Caldo e Freddo

[Cosimo Alessi (DELETED 6612)]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

* Athena was so exhuasted lately. It wasn't easy sleeping in the hotel lounge for a few hours when she wasn't bickering with Rion or fighting zombies. When she had free time away from learning the world around her she would sneak off to her top-secret place and play her drums. She knew it hadn't been the best idea to steal back her drum set and all of her clothes but she did it anyway. It wasn't as if she liked anything that Rion seemed to wear or even wanted to bond with her that way. No. As always she had her earbuds in her ears blasting music to motivate her as she fought zombie after zombie with her sword. The woman was quick on her feet but all the travel and lack of sleep was truly wearing her down.

Athena made the mistake then of yawning and closing her eyes. The zombie came forward and quickly her eyes opened but not quick enough. The zombie rushed after her and Athena stumbled on her own boots and knocked backwards with a blow from the corpse. "****!" she shouted, as she tumbled she fell against another body and thankfully as her *** hit the floor her sword's blade went into the corpse and fell dead at her side. "******* CHRIST!" Lifting her leg to kick the corpse further away from her as the drum sticks she kept in the back of her pants rolled across the floor near her.


<Cosimo Alessi> Cosimo didn’t really know what he was doing in the Quarantine Zone, except that he knew it was good for practice. Practice for what, though? He pondered this as he made use of both gun and sword to best the foes that he chose to go up against. Where did all these zombies come from, anyway? How did they keep replicating when this part of the city was blocked off from the rest? Were they actually like vampires? Did they come back from the dead and come spewing out of the graveyard once they were reanimated? But really. What was he practicing for? Was there going to be some war that he had to be his best for? Why couldn’t he just stay at home and do nothing? Because that would be boring, of course.

So here he was, in the Quarantine Zone; in the flats, where everyone else seemed to be. He engaged with one of the ferals. They were more of a challenge than the zombies. How did someone get this way? And Cosimo often lost against them—forced to retreat. Every and again he could get lucky, though. This one… he nearly had it. He had his sword poised to strike the finishing blow when he was knocked from behind. A rough knock, a heavy one. An entire body slammed into him, sending him careening forward. His blow missed, obviously. Vehement and loud swearing came from behind Cosimo, but he was preoccupied. The feral was rushing at his fallen body—he was now on his hands and knees, and his sword had hurtled across the floor—its claws sharp and its teeth gnashing. Cosimo was crawling, fumbling for his weapon. Where the **** did he put that gun, anyway?


* Athena 's *** hurt. Oh, it burned for a moment but then she heard something. It was coming from behind her and she was certain that something was going down now. With a loud sigh at herself she turned her head and cut her eyes at both the man and the feral he was after. Her eyes widened before suddenly she snapped into action. Looking back at her zombie corpse she knew her sword would take too long to get. She wasn't so sure that they had that long to spare. A hand sneaked into her hoodie pocket and she grabbed the gun she had hidden in there. "DUCK!" and with that warning only she lifted the gun and began firing at the beast before it had a chance to hurt the poor man she had rudely bumped into. It was the least she could do.


<Cosimo Alessi> At first, Cosimo wondered why anyone would be screaming Duck! in this part of the QZ. Surely, there'd be no ducks in here? The voice had distracted him, however, enough to turn, just a little, too see a woman bring her gun up. Just as her knuckle turned white and she squeezed the trigger, Cosimo ducked. He could have sworn he felt the hot, displaced air of the bullet whizz past his cheek. Was that burned hair he could smell? Probably not. The feral was at least preoccupied, now, heading for the woman shooting at it. Unlike the zombies, these fuckers didn't go down easy, though. So Cosimo grasped his sword, swung back around and slashed at the feral in any way that he could. Soon, the thing fell to the ground, dead. A combined effort, and he and this stranger had slaughtered the beast.


* Athena gave a pleased sound when the feral fell and once she was sure the thing was dead she picked herself up and stood to her boots. Taking a few deep breaths of air she didn't need as her hand raised to wipe her face clean of stray raven hair that had strayed from her ponytail. Yanking the earbuds from her ears to let them dangle over her shoulders while she looked over at the man she had bumped into. "I'm so sorry!" she shook her head, embarrassed. "I tripped over my own damn foot and bumped right into you. I didn't even know you were behind me." sighing at herself again. Wake up, Athena! Her head shook and she put her hands on her hips as she frowned at him. "I didn't mean to." Full lips pursing before she bent over to grasp her drum sticks safely in her hands and inspect them for breaks with furrowed brows.


