[size=0.7em]Predictably, Zangetsu cackled immediately upon approaching, smirk at full blast and the white cougar tipping his head to Ms. O as kudos. His gaze flicked back to the little fairy thing zipping about, grin growing evermore at the annoyance. Kid looked like a pain in the ass, if the thing was as young as he was pint-sized.
And people used to think that he was batshit.
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[size=0.7em]--and now I'm crawling up the WALLS.
Sanity was relative.
You had the totally clear-headed murderers that made their palms sweat intentionally in court, shaking and burbling out that they weren't thinking straight, it was an accident - you had people with tempers that just looked at a wall and thought it would look so amazing if it had a huge dent in it, oh, around the size of someone else's skull .. You had easily provoked people that just flew off the handle like it was made of butter, raging fury and a whole typhoon of destruction in their wake.
You had merely argumentative people that tended to make issues escalate quickly until, oops, it turned into a fist fight and then suddenly other people were going down and yelling timber, themselves possibly included - you had chickenshit people who stuttered and stammered their way through life, jamming their hands in their pockets and hunching their shoulders up and their heads impossibly low. You had the one hundred and ten percent guilty people sitting in counseling, bowing their heads and vowing to change their ways.
You had those same criminals released from prison with a simple warning, only to do it again.
Why?
Because they could.
It was hilarious, how people could think that they had the ability to entirely judge another person. How they thought that if they looked at things from a rational mindset, a humane mindset, that they would be able to slot everyone into fun-sized little categories, like exhibit A, he's loco in the coco, and exhibit D, she works in real estate, she's probably good, and exhibit J who was looking a little too shifty for everyone's tastes, xi's definitely suspicious. How people thought they were so entitled to give labels to others. Labels based on things like, you know, again, sanity.
Like, therapists. Sure, they had a degree, they had books on understanding the human psyche, they watched movies with therapists that made shocking accurate inferences and got inspired, they watched police movies, they studied psychology in high school, in university, in college, they sat down nice behind a desk and steepled their fingers as they asked their patient what they wanted to talk about today ..
But how the fuck would they know? How would they even be able to understand, the lethally pragmatic mindset of someone who had nothing else to lose and yet absolutely nothing to gain? It was like that fun old insanity test they used to dish out in spades in role call, other students, giggling and swapping answers among gasps of horror:
"So there's this girl, right, and her mom just died. She's at her mom's funeral and she's mourning when she sees this KILLER guy - super handsome, super funny, she goes up to him and they talk a little then the funeral is over and when she's back at home she realises too late that she forgot to get his number or name or .. well, anything. 'Shit.' So she kills her sister. Why?"
You just couldn't. Couldn't learn anything about the depth of anyone that's sentient with a brain and even a hint of basic intelligence and a mouth or some way of communication. People lied - they falsified or evaded and fabricated as well as omitted information from anything they said; they forgot things and so stated inaccuracies. They weren't sure how to phrase something, so they did it as delicately as possible. They put on acts. They faked.
So, to put it all into perspective and sum it all up ..
Those sane, innocent doe-eyed people, were probably all just fucking good at straight out lying their asses off.
(Now wasn't that something to consider?)
Outwardly, no one really questioned the way that Zangetsu grinned all the time, the way that he cackled and hyena-chuckled under his breath and just generally surveyed everything with undying amusement - even since he'd stepped foot into this nice little domicile and introduced himself with style and grace minus the obligatory punch in the face like all polite kittens were supposed to do, not a single one had ever commented on that. Granted, he didn't stumble across all that many people to judge, but you'd think that someone would, right?
But that was just it. No one did. No one here was a psyche freak, delving deep into his soooul and poring over his innermost secrets and determining why he did everything he did. No, it was just taken as a natural part of his personality - after all, that was someone's most key trait. The way they did stuff. He's odd, but that's okay, because .. uh .. it's probably normal. For him.
No one questioned how he was entirely white save for, ironically, the black that took over the part of his eye that was supposed to be white - yellow eyes weren't all too strange for cougars, but it seemed as if there were quite a lot of people here that had black sclera too because it also wasn't a thing that was commented on.
Unless everyone just looked odd here, which was pretty understandable. It was .. regular. Pfft, compared to wings and ram horns and fucking claws that dripped poison from wherever, it was tame.
Sane was a pretty stupid word.
So was normal.
So was rational and, inversely, irrational.
