ONE AND ONLY — o, intro

[MARCELLUS]

HEARTFELT PROMISES { .:*・°☆ } ——— [size=10pt]TAGS

The time for his ritual was near and he wanted to be able to pick out a house for himself real quick before he went off to face whatever was on that island. Heaven Island, was it? He had never exactly been good with names but if he was right and it was heaven island, what could exactly go wrong? The limping male walked down the shore until he saw an abundance of empty shacks. Some lived in the ship, some lived in treehouses, but he chose a nice little shack on the bay with a little white hammock in the front connected to two palm trees. It looked quite small from the outside but inside it was big enough to fit a few things in the place. Decorating and cleaning it up would be later but right now he just wanted a place to rest and this seemed to be it. Though first he was a bit hungry and thus would decide to try and catch himself a little snack, fish perhaps? He wasn't a good fisher let alone a good land hunter, but he would be willing to try his luck until he could learn and get better at it. Hopefully he wouldn't get frustrated and give up after the first few tries, hoping that his patience would be a virtue in this situation.

The male took a few steps away from his newly found beach house to the shore where he would begin to wade his body in, the water going up to stomach level until he saw a few fish swimming around his legs. He would wait a bit before placing his paw messily into the water, nearly falling over due to only being on two legs then, but catching himself and scaring off a few fish. "For fucksake." Annoyance laced his tone as he lifted up another paw. "Alright Marcel, don't fuck this one up." Talking to himself, he waited for another fish to come by where he would drop his paw into the water with unsheathed claws, barely scraping the scaled creature and it swimming off in a panic. Frustration was clear on his features but he lifted his paw to try again.

[adomania]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;font-family: calibri;"]Home was never an easy subject when it came to Gabriel. He never had a home, from the moment he was a child onward. The wilderness was where he had lived the entirety of his life, chased from one place to another and only able to hope for rest for a day at most wherever he had decided to lay his head down. The closest thing to a home he had ever gotten was the gang, and even that was marred with it's history and memories. Back then, home had been whatever hole he had managed to drag himself into after being either used for their pleasures or used to fight, but at least he had a designated family. A designated group who, although hated him, allowed him to linger because of his worth.

The past still tasted bitter on his tongue, had for years now, but there was no use lamenting over it anymore. What was done for was done, and a home was not something he expected, not something he sought. He lived for the moment, let any place he lay his head down to rest to become a temporary shelter, because home just didn't mean the same thing to him anymore as it once did.

Home was the rage that had slowly festered inside of him. Home was the constant need to rip something apart lest he do it to himself. Home was a feeling, not a place, and it had been with him for three long years until he couldn't consider anything else even remotely similar. As a result, it had taken him two long days to even consider the possibility of setting up something akin to a shelter here, and he had yet to even take the inhabitants of this place up on their offer. It didn't feel right, to have some place to stay that actually felt like a house. So he wandered, and had rested wherever his paws decided to give out, for sleep would not come to him anyways and it was a waste of a bed as far as Gabriel was concerned.

Someone else needed a house more than he did. What he needed was to finally dig himself a grave and die.

He had seen many come back from Haven island, shaken and beaten down by what Gabriel was already used to. He fought off the demons in his head on more than one occasion, and it was that which had so far stopped him from participating in the activity himself. He wasn't a coward by all means, but some things were too much to do from the get go, when he could barely even get a hold of himself and find himself a house. They had promised that it wasn't a big deal if he didn't do it, that they wouldn't think any lesser of him if the process was too much...

But he figured he deserved what would come at him on that island to begin with.

It was with all these thoughts that Gabriel was wandering that evening, taking a leisurely stroll down the beach and seemingly unphased despite the turmoil inside of his head. After years, you grow used to it all, learn how to put up a mask that betrayed nothing more than you wanted it to, and he had become a master at it. It was what prompted an idle smile to cross his features as he noticed Marcellus, doing what appeared to be fishing but not quite succeeding at it, if his curses were anything to go by.

"Everything alright over there?" his voice wasn't his own, duel-toned and echoing through the air, wisps of smoke briefly escaping his maw to filter and dissipate into the air around him. Not even that broke him, the smile plastered onto his features, appearing genuine despite it being just as fake as his passive nature was. He looked as if it was normal, as if there was nothing wrong with the fact that he both sounded and looked like a monster, that he was wandering aimlessly about waiting for death to finally take him. But that, like everything else, was not for anyone else to know. Least of all Marcellus, who Gabriel knew next to nothing about save for a name.

