He who aligned the Stars

XI

This was not going according to plan, at least not to the extent that he had been hoping it would have done. Sure, he had made it here and actually found the individual in question. Despite how notorious it was that the Mesoamerican Gods despised the other races intervening in their territories, he considered it an achievement enough that he made it here and was actually granted an audience without getting smote.

However, that was then and this was now.

Sitting on some old rotten chair at the foot of a dusty looking garden, some half dead trees not far from here and with an aged looking wood cabin not too far from him where his host had retreated to for some reason or another - they didn't so much tell him as just said they would be back in a moment - he was beginning to ponder upon the chance that this was nothing more than an elaborate insult.

If it was, then they were doing an exceedingly good job of it. He'd rarely felt so looked down upon in his life. Not since the first announcement of that joke of a ceasefire centuries ago did he feel as though someone was just 'yanking his chain' as that saying from the apes went.

But he couldn't do anything about it because every time he thought about doing something, the God opposite would get this flash in their eyes. As though they were trying to provoke a reaction from him just on the off chance they would get the possibility to kill him on the spot. Just because they had let him in, didn't mean they were going to let him out either. Which meant he was going to need to bite down on his pride and play it safe.

Besides, he was confident that he could win them over.

So, for now, he'd let this settle with a patient smile on his face and little else. Though the thought disgusted him beyond any measure that he'd need to go out and include the likes of foreign Gods to his side, that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. Loath as he was to admit it, he heard tales of what Sirzechs had been capable of during the civil war in the underworld…not to mention Michael and his human pet enforcers.

That woman who led them…now that was someone worth killing but not worth dying over.

Leaning back into the chair, he crossed his legs over one another and heard the faint protests of the wood behind him. The dull creak of the joints letting their age show as he closed his eyes and fought back the urge to just turn around and smash the stupid chair in the first place. Perhaps he was going about this all wrong, what manner of God would live in these squalid conditions if they had even an ounce of respect for themselves.

Even the Devils had a touch more respect for the locations they would live in and they were filthy little vermin. What did that say about the Mesoamericans that cockroaches valued their living conditions and homes more than this person did.

He stamped down on making a remark once again, drawing his lips tight and glancing in the direction of the other person who was reasonably close to him.

He withdrew the temptation to curl his lip at the way the tanned human woman was staring at him, wearing a thin t-shirt, shorts and sandals with a straw sunhat. He found himself looking her up and down with thinly veiled disdain before he turned his head towards the direction of the house once more as the sound of slamming wood brought his attention to his host exiting with an orange bucket in his left hand and a very old stereo radio in his right.

Long blonde hair that went past his shoulders, tinted sunglasses which hid away his eyes in the light, sky blue jeans with a mixture of scuff marks and tears in the fabric and a stained white vest.

His eyebrow twitched slightly as the man didn't so much as spare him a glance as he came to a halt near him.

Setting the bucket down between them, his eyes flickered down to the contents and revealed that it was full of ice cubes and nondescript brown glass bottles. The smell of cheap booze reached his nose and had him blink slowly to mask the flash of disgust in his eyes. Turning his head away from it after a moment and bringing his hand up to rub the bridge of his nose.

Cracking an eye open at the faint hiss, the shirtless blonde man slumped down into the chair behind him and kicked his feet up, looking as uncaring as he would find a passerby at a beach or something. Taking in a deep breath as he leaned over and took the nearest bottle out of the bucket and then resumed his lounging about, moving his thumb to the base of the bear cap and flicking it off with minimal effort and bringing the cooled bottle to his lips.

In line with the rest of his appearance thus far, they didn't go for a short sip. Instead they lifted the bottle and very nearly downed half of the contents before they eventually pulled it back with a pleased gasp, then his head turned to him and double taked at his presence, pushing his sunglasses up and squinting at him in surprise before dropping them back down.

"Oh, you're still here." Sniffing loudly, Tezcatlipoca grunted as he turned over and placed his finger on the radio. Snapping it on with a hiss as static met his ears, the pair of them shared a cringe at the noise before the God moved his hand along the dials, garbled words came out indecipherably for a few seconds as a look of annoyance crossed over his face. "...Fuck sake…" he grumbled under his lips before he looked to the man. "Hey, Sofia-"

The woman nodded her head once, then leaned forwards and flipped the radio around on the small table to face her. She fussed over it for a few seconds in silence before the words came out clearly.

"-nd continuing on from the story of the past couple days, the surprise meteor shower which dominated the night skies is still the source of much interest both with the citizens and with scientists, with some sources online claiming it to be the result of aliens. However, many astronomers have come forward and claimed that events of two days ago are not uncommon-"

"Still talking about that, are they?" Tezcatlipoca hummed with mild intrigue as he looked the radio over, then shrugged his shoulders. "Made for a decent display at least." he chuckled to himself as he shook his head, going for another drink as he did so only to pause and shudder in disgust. "Less funny when you consider that it could have just been Coatlicue having a bit of fun or something…"

Did the God even realise he was here?

"You can have a beer if you want." They said all of a sudden while keeping their eyes on the radio, there was a short silence where he wasn't certain who they were actually talking to, then the blonde leaned back into their chair and fixed him with a moderately annoyed look. "I'm talking to you. If you're gonna wait around, least you can do is have a beer. I'm not gonna be accused of being an unwelcoming host or something like that."