You were rational when you didn't shout back and think things through. You were irrational when you charged into a fire to save your only younger sibling even though there was no way that the firefighters could get there in time. You were rational when you watched the house cave in, people patting your back and telling you that there was nothing you could do.
You were rational up to that point, but the moment your exterior started to crack, you were held at arm's-length and awkwardly consoled and handled like you were walking on stilts.
Well, okay.
At the thought, a grating cackle reverberated in Zangetsu's throat, cougar getting settled out in clear sight and grin curling gleefully upwards and sharp eyes, ambivalently lax save for their permanently dilated quality, and he decided it was time to get some mingling on.
'Yooo!' he called, rapping a claw against the cracked earth. 'You guys wanna take a short test? It'll be real easy; pinkie swear.'
His smirk grew wider, white ear flicking.
He wondered if any of them had ever heard of the insanity test before.
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[size=0.7em]Oh, hey, what was this?
Zangetsu approached the stranger on DarkClan's border with a cursory scanning glance of appraisal; furthermore, his face breaks into his far more customary wild grin, the white cougar tipping his head inquisitively to the side and his yellow eyes narrowing with the Cheshire-proportionate stretch of his mouth.
Looks like someone's just as happy and content with their existence in this fine, beautiful world of theirs just as he was.
Nice.
DarkClan's outer ring was like a veritable nuked wasteland; nothing there but the ground splitting into cracks as far as the eye could see, not even the gratifying silkiness of sand a leisure under your paw pads (blisteringly hot so it might've been in this incessant sun) - instead, it was just tough rock and crusted dirt, split like a punched wall.
It's a wonder the whole place didn't just crumble and swallow all of them up, huh?
The male slid closer to the tigress, grin only escalating at her matching expression. 'Twinsies,' he teased with a cackle, one ear twitching and black sclera highlighting yellow irises. 'Hey - welcome to the humble abode of good ol' DarkClan, open twenty-four hours save for weekends. What's your name and what can I getcha?'
She looked sweet. Ha.
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[size=0.7em]Yellow eyes rolled over to Ms. O when she stated that the place this .. floating little thinger was from was one of their enemies. The Dominion, was it? Oh, good to know. Definitely chuckling under his breath, though now with an air that upped the ante into very darkclan, Zangetsu's focus locked in on the pink booger now. 'Hey, don'tcha think I deserve some love as well?' he purred, grin stretching wider just as the .. the ... gremlin's had. Like wasn't going to hack it, he didn't want no shoddy second-best. But in any case. 'Wouldn't mind if I did. Jus' put 'em down, step away, turn around and follow what the nice Big Bad Wolf told ya - then we'll be good as guts, ne?'
The cougar's not feeling all too much hostility, neither on his nor the .. damn it, whatever-he-was's part. Would've damn straight cracked him up if he hadn't been a committed man now; that is, to DarkClan. Rules and that stuff.
Oh, look, ears.
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[size=0.7em]When Zangetsu wanders into an area and sees nothing but a pup being gently lathered in care with some other bystanders hovering awkwardly around each other and talking to the side, what else is he supposed to do but snort?
The white cougar delicately cleared his throat to get any errant giggles out of the way, ambling fully up to the scene and raking yellow eyes over all of them once before his standard shark grin inches wider another inch. Eh, he's not going to waste his time terrorising the kid; time and place for everything, and this is a meet and greet. Gotta get the sociability lever cranked to max.
'Yo,' he hummed, naturally echoing voice sly and deathly entertained. 'It's Zangetsu. Try not to forget it, yeah?'
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[size=0.7em]Hell, Zangetsu always felt as if he was being watched, so it wasn't exactly anything new. Unfortunately, this also meant that it entirely slipped out of the forefront of his mind (just like Nivata, as it seemed) in lieu of laughing creepily at watching others and their happenings in the clan and idly commenting in his head about the stuff he sees, like how that guy could really use some braces ..
But in any case.
So there was the white cougar pleasantly lounging around on his stomach, licking his claws dispassionately though of course with an obligatory crazed grin; a pallid ear twitched and his yellow eyes swerved in the direction of some others that were right by his alley. Not quite in it, because they hadn't interested him yet, but at the very least they were close by - and so goes Zangetsu standing up and approaching the group with a cackled, 'Mornin' jitters? Stage fright? Butterflies?'
Just in reference to the way they all look mildly on edge.
