Update...

So, not much has been happening. We haven't had much free time. Just fight after fight and I've been putting my plan into action. Less and less have I been helping Cerise during fights and she's definitely noticing. Injuries are mounting and she's come close to death a couple of times. She's not a fighter. She might be someday with more practice, but right now. She wouldn't last long without me here and I'm making sure she knows it.

Of course she knows what I'm doing and has stubbornly refused to acknowledge that she needs my help. Now you might be wondering... If I need her I obviously can't just let her die and she has to know that so this isn't going to work, except there's a bit of an assumption there...

That assumption being that I need her. She's here for all the reasons she said and because companionship is fun. None of those are really necessities though. If she died I'd find some other loser who managed to survive this long and force them to be friends with me. I just want a friend to talk to and help alleviate my boredom. There's no specifics on who that is. Besides it's not like she's the only person who knows how to throw a grenade weapon.

So, yes she's expendable and if she doesn't acknowledge that she needs my help she won't get it and eventually she'll die. I've also told her that if she's good and doesn't betray me I won't even kill her when the time comes. I'll let her live. Which is probably her best chance of getting out of this alive.

So some of you may have learned

I've found me an ally for now. Cerise who previously helped us out with The Scarecrow and Legion is apparently in this tournament too. She tried to kill me which is just adorable really. I suggested we help each other out again. I'm not gonna go into too much detail since she already did...
Here

She also outlined her plan to kill me there too, which... Since as you can see I found her blog I know about. Generally not a great idea to write things like that somewhere public.

Oh also while I was getting that link I found a comment from someone calling themselves Frederick... Which god that is just the worst name.

I followed his comment to his blog and found that he's a nest and wants to kill me... Not a surprise I guess, he also has a friend who also wants me dead. She seems interesting. Can't wait to run into both of them.

I feel like I should say a little something here...

We have a lot of fun you and I. We make jokes, I do stupid things that often get me and others hurt, but I should clear something up...

People may have the impression that I'm not very smart. Which in a way is true.

I do often make mistakes and don't really think clearly, but... That's because I'm impulsive and possibly have slight delusions of grandeur... These are to account for my occasionally boneheaded actions. I don't tend to think things through, but that doesn't mean I don't think.

I made the offer of friendship to Cerise, for all the reasons she stated, but I didn't do it without thinking. I took the first chance I had to rifle through her stuff, make sure she wasn't lying about her supplies situation and also did what I could to find out if she had a blog I could use to keep tabs on her.

Even before reading the blog I also figured she'd want to betray me before the tournament logically forced us to turn on each other, because that's just common sense, which is also why I have a secondary plan... A plan to make sure that she needs me for as long as possible.

Now... Some of you are probably wondering... This entire post could be construed as me telling Cerise that it was stupid of her to put her plans on her blog where I could potentially read them, but now I'm doing the exact same thing and I have no doubt that Frederick probably knows of my blog and so even if Cerise doesn't know about it, he'll probably tell her just to screw me over... Well here's the deal...

My plan doesn't matter if she knows or not and also Frederick... I'm not giving you the satisfaction of telling her about this. I'm going to be showing it to her as soon as it goes up.

Anyway... Intrigue and backstabbings to plan for and murder to be done. Oh... Right... Since Frederick is a nest I'll have to buy myself some incendiary with the points I have. Not sure how to deal with Freddy's friend though... Ah well I'm sure I'll figure something out. 

I missed this...

I missed this so much... I have killed so many people since I've got here. Just find someone and kill them and I get rewarded for doing so. I haven't even spent most of the points I've gotten. Just bought some food and stuff when I was hungry.

The vast majority of people I've run into have been normal humans. Most of them not even fighters. The few fighters or servants I have run into still didn't give me much problems. Even those who can actually fight can't land a hit on me since I still have The Children's Defense Mechanism and it's not widely enough known for most people to figure out how to counter.

