Spins' Posse (Open)

[lithle]

Someone was crying, softly. Spins woke with a startled gasp, aware at first only of the sound and the startling heat of the barracks. Oh, it was always insufferably hot but this was something different.

A dragon screamed through his mind. Somehow, he knew. He knew without knowing, knew this wasn't his lust but something greater. He'd felt gold flights before, he understood Flight Lust. But this was something more. He took a breath, noticed his hands were shaking.

And someone was crying.

He jumped out of his bunk, making it to Jaden's side in the darkness. He touched his friend's arm and Jaden turned to him, pupils dilated, eyes wet with tears. For a breath and no more Jaden was a body in a bed and Spin's head was full of need.

"Spins. Make it stop." Jaden's voice was so familiar, was the central pull about which he'd set his life to orbit. Need did not retreat but the idea of need for Jaden made him want to retch. He pulled the other man too him, holding him, promising to keep him safe. But he was seeing the open door and the prisoners striding about like they owned the place.

Oh, but that looked fun. He knew the rumors. He knew who must have started this thing. He even knew where the weapons would be. They could run with the others. They could.

And then Jaden would be what, in the middle of a jungle surrounded by serial killers and rapists who weren't locked up at night? Spins liked a challenge but not to the extent of risking Jaden.

"Wait here," he said. Jaden clung but he pushed him away. He disappeared out the mysteriously open door.

And then he was back and he held a half dozen knives like a bouquet for a lover. Jaden was still shaking but had stopped crying. Spins was still urgent and eager but he'd long gotten into the habit of channeling everything else into wildness.

Oh, he'd very much like something willing and soft to play with. But he wouldn't get it. He knew that. So he'd just have to hope that he could ride this wave and put out of his mind just how long it'd been since he'd gotten laid. His lips were dry. He licked them absently as he pressed a knife insistently into Jaden's hand, uncurling fingers that had locked tightly into a fist.

"Bad things walking tonight," he said. He hoped one came for him. Just a little. Nothing to threaten Jaden, just a bit of a game before it was over.

There were still people waking around him. Someone bumped against him, turned and glared.

"Hey," he spoke loudly. "You want to run, be my guest. It's gonna be a bad scene. I'm staying here. Leave me and mine alone and there's no reason for a problem."

The man considered him a moment further, shrugged and rushed into the night. Spins sighed. Maybe relief. It sounded like disappointment.

[maggie]

Log had decided to take matters into his own claws. Ensuring that his human was well hidden, not just shivering under a bed, the ugly brown took to the air, looking for a Big Strong to help and fix his defective human. He had been flapping around for a while, dodging escaping prisoners and irate guards before he heard someone mentioning that he was protecting people. The brown flitt squeaked, an odd sound coming from such a large-boned, ugly thing, then made a beeline for Spins. He trilled at the boy, trying to get his attention. He would lead this one to his defective person and he would keep his defective person safe! He bobbed about, trying to get the human to listen to him. Or at least understand him.

[lithle]

Spins was in murmured conversation with Jaden when the little brown firelizard began flying about him, chirping for attention. He ignored it at first, there were quite a few firelizards shrieking in the chaos and he didn't want to encourage one of them to shriek in his direction. But, as it became clear the brown wanted something in particular he managed a sharp little smile for it.

"Alright, creature, lead on. But this better be fun." He left Jaden on the bed, with the knife. If the brown wanted to take him out of sight of his friend he was out of luck. When the firelizard appeared to have arrived at his destination, Spins stopped, glanced around and shrugged. He tossed the knife in his left hand into the air and caught it expertly by the handle.

There were still a number of people in the barracks. If the firelizard wanted his attention on someone in particular, that person was going to have to speak up. "Someone want me?" he asked.

Which, considering the lust that was still half addling his thoughts, was probably a more suggestive question than it was originally intended. But, as he knew well enough most weren't attracted to men who looked like enough to keel over within the day, he didn't expect a positive response on that particular issue. Lust would simply go unsatisfied.

[maggie]

Log flapped over to the neatly made bed. He lifted the sheet before landing next to it, showing that the mattress had been boosted up by pillows. He tugged one out of the way, revealing his trembling, pale human. He sighed. He was very disappoint.