This is him, trying to make amiable small talk.
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[size=0.7em]He's a totally friendly, approachable guy.
He doesn't do anything to lure anyone away. He smiles all the time, welcoming others with a sunny greeting and acknowledging tilt of the head. Hell, he even dips his head sometimes, or just tilts it through lifting his chin in an acknowledging manner - a perfectly acceptable, 'hey, how are you?' By all means, he initiates conversation and tries to actively keep it going with polite, conscientious statements and appropriate anecdotes and observations.
So maybe his grin is in actuality miles wide and Joker-like and his statements are creepy to the core, as are his opening statements. Maybe he's a startling white, considering how he's a cougar and pretty much no cougars are white, and maybe his eyes are a little weird because he has black sclera... Hey, not all of them can be winners - still, it's not as if he sees anything wrong with himself. Nothing wrong with a little biological discoloration.
You just gotta let go, smell the roses, and wake up at three in the morning with a maniacal barracuda beam on your maw.
This is what Zangetsu does. And, padding leisurely through through hallways at aforementioned ungodly hour in the morning with the walk of a winner, he's had a whole lot of practice.
It's creepy how empty these hallways can be, but he's not gonna complain. He's had tons of alone time before.
[size=0.7em]Before long, up came a traditionally creepily grinning white cougar, pulling up in front of the white tiger and giving her a cursory glance. He snickered, grin stretching wider - oh, hey, he'd said that some other tigress had been his twin before because they both had that same mile-wide grin, but this tigress being just as white as he was probably took the cake.
'Yo!' he answered, bright and perfectly merry if it hadn't been for his splitting cackle, yellow eyes narrowing while his smile grew bigger, and he even had it within himself to tip his head to her a little. What a champ. 'Come right in - guess you're a new resident of DarkClan, humblest home if you ever saw one!' The cougar tilted his side and smirked in reply to the expression on the tigress's face as well as her analytic stare - looked like they'd get along just fine. 'Policeman or doctor, Price. Your pick, yeah? I'm Zangetsu.'
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[size=0.7em]agrEED i saw the video on its game development before it came out and i was just like HHH??? TIME TRAVEL? PLEAS
'Your call.' The white cougar tosses a chuckle in Chloe's direction, nodding to her in kudos and answering blithely, still with that sharply amused grin of his, 'Then, since we're both officers, looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other, huh?' He hummed at her introduction, dipping his head proper and feeling his smirk broaden. Sure, they could get along. 'Likewise.'
He steps back nice and politely and watches the others approach as well, grin twitching at the tigress's refusal of the tour from the other tigress - poor Trip. There's no point being there if he's not going to say something unless he wants to be a damn creep, so after Ms. O speaks up (and a bit of a suppressed cackle at her own interruption of her own words), Zangetsu throws in his own two cents with a sardonically bright, 'So! Where're ya from? Lookin' for a new scene?'
That was his story, at least.
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[size=0.7em]There's some ominousness in Zangetsu reappearing silently before seguing out of sight, always with that wide grin of his start to mystery. A lot of it is that no one knows when the hell he's going to appear next, no one really knows why he does and the rest is that few know where he comes from in the first place; but this innocent white cougar isn't going to dispute anything, not with that nice maniacal wide grin of his and sly look. Air of mystery, you know? There's nothing honestly truly mysterious about him at all, but they don't have to know that.
The big cat watched the two of them, amused narrowed eyes slanted in loving accordance to the wide teeth-bared curve of his mouth - even tilting his head appraisingly when he watches the nian slide sleekly from the shadows, because damn if that didn't look cool - and tilted his head in the awaiting stranger's direction with a laughing hummed, 'Hey there, stranger. 'S DarkClan; welcome!'
And he can't really restrain the loud jarring cackle that comes next, which is his equivalent of a gently purred hello, standing in the kitchen wearing an apron holding a beautifully steaming apple pie fresh out of the oven. Really. It is.
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[size=0.7em]Because Zangetsu has a pain radar (not that he has a thing for Schadenfreude. Honest. Don't look up any strange words that look unfamiliar at all, especially when they're in a mildly horrifying context, everyone) or something else like it, the white cougar arrived, cocking his head at the scene - it took a while for him to process the screams as actual screams, because those were things he heard pretty often back where he was from, and so he leisurely took the time to tilt his muzzle upwards and, oh, look at that. It's a pretty birdie. He settled himself down with a twitched ear of interest, reverberating chuckle in his throat as he observed and beginning it languidly pull a rough tongue over his paw. Now didn't that look like a whole load of fun?