Sparing a look at the bottles of beer, Kokabiel managed to bite back the urge to tell the God where to stuff it. Self preservation narrowly won out over all of that. Instead he politely cleared his throat and flashed them a disarming smile. "As generous as your offer is, I must respectfully decline…human drinks have never agreed with me and I would dislike wasting your…supply."

Tezcatlipoca stared at him in silence for a few seconds, then took another slow drink of beer while maintaining eye contact with him. As though to purposefully try and put him on edge, his smile remained on his face in an almost pleasant way, though the longer it went on the more he could feel his features start to crease. At this point he was just debating whether or not he could leave and still maintain his good mood. Something that was quickly becoming an impossibility.

"...Are you saying you're too good for my hospitality?" The ice cold words were drilled into the back of his neck like nails. He locked up at the blank tone of voice as Tezcatlipoca pulled the bootle from his lips. Bringing his right hand up and rubbing the underside of his chin, his lips curling into a faint frown. "Because I've let you bunk out in my yard, anyone else would have cut you open before you could even open your mouth…so the least you can do is take a fucking beer."

Kokabiel was no coward.

But he was no fool either.

He silently reached across to the bucket and pulled out one of the peers and leaned back into the chair. The God watched him like a hawk the entire time he opened up the bottle and took a swig of it. The liquid tasted bitter, foul. He was always more of a wine person anyway. With a moderately pleased huff, the blonde leaned back with a trace of a smile on his lips that didn't quite look as though it met his eyes.

"I've ordered a pizza as well so you better fucking take some of that when it gets here."

He really didn't know whether they were joking or not and he desperately wished to know because there was no earthly way he was going to have some of that revolting human slop.

"Right then…" Wiping the underside of his nose, the God let out a bored huff before he brought up his hand and gave a rather lazy wave in his direction. "You've chanced coming all the way out here to meet with Gods who've made it clear what they do to invaders…I admit, that takes balls. So I'll hear you out…" the bored tone remained, yet a phantom weight now rested on his shoulders as the next words were delivered in an almost casual way, but their intentions were anything but. "Don't make it boring. I don't like boring shit."

Oh, he wanted to get right to the point then, did he? That was fine by him.

"The ceasefire between the three factions can't last forever." He started immediately, leaning back into his chair and keeping his face composed as he did so. "Rather, it would be better that it didn't. It is a state of affairs that keeps everyone on their toes on the edge of war without ever going over to that final state…it is something that beggars belief with how desperate they all are to keep it going."

Tezcatlipoca remained silent as he spoke, no indication that he was actually registering anything he was saying. Not that he really cared at the moment, it was basically common sense to someone like him. A god of war would understand what he had to say.

"The Great War needs a conclusion." He stressed the word with a growl "It's scale was great enough to shake the very world-"

A snort from the God cut him off, the blonde bringing their hand up to cover their growing smile as they seemingly sniggered at his comment. Kokabiel flattened his features and stamped down on his immediate response. Instead giving Tezcatlipoca a slightly narrowed gaze and little else as he waited for them to stop giggling like a child. It went on for longer than he was comfortable with, the fact it happened at all in the middle of him speaking was annoying enough.

Pulling his hand away from his face, Tezcatlipoca waved it from side to side as the laughter fell away. "Great War, right, right…you guys still call that slap fight a war. You want real war? You see the shit those Hindu guys got up to a few thousand years ago? Now that was a war…but fine, yeah. It meets the technicality but really…your little skirmish barely involved your pops because he was busy slapping up the dragons and then when he did get involved after laying down the pow on…fuckin' nevermind that. Only real interesting point was when the Moon guy got involved and then beat the shit out of all of you."

Kokabiel withheld a flinch at the mention of the Crimson Moon, tightening his hands into fists as the phantom pains flashed within his body. His jaw clenched hard, forcing down the memories of the period when they got involved in the conflict almost by accident. It was a long time ago and they were dead, even if their spawn still lingered, it was gone and only proved that the Grigori could survive anything thrown at them. Something not even God himself could fight alone.

They shook their head and took another sip and emptied the bottle of it's contents, throwing it over his shoulder and a short distance away. He heard the bottle break in the distance as the God exhaled. "But yeah, sure. It did trail off in a really sad way…I mean the guy fucking dies and then you all just stop fighting?"

"Precisely." He latched onto the change of topic almost immediately - anything to get away from the moon - and nodded his head vigorously at the War God. Who paused briefly as they reached for another beer before they resumed. "The Grigori, the Angels and the Devils…we've all been poised to finish each other off for centuries and yet none have had the strength or courage to make the first strike. We all know what needs to happen to make it all worthwhile…but none are brave enough for it but the moment it starts they'll throw themselves into it without a second thought."

"You want to start the war again or something?" Tezcatlipoca bluntly asked as he slipped off the cap from another beer bottle, his eyes briefly tracking it through the air before they returned to Kokabiel. "I mean…fair enough? Not sure why I'm supposed to care about it-"

"You know they're planning a peace settlem-"

He stopped speaking, not because he wanted to but because his mouth simply stopped making noise. He could feel it open and close, knew precisely the words he wanted to speak. Yet nothing happened, he merely opened and close his mouth several times in silence before he snapped his jaw shut.

