Posts by terroror

[size=0.7em]At the corporal's somewhat rushed cue, and the pretty endearing nickname, the white cougar barked out an ecstatic laugh with an acknowledging loll of the head and drilled out, 'Fivesixeightten! Ready or not, don't look behind yourself!'

And with a last jaunty flick of his heavy tail in the leopard's direction and an admittedly sort of maniacal cackle Zangetsu took off, smirking as he lowered his head to the ground and inhaled nice and slow to absorb the scents. Hmm. Looked like at the moment he was caught between two trails. One seemed subtler than the others, though.

Putting good old cougar genetics into use, the cougar crouched dramatically, echoing chuckle lowly reverberating in his throat, and leaped up into a tree, hunting down that trail he'd caught. Oh, he was coming for them.
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[size=0.7em]Well, in all honesty, Zangetsu's efforts were doing exactly jack.

Jack what? No, just jack. Kid friendly here.

Yellow eyes flicked and a hissing breath sizzled out of his mouth, damn near just shoving his chin into the dirt with the control of not hacking his guts and choking in even more smoke. It was just a lick from impossible to decipher his clanmates' (heh, and once upon a time he never would've thought to use even any remotely teamworky terms) individual scents; still, the cougar singled out one, and with a humming purr decided to focus on that.

Always nice to set goals for oneself, after all.

And so Zangetsu found himself coming across Astrid, who looked like she was in need of some help. Casting her a critical, singular glance, then the surroundings, he then turned back to her with a rather wild grin, jerking his chin at her. 'Want a helping hand walkin'?' he offered airily, ghost of a cackle pushing itself out of his chest - just noticeably more breathlessly than he would've in fresh, actually breathable air.

For now, at least, their interests were shared. Getting the hell out of here.
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[size=0.7em]And up ambled Zangetsu, the white cougar grinning wide and deadly right at the adorable little feline. The grin he directed straight at the kitten - sorry, perfectly mature and respectable tomcat who was sure to do a lot of things to better this world and go on to lead a bright future - was far more than the wussy little half-smiles that Sagittarius and him shared, Zangetsu casting an example. See, this was the right way to beam at someone. Huge, maniacal and fringing downright terrifying.

'You bet!' he hummed, an ear twitching in Astrid's direction to back her up; black sclera didn't do a whole lot to make him seem less intimidating, the cougar slowly tipping his head to the right and firing the ticked tabby a big old toothy grin that very quickly dissolved into a full-out hysterical cackle. Ah, classic. 'Nice ta meetcha; it's Zangetsu!'

Look at him. He's nice, fluffy and friendly.
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[size=0.7em]The bone-white cougar came in with a wide grin stretching his maw, yellow eyes already narrowed with premature amusement. 'Yo!' he cackled, nonchalantly tilting his head and unabashedly unsettlingly surveying the other officer, in the sense that it was almost a anatomical analysis straight before a lobotomy. He rolled his shoulders to stretch vacantly, boundless lethal smirk not abating. 'It's Zangetsu. So, new face or is it just not written in the stars for us?'
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[size=0.7em]Oh, hey, that's sure kind of him.

After all, Zangetsu's been feeling rather ... peckish lately.

The bone white cougar doesn't even bother trying to reign in his explosive cackle, not only at his own joke but also at the clearly fucking plastered prey animal that stumbled right into their paws; slowly and purposefully, Zangetsu lowered his front half down to almost rest his head on his front paws in a deceiving stretch, yellow and black eyes narrowed and almost glowing with deadly amusement. 'Yeah, no pressure,' he sniggered, gaze very clearly predatory and a rounded triangular ear flicking.

Come on; the squirrel is right there. They generally eat them, anyway. What's the difference between a shit-faced squirrel and one that's hiding in a tree?

'Guess they have to be polite first before they can dig in. Oh, well. He'll play nice.