I feel like a kid in a candy store... and the candy is the destruction of innocent lives.

Actually I don't understand that metaphor even without the intentionally stupid inclusion I added.

Are we supposed to assume it's just the range of choices? Cause I mean yeah, but it still costs money? Or are we supposed to assume the kid is alone in the store and can just take as much candy as they want?

Either way I don't care. The point is I'm really happy here... Honestly it's the happiest I've been since my neighbourhood was destroyed.

I kind of don't want to leave... Though I guess that won't last... I'll have killed everyone else eventually.

Maybe when I go back...

Hmm...

I'll think more about that later... Let's go kill people!

Well... That was interesting.

So, I haven't been talking, cause we've been super busy just resetting things up at the new headquarters for The Children of Nothing. Plus nothing of interest has been happening. Just boring work stuff about setting things up figuring out sources of income and stuff... Kind of wishing we had 2 here, according to Facet he was really good at getting The Children lots of income.

Anyway that's not what's important. I appear to have ended up in a very strange place where a bat told me I should kill a bunch of other people to get home. Well it didn't specify that I needed to kill anyone, but you know, it's me. If the option to kill is there, I'll probably take it.

I've been told not to kill the people with the masks with suits on them... Er card suits... Like diamonds, clubs, etc... Not like three piece or business... Anyway... Normally I'd ignore such an order, but I get the feeling that wouldn't be a great idea this time.

Anyway as annoying as it is to be suddenly dragged into some death tournament against my will... there is one consolation to this... That being the whole death tournament part.

Time to go kill some random people. It's been so long since I've been able to really just let loose and kill people without consequence.

It almost feels like stepping back into my old life before all this craziness... I hope it doesn't end too quickly...

Oh... Um I'm sure Sandy and Facet will be able to handle things fine in my absence of course...

Now lets go find me someone to kill!

Right so... Let's continue this story...

Upon making this realization we realized we might still have time. We might be able to catch Legion off guard.

We started to search the building and eventually found a room from which inside a voice was coming. The voice sounded familiar, but at the time I didn't have much time to think about it as Tiff!Facet approached the door a click was heard and we all backed up shortly before a barrage of bullets tore through the door. The fight started for real, immediately after that. Legion was an army unto himself. His strange ability to copy his gun multiple times meant it was like trying to fight a firing squad. The difficult part was getting to him. Cerise tried to use her last flashbang, but that, did nothing to stop him. He didn't need to aim to simply keep firing wildly at a door. It was The Facet that managed to actually get into the room, once again using his ability to teleport. He's the only one who can teleport with any sort of accuracy... the rest of us are still random due to having to use Coda's realm.

Facet jumped in and slashed at Legion who stepped back from the attack and turned all his guns on Facet at which point the rest of us rushed in. Legion was better at fighting off multiple enemies than most solo fighters would be, but he was still alone and while he could focus on multiple people with his attacks he could only defend himself against one attacker at a time which meant we were capable of keeping him on defense forcing him to dodge our attacks so he didn't get time to shoot. The entire time however, I felt like something was wrong.

Eventually we managed to back him into a corner and disarm him. Of course most of us just wanted to kill him, but Cerise reminded us she needed him alive and we did owe her. We helped her contain him and she pathed out with him. I still felt like something was wrong and as the others started to walk out I noticed it. There was someone in the room. During the entire fight this person was watching. I glanced over at where the person was and froze. I saw my life flash before my eyes as Nathan grinned at me from the corner of the room, a shotgun held casually on his shoulder.

"Hello, Sergei. Did you think dying would stop me from getting my revenge?"

I staggered back as the familiar voice filled my head. I knew what this was. I wasn't fooled, but knowing that The Nathan in front of me wasn't Nathan normally, but The Archangel didn't make the situation better. If anything the idea of Archangel!Nathan was infinitely more terrifying. I didn't even wait. I vanished and when I got back to the others I announced immediately that we were leaving. It didn't matter if there was more to do we were leaving. Anything that wasn't packed was being left.

