Meet Vincent.
Art (c) Vial // Vincent and everything else (c) Overlai

“So, can I kill him?”

:// Aria City Codex
File 223 - “Vincent”

“No, just talk to him.” Nathan scoffed.

“Can't you send your pretty little robot to chat him up instead? I'm not going unless I get to fight something.” Kuu made a face like he'd eaten something terrible the moment he heard the word 'no'. The over-sized serpent was lounging in the center of Nathan's office, a large, circular depression put there specifically so that Kuu could.

“Please do your job, Kuu. I would hate to have to put you in your place again, so soon after our last disagreement, too...I'd rather not maim my bodyguard.” Nathan responded in a cold tone, not that he had many other tones, before leaving and shutting the door behind him. He didn't need to look at Kuu to know that the serpent was currently imitating a talking head with his hand and making goofy faces. After the door shut, Kuu groaned, and played the security footage they'd recovered, a live feed of an 'incident' one month prior.

The footage appeared to show a human tied to a chair, his uniform was easily identifiable to any fellow employees; he was an Apex scout. There was nobody else in the room and it was rather barren-looking. For a few moments, nothing happened, but eventually Vincent arrived, the peacock's presence seeming to wake the scout up. All Apex employees were said to be resistant to interrogation.

“You already know all the questions I'm going to ask, I suggest you answer them quickly if you don't want to be lunch.” The bird muttered, clutching a meat cleaver in one hand, kept close to his side. Vincent's clothing clearly marked him as an incredibly high-ranking Avian official.

The scout said nothing, so Vincent continued. He started by slowly walking behind the scout, then jammed the cleaver into the human's shoulder. There was a lot of blood, and the scout started screaming, his first sound since the recording had started. The bird sighed.

“If you have been spying on me, you should be aware that I'm a mage. Do you know what that means? It means I can cauterize your wounds, prevent you from bleeding out and cut until I get bored. I'm just saying that to scare you, though, my plan really was to have lunch, you'd be surprised how good of a cook I can be without a kitchen.”

The scout inhaled sharply and tried desperately to control his breathing. Vincent seemed to know the man was going to cave in, as he left the cleaver in the scout's shoulder and moved to his front, waiting patiently with his hands behind his middle.

“There are five of us, counting me. We were sent to evaluate you. Apex has logged you as both a valuable potential informant and an Avian VIP candidate for possible future assassination. ...If you let me go they'll be a lot easier on you, you don't want the kind of pain they'll bring to your door.” The scout said.

Vincent was listening calmly until the man's last sentence, then Vincent lit up with rage, like those words had made him snap. He pulled the cleaver out, and put it back in, hard, over and over until the scout stopped breathing, raising his voice for a few particular words as he did so. More and more blood coated the bird, who didn't seem to care about his fancy clothes or about that whole cauterizing thing.

“YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS. LET ME SHOW YOU.” Vincent nearly yelled, looking frantic, breathing quick, looking ready to attack the now-dead scout further and stewing on his frustration for a while.

Then, he un-snapped, exhaling slowly and adjusting his tie, before glancing up at the camera and giving whoever would be watching a month later a playful wave, complete with a smile and a tilt of his hips.