After the Pandemic: The Enemy of My Enemy part 8: Faing (1128 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 2 on 29 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by TheCaes (View user info) at 2005-04-20 00:25:51 EDT
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61238 -- Introduction -- Jack McCallum
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61350 -- Variant C -- Jack McCallum
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61505 -- Part 1: Brianna
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61614 -- Part 2: Khalid
http://www.ubersite.com/m/63145 -- Part 3: The Meeting
http://www.ubersite.com/m/63504 -- Part 4: The Conversation
http://www.ubersite.com/m/63663 -- Part 5: The Story of Manhattan
http://www.ubersite.com/m/64024 -- Part 6: On the Streets of Jersey
http://www.ubersite.com/m/64325 -- Part 7: Tome
Anthony's mind was reeling with details, strategies, and contingencies as he tried to piece together a workable plan for eliminating the Butcher. There was no way I.R. would help them with this. If they got even a whisper of the fact that Turner was working with vampyres, 'original' or not, they'd cut his cell off completely, or worse, exterminate them. He would have to do this on the sly. If he were vague enough, he might be able to wrangle some support in the way of firepower. Also, he was trusted by a handful of other Luke Cell leaders, and could count on at least a little assistance from them.
Khalid had promised more supernatural manpower from his kind, which he called Kin. This was both a blessing and a potentially disastrous curse. Chief Turner informed the vampyre in no uncertain terms, what his stipulations were.
None of them were to know the full details of their plan unless both Khalid and Turner agreed to disclosure. Specifically, none were to be told about Stuyvesant's Passage until absolutely necessary. None of his soldiers would be harmed by Khalid's associates. If anyone suffered even a pinprick from a vampyre tooth, their partnership would end - and the tone in which he said this gave no illusions that this termination would be friendly.
Finally, Khalid would assume personal responsibility for the Kin. Should any of them break the rules or fail to adequately perform, it would be up to him to take care of it.
Khalid agreed to all these terms, on only one condition: that he be in command of their undead contingent. "The Kin would be as likely to take direct human commands as you would be to take orders from a herd of cows." He stated plainly.
"How comforting," Anthony muttered.
********************
Khalid approached the weathered door of an old English pub and strode in boldly, like every room he enters. He stopped two feet past the door, momentarily stunned by the noise and stench. The air was thick with the medicinal reek of the leech undead, an aroma not unlike antiseptics and scrotal sweat. There were vampire shouts of raucous triumph, defeated human whimpers, and obnoxious laughter. The onslaught of sounds combined with the music to create a cacophony that stung his sensitive ears. Immediately, he wished he had sent Bashir to collect this one.
After taking a moment to adjust, Khalid scanned the bar with his predatory ken. It was full of leech scum, but they paid him no mind. Drunk out of their minds on a mixture of beer and blood, they scarcely noticed the tall Arabian stranger who had darkened their door. Some were gathered in groups telling each other stories that were as egotistical as they were fabricated. Others sat in booths, with their human slaves prostrated before them. These humans were mostly shirtless, and he noticed they were branded. Sometimes with a tattooed symbol, other times with a grim scar. Territory markers, he realized. On occasion a leech would pull his slave up by the arm or hair, and bite casually into their flesh, stealing a little blood. The human meat would limply acquiesce, and embrace their master like a defeated lover.
Khalid could not distinguish between the humans were here willingly and the ones who were slaves. They were all domesticated and broken, and most looked terrible. Some sobbed quietly to themselves, but most aimed blank stares at whatever was in front of them. Had their chests not been rising and falling, Khalid would have thought them dead. One human female looked particularly abused. Her owner's mark, which resembled a U with a line through it was carved into her back as wide as her body would allow. Her neck and arms were a canvas to an impressionist painting of scarred puncture wounds. Some were scabrous and infected. The terrain of her nose spoke of uncountable breaks and improper healings, and her left breast was so mangled that Khalid had trouble imagining it ever could have been a woman's bosom.
These are truly the scum of the ages, he thought to himself. Like rabid dogs, they are a danger to everything. It is God's will that they be eradicated.
He continued to search the bar for his quarry. Then he heard it. Carrying over the din of boasting and crowing came laughter that was so obnoxious it made everything else sound like the polite chuckling of a country club.
Sitting at the bar was a huge Scotsman. Though only of medium height, he was wider than two men, and was exploding in reddish-brown hair. It looked as if his hair and beard were racing to meet in the center of his face, and chest hair spilled out of his open collar. More fur struggled for freedom from the small of his back, visible in the gap between his flannel shirt and his belt. He wore dirty jeans with numerous tears that more tufts exploded out of.
He was pounding his meaty fist on the bar in time to the beats in his laughter, causing glasses to dance and jump. The source of his uproarious amusement seemed to be the female leech he was speaking to.
"Shut the fuck up, asshole!!" She shouted. This only turned up the volume of his laughter. "Don't you fuckin' laugh at me! I know you were lookin' at me! Fuckin' pervert!"
