Room Service (SSoDI- Genesis)

[DanteMGalileo]

"By the old gods..."

The door to an certain someone's hotel room swung open with perhaps more force than necessary. On the other side and slowly slouching into the room was a skinny teenager with matted brown hair, two particularly unruly pieces rising out like antennae. Percy adjusted the sleeve of his shirt, dragging the coat behind him. "I don't even want to put on my jacket, fuck... I'm just so... so... so hungry..."

He didn't even notice the people that got here before him. His stomach growled as a flashback played in his mind. "Ugh... I hate digging... Imago, remind me to never do that again..." Feeling around with slightly blurred vision, he guessed this was the water tap, hissing as the unexpected hotness burned his dirt-covered hands, not really noticing anything else on them...

"Kid, every time you get reminded to not do something, you do it anyway," came a voice only audible to Percy. The teenager scowled as he prowled the kitchen for anything edible, settling on something in a package marked with a script he could not read, although the picture looked like some kind of cheese.

"Shut up, Imago." He swore again, as the bag burst open, spilling the contents everywhere. "Dammit!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Um, excuse me, those are mine!" Kenny protested as he dashed out of the living room and over to the intruder, getting down on the floor and scraping the scattered Cheesy Poofs into a pile. "These things aren't free, y'know, and money is not a luxury I've had for long!"

"Kenny, there are more pressing matters at hand than wasted snacks..." Kendall sighed as he leaned over the bar, examining Percy with warm concern. "Although, while we're on the subject, perhaps you would consider eating something a little more organic, Percy? There's plenty of food here that would be more beneficial to your recuperation."

"As long as ya don't eat me out of house and home!" Kenny added. "Leave my snacks alone. Go have some of Paul's... weird... grapefruit or whatever."

Kendall took a deep breath through his nose. "The others will be back soon. We'll have a lot to discuss when they get here."

"Yeah. We will." Kenny's piercing stare seemed more directed at the angel than the boy.

[DanteMGalileo]

"Oh, fresh fruit... Something I haven't had in a while..." Percy felt around with his blurry vision. He stopped at the refrigerator, although he did not know the device was called that. "Shit, this is more complicated, I like pickling more even with the funny taste... Cold, cold..."

A grapefruit was pulled out, and the teen opened his mouth, revealing slightly elongated canine teeth. "I prefer peaches and apples, but... I'm sure I'd be able to eat stinging nettle soup now, so... down you go...!"

As he tore into the poor fruit, Mallory, who had apparently not moved since he sat down hours ago, poked his head into the kitchen. "Hey, can you keep it down? I know you eat like a mad barbarian, but do you have to sound like one?"

Percy opened one eye, casting Mallory an annoyed look, even as he licked his hands. "Oh, shut up. Like you're any better when you're famished, Mal."

"It's MALLORY! M-A-L-L-O-R-Y! Get it right!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Kendall frowned at nothing in particular, then turned around and took a seat in the living room. Kenny finished scooping the scattered Cheesy Poofs back into the bag, then stood up and faced Percy. "So do ya mind explaining what the hell happened down in the Plaza?"

"Kenny, we can go over that when the others arrive..."

"Well, if he's not gonna spill it, can someone at least give me a summary of what we're up against?"

The angel dropped his chin into his hand. "It's complicated."

"Great default answer." Kenny folded his arms. "If you really are this great and powerful Angel of Time, you've gotta know what exactly has and is gonna happen, right?"

"I do... It's just a delicate matter of telling you as much as you need to know and letting you learn the rest at the proper moment."

"Bulls***."

"Language."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Do you think he'll be mad at me if I eat this?" Percy was opening an entire bag of ham now. Mallory, having resigned to the noise, and the angel in the room, sighed.

"Probably. Most people don't like it when you touch their f... And you're doing it anyway." The older male sighed, and returned to his magazine. "I'm not paying for that."

"Oh, man. This is good." Chomp, chomp. Percy's vision was becoming clearer. "Kinda salty, but I like it. Do you guys have some honey I could put on it?"

From behind the magazine, Mallory rolled his eyes.

---

"Gah... hah..." William placed a hand against the wall, having rushed all the way without any regard for the elevator. "I hate staircases... The buildings back home were never this high. If only... there was a way to quickly travel..."

Percy had not been passed out in the alleyway, it turned out. "Lark, that had better have been a magical mishap, otherwise I'm gonna have to kill you once my legs heal..." He then picked up talking from the other side of the wall...