[size=0.7em]Zangetsu only cared to give the basket a flippant glance over before, accompanied by a snarling chuckle, knocking it straight over with a swipe of his large paw, ears pinning back with minimal though highly entertained interest as he surveys everything that spilled out - like hell if he's going to be dainty and delicately pick out every little thing out of that basket. Efficiency, yeah?

Basically, though, little white-yellow things that went crunch! when he stepped on them and other tiny things that practically reeked sugar; the cougar didn't recoil in disgust or even make a face, instead his grin pulling wider. 'Hey, we should call 'em over!' he cackled, tossing his head. 'Maybe we'll be visited by nice candy fairies ta munch on.' That sounded good.

[size=0.7em]An immediate raucous bay of cackles broke out at Natsu's statement, echoing and unabashed; Zangetsu prowled up, yellow on black eyes pressed into viciously amused slits and the last bark of laughter hissing from his teeth. 'Oh?' he leered darkly, blue tongue flickering out to swipe sleekly over his maw and the large white cougar's gaze directed singularly at the pink tomcat as he approached, eyes narrowing further in his purely entertained Cheshire cat smile. 'Oi ... don't make me laugh. Maybe that'd work if your army's strong as hell, but pit a shitload of weaklings in front of a good fighter .. and they'll crush them.' Zangetsu cocks his head, expelling a sharp entertained laugh. 'Maybe they'll even skin ya next! Ya really think that'll work, partner?'

Then came the kid that was being terribly loud about things he knew jack shit about. Zangetsu exhaled audibly in a dark chuckle, heavy tail slowly swinging behind him. 'A fuckin' pit?' he purred before - nope, he can't hold it, snorting and not bothering to withhold another hysterical laugh, tossing his head. Shit, they were feeding him jokes. 'Dumbass! Talk all you want; how 'bout you tie a fishing rod to their backs 'n dangle a carrot in front of 'em so they walk straight off a cliff!'

Stark yellow trailed over to the cheetah, the cougar's grin warping (not that it needed much variation, honestly) into a wildly predatory smirk. 'Hey. Planning on calling the cavalry to help or is this goin' to be a one-clan army?'

Tch. If these guys were tacticians, they all might as fucking well just head out on a kamikaze mission. Would save them a lot of headbanging when the Exiles murdered them in their own pits.
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[size=0.7em]No effort was wasted flashstepping toward the trespasser; like it'd be fuckin' worth it, in the middle of all this desert. Maybe, yeah, if he wanted to hit and kill then ollie out, but with the shrimpy cat trawling over the territory at his own merry pace, it looked as if there was no hope of an invasion.

Obviously, that's basically blaring alarm bells for disaster (in the name of a decoy for a raid or a scout, especially), but who the hell's scared?

Zangetsu stalked up to meet the smaller feline, eyeballing him with flinchingly yellow eyes swallowed by black sclera as it was, before he burst out into a smirk, slowing to a stop and backing off with a harsh upward jerk of his chin. 'Yo,' he purred out casually, a triangularly-rounded ear flicking with measurable calculation. 'Where you headed?'
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[size=0.7em]Unfortunately, the incensed movements to get straight up in his face have the opposite effect of intimidation. Actually, the pallid cougar has to fight himself to restrain from outright howling with mirth; Zangetsu didn't even try to stifle his increasing grin with every step that the feline takes toward him, even courteously lowering his head so that the tom can have the small satisfaction of meeting him yellow-black eye-to-hazel eye (if only he just ignored the fact that Zangetsu actually bent down to do it) - a vivid splash of colours against entirely demonically monochrome.

How's that one for size?

At the point of the tomcat's last words, though, the white cougar can't hold it anymore; he surged forward and aims to press his forehead straight up against the littler creature's, wide grin wicked. 'So that's what you really think?' he cackled unabashedly, yellow eyes almost glowing with his amusement. 'Maybe you're strong. Maybe I'm strong. Maybe the generals are strong and the colonel and the lieutenants. But one weak link, kitty cat' - his huge grin only stretches upon saying the word - 'and then one of your good fighters are gonna have ta go and back 'em up when they fall slack, which leaves one opponent free if we're evenly matched who'll then team up with another opponent to severely injure another one of our good fighters .. ya think you're tough shit because you know how ta talk? How ta rally a crowd? Because ya believe in teamwork?'