<Cosimo Alessi> Cosimo shook himself out. Of course, he didn't let his guard down. In this place, zombies could come at you from every which way and you wouldn't even notice until it was too late. He didn't particularly like having his back to the room, so he'd constantly be looking over his shoulder. He blinked down at the dead corpse, and offered an 'aaah,' when he saw his gun sticking out from beneath it. He must have dropped that, too, when knocked to the ground. "It is fine, it is fine," he said, offering the woman a fleeting grin before he bend over to collect his weapon. "I am sure had you known I was behind you, you would not have tripped, si?" he said. Making a joke. Probably a very bad one.


* Athena put her drumsticks into the pocket of her jeans once she was sure that they weren't broken or strained by any means. They were obviously important to her. While the man spoke to her she pulled off her hoodie to quickly inspect her *** to make sure she wasn't bleeding for some odd reason. The pain was ringing deep in her flesh and she could just hear her siress laugh if the blue-haired wench ever caught sight of any wounds on her due to her own clumbsyness. The man's bad joke made her laugh none the less but mostly at herself, while they talked she looked around them both just to be sure they didn't have any other surprises coming their way. "No, no, I probably still would have fallen on you. I was distracted." she offered the man an apologetic half-smile before tying the hoodie's arms around her slender waist. "I hope you're alright?" hands now busy re-doing her ponytail.


<Cosimo Alessi> Although Cosimo re-sheathed his sword, he kept his gun handy. The weight was a comfort in his grip. Honestly, he was used to guns. Swords though? It was like being turned into a vampire meant they'd taken a step back into medieval times. Or maybe they'd all been watching a bit too much of Blade. Cosimo forced a fake frown. "Non. I am severely wounded. See?" he pointed to a graze on his palm with the barrel of his gun. A graze from where he had fallen on debris, trying to catch himself so he wouldn't break a nose. "I do not think it will ever heal," he said. Again, probably a very bad joke.

[Athena (DELETED 6736)]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

* Athena flicked her silver-green gaze over the man to inspect him quickly for wounds. Actually grateful that he seemed to be okay but then he frowned at her and her eyebrows furrowed again. When he issued another bad joke she she shook her head at him this time as she went on over to grab her sword and re-sheathed it quickly. "Oh, you baby." she snorted at him, trying not to humor him with another half laugh but didn't stop the brief smile that pulled at her lips. While she stepped towards him her stance was stand-offish, ready for both him to attack and the creatures around them. "I think that you will be just fine." Gaze flicking over his palm then back up to his face.


<Cosimo Alessi> "Perhaps. Or perhaps I will become infected, and I will become like him. Her?" Cosimo said, nudging at the dead Feral with his foot. Maybe he should have been more caring. Maybe that dead thing was a person, once, with a family and people who loved them. But they were now stripped of all their humanity, and Cosimo did not struggle to see it as a thing and not as a person. He held out his grazed hand to the woman. "Cosimo Alessi. I could have your name, maybe, so if I begin to turn rabid, I can come find you," he said, lips curled into a playful smirk.


* Athena flicked her gaze towards the feral with a wrinkle of her long thin nose, full lips pursed. She saw it as a thing. It didn't matter to her about it's life-previously because her's didn't seem to matter and she got stuck with the vampire card. When the hand was extended towards her she eyed both the limb and the man once before reaching out to take it with her much smaller one, while giving the man's hand a firm squeeze she looked up at him and remained eye-contact. "Oh yeah? Well, you're more than welcome to come hither, Cosimo." taking her hand back after the quick handshake she managed to mirror his playful smirk. "Athena Andras."


<Cosimo Alessi> Cosimo snatched his hand back, after that. Come hither? No. That's not what they were doing, was it? He was messing around but he wasn't flirting, was he? Was he? He could have been, without realising. Maybe that was a habit he could not break. Something that came natural, maybe. But no, that was not his intention. He coughed and cleared his throat. He nodded, backing up just that one small step. "It rhymes," he said. It was the first thing that came to mind, in accordance to her name. He shoved that one hand into his pocket, before gesturing to the feral again. "You can have its blood, if you want. I hear it can be useful."


* Athena had started to let her guard down with the man. He seemed nice enough and the last man she had met had been a gentleman and only meant to help her when she had attacked him. It would make for a funny 'why where friend's story' later down the line. But he got weird when she had only made a bad joke back so when he took a step back so did she. Her inner guard went straight back up and silently she cursed herself for even dropping it a fraction. "No thanks, Cosimo. You were the one to actually kill it." she forced another smile for the man though this one was more icey than it had been before. "You take it." With a glance around them she quickly deepened the distance between them with the excuse to grasp her backpack that had been on the floor in the distance.