"... Is that the kid? And Mal? And... Hey Perce, you're havin' a feast without me in there?!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Kelsey and Paul stepped out of the elevator, the latter carrying Ranuen. They turned to look down the hall as William trudged by, having taken the stairs in his haste to find Percy; they watched him go, they raised an eyebrow at each other, then they shrugged and continued on their way, meeting him in front of the door to Paul's room. Sure, they were worried too, but at least they were being practical about it.

"Well..." Kelsey sighed. "Here's to hoping this is our last leg of the journey for the night."

"Tell me about it," Paul mumbled as he unlocked the door to his room and ushered everybody inside. "I think we're all gonna need a break after that... even if it's not much of one."

To Paul's simultaneous relief and frustration, he found Percy in relatively decent shape, currently eating the ham he had just bought. Typical. He lets his guard down for five minutes and the obvious happens. Mallory was still there, none too worse for wear. There was... someone he didn't recognize sitting on the couch...

But for the sake of personal responsibility, his firm glare landed on the blond ten-year-old standing next to the stranger.

"Hey, Paul," Kenny nonchalantly greeted. "How'd it go?"

Paul said nothing.

"What?"

His eyes narrowed.

"Whaaaaat?"

"I told you to stay here."

Kenny huffed. "Come on, dude. I didn't do anything."

"You ran out into the night to a part of the city where a monster was rampaging when I specifically told you to stay put! I saw you in the Plaza, Kenny!"

"Well, I didn't do anything when I got there! I just took a good look around, made sure everyone was okay and left!"

"That technically counts as doing something!"

"I just wanted to help...!"

Kelsey took a deep breath and left the roommates to their bickering, opting to take a seat in the living room across from the new arrival. When she did, the young man in the white shirt looked up at her with a weak smile and a nod, like he was trying to be polite but delicate to the situation. Also... maybe a little uncomfortable.

"Oh, f*** all kinds of duck..."

She shot a weird look out of the corner of her eye at the projection of her demon master, who was currently glaring daggers at the stranger.

And when she faced him again... Kelsey could almost swear he was looking directly at Tri.

[ColArana]

Truth be told, Ranuen probably could have walked back here himself. But given the events of the day... Well. Probably best to conserve what time he could actually fight and be useful. He was worried for Percy, but had some confidence that he'd be alright. Afterall, he'd been the one that had taken off on his own. He could probably take care of himself. ...Right? Well, that's what Ranuen was telling himself as the trio approached the apartment. In regards to Paul's statement about hoping for a bit of downtime, Ranuen voiced agreement. "Probably for the best, you two look pretty damn worn."

As they entered the room and saw Percy, the swordsman grinned and hopped off of Paul's hand to the floor, landing heavily (for someone his size), but absorbing the landing well. "Well. Look who's here." He murmured. "Glad to see you're alive and alright." He told Percy, as he walked across the apartment. Kenny and Paul started bickering, and Ranuen held in a chuckle at their expense. "Did he get hurt though?" He asked Paul, taking Kenny's side. "Apparently he at least knew to stay far enough back that he didn't get in the middle of things." Then back to Percy.

"So what the hell happened with you back there?"

[DanteMGalileo]

"I knew it, you were having a feast without me! At least share with m- Mrhp?!"

Percy tossed a slice of ham at William, rolling his eyes. "There's your snack. I don't know what happened to you all, or where the new guy came from, but I need this food. No, seriously, I don't know where you came from and it feels like you're staring into my soul." That last statement seemed to be directed at Kendall, the teen's eye very briefly flashing red.

"Angel scum." Inside Percy's head, and audible only to him, Imago made his thoughts known.

"Be nice, Imago." To the uninitiated, it would seem like Percy was just talking to himself.

Having polished the ham that had been tossed at him, William raised an eyebrow. "Hey, Perce, are you gonna spend the rest of the night talking to the boyfriend that lives in your head, or are you gonna answer Raunen's question. Because we all kinda took off in search of you after that reckless episode..."

"Rude." Percy stuck his tongue out at William. "He's not my type, and he's like, uh... A lot older than me."

"You're still dodging the question."

"I'll talk as soon as you guys finish your end of the story, because I'm still processing that shit."

"Good grief, you're acting like such a child..."

Mallory, who apparently had been listening in the whole time, sulked in, disgruntled expression on his face and the magazine in his hand. "Ugh... The blonde buffoon is right... You're also acting like you've got something to hide, Perseus."