Zangetsu didn't back off when he laughed again, entirely black sclera reinforcing the manic gleam in yellow eyes.

'You're just one of those expendable idealists that believe in comrades and fuckin' hope .. maybe ya have willpower. Brute strength.' His gaze flicked briefly in the direction of Blacky, smirk elongating. 'Just what'll happen when you fall into the Exiles's nice neat DarkClan moshpit because they manipulated you into it?' Another round of chuckles exude from Zangetsu's mouth, cougar pulling his head away to stare, grinning wildly, down at the domestic. He purred next, 'If you wanna try .. you're a fuckin' idiot. Go for it.'

He had plenty willpower. It was nice than shitting weaklings that cowered behind their own sword; but what Zangetsu couldn't handle was foolhardy.

It was one thing to know you were strong enough to beat someone down. It was another to recklessly charge into an entire army of fully-weaponised sentient bombs they had little to no data on. They had a spy. They could use him.

They just had to school one little kitten first.
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[size=0.7em]Zangetsu merely surveyed the tuxedo tomcat like he was a particularly amusing rabbit that darted right in front of him, head cocking to the side as his gaze drilled into the feline - grin stretching at the little couplet (was that on accident?) the stranger uttered before aforementioned stranger turned to face him directly in which Zangetsu directly cackled, murmuring a low, 'Hmm?'

... It was absolutely intentional. There was no fucking other word for it, it was purposeful as all hell.

The white cougar's eyes trained on the new pink arrival, smirk growing with simmering entertained intrigue at the fancy taxi service - even with a nice thank you and everything. It didn't take long for him to focus intensely on the stranger, though, Zangetsu nonchalantly commenting through his grin, 'Hey, I'm not goin' ta bother decoding all of your fuckin' song lyrics, y'know.' Maybe if this was the X-Factor ... pfft, but that was just a whole other can of worms. 'But if that's what your case is ... I'm Zangetsu.'

The cougar snorted at the others' comments with high amusement, eyes narrowing with his vicious smile, before stating idly, 'Make yourself at home, King.'

Yellow eyes flit with darkly rolling laughter. Home sweet home; right where your heart is.
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[size=0.7em]Yellow eyes trailed over the one that rallied this get-together in the first place, going on with his fancy shapeshifting and letting it rip, grin tugging mildly sadistically upwards at his frustration. He could talk back; argue, protest, maybe whine at the fact that they really were discussing the best methods in which to tackle this planned raid, maybe complain that he wasn't listening to their perfectly good fight, maybe add a little sob story about how no one understood him and how all he wanted to be was be himself, that's what his anger management teacher told him ... but he had a brain.

'Guess it didn't matter if one of them wanted to charge on recklessly, either. Wasn't his loss.

The wind stirred Zangetsu's fur, the cougar nonchalantly shifting his position to be more stable and overall not fall flat on his ass with the buffet - raising his muzzle to the sky to watch the thunderbird's every move, there was a single tut of his tongue against the roof of his mouth before the white cougar cackled and answered slyly, laughingly, 'You got it, Mister Bossman!' He had asked Franky a question that was at least moderately relevant, though, which he reiterated then: 'Hey, so we gonna band together with any groups or are we flyin' solo?'

His smirk, as if it could ever reach anything below maximum capacity, broadened. The latter wasn't something he minded at all.
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[size=0.7em]The temperature coiling up into steaming heat was something that was extremely hard to miss, though maybe it could have easily passed as simply the rousing intensity of a fight; Zangetsu's eyes darkened as Natsu goes on, grin not abating in the slightest though, if it did, only to take on a very different air, narrower and very dangerously amused. Those that thought like him ... they were a mere dime a dozen. The same kind of people that thought they could overcome a powerful foe if they brought a bunch of newbies together with their trembling weapons and banded together; hardly, unless you were playing an RPG.

