Shout At The Devil! [Halloween Party] Band members and friends invited

[bangingthe_hellouttayou]

Zack had decided that he wanted to do something for Halloween now that he'd gotten his new costume and being a Spider-Man fan he'd gone for a Spider-Punk costume straight from his comics. He'd gotten it at a local comic store down on the Strip and couldn't wait to show Damien because he knew the Dog didn't have comics or anything fun back in Hunger City. Zack now pleased that he'd arranged a Halloween Party for the band members, their friends and family to attend inside the communal area of the apartments. It was the biggest space and there was a bar all stocked up with spooky drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike.

It would be a blast!

There were even spooky snacks with crisps and chips shaped like bats, ghosts and pumpkins. There were even actual pumpkins on a table for those who wished to carve a pumpkin alone or with friends. Zack had tried to make it accessible for all, those who wished to party and get drunk and those who wanted to do non-boozy activities too.

As for costumes---they were optional but preferred.

"Ok, I think that's it. Everyone should be arriving soon."

Zack looking around the room and hoping everyone would like what he had set-up with help from some of the others of course.

Comments

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien shrugged. "I was raised by the Ministry. I can do everything the people who chase us can."

And more because Damien was in the program to lead the Ministry. The Dogs would drive but gas was rare and the debris all over the streets was helpful as a barricade. Horses were the best option for them.

"Their plan was for me to take over one of the high ranks." Damien knew that was why he had been treated so badly by the Dogs at first and some of the reason why he was so valuable to Jack.

[itmeanstruth]

By the time Minoru met Damien, he was Jack’s obvious second in command and a natural leader in his own right. It was easy to forget sometimes that he was on the opposing side for a while.

“I’ve gotten to do a couple ride-along stunts, but nothing too fancy.” He admitted. “Never any street racing.”

While Minoru almost always opted to walk everywhere (or technically freerun everywhere, let’s be real), he did have a license and did know how to drive. Their car was even in his name. But it was probably good that he didn’t try to take said car to 200mph.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien had spent more than half his life in service to the Ministry. Minoru wasn't the only one that forgot that though, the Dogs often did too, assuming he had always served them.

"With Ollie?" Damien assumed that this was the obvious choice though he could see Aarne, Joe, Rik, or even Rekker getting into some sort of stunt driving.

Damien sighed. "If I was still in the Ministry, I might be in charge of hunting the gangs now." Which was another reason why Damien was so good at his job. He knew all the ins and outs of how the Ministry hunted the gangs, hunted the Dogs.

[itmeanstruth]

“Yeah.” Minoru nodded. It was a blast of a day, even if he didn’t get to, say, jump out of a moving vehicle at full speed or anything like that. Apparently, Ziggy made them promise to return his cuddle boyfriend in one piece, unbroken. “Ollie’s amazing behind the wheel!”

Minoru would probably make a good stuntman. Several of the big competitors on American Ninja Warrior worked in that industry.

“Hey, you’re not, though.” He added about the Ministry. “That’s what matters.”

[hungercity_hellhound]

"I know." Damien smiled and sighed. "Ollie, Rekker, and I are still on Tom's shit list for getting busted racing."

The three of them were highly competitive, relatively overconfident, and didn't have the best respect for the law. A street race turned car chase was not something Tom was going to let them forget any time soon.

"What matters is I know how the organization works." Damien believed that. "The skills they taught me to hunt the gangs don't go unused." Not in his own world or here.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru’s eyes widened as his lips curled in another smile. “You guys went racing?! Who won?”

Never mind the busted part. Or the danger. Or the legality of said racing. It sounded like a lot of fun, and that was the only thing that crossed his excitable mind.

“They definitely make you a good head of security!”

[hungercity_hellhound]

"Rekker and Ollie have a few times." Damien had heard some things about their competitiveness when it came to cars and street racing. Not that it was a surprise give both of the mens' self-assured nature and partners who liked adrenaline. "The cops." Damien sighed. They had all got busted, pinned down between California and Nevada state patrol. This was how Tom found out and almost skinned them for the cost of getting their cars out of impound.

"It's easier here to watch over everyone than it is at home." Which was honest. It was nice to be watchful without also having people hunting you down as well.

[itmeanstruth]

“Ohhh. Damn.” Minoru’s excitement dropped a little bit. That definitely put a stop to the fun, he was sure. “Tom was probably pretty pissed about that one.”

He’d been bailed out a couple of times. And probably got off easier than he should have. But he’d seen Tom get pretty angry at folks.

[hungercity_hellhound]

"The cost to get our cars back will be most of my pay for the next month, at least." Damien was serious. It had been so expensive by the time their cars were towed, Tom made it to get them out, and them getting there two days later with paper work. Tom never mentioned how expensive but he could see it in the Brit's displeasure.

[itmeanstruth]

"Oh man. That sounds like a lot." Minoru wasn't sure exactly what Damien got paid, coming from another dimension and all. The currency conversion in the Nexus was wonky enough. "But at least you did get them back, right?"

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien chuckled. "Even Tom doesn't have the balls to tell Rekker he isn't getting his firebird back."

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru laughed. "Touche!"

