//summary at the bottom

Pip was collecting herbs, a routine he did every day for hours, but today he struggled to find peace in what he did, to focus entirely on handling the different parts of plants for storage. He felt a restlessness he could not explain, a frustration that sat low in his stomach writhing and wild, but- he did know, didn't he? Junji and Luca, motionless on the floor of the former's home, locked in a death embrace, and the image would flash in his eyelids every time he blinked, a perpetual reminder of how late he had been, how he had failed. Pip knew he couldn't afford to fixate on the subject, well aware any distractions would only complicate his responsibilities as the -currently- sole Necro Mamba. He needed to run inventory, create more first-aid kits, check on the lessons he knew were held as tryouts, but instead Pip wandered the island, occasionally harvesting when he could concentrate past the memory of forms stiff beneath his paws, warmth bleeding away.

Caught in the looping images, he didn't notice the stranger initially, not until he nearly bumped into a large, smokey colored form. How unyielding the body was only reminded him of rigor mortis, and he swallowed thickly, raising mismatched eyes to the foreigner's face. Whoever she was, she was some sort of mixed canine breed.

"May-" His voice was unexpectedly hoarse, and he cleared it before resuming. "May I help you?" She didn't answer for long enough that the pause became uncomfortable, his paws itching, and he refrained from fidgeting only barely.

She hummed noncommittally. "May I help you?" Pip wasn't quite certain what to say to that, and his confusion must have shown on his face, because she snorted, waving a paw dismissively. "I could feel you calling." That did nothing to abate his worry, and he took a step back, fully prepared to make his escape if she revealed any malicious intent. Instead, the creature rolled solid violet eyes. "'I should have done more. I want to be better- I have to be better.'" It sounded as though she was quoting his very thoughts, and he flinched, heart frozen as a rabbit in the split-second before racing away. "You desire."

"I don't- what do you want?"

"I want what you want." She lowered her head down, closer to him, and he found he was stuck in place, muscles uncooperative. "Sort of. We can make a trade." A deal. Wariness surged forward again, and this time, he managed to move several steps away again, already shaking his head. "I can give you what you want, kid. Need to see where bones are broken? That could be yours."

Again, Pip shook his head, frustration curling his mouth into a severe frown. "That's ridiculous. Whatever your angle is, I'm asking you to leave. Please."

"Figured I'd have to demonstrate." She moved, and before he could duck, her paw was on his forehead, a surge of something like a stone skipped across the water rippling through his muscles, eyes squeezed shut. When he opened them, he could see her teeth, how they connected to her skull, her orbits, and when he blinked, she stepped away, no longer bared to the bone. "Imagine what you could do with that. How many people you could help."

He swallowed thickly, shoulders rising defensively, even as he asked, "What would you want?" She didn't smile, only inclined her head, gaze never straying from his even as he wanted to duck. He wasn't certain if it was better or worse that she didn't seem smug, or like she had just won something.

"Something...important to you." Before he could protest, she shook her head. "Not a person."

"Then what?" She leaned forward again, but this time, Pip didn't attempt to pull away, only tensing as her words scraped the ears they were pressed into, and his breath caught in a choked swallow. That- that was important, and when she stepped back, he stared up at her with impossibly wide eyes, both disbelieving and believing. That couldn't be possible. Could it? If it wasn't possible, and if she could do as she said- he wouldn't lose anything. But if she did somehow follow through, what wouldn't he lose?

His tongue was heavy in his mouth, falling against his teeth slowly. "Would it change that I help people?" The creature shook her head evenly.

"Not at all. I can't twist what goes into this exchange." Pip inhaled carefully, shakily. Was he really considering this? Was he going to say yes? Rigid bodies burned into his eyelids again, their silhouettes overlaid across her face when he opened his eyes.

"All right. I agree." This was insane. He was insane, but- he had to try, didn't he? If it was some kind of prank, he could deal with that later. "Do I have to sign someth-" Burning, too familiar, too different, and he thought he might have been falling.

"I'll collect in due time," a voice might have murmured, and he was lost before he hit the ground.

//pip's made a deal with a demon for x-ray vision (along with health transfer, though he won't know until later) and he's currently unconscious, unharmed.

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It was a flaw in every being’s design, the lust for more. No matter what, it sometimes felt like nobody was ever satisfied with their current devices. Those who felt an immense strength around this topic often went to the extremes in order to gain that sweet sense of greater power. Many a time has this backfired, as either their chase has come to a close, or they end up in a circumstance worse than the one they were in before all else. Infernal demons and fiends could sense greed from thousands of kilometres away and sometimes offered their forbidden fruits to those unwary or too nearsighted to comprehend the consequences. Such was the fate of someone he knew. Such was the very reason why he was even on this Earth itself - to attempt to reverse the deal’s contents.