If you brought people who could barely fight to a publicly hostile group such as the Exiles, and even specifically one of their best or even merely capable fighters - like he'd said before, that one fighter would just manage to whale on them all without needing to take a single break. After all, amateurs against a ruthless enemy. Teamwork for one enemy left one foe unaccounted for; one foe left unaccounted for could leave and get backups, or aim for someone's back if they were too busy to be aware of it. One foe too many left unseen.

Maybe DarkClan wasn't exactly a bunch of amateurs, but you got nowhere planning for the best scenario.

'Even just being slightly distracted by protectin' someone is a weakness,' the white cougar chuckled lowly, yellow eyes leisurely rolled to their lower corners to face the cat. 'Every time you're glancing behind yourself to check if they're okay, another weakness. Every time you're trapped because ya can't move or hit a certain way without hurting or leaving the one you're protectin' vulnerable ... another weakness.' His grin twisted at the briefest glimpse of fire pouring from the feline's maw, dark and heartily entertained. Yellow eyes swallowed by black left the bristling tom carelessly to, again, face Franky, though his words continued and almost wrapped up with a low, fiercely smiling, 'I'm not sayin' you're weak. I'm not telling ya that there's no point in even tryin' or that the Exiles are too strong!'

And damn fucking right they aren't if any DarkClan members at all are alive to keep breathing.

However, on the matter of whether or not Natsu actually was weak ... he'd have to prove that himself later.

'But if ya dive to the bottom of the ocean without a scuba mask or experience and expect not ta drown ...' Both of Zangetsu's ears twisted to Oprah when she slammed the book down, the cougar licking his teeth slowly and hissing out another cackle through the subtle raise in muzzle at the wolf's bellowed words. After the volume has ebbed out enough to be able to hear himself, he finished with an eerie hissed laugh, '... see ya in the next life. We've gotta prepare. Training, reading shitting books on deep-sea diving if we're still going by this metaphor, test runs. We're launchin' this raid; not them. We're deciding when. We've got time. We have the advantage in planning exactly what we're goin' ta do and doin' it well; with intel, we know where to hit hard 'n more effectively. Even plan who to team up with who to lessen, like I said, weak links.'

The white cougar stepped away from Natsu, eyes sweeping over the two with highest authority and digging large claws into the earth with a sharp grin.

'So don't be fuckin' uselessly reckless.'

[size=0.7em]Classic shrug-wide grin moment. Well, since he asked so nicely. At any rate, Zangetsu beamed widely unsettlingly over at the cheetah like 'oh, you' before tilting his head and going on to ask pleasantly obediently, unable to withhold an idle chuckle under his breath as he did so, 'Where do they keep the prisoners? Are they livin' the life with a huge amount of space or is it smaller for their easy monitorin'?'

Natsu operated with passionate spiels of teamwork and friendship. Zangetsu nitpicked at everything ruthlessly and could probably talk for hours about how brute strength didn't amount to anything if you [insert another metaphor here that referenced death at least once] ... it made for an amusing combination, honestly.

Maybe he'll find a rock to preach to or something. Name it Zangestwo.
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[size=0.7em]Zangetsu cocked his head, maw twisting into a sharp smirk - if there was anything action movies and sports matches could tell you, it was that strategies and gameplans generally went to shit very hard and very fast. Still, better having an idea of what to do than going all balls to the walls into unfamiliar territory; the cougar considered the strategies, snorting and baring his teeth in a grin.

'That could work,' he commented idly in reference to them all shapeshifting into fleas, cackling with a cock of his head. Definitely one way of getting things done. Yellow eyes flickered to the others when he shifted his footing, sliding in with an amused narrow of his eyes, 'Bein' a prisoner would be too risky. Doesn't matter how much ya can stand pain; we dunno how they treat their prisoners, whether they play around with 'em or straight up slit their throats, an' there's no point infiltratin' one by one.' Like Ms. O -- Oprah? -- said before. No point getting anyone needlessly injured, anyway. Every fighter counted. (Still unconfirmed on if they're going to ask any other group for help, but he's not even going to bother asking a third time.)

