InsaneJournal

Who: Briareos and Kymopoleia
What: The Hekantonkheries gets a customer that is more than he bargained for...someone happens to come by.
When: Friday, October 25th
Where: Briareos' Tattoo parlor



There was no bell on the outside of his door so Briareos only knew he had a customer when they walked in. He was in the back room with an army of boxes holding the door open in case it closed in behind him. The world wasn't as claustrophobic as it had once been, but he wasn't taking any chances because there was a lock from the outside. The week had been fairly slow, his artist had left for the afternoon, so he was left alone in this shop which often became home when the lights went out. There was a bright red couch on the side of one wall, and a mural of a sperm whale and a giant squid. It was a reminder that there were still monsters in this world that would survive. He wasn't going to keep himself in a cage even if Poseidon had brought him in one.

A burly looking man came into the front door, his boots scuffing the wooden floor which was loud enough to tell Briareos he had company. "Who's there?" he called out, but when a few minutes went by with no answer he came out from the back to see the man standing like a statue. A chill went up his spine for a reason he wasn't sure, but he had no reason to be on the defensive. The man looked like he was just looking for a place to hide as he kept his eye out the door nervously. Briaroes could respect that as he often kept himself off the radar. "Need something?"

The man looked around kicking a chair with his boot and dipping his fingers into some ink that had been left behind by the artist. "I came in here a few weeks ago. I don't like what I got." Briareos didn't look particularly sympathetic. "Go somewhere else. I'm not the artist." He had done some work, but he preferred to be in the shadows. He was the owner but he wasn't about to open his doors for a complaint. He wasn't a fast food service. The man shuffled his hands into his pockets.

"Look punk. It's a shit tattoo and I want it fixed." Briareos picked up one of the boxes sitting by his desk. "I told you. Go somewhere else. The artist isn't here and we're closed." The man was irate, something Briareos could smell a mile away. The man shoved his way out of the store. A few hours passed so Briareos had no reason to have his defenses up, but the man was waiting out in the dark alley as Briareos closed up. He was thrown across the street against the dumpsters. Briareos had enough hate to feed off of that he could drag this man down the alley by his feet and snap every bone in his body. His hackles went up, and his lanky arms lashed out as if there were twenty. He hadn't yet grown anymore arms from his shoulders, but when he was threatened these days, ever since that hurricane a year ago it felt like they could grow like trees. The seeds were there, they just needed the nourishment. It had been overcast all day, so when the rain started to pelt down in fat blobs it made his skin crawl. He was sure at that moment when the man lunged at him again he felt an arm trying to make it's way out of his back.

"What the fuck you freak?!" the man staggered back looking at Briareos as if he were nothing more than a sideshow. It was a look he got often, it didn't seem very unique in this situation. But, it was the second hand that touched his arm that made him jump. Sure enough, the freak had finally had one of those extra arms appear for the first time in centuries. It startled him, he looked at it with wonderment, but just like a plant that had it's leaves plucked, it was weak---and when the man went at him with a knife stabbing at his shoulder repeatedly, it retreated almost as quickly as it had emerged. The man stabbed his shoulder again, until there was nothing but deep red blood coating Briareos' arm. When he looked down he was certain that both of them were just hallucinating because that just couldn't happen anymore. Still freaked out the man took the knife to his side when he tried to stand up, running off just as quickly when he heard someone else within the dark alley walls.