During his decades of service, Marco had seen the dire results of bargains with hellions. For a while into the contract, one would become quite fond of their newfound abilities. However, the angel could not recall a single occurrence in which the scamp had not the upper hand. Each time, the naive creature had gotten their comeuppance. Sometimes, this meant an incredibly excruciating death. Other happenings completely ruined relationships, careers, reputations, and lives as a whole. Owing to the fact that the targets were often the weak minded, the Romanian sought to intrude on the complete totality of in-process pacts that he had the ability to, providing wisdom to those who do not possess it, and hopefully driving off the malicious force which kickstarted the whole ordeal.

Today’s routine had been going swell. He had scouted the Typhoon’s circuit once again, a job that proved effortless, as long he bore those ethereal swan-like appendages on his spine. Jobs like these were required of him, if he were to establish that he was more than just a pretty aesthetic. Nearly the entirety of them determined an uninteresting outcome, but just in case that he’d one day diagnose a footing of utmost interest, the lynx took great pride in it. His optics lazily scoured the landscape, appreciative that no shortcomings had been recognized as of yet, when he felt his heart spontaneously yank downwards. Not one to argue with his instincts, which were improved by the might of the Lord, he plummeted downwards, losing many feet of altitude each second until his robust legs debarked, leaving the tall feline wobbling in all fours. A less-than-flawless landing, may one add.

As his heart tugged, a familiar sensation relating to his clairvoyance had packed like sardines into his soul, his soul being the hypothetical sardine tin. It was akin to the feeling he got whenever in the radius of his brother, whom had also made a deal with the devil some hundreds of years ago. For a brief moment, Marco was lead to believe that it was indeed his poltergeist sibling, marching on to the island to visit the lynx as the lynx had done for him. Though, this theory was soon sustained as false, for it had been a different face attained to the urge.

Marco recognized this one. He had been present on the day of the angel’s departure, his kindness provided in the shape of defence against Bakugou and the serval’s fierceness, as well as a given first aid kit. The creature’s kindness had not been forgotten.

Here, he lay, devoid of astir activity. Something was off. There must have been a reason that he irradiated the area with a Beck-like aroma.

"Odd," he’d comment to himself, ”he appeared not to be the sorts to randomly slumber like that.”

He acted not on this. Some questions indeed needed to be asked, yet they could wait until a later date.

If only it were his soul, but Pip- he didn't truly believe in them, struggled to find some sort of validity in the afterlife, because that wasn't his realm of work. Somehow, that creature had known it, and somehow, she had upheld her end of the bargain.

He knew as much because once the soft cadence of a voice called his name -Goldie's, he recognized it- and coaxed his eyes open, he didn't see his sister. At least, not as he usually did. The bengal was all bone where she laid next to him, and it was only the normalcy of the scenery behind her that kept him from panicking. Or panicking more, he should say, because the breath left him in a quiet gasp, heartbeat rivaling the frenzied rhythm of a rabbit's fleeing feet. Pip swallowed, and swallowed hard, mouth painfully dry while his mind struggled to make sense of everything that had just happened. She- she wasn't lying then, was she? The evidence was here, right in front of him, in Goldie's empty eye sockets, every bit of her exposed teeth. Without muscle, without skin and fur, she seemed so much more sinister than he knew her to be, although he knew it was...ridiculous to overlay so much onto a skeleton. He knew bones. They were just another structural aspect of the body.

Nothing nefarious.

Licking his lips, he blinked several times, attempting to concentrate on what he knew she looked like, and on the fourth open-close, she was there in her entirety again. After a few moments, he realized Goldie wasn't the only one who'd found his unconscious body- embarrassingly enough, there was Marco, and Vaughn, the former having recently returned and the latter a new member. Vaughn seemed...Pip almost flinched looking into his face, and he couldn't understand why the hound appeared so hardened. He felt his eyes twitch, and there was a flicker of a moment when he saw only the cavities of his skull.

After a moment, he finally forced himself to speak, thankful his voice didn't sound as hoarse as it felt. "I- sorry. I didn't mean to worry anyone. I just meant to rest my eyes." It wasn't a complete lie- he didn't want to worry any of them. Or to have Vaughn looking like that.

that makes two of us

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