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Post by River Antonucchi on Jun 29, 2015 23:33:35 GMT -5
He knew she was probably going to try and find him, so why not make that easier for Nixie? Actually, for the most part, he didn't know why he would think of even making an appearance to the girl. Why did he do this, why even show himself when for all he knew she would call the cops on him or something. But he wanted her to see him, it felt like the glare she gave him and his brother that glare and deathly message that honestly did shake him.
River walked down the corridors, then stopping at the door to Nixie's classroom. With a brief frown on his face, he opened the door and let himself in. He looked around and went to open the window near Nixie's desk. Then he sat on Nixie's chair, leaning back and putting his legs on top of her desk as he pulled out a cigarette from his pockets, magically lighting it up. He looked out the window as he started to take a long drag out of his cigarette. He didn't realize it until now but this was a very nice classroom, or perhaps he was just saying that because he had nothing else to drift his thoughts to. Because if he did, the only thing he'll see was shame, blood, and disappointment.
River frowned at the thought and shook himself off of it, it was just a petty brother complex that he outgrown long ago. It didn't matter to him anymore. After all, River was now the better one at bed, and that was the only thing he was possibly better at. He had one-upped him in that regard, and River was proud of it. He treated every women and wrecked marriages like belts of gold. It was something he had over his brother and he was so fucking happy about that. River then took another long drag again, letting all the memories go. They weren't needed anymore. All that jealousy was long gone after he discovered his pleasure in doing his Mafia work. He was content with just doing what he was doing now, especially when it involved any of his siblings.
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Post by Nixie Auttenberg on Jun 30, 2015 0:02:58 GMT -5
It had struck her while she knelt down next to the injured boy next to the tree beside the lake that there was a certain person responsible for his injuries. A rather bloodied professor had entered the dining hall that evening, but the girl who had been brought in by the professor's brother wasn't near bloody enough to explain the blood on his suit. Where, then, had the blood come from? The answer was: James Novak. The boy she discovered thanks to Cordelia Thatcher and who had a broken jaw, two broken arms, a broken knee, burns so severe she was surprised the flesh was still intact, and lacerations that covered his entire body. And the culprit that caused these actions?
River.
After escorting both James and Delia back to the Terra common room, she instructed Delia to stay with him throughout the night. He needed someone to watch over him, and Nixie had some very unfortunate business to attend to with his attacker. How could River have done this to a student? Maureen was in bad shape but... James? He was practically mutilated, and the thought of his appearance made her cringe. She had come to like River and even trusted him and his brother, only to find out that they were monsters. It was as if she had dived straight back into the war lifestyle, and it was nerve wracking to think about.
She had searched the school through and through. He wasn't out on the grounds since that's where she had just come from, and she didn't even bother knocking at his apartment door. She kicked it in with enough force for it to come off of the top hinges, and she quickly scouted the place to find it empty. She cursed under her breath before heading off to check his classroom only to discover he wasn't hiding there either. Pietro's room was empty as well, but just as she was about to give up, she entered her own classroom to smell the fresh scent of cigarettes lingering in the air. As she looked towards the desk, her eyes narrowed in a hurt and angered expression.
"How dare you, River!" She spat hatefully as she instantly closed the distance between them. She reached across the desk and gripped his collar, snatching him to his feet. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" She didn't even give him time to respond, though, and reared her fist back to plow it into his jaw, causing a crack to emit from it. "They're fucking students, River! We protect, we do not hurt!"
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Post by River Antonucchi on Jun 30, 2015 0:27:16 GMT -5
Well he definitely did not expect this. The woman had enough force to get him to his feet, damn. He felt a very strong force cracking his jaw. He grunted, wincing and closing his eyes. He didn't expect that either. "God fucking damn!" River had dropped his cigarette, a waste of good cigarette it was. Pain shot through his jaw, hearing that disgusting cracking noise. He'd fix that later, he had to deal Amazon woman right over here.
When he opened his eyes though, she saw the hurt and anger. He wasn't able to say anything, how could he? He took in her words, and still had managed to crack a smile, "So you know how to cuss in English now?" was all he said before it was silent again, his smile fading and his eyes starting to show what he had really wanted to say, expressing regret and sadness at the same time. He had betrayed this woman, and it was unforgivable to her.
River had managed to pull away from Nixie's grip, his eyes never leaving hers. "You do not hurt," he corrected her after a while. Or so he thought, River never knew how much Nixie had actually hurt. He knew nothing of her past, she didn't know his. "Well, actually you hurt me right now," he sighed out to Nixie, running a hand through his bloodied hair. He kind of expected him to hit him again, so he let his defenses down. She would be able to do anything she wanted, he let her.