The Scotsman's body was shaking. He laughed for a few more seconds, before his guffaws eventually became more modest and intermittent. He wiped an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye. The leech woman was still glaring at him, chin thrust forward. The sight of her almost sent him back into hysterics, but with noticeable effort, he kept a straight face. Mostly.
"Oh, I doan mean ta 'urt yer feelins, lass," he said, smirking. "It's juss that what ya said dinnae make any sense at'ull." A few leeches at the bar were watching the proceedings with passing interest.
"Don't play dumb with me, you ugly fuck! I saw you looking at my ass. Right in front of my man, too!" She jerked her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of a somewhat paunchy leech that didn't look particularly insulted. "You think I'll stand for some leering, smelly, hairy FUCK ogling me like that?"
"Smelly?" He said, puzzled. He lifted his arm and took a whiff while she continued.
"Why don't you go back to Scotland and fuck your pet sheep or whatever you do over there?" The onlookers chuckled at this.
"'Ere now, I'm nae from Aberdeen, an even if I were, there's no call to be sayin' that..." His mild protest was lost as she continued her verbal onslaught, calling him a sheep fucker, deer fucker, and generally a fucker of anything else that could be fucked, and a few things that by all rights couldn't.
"LUKE!" He slapped his hand down to interrupt her. "Yuir bein' daft, wumman! I wood'nae 'ave been gapin' at yeh, because, let's be honest, yuir kind of a donkey's arse. An' a bessie, ta boot."
The nearby patrons laughed loudly at this. The woman went agog, but her shocked pause only gave him the chance to continue. "Ye've a face like a bag o' bruised fruit, and thas no lie. I think any self-respectin' man wood rather shag a sheep than shag yerself." He looked over her shoulder at her male companion, who was now showing some interest. "Isn't that right, lad? Go oan, ask yer man, then."
The woman's face would have turned purple with rage, if she were human. She sputtered for a moment, then released a banshee's wail and cocked her hand back to strike the offensive Scot.
Her hand got about halfway there before she found herself kissing a hairy-knuckled fist almost the size of her face. He had reached his fist out as if he were handing off a beer, but the woman sailed through the air like she had been tied to a herd of horses that had just bolted. She plowed through a group of chairs and skidded to a stop nearly thirty feet away.
Her companion looked in shock at her motionless form, and then back at the Scotsman. Needing to defend her honor, he stood up and tucked the front of his shirt into his pants in preparation.
"I woodn't, lad." The Scot said, sipping his mug of beer. "Else yool be gettin' it too."
After brief consideration, Lancelot decided that his lady's honor didn't need quite so much defending after all, and sat back down. The audience returned to their drinking.
Khalid sat on the stool next to the hirsute Scot, the one the leech woman had ungraciously vacated. He waved off the bartender. They sat in the thick of herd, the Arab and the Scotsman, two lions in jackal's clothing.
"Well now, isn't this interestin'?" he said quietly into his beer. "Yuir nae one o' them, are ye?"
"Indeed not. I'm more like you," Khalid replied.
The Scot looked at his groomed beard and fine, elegant clothes and raised a bushy eyebrow.
"Well," Khalid conceded. "A little more like you. You are called Faing, yes?"
"Aye, that I am." He took pull of his drink.
"What brings one such as you to a place such as this?"
"A good drink and a good fight." He put his mug down. "But 'twould seem neither is t'be found here. These manky puddocks pay me no mynde, an' they're yoosually good for a scrap 'ere and now, but t'be honest I cannae stand 'em, 'less I'm mad for it." He turned his head and looked at the dignified Arab. "And wha' about yoo? This hardly lukes like yuir type o' establishment."
Khalid smiled. "I'm here looking for you, of course."
"Oh, aye?" Faing replied with manufactured surprise.
"If you desire a change of company and more challenging combat, I have a proposition you might find interesting."
User Reviews
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-04-06 10:52:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-08-29 04:13:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Hey Zak. Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. I knew the accent was a bit crap...I don't know the lingo well enough to make it consistent but I didn't want to spend too much time trying to get it all down pat. That stuff is hard to find without knowing anyone Scottish. Plus I didn't want to make it too hard to read. McCallum did a good Scot accent in his Pandemic posts, I thought.
I dont' know where that is. That was one of the google images that came up when I searched for 'scottish flag'
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-08-28 11:03:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I see mikethescottish didn't get to this one, so let me try.
the scotsmans accent isn't great. for example, it wouldn't be "yerself" but "yirsel". you're going for the accent, but it doesn't ring true for me.
and don't call him "scotch", rather "scots". "scotch" is kind of regarded as an insult when applied to anything other than whisky.
of course the advice is kind of redundant considering you've written all the other installments already.
good choice not making him Aberdonian. sheep shagging bastards.
what's the town in the picture? looks like somewhere up north from the hills, but it's hard to tell.
Submitted by notyou (user info) at 2005-07-05 19:18:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2005-06-30 20:48:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-06-17 11:54:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Just blew through a shitload of chapters with my morning coffee.