It felt cold all of a sudden.

"Don't fucking interrupt me again if you want to keep your face attached to your skull." He never once raised his voice as he delivered the threat, nor did he so much as shift in his expression the whole time he did so. Yet there was no doubt of the severity of his words and whether or not he would carry out the threat.

Tezcatlipoca stared at him in silence for a few seconds longer, then brought up his free hand and pointed a single index finger at him. Shaking his hand up and down as he did so before visibly mouthing the words 'peace settlement' to himself.

The brief pang of fear that shot through his body was briefly quelled by the sudden annoyance on his face, not directed to him but directed to what he had suddenly said. Brows slightly creased before he grunted and took a long drink. "Peace settlement between you three rowdy kids? Yeah right…I give it a year before someone breaks it. Just hash it out already…but again, why should I care?"

"Because as you said, I am going to restart the great war." He announced with all the confidence and pride that came with making such a declaration. He could already picture it now, he could already feel himself on the battlefields. The internal revelry was cut short by the dispassionate stare of the God that was silently commanding him to continue.

Kokabiel obliged. "I am going to force a conclusion, the conclusion that should have been reached all those centuries ago before they spit on our pride in this revolting manner." he fought back a snarl to ensure he maintained a respectful enough tone of voice, even if he didn't mean it. "And I have come before you with this declaration in the hope that you will lend your aid to the Grigori in the war to come."

Tezcatlipoca kept silent, then slowly brought his free hand up and pushed up against the underside of his sunglasses until they were resting on his forehead. His movements were slow and lazy, without an ounce of energy within them as he dropped his arm back down onto his chair and maintained the stoic expression.

When he did speak, he spoke only a single word.

"Why?"

Kokabiel paused, then raised an eyebrow. Confusion flooded him for a brief moment before he tilted his head. "I am unsure as to what you-"

"Why do you think I care?" Tezcatlipoca reiterated with a shrug of his shoulders. "Even supposing I did care why you were all slapping up one another in a sad climax, why would I actually lend my aid to a bunch of exiled bird wings? I'm really hoping you've got something a bit more than 'the goodness of my heart' because then I really will kill you."

Taking in a deep breath, he leaned forwards. "The peace settlement I alluded to earlier? You are aware that the White Dragon Emperor is allied with Azazel while the Red Dragon Emperor is now affiliated with the Devils."

As expected, that earned a slight twitch of the eyebrow from the God as he let out a low hum of mild interest. "Well, I can already see one flaw in that peace plan because neither Albion or Ddraig will ever agree to go buddy-buddy with one another…still not seeing as how this should be my problem though. Unless you're planning to start shit when you know that you're going to lose…"

He quelled the anger and spoke only in a firm tone of voice. "We will not lose."

"Sure you won't." Rolling his eyes, Tezcatlipoca scoffed and brought the bottle to his lips and took another long sip. "Because that's why you're coming here to beg me for help. You're so confident in victory that you want me there as…what? You want me to get some pom-poms and prance around like a fucking cheerleader or something?"

The pressure returned in force.

"Don't blow smoke up my ass." Levelling a finger at his face, the God scowled openly and with clear annoyance. "Because that's not even funny as irony. You're here because you know that at the first sign of a war, those Devils are going to start reincarnating humans enmasse to fill up the flanks which…that leaves a poor taste in my mouth because they have no stakes in that shit but whatever."

Letting out a huff, he slumped back into the chair and gave him a lazy look. "So…still waiting on that reason to get involved at all because otherwise the only conflict you're gonna be seeing is me getting out of this chair to curb your ass into the first…" eyes narrowed and voice lowered. "And trust me. You won't need to worry about any other fights after it."

Now he was getting a little on edge, there was a very real danger of whether or not he would be able to escape or not. Perhaps he would be able to convince them to let him leave but that window was quickly closing. There was still something he had, something that would certainly make him understand the severity of what was happening here. Even if he didn't care about what it meant for the Angels or Devils, he knew that Tezcatlipoca would probably care about it as well given that it also affected humans.

"God is dead."

"Bullshit." Tezcatlipoca replied almost instantly, then the confident look slowly started to fade away and was replaced with a growing look of shock, pushing himself up in his chair and frowning heavily. He briefly glanced at the woman at his side who had all but frozen at the sudden declaration.

Kokabiel felt confident that he now had the attention of the War God.

"It is true. He perished along with the original lucifer and the four great Satans." Kokabiel explained as he leaned back into his chair, keeping an eye on the now silent God as he did so. "The three factions as they exist now are a joke, only the Grigori maintain any of their original leadership from the start of the conflict...Michael has taken over Heaven in the absence of God and has been running a failing system ever since, without an ability to repopulate the Angels they will be extinct soon…so they rely on humans who do not know their leader is dead and gone."

