out of his face and started leading the way back to the building. Damian was definitely weird, and a bit creepy as well, but Nich was still giving him the benefit of the doubt since he'd been compliant so far. "Alright, doing this isn't too hard, honestly. If you don't mind flinging some rabbit guts around, this is an easy way to gut them. Watch closely; you'll use your hand to sort of grab around the rabbit and then move your hand down to get all the guts down there. Make sure they're pretty tight, yeah? Then grip the rabbit firmly and—" Nich flung the rabbit between his legs, still holding tightly to the top half, and the guts flew out behind him. "Simple as that. Then we can skin it."
"Ah, I suppose that's true." Damian shrugged, letting Nich move the rabbit away. He followed after Nich towards the building they'd stayed in before, swinging his own rabbit back and forth as he walked. He also extended his senses outwards as he walked, checking the number of dead bodies around him, just in case. It wasn't very likely that someone was going to attack him at the moment, but it was always helpful to know where his potential weapons were.
Damian turned his attention fully on Nich once he started explaining what to do with the rabbit. He watched closely, trying to note everything that Nich did. It probably shouldn't be too difficult to copy his movements. Probably.
"Simple for someone who's been doing this for a lot longer than I have, maybe," Damian teased, carefully copying Nich's motions. He didn't know if he quite did it as smoothly as Nich did, but he thought it worked out okay. "How did I do, teacher?" Damian grinned, holding his rabbit up towards Nich for inspection.
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