"Log?" The sight of his little flitt was reassuring for Kaydian. He followed the little brown's gaze. The flitt was trying to say something. He had already proved to be a smart flitt, when he had figured out how to hide Kaydian better than just under the bed. He spotted Spins and his knife, freezing. His face got even paler. "Don't hurt me!" he whimpered.

Log sighed. He tugged at Kaydian's sleeve, trying to coax him out of hiding. He gave Spins a pointed look. Then sighed.

[tiamat]

Corvis was Not Happy. Not only had he been woken up by Pest using his face as a launch pad, which meant that he was now bleeding heavily and in a very great deal of pain, which also meant that he was effectively blind in one eye and surrounded by prisoners with weapons (and where had they gotten those, he wondered?), he was barely able to think because of Flightlust and he was fairly certain that the only reason he wasn’t dead yet was that he’d been hiding as much as he could.

He stiffened when he heard someone—Kaydian—begging to not be hurt and shards if Kaydian was hurt he’d… do something. He didn’t know what that something would be, but he’d do it. …When had he started running towards where he heard Kaydian? He couldn’t remember and surely the Flightlust wasn’t getting to him that badly…

But clearly it was, and he forced himself to slow to a walk and not do anything stupid like try to fight someone barehanded when he could barely fight at the best of times. Just walk up, try not to do anything stupid and don’t give into the urge to screw the nearest person senseless.

“What’s going on here? Besides the breakout, I mean.” He would have tried to look intimidating, but he thought he recognized the man with the knives as mostly harmless.

[lithle]

Spins started giggling. It wasn't that he meant to, exactly, but the combination of stresses was just too much to take seriously. An angry firelizard, a cowering boy, and a short man with a rather accusing tone in his voice. His laughter was a slightly eerie sound, made more so by the knife in his hand and the chaos that surrounded them.

And he might have continued giggling but Jaden came up behind him. The larger man was no longer crying, but his posture still showed his anxiety. His eyes moved nervously around the barracks watching anyone who moved to close to them with barely veiled fear.

"C'mon Spins," he said, his voice low. "Be nice."

"Alright, alright." Spins gave a little huff that was probably meant to be irritation, but mostly came out amused.

He took a knife from the collection he'd made Jaden hold and held it out to Corvis, "You, clever kid, should hold one of these next time you run to someone's defense, huh? But ten points for being an idiot."

He knelt then, holding out another weapon for Kaydian, "Alright, you aren't doing yourself any good down there. You can hang with Jaden and I, if you don't plan on running off with the others."

"You too," Jaden added to Corvis, with a pointed glance toward Spins, "We can all stick together."

[maggie]

Kaydian nodded. Seeing Corvis helped him relax the tiniest bit, or at least brought him back to reality. He wriggled out from under the mattress, watching Spins worriedly. Log hopped onto his shoulder, trilling at him. He looked over at Corvis. "I'm scared," he murmured. He started making the bed, his hands still shaking. "Jessan left. Jessan had knives and she was helping the scary people."

He finished making sure the bed was absolutely perfect, then slunk over to Jaden's side, behind Spins and Corvis. He frowned, noticing that Corvis was bleeeding. "Here." He grabbed his pillow, taking the pillowcase off to reach out and wipe Corvis's face. He blushed, his body feeling too hot at the contact as he tried to clean his friend's face. "What happened?" he asked quietly.

[tiamat]

Corvis glared at Spins for calling him an idiot, but awkwardly took the knife. “I’m not a kid.” He was probably older than Spins was, but he wasn’t about to say that to him; it would only make him look dumber than Spins already thought he was. And denying that he hadn’t thought about the consequences of charging someone unarmed would be a blatant lie.

He had been about to ask about what Kaydian meant by Jessan (it had to have been a different Jessan, because surely he didn’t mean the mindhealer) when Kaydian started wiping off his face (and he wasn’t going to act on the thoughts the contact stirred up) and he hissed in pain. “…Pest used my face to take off. And... You don't mean mindhealer Jessan, do you?”

[lithle]

"The lovely mindhealer would be the one giving out the pointy objects. As far as I've heard, she's behind the whole run screaming into the jungle plan. Could be wrong. It's what people have been saying." If the other two prisoners were disturbed by this news, Spins was either unaware or simply not interested in their distress. "Anyway, if Jaden says were all best of friends now, so be it."

He looked from Kadian to Corvis and back again, his expression becoming ever so slightly wicked. He was managing to keep his own lust in check (hell, it'd been years, Spin's brain was always abuzz with lust) but he was still aware of the thick pressure of desire.