The others were confused, but I was too freaked out to give a proper answer until much later. Anyway after that we fled and moved elsewhere and we're setting up here. I'm gonna be laying low for the next little while.

Busy busy busy...

Tiff is taking things fairly well...

You know all things considered...

Also according to facet sine of course she isn't communicating with us directly and we're actually just taking Facet's word on what's happening with her.

Anyway before I get to what is happening now... Let me tell you about that second confrontation.

This is what I've been waiting to talk about...

Cerise showed up and told us she needed our help. She had located Legion and was assaulting the place with her Proxies, but they're having difficulty and she was hoping we could help out. Obviously not directly. She wanted us to simply do something to distract them so, her Proxies could use the distraction to win and get Legion. We agreed since getting rid of Legion would be of great benefit to us.

Cerise brought us to a location. We were behind a building and we could hear fighting taking place a short distance away and then Cerise told us to do what we can and then vanished to go help them out.

We took some time to think about it and came to the idea... The idea was let us show ourselves to The Timberwolves and attract their attention.  No smart plan, just show ourselves and let them try to kill us.

So, that's what we did. We approached the battle took some time to see exactly what was happening. Basically The Proxies were surrounding the base of a building while The Timberwolves held them off from the various entrances and I assume there were more inside watching for Proxies trying to teleport inside.

We waited for the right time and then we picked a building. Sandy and Facet would wait there while I acted as a the distraction as the most immediately recognizable figure.

So, Sandy and Facet went and waited and then I did a "accidental" walk by. Stopping and seeming surprised to see the battle and then after I made sure some of the people noticed me I ran for the building. My hope of course being that they'd think this was their chance.

I reached the building and... Surprisingly things worked out both better and worse than we expected.

I went into the building and found Facet and Sandy facing down a bunch of Timberwolves. Apparently they had chosen the same building to hide in as we chose to have our ambush.

Facet was hiding behind a doorframe and Sandy was beside him. I rushed over and asked what was going on.

They ran into the building and there were a bunch of Timberwolves already here. We didn't know why at the time. I asked Facet if he could do something about it. He said that he can't go in there cause it would be dangerous to Tiff's body. There were too many for him to take out quickly before they could turn on him like he did with The Scarecrow's men.

It made sense. It was one of the downsides of Facet being in Tiff's body. He can't just use her as a disposable body.  I wasn't sure what to do. None of us were and then Cerise showed up.

"I wasn't expecting much, but whatever you guys did, really worked... The Timberwolves almost immediately started faltering when you ran towards this building" she paused and looked around, "What the hell is happening here?" she asked and we informed her and she nodded, "Right... That makes sense," she said and then tells Facet to move and when he did she tossed a flashbang into the room the Timberwolves were in and told us to rush in as it went off.

The fight wasn't much of a fight after that. Facet and I easily took out the stunned Timberwolves and Cerise informed us that the Proxies had fairly quickly took the building after our stunt. We'd been a far greater distraction than we thought. However, when they took the place there was no sign of Legion.

We all came to the same conclusion. Legion wasn't in the building The Proxies were attacking, he was in this one.

Damn it I have to go again. resetting things up and dealing with new people is a full time job.

Okay so, Tiff is awake.

Well I say awake, but more like just conscious. Facet is basically just controlling the body, but allowing her to be aware of stuff or something? I don't pretend to know how Dying Man possession works at the best of times. Basically Facet is still controlling everything, but Tiff is awake and aware.

Anyway yeah so Facet needed me to help talk to her and I don't really know. I guess reassure her? Anyway that took some time. I imagine waking up and finding out you're not in control of your body is pretty shocking.

Anyway I said I'd tell you about the confrontation.

Well a group was going around looking for us and actually getting pretty close so we went to deal with them.