Now I must rate the ones I forgot to rate.
GOOD stuff.
Submitted by Jungle_Jimanee (user info) at 2005-05-17 06:03:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-05-12 17:57:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have just got done reading these all and I have enjoyed them all. Great work everyone, +2's for all!
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2005-04-23 01:04:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
8 of 15
Submitted by Yes (user info) at 2005-04-21 16:03:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
still so awesome!
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-20 23:15:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Ha! No, he wasn't based on the guy from Samurai Jack or a haggis-fueled Gimley. I just thought of every obnoxious mouthy Scot stereotype and rolled it all up into one.
Submitted by hcp28 (user info) at 2005-04-20 13:24:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was great keep them coming.
Submitted by Spam (user info) at 2005-04-20 12:35:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by mbstateside (user info) at 2005-04-20 11:37:50 (#)
Ranking: 2
Caes,
Here's an idea that I have no objection whatsoever if you use. Maybe this Butcher guy is also an 'Oringinal' Vamp. One that Khalid and maybe a couple of the others have been having a blood fued or somthing with for centuries.
Just a thought
---
OOOO!! I LIKE that idea, he could be responsible for creating Variant C in an effort to raise an army capable of killing his former brethren.
The tonal shift in this part grated ever so slighly, but it was still excellent. Did you base the scotsman on that guy from Samurai Jack? you've described him so perfectly.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-04-20 12:05:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by mbstateside (user info) at 2005-04-20 11:37:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Caes,
Here's an idea that I have no objection whatsoever if you use. Maybe this Butcher guy is also an 'Oringinal' Vamp. One that Khalid and maybe a couple of the others have been having a blood fued or somthing with for centuries.
Just a thought
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-20 11:02:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-04-20 02:03:53 (#)
Ranking: 2
I know that since this is you I can +2 it and wait unil tomorrow to remind you of how much you rock out with your cock out!
******************
!! How did you know?? Are you peeking through my window right now??
mbstateside: I honestly dont' have a good reason for the population of vampyres in NY. I just sort of thought, well, they probably like urban areas, and nowhere is more urban than NYC, and there's really only a handful of them. Hmmm, maybe I should think of something to make that go down easier. Thanks for the criticism.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-20 10:58:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Revolutionman (user info) at 2005-04-20 02:04:43 (#)
Ranking: 2
i like where its going
i fucking check every like hour to see if a new ones posted :P dont keep me in suspence
********************
If I didn't keep you in suspense you probably wouldn't like it as much. :) Anyhoo, I'll try to have the next one up in a week or so...I've sort of hit a snag, plot-wise, and it's taking me some effort to push through it.
Thanks for the comments, guys.
Submitted by mbstateside (user info) at 2005-04-20 10:58:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was also good, and yes if you want to ad a little comic value a hairy scotchman is always a good way to go. It might be an idea to mention in the story that he's a highland Scott though as these are the only scottish people that have the strong exaggerated accent which you have used here (infact with your love of gettings the details right I'm sure it wouldn't take much research to find an old clan for him to belong to).
The only slight negative for me is that you haven't (as yet anyway) given any reason why all these 'Oringinal' Vamps are now hanging around New York so it seams a little contrived. You may want to build in a reason for this. You did kinda touch on this with Tome saying that there has always been somthing about New York which breeds death and voilence a hellmouth or somthing maybe (sorry for the Buffy reference) or possible somthing similer to say Highlander where they feel drawn to come to this place. I don't know but I do feel that adding somthing along those lines would mitigate the coincidence factor that all these ancient vamps just happen to be in the same place at the same time.
Oh and sorry if you already had that in hand.
Once again though keep up the good work as Ronald McDonald would say.
"De de dum dum de I'm Lovin' it"
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2005-04-20 10:41:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Woo
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-04-20 10:41:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-04-20 10:01:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I love it when a man makes me shout
MORE!!! MORE!!!
<giggle>
Submitted by the_mysterious_stranger (user info) at 2005-04-20 09:19:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Viper_04 (user info) at 2005-04-20 07:18:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Is it just me or did anyone else picture a modern day Gimmly when they read about Faing?
Submitted by Revolutionman (user info) at 2005-04-20 02:04:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i like where its going
i fucking check every like hour to see if a new ones posted :P dont keep me in suspence
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-04-20 02:03:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I know that since this is you I can +2 it and wait unil tomorrow to remind you of how much you rock out with your cock out!
Submitted by corn_nugget (user info) at 2005-04-20 01:09:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i mean msn uhhhh
Submitted by corn_nugget (user info) at 2005-04-20 01:09:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
go online
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-04-20 00:34:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I was trying for some comedy in this one...er, mangled mammaries aside. Hopefully it comes off as somewhat funny, but not ridiculous. And hopefully the Scottish accent reads okay. Someone send this to mikethescottish so he can give me an auto Scot +2 for the flag.
Submitted by tlozoot (user info) at 2005-04-20 00:27:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yay