And he'd seen Tom go off on Ziggy and Jack for stealing a car before, with absolutely no hesitation or remorse.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien figured that growing up together made the dynamic between Rekker and Tom very different than the one between Tom and Ziggy. Still the Dog grinned.

"Robert told me that Rekker and Tom used to fight constantly when they were younger." Damien had still seen the embers of that when Rekker did something that others wouldn't get away with. There was a eye contact stand off between the two older men that Damien wouldn't even get involved in. There was too much heat there.

[itmeanstruth]

Knowing both Tom and Rekker's temperaments, Minoru wasn't exactly surprised. He knew those two went way back.

"I swear, there's been a few time that I wondered if one of them figured out how to shoot lasers out of their eyes or something."

Like Damien, Minoru stayed out of those. And up on the rafters, hanging lights.

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien would consider his own temper bad when it was warranted but those two were on a whole other level.

"I'd bet my money on Rekker." Damien snorted a laugh. "I've heard Robert has a death stare too." The Dog felt like there was an age that people reached where they could channel the lack of fucks into a truly horrifying gaze.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru shook his head. “Nah, I’d bet on Tom. Because he's got Ziggy for backup. And you do not want to be in the business end of his stare.”

He wasn’t sure if Jack still had that ability, or if it was a matter of knowing he had that ability. He didn’t know whether Damien did either. But he knew Ziggy did, and he knew exactly how it felt.

“Now, if Mister Newton were in the stare down… all my money on him. No question!”

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien considered that but shook his head. "Ziggy is unnerved by Rekker. Empathy and his mind aren't compatible. I know Ziggy couldn't be in the same room as Rekker for a long time."

Damien didn't even know what abilities he had. There was a discomfort in finding out what the Ministry had really made him for.

"I don't like his ability to appear out of nowhere." Damien got along with Newton but that way he came up on him out of nowhere. Damien's nerves didn't do well with being startled.

[itmeanstruth]

“Anthean empathy isn’t compatible with…” Minoru paused. His eyes widened.

Isamu had been trying to study Anthean empathy for years now, because everyone was apparently compatible - except him. It really bothered him. It kept him up at night. If there was any way to get his brother to break the stupid silent treatment, that was it!

“What do you mean, his mind isn’t compatible? Like, how?”

[hungercity_hellhound]

"His mental health." Damien knew more about this from Rekker's perspective than Ziggy's. He and Rekker tangled with each other quite often but he did talk to the redhead often.

"Rekker is angry and suicidal and they're pacifists?" That was Damien's best guess. "I think Rekker's mental health makes him project his emotion and they aren't good ones. I've seen Newton leave the room when he's angry, too."

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru's excitement dropped immediately when he realized exactly what Damien meant. "Oh. Exactly the opposite of Isamu's problem. Well... maybe?"

Maybe it wasn't so different from the Anthean's point of view.

"Can Rekker feel them? Their abilities?"

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien shrugged because he didn't know the ins and outs of either case. "Ziggy told me it felt like drowning in a nightmare."

These were things that the Dog could only speculate on. "Rekker strikes me as someone who would rebel against anything trying to calm him down." Rekker always appeared amped up and tense even when he was happy or that was how Damien interpreted it. "I do know, over the years it has improved. Rekker's control of himself helps. I imagine Bjorn being in the picture does too, sometimes."

[itmeanstruth]

“Oh man…” that did not sound pleasant at all. He felt a sharp pang of empathy for his koibito. And also for Rekker.

Unfortunately, anything Isamu might want to know would have to come from Rekker. And Minoru wasn’t sure he wanted to bring it up, even if Damien did say it had been improving. And even if it might get Isamu to stop ignoring him.

[hungercity_hellhound]

"It makes me respect Rekker." Damien mentioned on a better note, maybe it was better. The fact that the ginger was keeping himself together in the kind of mental condition that even made an ancient Anthean, like Thomas, run was a feat on its own.

"The hell someone like Rekker would cause the Ministry would be a sight to see." Damien thought about all that mind control they used in the prisons and someone like Rekker not only would tear that to pieces he would probably tear the people to pieces after. It was something to consider though he wasn't about to speak more about that darkness here.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru sighed. It wasn’t that he didn’t also respect Rekker.

“Isamu kind of has the opposite problem. I’m not sure what he feels like to Antheans - he and Ziggy don’t really get along - but to him, Anthean empathy just doesn’t exist. It’s like he’s completely deaf to it.” He explained. “He’s been trying to figure out why for years now. But can’t find a way to study it.”

It went without saying that was one of the reasons Isamu and Ziggy didn’t get along.

“He’s been all worked up over something lately. He didn’t even want to come to the party! But I thought maybe if I found a lead, he might stop giving me the cold shoulder.”

[hungercity_hellhound]

Damien listened and was curious since he was often talking to Ziggy about how to test himself to see if any of the Anthean abilities passed on with his genetics.

"Is he the opposite of Rekker?" Damien asked then clarified. "Too focused, and clamped down on his emotions?" It made sense that someone who isn't effected would be the opposite of someone who overloaded the system. "Maybe he's too mentally organized or something?"

He was speculating and then frowned at the revelation. "I was wondering why I have not seen him in weeks. He'll be missed, I think."