Of course, the itty bitty kitty then goes crashing down and lands with a massive crack right on the ground a few moments later.
After a bit of a pause, watching the wolf and cat go back and forth a bit, the cougar pulled his paw out of his mouth and commented, 'Ouchie.' Of course, there was a bit of snorting and laughing hysterically involved, but that was all internal because sometimes he had tact. Only a teaspoon's worth, but...
Oops, he snickered out loud. Hopefully no one noticed. It's... out of sympathy.
He lifted himself casually to his feet and his ear flicked at a certain medic's appearance out of thin air, noting it but his only reaction a widening grin; he went to amble in front of Saint to at least be an obstruction in her path, maw curling upwards and an errant cackle spilling from his mouth. 'Yo, you heard the man.'
[size=0.7em]Oh, is he counted in this?
Nah, he was a bit too late. Either way - participating was still an option. The white cougar ambled up to the group with his tail in a neat candy-cane slope curling up at the end; he tilted his head in consideration with a cackle, considering the proposition, before executing an impressive feline shrug. Well, who was he to go against rules in a game?
Making things harder for yourself was all the more fun.
'Oh no, wherever could everyone have gone?' he questioned airily, naturally echoing cackle jarring out of his throat and yellow eyes narrowing with his grin when his gaze flicked over to the leopard. Since he'd arrived a little too early after Sagittarius's explanation for anyone to actually start departing from the group, he merely cocked his head to the side and sniggered. 'Eh, well, I'm just gonna wait here for a li'l while and conveniently count to ten for no reason at all before going out to look.' He even politely averted his eyes, smirk widening. See, no cheating here.
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[size=0.7em]Zangetsu snorted in response to Chloe, though his appraising glance weren't at all disapproving; it could even be considered the immediate opposite, respecting the fighter instinct that blared in her eyes. Someone who wasn't afraid of stepping on toes but was definitely smart enough to not downright trod all over authority's toes when it could get them into deep horseshi--
Oh, right, he should probably keep his inner monologue kid-friendly should anything actually accidentally slip out. Reactions would be funny, but imprinting bad things on kids is damn pathetic. Leave 'em alone at least until they're old and gnarly, then the real stuff can come pouring out.
'Oh yeah?' he asked idly, head tilting to the side. That was a loaded sentence; literally anything could be inferred from that. An extended trip, a runaway, a rebellion. Regardless, the cougar merely nodded and, wide grin easily widening, he purred, 'You manage to give him hell first?'
If he knew exactly the names that Chloe had in store for her aforementioned step-douche, he would've split a rib laughing good and hard.
notes im sorry about how late this is!
a+ game. a+ character
[size=0.7em]People lived on energy. A little thrill, that rush of adrenaline that beat you dead after it ran out but while it was alive gave you enough of a boost to hurtle you solidly from one side of a huge river to another; maybe it was why others liked killing things, provoking others. Just to see a reaction.
Just to get their blood pumping.
And, you know, if a game of Capture the Flag isn't comparable to murder, what was?
He is so deathly serious.
'Better brace yourselves!' Zangetsu cackled, bounding up in jumps before skidding to a stop. Cougars could jump pretty illegally far and high, so who was he not to take advantage of a little natural supremacy? 'You're goin' down.'
Yes, he's ready for this.
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[size=0.7em]Materialistic things?
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
But Zangetsu's not gonna chase someone who probably put up one hell of a struggle getting here, if he was right and she just lugged that gigantic sack behind her here - he might be creepy, and a lot little violent, and .. yeah, overall creepy ..
But that doesn't mean he's gotta be rude.
'Gotta show us your stuff first, stranger,' the white cougar cackled, languidly drawing up to the border. The things she has in that sack kind of just accumulate in a messy pile outside of it, what with the rather lackluster reveal and tumble of everything, but if everything was arranged in nice little piles that'd probably give him the heebie jeebies. So he shook it off and waved his paw off-handedly at one of the blades, one that was pretty much a slim sword with a single line of diamonds on the hilt. 'What's your call?'
Being animals, they don't have much in terms of payment other than exchange and more exchange. He'll probably offer her a deer; though he'll have to evaluate the worth of the weapon. As much as he'd like to use his own choppers and scissorhands, sometimes a fifth limb proves useful.