"I agree with the strangely attractive and craven man! ... Wait, did I just say that?"

"It's Percy, not Perseus... Uh... Can we get back on topic?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"That's not the point I-! Ugh..." Paul rubbed his temples, ultimately giving up on trying to argue his case. Kenny wasn't hurt. That was what mattered most. "Look... You're a part of this now, just like me, and I can accept that, but I'm trying to keep you safe. I know you can take care of yourself and have experience with the supernatural, but... just... go running off looking for trouble, alright?"

Kenny shrugged. "Trouble came to us, dude. I just wanna lend a hand, same as you."

"I know..." Paul sighed, rubbed Kenny's hair and took a seat at the counter, where he turned his attention on Percy. "So you... kinda disappeared on us back there. Any particular reason why? Were you just trying to stay safe or do you actually know something about that... thing back there?"

Kelsey spared a glance in Paul's direction, then looked back at Kendall, knowing for a fact that this was the first time she had seen this guy. Judging by her master's behavior, she severely doubted that this was Tri's first encounter with him, but she felt inclined to question the newcomer first. "So... What's your story? What got you roped into this mess?"

Kendall rubbed his neck and stared at the floor. "I just happened to be in the Plaza when that whole... incident occurred. Given the circumstances, I felt inclined to offer my unique talents to the situation."

"He's the Angel of Time," Tri grunted for Kelsey's ears only. "His only 'talents' are time travel and trans-timeline awareness, the former of which he's not gonna let us use to any useful degree and the latter of which I can handle myself! We don't need this craven bastard!"

Kelsey frowned at the demon, instantly assuming that the sole reason Tri didn't want this guy around was because he was an angel, something she couldn't exactly blame him for. Regardless, she was curious enough to give this angel a chance, turning back to him with a gentle, inquisitive expression. "What's your name?"

"Kendall Chrones."

"...Kendall? Uh, yeah, that's not gonna get confusing..."

[ColArana]

Well Paul and Kenny seemed to have reconciled, which was good. Meanwhile, Ranuen overheard Percy talking to himself, giving the man a strange look, before the discussion moved on, and Percy.... tried to change the topic. In a spectacularly blatant fashion.

Ranuen shot Percy a sharp glare. When even Ranuen could figure out you were dodging a subject, it was not a good sign. Ranuen had terrifically bad intuitiveness. An even somewhat clever redirection would probably have worked on him. That Percy was that obvious about avoiding the topic, instead piqued his curiosity even more. "Sure... Back on topic... What the hell happened with you back there? Paul was looking high and low for you, while we were dealing with the... well... whatever the hell that was in the Plaza. Lark showed up and called it a Supernova beast?" Ranuen asked, butchering the name of the creature they had faced. "I can't imagine you couldn't find the spot, but you were nowhere to be found. So what happened?" He pressed. You don't look like you're too injured.... Relative to what Kelsey had had to put up with at least, having fought the bloody thing one on one for an extended timeframe. ...Shit, Ranuen was jealous. Maybe there'd be more of those things later on that he could fight? That'd be awesome.

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Ugh, clearly you won't get off my back until I say something." Percy's facial markings seemed to be a duller hue than normal. "Fine. I'm still digesting this shit and Imago may have hijacked my brain, so pardon all the gaps."

"How convenient," William mumbled, pulling up a seat. "It sounds like you're still hiding something, but go on with it..."

"Oh, shut up, Will." The brunette rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure I got to the crash site before you guys. Imago figured it'd be safe to dig to it, so yeah... That's probably why we didn't see each other..."

"Come to think of it..." Clearly, Mallory had resigned from trying to read his magazine. "You look kinda dirty... I mean, just look at your hair. Does it always look like a rat's nest?"

"... Yeah, actually, but let's test that first one." Percy ran a finger down his cheek, the blue marking becoming brighter, dirt and other materials being removed. He raised an eyebrow upon seeing the damage. "... Huh."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"I see..." Paul dropped his chin into his hand and drummed his other hand's fingers on the countertop, pondering for a moment before moving onto his next question. "So you were trying to dig to it? Then how come you just... disappeared in the middle of it all? I know Kelsey and... whoever it was that cast that spell kind of had the beast covered, but I never even caught so much as a glimpse of you out there."

"And why come back here?" Kenny threw in. "Don'tcha have your own place to go home to, or did you just need to pick your friend up?"