River was unable to explain why he let her do that without retaliating, which was very odd for River. He would have definitely hit her back if she were some other person, but she was Nixie. But who is Nixie to him, really? This person that caused him to question his emotions, his life choices. She had evoked emotions that he'd never knew he had. As far as he knew, he was a cold soul-less being unable to be capable of feeling anything human genuinely.
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Post by Nixie Auttenberg on Jun 30, 2015 21:20:00 GMT -5
The crunch beneath her hand felt justified even if it did make her sick to her stomach. She didn't want to hurt the man in front of her, but he had to pay for the things he had done. James was just a boy, and he had mutilated him to no end, leaving her to deal with enough healing work to last her a lifetime. Even in war she had never seen a boy so young be so very destroyed... At least, by any hands other than her own. But she wasn't proud of that - she absolutely hated herself for it - and swore to atone for those mistakes if possible.
His joke made her anger flare up even further. "Do you think this is game, River?!" She spat, delivering another painful blow to the same place on his jaw to crack it even more. It would be broken at this rate, but that was something she was going to have to try and live with, even if it killed her each and every time she had to strike him. "You have blood on suit, but Maureen was not very bloody," she began, explaining her conclusion. "But then... You dump James by lake and leave to die?!" She was screaming at the top of her lungs, and she lunged across the desk to wrap her fingers around his throat - backing him up against the wall behind him.
While she was livid, there was also a pain in her eyes - one that intensified once she saw the pain in his. But when he corrected her, stating that she didn't hurt people and that he did, she began to lose her sympathy once more. She was trembling, seeing red and all the horrible things she did in the war flash before her eyes, but it wasn't stopping. It wasn't tearing her down like it usually did and instead was fueling her actions, which caused her to grab tight of his throat and hurl him back over the desk to topple to the ground. "I'm hurting because I don't want you to be monster!" She exclaimed, eyes narrowed painfully at him on the floor as she slammed her palms down on the desk. "I don't want you to be me!"
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Post by River Antonucchi on Jun 30, 2015 21:50:53 GMT -5
River wanted to tell him that he was ordered, but he couldn't tell her that. He was bound by the sacred word of Omerta. Omerta kept his mouth shut. Omerta was the vow you take in the Italian Mafia, it was law to Italian Mobsters such as him. He had taken that vow since he was fourteen, and lived by it. He lived by it everyday, it was his way of life. And not even a broken jaw by a beautiful woman would make him spit it out. Unless he genuinely wanted to bring her to his shit. River didn't, she was too innocent, too good for that. Nixie was above that way of life.
Honourable men doesn’t talk, real men does not run to law, a real man does not talk about his confederates, he handles his own problems.
That was Omerta.
River wouldn't tell her anything, not of anything. He let her hurt him with his blessing, he deserved it. "Hit me as much as you want," was all he can say to his pitiful stance right now. He didn't want to do anything in fear of making another mistake again in front of her, but that's the only thing he ever did nowadays. And she was the only person he felt himself embarrassed for his horrible, horrible actions. Nixie had begun to turn him back to a human again.
He looked at her, his sad eyes turning to confusion, like her? He didn't want to say anything more to her, but questions rose up to the man's mind. "You are a good person, Nixie. I was born a monster," he simply told her, and that's what he knew as the truth. But that wasn't the case, he didn't know yet, not yet. But in a couple of moments, he would understand. Even then, he would believe he was still the monster.
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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jun 30, 2015 22:31:41 GMT -5
Well, that was it. He had officially been dumped. A year's worth of hopes and dreams, finally tasted, had been completely shattered. Pietro didn't even understand why he was looking for River. River would have no sympathy for him. In fact, River would mock him mercilessly. River could not possibly give a damn about his brother's broken heart.
But, still ... where else would he go?
He was about to push River's classroom door open when he heard some noises from the room across the hall: Professor Auttenberg's. Curious, Pietro reached out quietly and gave the door a little nudge so that it swung open. Was this ... could he really be seeing this? Had she been beating on his brother?
In a flash, Pietro was behind Nixie, hands on her shoulders, tugging her away from River.
"What do you think you are doing?" he exclaimed, rage in his voice. "Stop this right now!"
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Post by Nixie Auttenberg on Jun 30, 2015 23:05:09 GMT -5
"Hit me all you want."
Was he serious?! He was just going to lie there on the ground and look up to her and not doing anything about her beating down on him? After he had destroyed James completely? "No, River," she growled, stepping forward to stand over him. "You hit student, but you can't hit woman? You do not mess with kids!" She swung her leg back and then forward again to land a kick to his stomach. Red. Red everywhere. Bodies. Blood. Tears. Screams.
No. She didn't want this. He had to learn, but if she kept going she would kill him.