<Cosimo Alessi> Cosimo didn't mess the ice. He considered himself adept enough with women that he could recognise ice when he saw it. Or, heard it, as the case may be. It wasn't something he needed to rectify. He knew that he had reacted too quickly; that it was just a joke, and surely the woman cannot have been annoyed because Cosimo refused to continue flirting. He might have been able to recognise the ice, but he was never very good at figuring out where had come from or why. Regardless, he shrugged it off and dropped to his knee. He had to holster the gun so that he could retrieve a dagger from his boot, to slice open one of the feral's veins to try to squeeze some blood into a spare vial. "I gather you are a musician?" Cosimo asked, distractedly. He had seen the drumsticks before, but focused on them now. Easy chance of subject.


* Athena swung the backpack over her shoulder and pivoted on her boot towards the exit. It was time to play. She could feel it buzzing in her hands, throughout her body, she didn't get to play as often as she had before her turning. It was actually her job and one of the reason's she had gotten caught by Rion. Then he spoke again and she casted a glance his way, a hand holding the strap of her backpack. "Yes, I am. I play the drums and I can also play the bass."


<Cosimo Alessi> It only become obvious to Cosimo after he'd asked the question that the girl had intended to leave, and that his question had prevented her. He stood after gathering the blood and pushed the small vial into his pocket. It if wasn't of any use to Elizabeth, he would sell it. He nodded as she told him she played the drums, and also the bass. But, she had been about to leave without another word or a glance back. Wasn't she? It confounded Cosimo. So much so, that he couldn't help but ask. "I am sorry. But did I say something to offend you?"


* Athena looked at the man with her features all twisted. That was an odd question. You know, everything about tonight had been odd from her chance meeting with Harrison and bumping into someone after nights of perfect score and not meeting a soul here. Nothing made sense and it made her seriously bugged out. Her head shook and she just shrugged at him. What could she say? How would it make sense to say that he put her off by reacting weird to her simple bad joke? Well, she decided to take another chance here. Tonight seemed full of them. "No, you didn't say anything to offend me. It was the way that you presented all these terrible jokes and then reacted badly to me when I attempted to do the same." Her shoulder shrugged. "It's no big deal."


<Cosimo Alessi> Cosimo laughed. How could he not? But, he did not say what was on the tip of his tongue. How female of her. That would probably only piss her off some more. But nor was he going to explain that it wasn't the bad joke he had reacted badly to, really. Not technically. It was the implications that he wanted to avoid. "No, no. I just had no bad joke to follow up with, see? Was shame. Deep and utter shame, on my behalf," he said, and flashed a grin. A complete and utter lie, of course, but it would do.


* Athena 's chin lifted when the man spoke to her again. What he said was so far-fetched how could it not be a lie of some sort? It made her nose wrinkle again and she gently shook her head. Not amused. She had been honest with him and instead was given a handsome smirk and a half-thought lie for whatever his reasons where. She didn't know them and she knew they were his own. It all just reminded her why she didn't trust men as far as she could throw them. "No worries, Cosimo." she forced another smile again. "I'm going to go play now. I hope you have a safe night."


<Cosimo Alessi> What more could Cosimo do? He wasn't going to get into a deep and meaningful with a stranger. That a person could get so insulted and icy over something so small was ludicrous, in his opinion, and not really someone who he would fight to keep company with. Grasping his gun from its holster, he prepared to continue slaughtering zombies - or to perhaps go home and find Elise, so that he might satisfy his growing thirst. "Arrivederci, Athena Andras," he said, with a nod.

* Athena turned her head quickly to yawn. It wasn't at him. Aimed to hurt his feelings or to be more icey towards him - no. She was just tired. So tired and drained. She wanted to play and she could feel the emotional need to but she didn't have it in her. She would go crawl to the hotel and pass out there but anywhere not near Rion and Osi was best. "Good night, Cosimo Alessi. I hope no more women trip you up." she turned to nod back at him, a hand lifting up to wipe sleepily at her eyes.


<Cosimo Alessi> Cosimo, too, hoped no more women would trip him up. At least Elise was sweet and nice and didn't take things too seriously. At least Elise was not a woman who would say It's no big deal only then to make a bigger deal out of something than it needs to be. Still completely confused by the woman's behaviour, Cosimo let her go. Maybe he would run into her again in the QZ. Maybe next time she would be less confusing.