Kelsey leaned back in her seat and pursed her lips. There was something she wanted to know too, but Percy was being bombarded with so many questions at once that she didn't want to overwhelm him. Besides, if she didn't ask, someone else likely would at some point. Instead, she cast a glance at Tri and muttered, "Who's this 'Imago' character?"

"Kid has a demon in his head."

"Ah." Kelsey nodded, accepting this brief explanation as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

"Explains quite a bit, huh?"

"I guess...?"

"Right. Now can you kick the angel out of here? Please?"

Kendall sighed, almost as if he had heard that quip. What actually was on his mind, though, wasn't exactly clear.

[ColArana]

"You.... dug.... what...?" Ranuen was puzzled by that line of thought, but didn't take much thought to it. Percy was explaining as best he could. Ranuen wasn't entirely satisfied, and clearly neither was Paul. But Paul had already asked the pertinent question, so that was out in the open. Ranuen gave a great sigh, however. "Anyways. As Paul said, some weird spell was cast on the thing that made it all passive-like and it left. So I guess I'm wondering where we go next?" He asked. Percy was a man of many mysteries thus far. Ranuen couldn't help but feel that something was being withheld from them. It wasn't a thought or a suspicion. Really just a gut instinct. "Lark showed up." He added. "In fact he's the one that mentioned you were back here. Did you know anything about that?"

[DanteMGalileo]

"... I remember being in the air and just about making it here. There's kind of a gap in my memory, so... Imago!" Percy shut his eyes, and closed them. In the span of a few seconds, the blue marking vanished, to be replaced with a mirror image of the red one, as several more red markings appeared on his forehead, ears, neck, and what could be seen of his chest. Upon reopening his eyes, they were revealed to have turned red as well, with a narrow, snakelike pupil.

"Huh?" Although it was clearly Percy's voice, another spoke over it. This new personality took a quick look around the room, scowling upon looking at Kendall. "Very mature, kid. Why did you summon me when this nancy boy's around?" He stood up with a bit more force than needed, making the brown mop even more messy and knocking the chair to the ground. "Hmph. I'd rather not be around certain individuals, so I'll make this quick, chucklenuts."

He jumped onto the table with a certain inhuman motion. "My name is Imago. Sometimes I have to bodyjack this kid when he tries to do something reckless, which is to say, often. As this idiot dug deeper, slime started to attack us. I tried to get him to back off, but he wouldn't listen, so I had to deprive him of control for a little bit. I picked up what had happened, and I let myself get worked into a frenzy... A flaw of us Ira-class, I'm afraid. By the time I woke up myself, the kid already regained control, and managed to get back to this place..."

Noting the looks he was getting, Imago shook his head. "I'm sure Mister Saint will be more than happy to clarify anything. When the time comes, of course. Now if you will excuse me, my eyes are bleeding from being in that radiance."

Imago shut his eyes, allowing the blue marking to return as the extra marks vanished, and when he reopened them, they were back to purple. "... Was he any good? Or was he as rude to everyone as always?" It seemed as though Percy didn't remember anything from a few minutes ago.

"Rude as ever, Perce. Also, be careful on that or you'll..." Crash. WIlliam winced. "Fall off the table..."

"Ow, ow. Looks like I'll be sleeping here tonight if nobody else minds..."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"..........................." Well, Paul was quite effectively silenced, staring at Percy with only a slight twitch at the sight of his fall, followed by a helplessly dismayed expression as he slumped into his previous position with his chin in his hands and his weary yellow eyes staring at the table. This really was too much for his mind to absorb in these few short hours...

Kenny, meanwhile, grunted with discomfort. "Great, so you steal our food and now you're insisting you steal our couch. I guess I shouldn't be surprised when I find a steaming s*** in our toilet either, huh?"

After casting a quick glance at Kendall, finding the angel casting a solemn stare at the floor, Kelsey decided to take the initiative, stand up and offer to help Percy back onto his feet. "Alright, so... you tried to help but found yourself cornered. That's fair. Everyone's still in one piece, so might as well cast aside the smaller details for the sake of getting down to the big picture. Said big picture being what that Protostar Beast's presence on the island means for us and everyone else we've been involved with tonight."

She awkwardly rubbed her neck. "Although, if you don't mind me asking first and foremost... how did you and Imago meet? How did this pact of yours come to be? You don't have to give me the full story if you want. I'm just asking out of morbid curiosity."