[MARCELLUS]

HEARTFELT PROMISES { .:*・°☆ } ——— [size=10pt]TAGS

With his frustration he could only feel the sense of wanting to give up, though he would try his best to refrain from doing so, the male sending yet another splash into the water and failing once more. He flicked his tail in annoyance but yet would give another go. The male lifted his paw to give another blow before he heard the pawsteps and voice of Gabriel, the king cheetah lifting his head to look at the canid. He put his paw back into the water so he wouldn't splash him. To him Gabriel still looked quite odd and scary, but he wouldn't allow this guys appearance to cloud his judgement. For all he knew this guy could of been one of those guys who looked tough and mean but were actually pretty nice. "Yeah just, kind of learning how to fish." His eyes looked back over to the water where very little fish remained at at his paws. "Well, teaching myself that is." A small bit of humor in his voice, though he couldn't help but feel embarrassed. He wanted to be perfect, to be able to do this without looking like a fool and he was slightly mad at himself for making himself seem like a goofy idiot who didn't know what he was doing.

To Marcellus precision was everything from the way you walked to the way you did nearly everything, hell even the way you drank water and ate. Having precise movements and being precise was all he ever wanted but between his lack of skills and limp leg, he was shit out of luck, doomed to look and walk like a fool. To do things with the help of others instead of by himself. He wanted to be able to at least something precise and right, but he was starting to think that the thought would be nothing more than a silly fantasy, a dream that would never come true. For a moment he began to loath himself, but swiftly broke himself out of the thoughts and cleared his throat.

Sitting down, the king cheetah allowed his hind to get wet. Every now and then a little water was alright, especially on a hot day like this. "What about you, do you know how to fish?" He didn't remove his gaze from the water, watching to see if any of the fish would come back, a focused expression crossing his features. "Chain, right? Marcellus." Seeing as how limited their interactions were, he would make the time to address himself to the guy properly.

[Luca]

Luca had been putting off his entrance ritual. Right now he was kind of a half-member, lurking around the territory and sliding in every now and then sometimes to cause trouble. He would have to face it eventually, to prove he wasn't as weak as he looked and acted, but he was still... hesitant. The thought of it kept coming back to him at the worst of times, causing his heartbeat to quicken and his paws to tingle nervously in the midst of otherwise normal conversations. The Typhoon was probably the best place for him, but he felt like he would never be able to gain the respect of his companions if he didn't at least attempt it. He had to do it, even if it meant facing his worst fears, things he had tried to bury centuries ago.

The smell of smoke filled his nose and throat, still stinging him after all these years. He shook his head and took in a deep breath of fresh air, exhaling the polluted breath and watching it disappear into the air around him. He had to take a walk. If he was lucky he'd be able to find something to distract him of his thoughts. If he was unlucky, however, it would be best for him to find somewhere secluded before his emotions hit him too hard and he started burning stuff on accident. Even now embers flickered on the bottom of his paw pads, sizzling slightly when the came in contact with the damp sands of the beach and sending puffs of steam towards his face whenever the tide washed over his paws. He was thankful for the cool of the water, lost in his mind as he trotted lazily along the shoreline. It wasn't too long before he finally came across others, the sound of voices in the near distance bringing Luca's gaze up and towards the pair. It was about time, he supposed. He was starting to get tired of being by himself.

The hellhound shook off his paws before leaving the waters to avoid scaring off Marcellus' fish, fixing his curious gaze on the cheetah as he moved to stand on the drier sands. The ground rock and shell stuck to his damp fur, prompting a bit of a huff from the soft-furred canine. "Maybe you should find a tutor or something. I know I wouldn't be able to teach myself to fish right off the bat," he said in an attempt to he helpful, taking a slow seat to observe the feline. Luca doubted he'd be able to fish without any special equipment. The heat from his paws often made fish reluctant to come near him, and he didn't have the patience for waiting anyway. "I'm Luca, by the way." He offered Marcellus a smile and a bit of a flirtatious wink, curling his cream tail around his paws.