He paused, then brought his hand up and rubbed his chin "I would consider it a mercy that they finally enter war, if only so they can have the chance to avenge their fallen father…in fact, God's death is concealed from all…Only the upper echelons on the factions leadership truly know and it-"

"Shut up for a moment." It wasn't a request, it was a command and he was forced to oblige before he even realised he had closed his jaw. Tezcatlipoca pushed himself out of the chair, then turned away from him and paced a short distance down the length of the field before coming to a halt under the shade of a close tree. He stood there for at least a minute before taking a single gulp and finishing the rest of his bear and turning back around.

The face of the God was set in stone as he did so, rapidly approaching him which quickly put Kokabiel on edge the closer that Tezcatlipoca got. When he was barely a foot from him, he abruptly stopped walking and loomed over him, blocking out the sun and becoming a dark silhouette over him. "...That's fucking scummy right there. The lot of you."

He wasn't able to get out even a single word before the God raised his finger and pointed it squarely at his face. "In light of the fact that you have managed to make me royally pissed at all three of your factions, I will at least hear what your plan is to try and restart your war and then when you finish, I can decide who is-"

Tezcatlipoca was cut off as his pocket started to vibrate, a muffled voice came out of his pocket.

"Guess I got what I deserve~

Kept you waiting there, too long my love~

All that time, without a word~"

Kokabiel darted his eyes between the song and Tezcatlipoca as they quietly cursed under their breath and tossed away the empty beer bottle in their hand before they stuffed their hand into their pocket, all while the song kept on playing.

"Didn't know you'd think, that I'd forget, or I'd regret~

That special love, I have for you~

My baby bl-"

When he finally fished the device from his pocket, he stared at the screen for a moment before he made a small noise and nodded his head. "Oh, pizza's here. Good, need something to get my mood up." he briefly paused and glanced at him, the two made eye contact for a second before they narrowed and Kokabiel froze up. "...Don't forget what I said earlier."

He was actually being serious?

The pizza couldn't have come at a better time, he needed something to try and briefly take his mind off the sheer bullshit he had heard. Also conversations with Jorge were always a little funny. They were an amusing man.

He liked Jorge a little.

Accepting the call, he placed the phone to his ear. "Hey, Jorge-"

"I am not Jorge."

The smile died, he felt his lips curl down at the monotone voice he heard on the other end of the line. It wasn't even that they sounded bored, just that there wasn't any emotion inside it at all. Honestly, it sounded like one of those scam calling answer machines to him. He made a mental note to track down the owner of the next one of those he got.

"New guy?"

"Yes. Jorge was unable to complete this delivery. I volunteered to complete it."

Damn, that was a shame. Also who in the shit would phrase it like that? It sounded menacing as all Hell to him and that was saying something. Like that sort of misleading little one liner that would be delivered in a film or whatever. He kept his expression tepid as he slid his other hand into his trouser pocket, kicking at the dirt as he hummed over the line to the caller. "You get my order right, yeah?"

"Double pepperoni. Jalapeno peppers and coca-cola."

"Full fat?"

"Yes."

That was good, Jorge always knew his order off the top of his head, saved time and made it simple and swift to work with them. Nodding his head up and down with another hum, he held up a single finger towards the name of the crow that was just staring at him all funny like, he honestly couldn't remember what their name was and just called them knife ears inside his head on account of his features.

Knife ears was a boring asshole as well. But he was a boring asshole who was smart enough to keep his little flashes of anger to himself because whether or not his displays of indignation would be funny, he'd still have to kill him on principle.

"You got the address right?"

"I am currently standing in front of your door."

He was already halfway towards the house before he stopped walking and furrowed his brows, pulling the phone away and staring at the screen for a half second as he just computed what he had been told. Then slowly put the phone back to his ear and inclined a single eyebrow as he resumed walking.

It was a fairly innocent comment.

Except for the fact that Jorge had always been stopped at the gates a quarter of the mile up the road so he had never seen the door in the first place. Yet here was this guy whose name he didn't know and they had apparently walked right on by the guards without him knowing about it. That was a little curious, were pizza delivery guys always this interesting or was it an recent trend?

"Uh-huh." He instead responded over the phone, keeping his newfound interest to a minimum as he swung the outside door open and stepped into the small house. Moving across the length of it before he approached the door. "See you in a second then." he didn't wait for a reply before he ended the call and stuffed it back into his pocket.

Coming to a stop at the foot of the hallway leading to the front door, he stared at it with slightly narrowed eyes. He could see the faint shadow through the warped glass but he couldn't sense anything beyond the door. There was nothing about what was on the other side of the door that set off any alarm bells in his head. But it was the case there was literally nothing there.

Not like Knife ears who he'd known was coming miles off, this was just a complete surprise.

Still, as long as they had his pizza and hadn't done anything with it, then perhaps he could tolerate this little surprise. It was already a little more intriguing to him than knife ears.

With a mental shrug, he approached the door casually and then swung it open.

He stared.

Deep purple eyes stared back.

He closed the door again and looked to the side with the feeling of a frown creasing his face soon following. Trying to make sense of what was on the other side of the door was already proving to be a mystery and a half and that was based purely on the fact that he had no idea where he was even supposed to start. Wetting his lips, he opened the door again while standing side on, then turned his eyes on the figure there once more.

…

…Nope, still couldn't make sense of it.