"So, are you two going to cuddle or are we going to go fight the good fight, protect the innocent, all that?" For Spins, the red head was being relatively mild, not twitching or bouncing in place. There was so much energy in the air that he felt less a need to provide it all himself. He was, for once, willing to be patient and let the excitement come to him. It was bound to, there was so much around!

Jaden, who'd kept mostly silent, as ever, placed a light hand on Spins arm. He was off as well, his usual posture, where he kept his head lowered and his scarred face turned away, changed subtly. He was still cringing, but he was clinging too. His mind was too busy with fear and need to focus on his own imperfections. "We should wait here until this blows over."

"And where's the fun in that?"

[maggie]

Log sighed at the mention of another flitt acting badly. Kaydian ignored him, still focusing on taking care of Corvis. He was blushing hard, trying to ignore the strange feelings in his body. He'd never really felt like this and he wasn't sure he liked it. "Does it hurt a lot?" Log nestled up against his owner's neck. "Um, this is Log. He's my flitt. He's not bitey, but he doesn't like a lot. He's a disappointed flitt. Disappoinflit. Flittappoint..." He began giggling a bit, the sound a little too high and brittle.

He turned to Spins, his eyes going wide, his skin paler than usual. He seemed to cringe a little more, folding into himself. Log sighed and patted him awkwardly with his tail. He did seem to snap out of it a bit, blushing hard when Spins commented on his getting close to Corvis.

"I want to stay here too," he murmured, nodding at Jaden. "I don't fight. You can guard the door, if you want to fight, fight anyone who tries to come in?"

[tiamat]

Corvis had heard the same, but he’d dismissed it as the usual nonsense that shows up in rumors. After all, why would the mindhealer want to let a bunch of criminals free? It didn’t make sense, at least not to him, but if Kaydian said that he saw her handing out knives to prisoners… Well, he’d just have to stay where he wouldn’t get a knife to the gut. Corvis shrugged. “It hurts, but it’s not that bad.” Which was only true compared to other injuries he’d had, but he wasn’t going to admit to that, mostly because the pain helped him focus a bit.

He chuckled quietly at how Kaydian described Log. Log kind of reminded him of his more serious flits—although they usually hadn’t been disappointed in everything. No, they had just sighed and tried to keep everything from falling apart around their heads… And this was not the time to get distracted by the past, especially since he was fairly certain he had missed something important by the way Kaydian was acting.

…Wait, was Spins serious about the fighting thing oh Faranth he was. “I’m not going back out there.”

Congratulations, Spins, you are officially a crazy in Corvis’s eyes.

[lithle]

He needed something. Something, anything. Action a touch. He needed something more than standing around with a couple of men who wouldn't do anything. He was so hungry, hungry on some deeper level than a need for food. A soul ache for adrenaline and the taste of blood or sweat or lust.

He looked from Corvis to Kaydian and for a second he had the look of a spooked runner, very ready to bolt into the dark. With that knife in his hand, it was worth wondering what side he'd end up on if he did.

But then Jaden was there, stepping forward, grabbing Spin's arm none to gently and shaking him. For all his relative kindness to the other two, when he spoke to Spins it was in a sharp, furious hiss. "No. No, shard-it. What then, if we do?"

And something left Spins, the easing of tension looking less like relief and more like defeat. He smiled, a ghost of his usual wolfish grin.

"You're none of you any fun, you know that?" Still smiling, he walked over to lean in the doorway, "Fine. I'll stand here and see to it no one too stab happy gets inside. But don't run crying to me when you realize you missed out on your only chance to do something interesting in the next three turns."

[maggie]

Kaydian reached out, pulling Corvis towards a protected corner of the room. He continued fussing over the boy's wounds, then his clothes, straightening them and frowning at the rips. Feeling a little safer, he could feel the flight lust starting to affect him. Fussing and cleaning gave him something to concentrate on other than the terrifying feelings. He finished, frowning at the lack of anything else to do.

He looked up at Spins. "Don't like interesting," he muttered. "Interesting means people get hurt." He looked over at Jaden. "Do you want to come sit down?" he asked. "We could play a game."

Log deigned to leave Kaydian's shoulder, flying over to where Spins was. He gave the young man a not so disappointed look, joining him to play lookout.