Then, he said she wasn't a monster. Said she was a "good" person, and as much as she wanted to believe that, she just couldn't. Not after what she had done. "You do not know me, River," she told him in a stern, cold voice as she looked down at him.
Before she could say anything else, she felt a set of heavy hands on her shoulders that began to pull her away. Already in her paranoid and animalistic state, she freaked out and snatched away from the hands to whirl around and face her attacker. It was Pietro - the brother who she had also befriended - in the flesh. After what he had done to Maureen and to Gawain... Her eyes turned dark once more, and she delivered a devastating punch to his nose, busting it immediately. "Pietro!" She screamed, lifting her leg and kicking him square in the chest hard enough to knock him down. "You son of bitch! What you did to Maureen...'
Her head was spinning in a million different directions. She had befriended - she had trusted - these men, and now they had attacked two of her students and who knew how many others. They made her feel so welcomed and so normal and like she might actually have a chance at a normal life, but now... "Why?! Both of you!"
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Post by River Antonucchi on Jun 30, 2015 23:37:01 GMT -5
He didn't say anything, he could his his students, he could hit women, but the thing was... He couldn't hit her. River couldn't. He couldn't his this woman for some odd fucking reason, and he was just okay with that. He was so okay. Even with the torment and haunting words of her blaming him for hurting her students, River didn't feel an ounce of guilt for that. River was ordered to torture, and he did it for family. Or else, he was going to be the one that would end up hurt. He didn't even think about it, about how she knew about James. But that wasn't in his priority list.
And then, she kicked him in the stomach, the last time someone ever did that to him was his mother. But he remembered that one particular time, that horrible time...
River groaned and opened his eyes, seeing Pietro and Nixie, his reaction was fast and he reached immediately for his brother. He sat up and winced at the pain, getting to his brother and trying to help him up, "Pietro!" River's eyes widened, it didn't matter if Nixie hurt him, but not his dearest brother. Oh no, not him. Despite all the pain he was going through right now, Pietro was going to be his priority right now. His brother was the most important person to him right now, and he wasn't getting hurt in his account.
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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jun 30, 2015 23:55:02 GMT -5
Pietro was not at all prepared to deal with what Professor Auttenberg threw his way. She spun, and his face exploded, and then he was on the floor struggling to get his wind back. He gasped for several moments, holding onto his brother's arms in order to get back on his feet as quickly as possible. Had this ... this woman ... just taken him down? How was it even possible for a female to move like that, with such speed and precision?
He dusted off his suit, fastidious as always, before lifting a scowl to the woman who had dropped him. He found her impertinent questioning obnoxious. "Professor Auttenberg, my brother and I are under no obligation to explain ourselves to you. I, especially, do not make a habit of explaining my motivations to hysterical women who attack me in such a fashion. I would like to speak to my brother, so if you have finished with your histrionics, I will be leaving now. River, of course, is welcome to come with me."
Oh, fantastic. His nose was bleeding all over his crisp white shirt. He really shouldn't have dressed so well for the events of this evening.
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Post by Nixie Auttenberg on Jul 1, 2015 0:06:38 GMT -5
River came scrambling to his brother's side, helping Pietro to his feet, and Nixie watched them as she awaited an answer to her question. What she received, though, was something she never expected to hear from Pietro's lips. He had always been so supportive of women and protecting them, and the two of them had even bonded over their common goal over a cup of tea in his classroom. Now, though, he was insisting that she was suffering from hysteria, but he hadn't the faintest idea what she was suffering from. First was her shell shock that plagued her on a daily basis, and second was that of a broken heart. A heart shattered from seeing her students destroyed, seeing one of her friends murdered, realizing two of her friends were absolute demons, and ultimately coming to the realization that she was, in fact, in a war zone all over again.
"No," she snapped back to him. "I am not hysterical!" Her voice was trembling with anger, and her vision was becoming blurred with an unforeseen force causing her to begin to lose control of herself. Little were the other men aware, but she slipped a long, thick blade from her back pocket and lunged forward to back Pietro into a nearby wall - pressing the blade against his throat. "You owe me explanation because you are friend!" She shouted at him. "And because I am friend, I do not want you two to make bad names for selves like I did!"
Her eyes were watering now, pleading for Pietro to just tell her what the hell was going on. She needed to know, needed to help, and she was close to reaching a complete mental breakdown. All the tears she never released... They were threatening to overtake her.
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Post by River Antonucchi on Jul 1, 2015 0:31:51 GMT -5
River was quick to put her hands on Nixie's shoulders, but never moving her. He looked at the knife with an intense gaze, and even without words, he turned the knife to a feather. There was a reason he wanted to be a Transfiguration teacher here, though he usually needed a wand, but small things, he can do. River lightly gripped her shoulders, "You're not, please don't hurt my brother," he whispered to her softly. He was still set on thinking that she was not this person either, she wouldn't hurt his brother. If she wasn't hysterical, at least.
