Making Friends
The dark man’s quiet response was clearly not the answer Herr Antonius had been looking for. He lurched forward—a brusque step transformed by the head wound—and leveled the gun at the half-hidden face, with its strange, piercing eyes and its tumbling black mane.
But there was nothing predatory about the way Vincent held himself, and so it was that the German’s finger remained a hair away from the trigger for just another moment, another, another still… In other circumstances, in other places, on other days, he would have shot the stranger for his silence, no matter how brief it had been.
Vincent answered. The masked man, or monster, or whatever he was, splattered in gore and faceless, marked trustworthy only by Reno’s willing company—he slowly lowered the weapon at last as the hingeless jaws opened to permit his rumbling voice to pass in clarity:
“Sᴘᴇᴀᴋ ǫᴜɪᴄᴋʟʏ, Vɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ Vᴀʟᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ. I ᴍᴀʏ ɴᴏᴛ ʙᴇ sᴏ ᴋᴇᴇɴ ᴛᴏ ʜᴇsɪᴛᴀᴛᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ: ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀʙᴏᴍɪɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴs ɪɴ ᴛʜɪs ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ᴡʜᴏsᴇ sɪʟʜᴏᴜᴇᴛᴛᴇs ᴀʀᴇ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ.”
While the reunited allies exchanged words, Antonius—still nameless to Vincent and Julian—swiveled the beak from side to side in re-examination of the room. Very little had changed since he had passed through here, save the addition of a red-caped man and a gentle-looking blue unicorn.
The gun in the face certainly hadn’t helped the big man’s case. He was dangerous, covered in blood and carried the air of something only just barely teetering on the edge of human. Vincent’s bloody gaze narrowed as the barrel was raised, soon lowered again, and if the grandmaster had paid just enough attention, he might have noticed the curious, lingering feel of something telling: a pistol pressed to his abdomen. This feeling would recede almost as soon as Hilarius’ own weapon withdrew, but now Reno was spared only quick glances before the wary Valentine’s eyes returned to their rather daunting company. The news the alchemist brought was no better than that which Vincent himself had. His premonition had been right: monsters were running amuck. Some, as their unpleasant company had confirmed, appeared almost human. Just as the towering man before him stood. “Indeed.” At last his attentions returned to Reno, and from a loop in his belt he produced the knife he’d scavenged earlier. “To the west is a hallway, it might be a way outside. But it’s occupied.” yes.. occupied.
“C’mon, guys,” Reno decided to chime in when the threat was hurled. “We’re all friends here, yeah? Shooting each other ain’t gonna help anything.”
While shooting each other may help in giving them an injured person to carry around or give someone a new weapon, what they needed to do was find a way out of this place, and in that case, strength in numbers was probably the best way to go. Especially if there was a big group of monsters down the line.
Once Vincent had mentioned where he got the weapons, Reno took a few steps forward, towards the doors that the dark ex-Turk and unicorn had gone through before, a little too eagerly. He barely stopped when Vincent warned that it was occupied, if only to take the knife that was offered to him. He quickly hid it inside of his jacket.
“Occupied? By what? More monsters?”
After a short pause, he added “That why you came back?”.
A slight jab at Vincent, though it was all in good fun, made clear by Reno’s upbeat attitude and tone.