Reaching up, he took his sunglasses off his head and let out a small sigh before he held them up in between himself and the man(?) standing on his porch and looking at them through the filtered lenses, squinting at them as they brought them up and down several times. The man remained silent the whole way through his act, merely content to stare at him with an unblinking stare, all while they held a white square box in one hand and a cylindrical bag in the other which he presumed held his coke.

He paused for a moment as he stared at the bag, realising that it had been chilled as well, but there was only one way to be sure. He pointed down at the bag and raised an eyebrow. "That an ice bag for the coke?"

"Yes." The man responded without even breaking eye contact.

He hummed once, nodding his head up and down. "...Good man." then looked up "So who the fuc-pffft." he trailed off with a wheeze as he finally registered what the man was actually wearing, taking a step back and bringing his hand up to rub his eyes all while he fought back a proper belly laugh.

With an olive green poncho embroidered with white lines through it in a pattern around the shoulders and chest, a wide brimmed dark brown cotton stetson hat and with a rough cut prickly beard, the man looked like he had been ripped straight out of for a few dollars more. Already, that made this encounter worthwhile, nevermind everything else that had been surrounding it.

Turning away from the man, he continued to wheeze as they patiently waited for him to stop, though he didn't quite ignore the eerie feeling they gave out, as though they weren't quite there in the first place. A bit weird but in a good enough way, there was an element of mystery about it which made their sense of attire more fitting. As he let out a final exhale, he turned back to the man with dirt blonde hair and wiped away at his eyes.

"Alright, that was a good wheeze." Coughing to himself, he gave the man a lopsided smile. "You're off to a good start for an uninvited guest. So…Jorge?"

The purple eyed man stared at him before he spoke in the same tone of voice he used over the phone. "I convinced him he had already made the delivery and sent him back to his place of work. He is unharmed and unconcerned."

"Alright then." He nodded once, mildly pleased to learn that Jorge was still alive but that didn't occupy as much in his mind as the current situation. He reached forwards and took the pizza box from the man without incident. They then reached for the bag and unzipped it with their now free hand, pulling out a bottle of chilled fizzy pop and holding it towards him which he took again. "I'd have been pissed if you stole this from me."

The man remained straight faced, not even giving a hint he reacted to the subtle threat.

Huh. Interesting.

"So…any reason you're here or is it literally just to deliver pizza and soft drinks?" He held up the two to punctuate the sentence while desperately hoping that the man with no name would answer him in a negative way. Honestly, he was desperate for something else with this because it seemed like too much for it to be as simple as a food delivery. "For that matter, how did you get past the guys at the front?"

"...I walked."

"What, through them?"

The silence was telling enough, now he raised his brows and looked the man up and down with a new discerning eye to him. Still nothing about them really sprang out at him but he was getting a little curious at this point. The hint of uncanny valley remained and was now sprinkled with a bit of danger. Neither Mateo nor Andres were incompetent or shit at fighting and he would have definitely heard it if they had gotten into a fight.

"...They still alive?"

"Yes."

Now he was getting very interested, pursing his lips and giving another small hum as he did so. That meant he had taken them out quick enough that they hadn't been able to really start a proper fight and quiet enough that he didn't hear them. He also didn't look as though he had so much as a thread out of place on his clothes. With a hum, he turned to the pizza box and mentally flipped it open to examine the contents.

A let out a whistle. "Not even a crumb out of place…" he glanced back at the man and tilted his head at an angle. "Long distance fighter?"

"Not especially."

"Sacred Gear?"

"No."

"...Well…" Smacking his lips, he stepped backwards and turned sideways. "Come on in then, you've raised my mood from how it was. I'd say that nets you an audience with me."

The blonde offered him a single respectful nod as he stepped into the house, eyes briefly flickering around before they reverted back to straight ahead, he watched the man for a moment then shut the door behind them. "So, if you're going to go through the effort of meeting with me, making sure my food arrives and outright telling me you beat up my guards, I'll assume you're trying to get on my good side."

Turning around to face him, the man nodded once more. "You are correct. I am here in the hope of securing a beneficial partnership with you."

"You as well, huh?" Muttering to himself, he jerked his head forwards as he marched past the man. "Well, you're in luck. Today I seem to be in the business of accepting guests who want to make friends with me. Though I hope you're a little more interesting than knife ears."

"A curious nickname."

"I can't be bothered to remember what his actual fucking name is." He shot back with a light tone and a twitch of a smile, opening the door to the back yard and flinging it open. His sunglasses appeared back in front of his eyes as he called out across the yard towards the crow who was still sitting on the chair, having not moved since he departed. They didn't even finish the beer he had them get.

And after he went through all the trouble to be a considerate host and all.

Ass.

"Hey, knife ears." He shouted out, earning a twitch from the crow as their ears flickered up and down. More than likely they knew he was talking about them but were probably fighting back making some sort of angry comment about it. A shame, he would have hoped they'd at least do something interesting before it came to an end. Still, maybe this would draw a reaction from them. "Looks like you have some competition for being my friend."

They froze, then bolted to their feet and whirled around in a moment, eyes narrowed first on him and then to the man who stepped out into the yard behind them. Their lips curled in clear disgust before knife ears clearly noticed it as well, he saw the faint tension in their shoulders and the widening of their stance. Textbook warrior stuff, really. Good to see their instincts hadn't dulled in any event.