His hands were shaking, one was because he was worried for Pietro. Second, he didn't know. He was just an emotional flurry, something he had never been before. "Omerta, honourable men doesn’t talk, real men does not run to law, a real man does not talk about his confederates, he handles his own problems." was what he whispered under his breath. He hoped he didn't hear her, she probably didn't because he didn't hear himself even. But if she did, she hoped she would understand what it was.
He realized he didn't like what he was doing to her. He hurt her.
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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jul 1, 2015 0:53:16 GMT -5
Oh, he was not in the mood for this. Was she really holding a knife against his throat right now? If only she were a man; she would be broken and battered at his feet by now. His eyes met hers in a stony glare. "And this is how you treat your friends, Professor? I am afraid I do not understand. If this is your kind of friendship, then I do not wish to be a part of it. Put away the knife. Then perhaps we can all have a civilized conversation."
It was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe through his nose; the blood was bubbling in his nasal passages. Should he just let her slit his throat? Then he wouldn't have to cope with the fact that he would never get to be with his love.
... Well. Wasn't that a pathetic thought? Ludicrous. What was wrong with him?
He had already tortured a female tonight. Why not fight back against Professor Auttenberg? Why not just accept that his principles must fall in the face of family loyalty? None of his beliefs were worthwhile. He could be cruel.
Fortunately, he didn't have to answer any of those questions, because River transfigured the knife into a feather, leaving his neck ticklish but out of immediate danger.
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Post by Nixie Auttenberg on Jul 1, 2015 1:06:56 GMT -5
Nixie was shaking. Nerves were firing all over her body, and her emotions were exploding through the roof that was her skull. Every inch of her was trembling as she stood there with bewildered eyes, knife pressed firmly against Pietro's throat. This isn't what she wanted to do. She couldn't kill this man standing before her even if it was what she wanted to do.
There were hands on her shoulders once again, but she didn't move. River whispered something she couldn't quite hear right next to her ear, but she couldn't tear her gaze away from Pietro's as he mentioned wanting to talk about the subject at hand. The knife in her hand was turned to a feather - thankfully - by River, and she slowly dropped her hand away from the Potions professor, clenching the feather within her grasp. "I don't want to hurt you," she said as she shook River's hands from her shoulders and stepped out from between the two brothers. "You are both friends, but you... You hurt students. You are at war with other family, and I don't want you hurt in war," she told them with a shake of her head.
Her eyes were watering heavily now as she pulled out a cigarette and ignited the end to take in a long, heavy drag. They had to know the severity of the situation at hand - of what it could turn into. Of who they could turn into.
"I am not good person," she said to both of them. "I know you see now..." She paused for a moment, focusing absently on the window to her classroom for a moment or two before looking back to them. "I have killed men... Innocent men, terrible men, men twice the size of you two. I am not proud, and.. I do not want to happen to you. It is because I care."
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Post by River Antonucchi on Jul 1, 2015 1:45:19 GMT -5
River let his hands fall back down as Nixie shook them off he sighed. He listened to her, as best as he could with her broken English. He looked at her with a bit of sympathy, but also that really annoying feeling of confusion that he's had for like fucking how many days now. He didn't like confusion, he didn't like feelings at all. River wasn't a feel kind of guy at all, and this woman had made him feel so much more in a few days than he has ever felt his entire twenty-five year old span of life.
He looked at her as she started to tell them a little bit about herself, he wish he could assure her about it. But there was nothing comforting about the situation that they were in right now. He looked at his brother first to see if he was okay, then back to Nixie. "Who are you?" River was straight to the point, he wanted answers now and he wasn't sure if he wanted those questions to be answered, now that he actually thought about it. He already felt like it was going to be too much of a depressing story to tell, the way she talked to them.
Needless to say, River had already turned into a monster that Nixie wished he wasn't. A murderous, sadistic, horrible monster.
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Post by Pietro Antonucchi on Jul 1, 2015 18:45:26 GMT -5
What the hell was she even talking about? Killing men twice their size? River and Pietro weren't exactly small, and they knew what they were doing when it came to a fight. After all, male mafia children were taught to fight almost as soon as they were taught to walk. Pietro was annoyed, and confused, and still heartbroken, and he just wanted this obnoxious confrontation to be over and done with.
He followed Nixie's lead, getting a cigarette out of his pack and offering one to River. Feeling fairly confident that she had finished with beating him up for the moment, Pietro took a seat on a desk in the front row and let a trail of idle smoke escape his lips.
"I wonder the same thing my brother does. It is not often that I meet a woman who can get the drop on us. Actually ... never."
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