[size=0.7em]Rooms were such a petty creature comfort. It was enough to piss your way around a place and call it quits, dubbing it your territory and flashing your claws out at anyone that dared trespass - after all, that was instinct. It was written in the veins of every creature, no matter how primitive or 'intelligent' they were, that they should go stake their claim on a piece of land through any means possible (growing plants, marking it with an X, leaving your scent all over it as mentioned, et cetera), but just .. territories within a territory?
It was one of those human constructs that made little to no sense at all. If you didn't feel secure in your own territory enough to sleep in the open, then it couldn't truly be considered your territory. You had to solidly reinforce your dominance; make everyone too terrified to even look in its direction. After all, being able to glean a good night's rest from snoozing right on your back belly up in the middle of your home was the greatest test. Surviving was the greatest satisfaction.
Nonetheless, anything that's lit up in the dark is bound to attract any attention; yellow eyes dart over to the source, a low darkly inquisitive 'oh -?' escaping through grinning teeth. Now, this was interesting. It was like a written invitation.
Of course, he's not going to say no.
And so goes the white cougar walking right into the room with barely any aplomb but a hell lot more alert than his casual stride led others to think; his gaze affixes at once on the dragon decisively right in the middle of the room and his grin broadened, settling in the room by leaning right against a wall and casually cackling a passably amiable, 'What? Specially inviting me in? Aw, ya' shouldn't have!'
.. Still, anyone had to admit that this decked up pad wasn't too shabby.
Better than his twenty-four seven desert. Now that was a silent hell.
notes GAH im so sorry for the lateness!that makes me so happy you have no idea
who's your ultimate fave? 
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[size=0.7em]Zangetsu's grin further stretched when he noticed the dragon staying aside from the game and he flicked his head up at her just as a cordial maniacally smiling hello before he theatrically loudly cleared his throat and purred out, 'Oooone. Two. Three. Fooour .. '
Really, he's too kind. Even giving everyone a headstart - such a role model, is he right?
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[size=0.7em]Now Saint was just getting more and more interesting.
Zangetsu loped over to them all with a hugely amused rasping snigger building up in his throat, yellow eyes pinning and pinpointing the bitty kitty that's sweating bullets. Or was it buckets? Either way, like she'd just dodged a bullet, but only by a single hair. 'O-h, is that so?' the white cougar drawled with a raucous cackle at her fumble, malevolent yet somehow pleasant grin stretching across his maw. How do his expressions even work? No one knows. 'Aw, then who're we to turn ya away? Nice ta meetcha - it's Zangetsu. Welcome to the wonderful world of DarkClan, Alice!'
notes !! awesome! welcome back!!
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[size=0.7em]Zangetsu sat and watched the fire crackle and snap, intrigued. His grin stretched wide over his maw.
Ha, oh yeah, DarkClan was burning.
He stood.
With a little hum and then promptly a huge discordant cackle that echoed just loud enough for anyone to hear should they be nearby, the white cougar dug his back paws into the earth and sent sizable clumps of dirt flying into the fire in an attempt to null it, head crouched low to the ground and wide irrepressible glee blowing his grin into full proportion.
Man, this fucking sucked.
He's not stupid. Best alert everyone of his current position and work his way at the fire so they didn't all kick the bucket simultaneously, and every elementary kid learned to duck down in a fire, animal or human notwithstanding.
When the feeling of being watched had disappeared suddenly, right in the morning of his crepuscular amble, then he knew that he hadn't just been feeling it as a residue of bad juju; a surefire way of alerting someone that something had been happening was when it stopped. He still didn't know what happened, but it probably wasn't a good thing. Heh, and now wasn't that so clearly something that took an absolute genius to discern? A+.
'Damn, what a mess,' the cougar commented, accompanied by another booming round of hyena laughing and a toss of more dirt into a fire.
Seriously, he's gonna kill someone.
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[size=0.7em]Zangetsu ambled up as well, the white cougar's black-filled eyes zeroing in on the little tabby perched on the border; he cocked his head and nodded gamely along with his leader with a hissing cackle, mouth curling up into an intrigued smile. At least, a smile that could be considered merely intrigued if intrigued meant borderline unhinged and sharklike. Itty kitty looked .. fretful. Hey, good word. With another hummed snicker, he lapsed into silence.
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