There was no initial comment from knife ears nor from the nameless man behind him, yet he still turned to see how they had reacted. He wasn't disappointed to see that they had similarly paused the moment they caught sight of him, their eyes narrowed for a brief moment before they returned to their usual stance. Yet he saw recognition dance through their eyes, not that they attempted to hide it either.

With an internal hum of intrigue, he turned back from the nameless man and continued on his advance towards his chair. Leaving the two of them to glare at one another in silence. The clear hostility from knife ears was almost laughable, yet he hadn't seen anything in the nameless man. Not even that they were annoyed, they just noticed the guy existed and then nothing. Probably one of the most disrespectful things they could have done at the time, yet that let an idea bubble away in his head.

"You two can talk amongst yourselves for a moment." Commenting aloud, he slumped back into his seat with the pizza box, placing his drink at his side and flipping the box open. Briefly pausing to hand a slice to Sofia who he figured deserved a bit of effort for having to stand in the sun and watch this ass. Besides, who doesn't love a meal and entertainment as well? And this was probably going to prove entertaining.

Neither one of them said anything.

He withheld a sigh of annoyance as he rolled his eyes, setting the pizza box on his lap and pulling a slice up to take a bite from. "Fuck sake, you're both here to see me, aren't you? Indulge me a little here. I've never felt so popular so I'd like to spread this good will around or something like that…You're bound to have something in common if you're both here for me around the same time, think of it like fate."

The crow turned and stared at him with wide eyes before they spoke up "You cannot truly entertain a meeting from this primate?"

"...Ha?" He made a show of lowering his arms back to his side, then raised a single finger and moved it towards his ear, rubbing around inside for a moment and then drawing it back. "Could you just repeat that for me? I guess my hearing must be going and my head must be blitzed out from the couple beers I had because I could have sworn you just said some stupid shit but, clearly, I'm just getting ahead of myself, right?"

The look he fixed the crow with was piercing, they froze on the spot as whatever presence they had was instantly drowned out by him loosening a little bit of his own. He traced the beads of sweat forming on their brow and the slight widening of their eyes before they straightened themselves out, visibly swallowing and shaking their head. "What I meant to say, lord Tezcatlipoca, was that for this human to show up, unannounced and walk into a meeting between the two of us is something that might be seen as poor form."

Tezcatlipoca stared at him, then blinked once and made a small noise of understanding. "Huh. Yeah, guess there's that. But at the same time: Fuck you." he jerked his head towards the nameless man. "He brought me pizza. You didn't even want to take a beer you ass. Don't come at me with this 'poor form' bullshit."

The fact the guy was still breathing was a huge mercy on his part and it was literally just because he'd been brave enough to come here. That was already starting to wear thin on him as well. At this point, the only reason the guy was still breathing was because he told him that the God of the Bible was dead.

With a sigh, he turned his head to the nameless man and offered them a lazy look up and down. Their body was clearly tense yet their expression remained unchanged during the display of power. Even if it wasn't directed at them, they would have still felt it. Yet they didn't look all that troubled by it. Just kept staring dead ahead at the crow without looking as though he had blinked since he first met them. Then their eyes flickered to him and he had their full attention.

He made a so-so gesture as he took a bite of pizza, chewing loudly before he swallowed. "He has a point though…technically. So, introduce yourselves to one another and then we can just call this some dragons den bullshit or something. You pitch your ideas to me and I'll decide who I can help out with." turning to the crow, he sent them a challenging look that was all but begging them to try and talk back to him. They were smart enough to keep themselves in line this time around.

"So…" Pointing a finger to himself, he started speaking. "I am Tezcatlipoca, God of a bunch of shit that I am not going to name right now. You can just call me Tezcalitpoca of the Black Sun for all intents and purposes and a God of War as well. I am staring this little meet and greet so, knife ears-"

The crow visibly started at the name he dealt out to them once more, their expression twisting in a barely concealed angry manner; he was certain that he might have seen a vein bulge at the side of their temple as well. The expression never went away, even as they showed a smile that was all teeth in the direction of the human and with audible effort, they spoke in a slow and strained manner. "...Kokabiel, Cadre of the Grigori and Angel of the Stars, He who teaches the constellation and who brings death to the imperfect."

He really wanted to throw something at the guy's head just to see if he would do anything, unfortunately there weren't any rocks around him within arms reach and he didn't want to waste a beer bottle on it. Just because this asshole thought it was suddenly acceptable to start listing out more titles than him. Prideful dumbass was a stooge who would have been turned into a rotisserie if he actually saw any of the real heat zones in the three faction war.

Sniffing, he waved a hand towards the nameless man and diverted his attention to them with a little bit more interest.

"Daybit Sem Void."

Well, that was a name and a half. No way that wasn't an alias but damn, that sounded like a pretty cool one all things considered. Actually, probably not even an alias. He doubted that this guy was stupid enough to try and conceal his name within the first meeting, or if they were then he had really overestimated them. Yet something in his gut told him that it wasn't the case and that strange name probably was their actual name. Or the name they had chosen to call themselves now. Either or.