It was me, Sandy and Facet of course and what we found was Four Timberwolves and a Nest. Specifically The Scarecrow.

I was gungho about a rematch with that cheap copy, but The Facet convinced me that I should hold back while he came up with a plan. Considering the last time I rushed into a fight with him he kicked my ass I eventually decided the Facet was right.

We followed them for a bit. The Scarecrow had birds patrolling, but they couldn't see us, so we ignored them. Interestingly The Scarecrow's birds seemed to be mostly Robins and Sparrows and a couple of pigeons.

He and his Timberwolf friends went from building to building banging on doors. If someone answered they moved on, if no one answered they broke in searched and then moved on.

They reached a bookstore and broke in and The Facet decided on a plan. It was fairly simple actually.

Burn the entire building down.

That was it. Just toss incendiaries into the building and wait at the entrances for anyone who comes running out.

Worked for me. There was a lot of looting and stuff going on as people panicked in the darkness, so the building being set on fire might not even cause concern. So, we did...

It went surprisingly well at first. The place lit up quickly in response to our attack and at least one Timberwolf was stupid enough to run back out and immediately get gunned down by Sandy.

We continued to wait as the place burned down and no one else came out and that's when things started to go less well. See, we were all split up to make sure we were covering every exit we could find. Which also meant each of us was alone for the most part.

Sandy was covering the front exit and Tiff/Facet was at the back. I was covering a side area where a couple of windows could potentially be used for escape.

It's weird isn't it... You know things, but often times you just forget to think about them... You make a plan and forget to account for simple things that someone else could potentially easily think of.

Somehow... It's so easy to forget that Servants can teleport... I've made that mistake, my enemies have made that mistake and hell I've forgotten about my own teleportation abilities at times they'd be really useful... Like when my son and daughter tossed me in the back of a truck for instance.

Anyway the point is The Scarecrow and the remaining three Timberwolves appeared near me. It would appear they were not quite expecting me and I was not quite expecting them, so there was a moment where neither of us quite knew what to do, The Scarecrow unfortunately recovered first...

Well actually thinking back on it, I don't think he was shocked to see me... I think he had intentionally appeared there and had just not realized that The Timberwolves might be surprised and so his hesitation was the result of waiting for them to react.

Anyway he tossed one of his knives at me and I managed to instinctively dodge and then the Timberwolves were leveling guns on me.

It occurs to me there have been a lot of asides in this post... Well one more... See... Some of you might be thinking that it's strange The Facet came up with this plan, but I only mentioned me forgetting about teleportation when it was The Facet's plan that failed to account for it... That is because The Facet apparently had accounted for it and just hadn't mentioned it.

As the guns leveled at me The Facet suddenly appeared behind the group of them and in one movement stabbed two of them in the throat and kicked the back of the knee of the last one causing him to drop to his knees and throwing off his shot, before The facet yanked his knife out of one of the falling Timberwolves and stabbed it into the skull of the last one. At which point The Scarecrow turned his attention to The Facet, turned back to me and vanished apparently deciding that was not the best place to be right then...

It's possible that was because since Facet was in Tiff's body what The Scarecrow just saw was the young girl he saw get shot, suddenly appearing only a day after being shot in the gut, looking almost dead and rapidly killing three of his men.

Honestly I'd be pretty freaked out too.

The Facet informed me he actually had expected them to be expecting us to be watching the entrances and teleport out and was watching me and Sandy expecting them to try and go for one of us.

I was not amused, but aside from The Scarecrow not being dead it was a success and The Scarecrow didn't reappear again so, Tiff's reappearance might have served to keep him out of the remainder of the conflict, so that was a benefit.

I'll tell you the rest of what happened later.

I should also note. Toby still wants to run away so you might be wondering how we got him to help out with the move. The answer was give Ryan a gun and orders to shoot Toby if he tries to run. Informing him of this in front of Toby and explaining that Ryan could probably complete the move with or without Toby's help kept Toby pretty obedient.