The cougar focused on the wolf and Nivata, malicious grin very toothy. The devil's advocate he will be. 'Yo, comin' from the sky's not gonna be much of a surprise attack 'less you've also got invisibility - can be arranged but not everyone's got it - and that can be seen through.' Damn power blockers to hell. 'How're we gonna shield the fliers from snipers, even ignorin' conjuration 'n other powers used against us?' He then rolled his head to the side and suggested next casually, 'Still, might have some merit to it. While that's happenin', take 'em down in waves? Whoever's capable of telepathy and emotion manipulatin' sees who they can take down with hypnosis shit like the feelin' of pain, then everyone else can aim for anyone who's not incapacitated - though it'd be a hell of a lot more effective withou' the power blockers.'

Seriously. So many things could be easier.

The bone white cougar snickered, cocking his head to them and lastly offering sardonically, 'Strike by night?'

Maybe they could make a giant slingshot and just load their clanmates onto it one by one.
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[size=0.7em]Zangetsu came up languidly, white cougar's yellow eyes narrowing slightly as his grin elongated and a tamely high echoing chuckle escaped his voicebox - he didn't stop near anyone in particular other than the momentary flick of his gaze in Chloe's direction, the cougar overall focusing on the ... porcupine.

He snorted, tipping his head up with his wide smile and answering slyly, 'Got it, big guy.'

Now wasn't this an awe-inspiring coronation. Plus a signal boost. Fine and dandy.
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[size=0.7em]Yellow irises swallowed by black were trained on the scene, almost flippantly surveying the sheer bloody chaos; corpses strewn like toilet paper on a rich person's lawn (accompanied by hysterical laughter as teenagers slapped their hands together and booked it straight home), torn and utterly wrecked - twisted decidedly out of proper proportion, bleeding copiously, either with aborted whimpering or entirely eerily silent. All still; a massacre unblinkingly unleashed by the dragon now standing there mellowly.

An echoing giggle escaped teeth bared in a grin, Zangetsu was casually splayed across a log some ways off from the pandemonium and staring over at all of them; his eyes narrowing critically and analytically into near slits as his Cheshire cat smile stretched with only the most blasé of condescension, downright entertained contempt - so this was her steady descent, or else the rickety plummet into bleak nothingness. Nothing but solace in the calm methodical slashes of claws through soft flesh, nothing but the rip and putrid tear of skin between teeth.

It takes trained dissociation to fully immerse yourself in sheer instinct; razor sharp impulses, ducking attacks seamlessly simply because you could feel them coming seconds before they were even there, the wild unhinged blows that hit so much harder when you lost all restraint.

But it took willpower to not give into absolute lack of self-control, which lead only to an anger-fueled being of absolute destructive rampage - detestable creatures that didn't know their own limits or else did but heedlessly recklessly charged forth and breached them just because they could. Creatures like Sebastian that had no taste except trying to be intimidating in total mental freedom. No limits, no end.

Zangetsu sniggered under his breath. Truly, outside of the literal sense he could call Sebastian an animal, but better yet ... human. With their temptations and sacrilegious whims to entire succumb to their own desires. Honestly pitiful. Weak.

The pallid cougar's gaze flicked evaluatingly to Eve, his head cocking to the side and mouth pulling slowly into a larger errant grin, before he lowers his muzzle back down to Nivata once more. Just the briefest flash of a single meeting in the midst of pure night - other than that, they've barely even glanced at one another. 'Yo,' he commented idly, after Eve had spoken. His grin broadened. 'Careful. Gotta make sure ya can climb outta holes first 'fore ya dig them.'

It would be a shame if she dropped off the deep end. Not even attempting to be enigmatic.
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