Man of Sem it was.

"There, now we all know who we are, we can begin." He cleared his throat loudly before taking another bite of pizza, then paused and looked towards Daybit with a raised eyebrow. "Do you want any pizza?"

"If you are offering." With a single nod of the head, the blonde approached him and extended a hand towards the box which Tezca turned to face him. Taking a slice into his hand and stepping backwards.

Finally, someone with a little bit of basic manners.

"A beer as well?"

This time Daybit paused for a brief moment before they replied. "No more than one, if that is possible. I am driving." he took a bite of the pizza after finishing with a small hum as he directed his eyes to it. "Flavourful."

"It is, yeah." Humming to himself, he turned back to see Knife ears damn near frothing at the mouth or the closest thing he could get to doing so without actually taking the extra step. The crow was visibly holding themselves back from snarling at them before he closed his eyes, a long and pained sigh escaped him before his eyes opened once more.

"Alright, don't have a heart attack or some shit." Muttering under his breath, he adjusted himself in the seat and raised a lone eyebrow at the man. "Now then, you two can decide amongst yourselves who actually gets to have an audience with me. I don't really care how you do it so long as it gets done. Way I see it, both of you should have come here with the intention of a fight…" he trailed off, then directed his eyes towards Daybit and narrowed them to the blonde. "...Unless you're fine with walking away right now. Though you can consider our business concluded if you do."

Really, he was just curious to see what this Man of Sem was capable of, claiming they had walked right on past his guards was a pretty bold claim and one he would very much like to see play out. Besides, he would appreciate some reason to actually speak with this guy in his capacity as God of War. Showing up at his house with pizza and a drink earned them an audience, but not the right to actually call upon him.

He needed something a little bit more than that.

The Man of Sem did not disappoint, his eyes remained on him before they slowly moved towards the direction of Knife ears and they took yet another step backwards, tracing their steps towards the direction of the crow until they were standing opposite one another, with at least three or so metres separating them.

"I find these terms agreeable." The fact it was the human who spoke first was a little bit ballsy of him and he let out a small whistle as he did so. Most humans would probably have shown a little bit of hesitation but this guy just walked right into a fight with a Cadre without batting an eye. Either they were desperate to die or they were just that determined. He hoped it was the latter, he liked the latter. They were normally some interesting people.

A quick look at Knife ears had shown a different expression on their face, gone was the earlier anger and replaced with a confident smirk. They adjusted their suit and straightened themselves out as they glanced at the Man of Sem, it was actually pretty bewildering that this guy never learnt one of the basic tenets of fighting.

Never underestimate your opponent.

Sure, they were fighting a human, but he loved the way humans fought. They fought dirty because they usually fought to win. The type to throw sand in your eyes and kick you in the dick then punch you in the throat. When fighting that sort of character, you really had to prepare yourself for anything.

Adjusting himself in the chair, he leaned towards Sofia with a touch of a smile on his lips. "Who are you gonna bet on?"

"The human is exceedingly confident and…" There was a brief pause as the woman took in a sharp sniff of the air and narrowed her eyes. "His scent is wrong…there is something different about him."

"Yep." Tezcatlipoca replied with a nod of the head, narrowing his eyes and watching the pair. He lowered his arm to the side and took the coke into his hand and unscrewed the lip, bringing it to his lips.

The fight started.

He spat out his drink immediately.

"What the fuc-!?"

Tezcatlipoca whistled to himself, tapping on his knees as the gentle hum of the engine continued onwards. Turning his head towards the driver, the God lowered his head slightly and allowed his eyes to peer over the rims of his sunglasses. The journey had been going on for a couple of hours, the face of the God already showing the early signs of boredom as they puffed their cheeks in and out.

This being the latest in a lone line of efforts which included drumming their hands on the dashboard, whistling loudly and making noises with their tongue.

"So…Are we there yet?" The words of the God came out not as the command of a divine, but more in line with a child exhausted after a long journey.

"No." The response of the driver was as bereft of mercy as it was of emotion, the man completely focused on driving the car as he moved down another turn and proceeded down a narrow path. "When we arrive, you will be the first to know."

"Is this because of my god senses or something?" Tezcatlipoca raised an eyebrow and snorted, when Daybit did not answer he rolled his eyes and leaned back into his hair, raising up his hands and placing them behind his head. "Ah well…couldn't we turn the radio on or something?"

"The signal in this location is somewhat poor." Daybit replied stoically "Wodime is yet to procure some CD's for long journeys."

"Tch." The annoyance on the face of Tezcatlipoca was visible for all to see as they closed their eyes and looked close to letting out a groan. Though they held themselves back at the last moment, content only to release a faint puff of air from their nose.

He decided that they were already off to a poor start because of that alone. "Seriously? Nevermind then…Talk about a boring ass method of transportation."

"I assume you would prefer a gunship." It was impossible to tell whether the blonde had intended to make a joke or not, yet the end result would have been the same regardless. That being that the God clearly took them seriously and answered accordingly.

"I would." His response came with a huff of mirth at the remark, silence fell between them for barely a second before the God twitched and then turned on Daybit, opening his eyes once again, his hands coming away from his head "Oh, shit. I should get one of those things."

Daybit didn't respond, reaching down and opening up the glove compartment to his left in front of the God and flipping down a small controller into his hand.

Tezcatlipoca watched him press a small button, then visibly shifted as though something touched his skin, hairs standing on end yet rather than look alarmed, there was a degree of intrigue within them "Huh, bounded field, eh?" he hummed, sounding marginally impressed "I didn't sense it. Not bad, man of Sem. Not bad at all." he cracked a smirk "So when do I get to meet the rest of the team? I'm gonna be mad as shit if you've assembled a bunch of bores, you know?"

"They are interesting in their own ways." Daybit responded "If Wodime is successful, there will be another member that you will be spending most of your time with."

That brought a raised eyebrow from the God "That's a bold claim, man of Sem." though he didn't sound offended in the least, rather he was intrigued. "But alright then, if you say so-" the way in which he suddenly cut himself off and widened his eyes behind his glasses told Daybit that the God clearly sensed them.

Which was good, because Daybit himself could see them right now.

Two figures stood in front of his car as he slowed the vehicle to a halt.

Wodime stumbled away from the woman, looking quite queasy. Bringing his hand up to his head and removing the circular hat woven from straw from the top. The driver leaned forwards and glanced up to the sky at the shape which passed above them at the same time, circling like a vulture. With a faint grunt, Daybit leaned back into his seat and made another small noise.

An unenthused reaction for one who had seen what looked to be a dinosaur circling above their heads. Instead the focus of the driver remained on the two in front of him, the man stepped away from his companion, who had remained unmoved from where she was standing and had her sole focus directly on the vehicle in front of her.

As the driver remained the very picture of serenity, the same could not be said for the passenger who froze up at the mere sight of the woman, torn between visibly reacting and trying to become one with the seat behind them.

With a black tank top, camouflage trousers and black army boots. Daybit regarded the woman with a silent stare, looking them up and down before directing his attention to Wodime once more, the two made eye contact and nodded to the other once, the lighter haired blonde gave a more pleased smile compared to Daybit's twitch of the lip.

All of which paled in comparison to the actions around them.

"You're shitting me!" Tezcatlipoca cursed, hands flying to his seatbelt and virtually yanking it off, breaking the safety mechanism itself as the woman marched towards the car and smiled at the pair of them.

The sudden action tore Daybit's attention from his ally and towards the direction of the now advancing woman, not looking at all disturbed by the fact she had a rather menacing expression on her face matched only by the pressure she exuded, the temperature around the care visibly heating up to the point where the air was shimmering.

"Were her teeth always that sharp?" Daybit asked the God to his left, the deity didn't so much as he cursed a little louder and then climbed in between the seats to get to the back.

Quetzalcoatl - because Daybit knew that was who she was, he expected Wodime to be successful - reached the passenger door, her hands gripped it and virtually yanked it open with a shearing screech of metal. The car door being hurled behind the Goddess without a care in the world as she lunged in and grabbed ahold of Tezcatlipoca's leg as he was desperately attempting to flee into the backseats of the car.

"Where are you going, Puta?~" Her joyful tone didn't quite match her murderous expression and the vulgarity of the words as she pulled. Tezcatlipoca cursed loudly as he was ripped from the backseats and dragged out of the vehicle, his hands still clamped around the headboard of his seat and ripping it from the chair itself.

As he passed by, he gave Daybit a singularly annoyed look before he was thrown to the ground.

Daybit remained the picture of calm as he undid his own seatbelt in no hurry, ignoring the pummeling sounds to his left and the grunts of pain from both parties. Clicking the door open, he stepped out of his side of the car and shut it behind him, advancing towards Wodime as the man was hunched over slightly, breathing in and out.

"Your mission succeeded then." Daybit commented as he approached, the blonde man nodded up and down. "Motion sickness."

"I've never travelled via dinosaurs before." Wodime confessed, raising himself up and closing his eyes as he turned to the other man. "It is as comfortable as I was expecting it to be."

Daybit turned his eyes to the sky once more, not at all looking as though he was even the least bit surprised by the presence of dinosaurs. The sound of fighting around them became a secondary concern for the pair as he turned his attention back towards his comrade. "Communication was cut off until recently."

Wodime paused, then looked bashful as he brought his hand up to his lips and coughed once into it. Placing the sombrero back on his head as he did so. "Once I succeeded in earning the favour of Quetzalcoatl, she decided that she wanted to take me on a tourist stop across all of Mexico which consumed the latter part of my last few days…though I shall admit that it was an enjoyable experience." he moved his hand to his pocket, producing a small camera and turning it around to face him. "I have photos."

Daybit spared the camera a glance. "I see. There is much to discuss."

A nod from Wodime. "Indeed…Do you suppose we should try and separate them?"

"It seems ill form to intervene in a long standing family affair."

"Fuck you Sem! I heard that!" The shout from behind him was cut off by a rather weighty strike and then a sharp choking sound. Daybit remained unmoved during the ordeal while Wodime turned his head to the direction of the noise and inclined a single eyebrow before he hummed.

"Perhaps you are quite right…I am not certain there is much either of us could do at this point."

Daybit's silence was answer enough.