Strung Up

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".....need to throw him so... You could have killed him."

"That was the point. He saw us...think I wanted someone walking around, bragging that he saw me naked? What would the Captain think?!"

"I mean. To be fair, you don't wear much of anything anyways."

Revan let out a small groan as he slowly regained consciousness, the muffled conversations becoming clearer and more pronounced every second that ticked by. His head felt like it was still resting at the bottom of the lake with how clogged and distorted everything was, but at the very least he could hear and understand those that were around him. Hell, just the fact that he was alive and in severe pain was, at least in his book, a good highlight to an overall confusing day as the black haired youth once again opened his eyes to the world.

"Oh great. You're awake," Was the first thing Revan was greeted with the moment his black hues were revealed.

Standing in front of him, albeit upside down, was a slender female a tad taller than he himself was, around 165cm or so. She had medium length black hair, brown eyes, and a color of skin that the young man had never seen on someone before, a shade not quite brown but also not exactly tan. She wore a nothing but a tight, white piece of fabric around her breasts and a long, light brown cloth wrapped around her waist. With her hands clasped behind her back and a wide smile on her face, she gave off an energetic and curious aura that seemed so genuine it was almost infectious. From where Revan was standing, or swinging by the look of things, he pegged her as the boisterous type, loud and hyper but optimistic and simple, preferring to run in swinging rather than carefully think.

Standing behind her were an assortment of other individuals resting beside a crystal clear lake. The sunlight reflected off the waters surface, giving everything a surreal air to it, as if it was something out of fantasy novel.

And it would have continued to feel dream-like if hadn't been for the smaller details, which Revan noticed immediately upon awakening.

For starters, he was hanging by his feet.

Thick strips of rope were tightly coiled around his ankles, thighs, and torso before being messily secured to a girthy yet unreliable looking branch of a nearby tree. No matter how he wiggled or whichever way he twisted, the black haired youth found himself unable to move, at least enough for him to easily free himself. Though the ropes themselves seemed to be tied wrong and inconsistent, they were more than tight enough to make up for it.

Another instance was the emotions displayed on the faces of those few people that were standing some yards away.

A look of anger and annoyance, a mask of disappointment and disapproval, and a face of near indifference mixed with the smallest hint of curiosity. The clothes and appearances of the trio also caught Revan's attention but he didn't take those into serious account during his initial glance over of the area.

"Did you have a good nap, mister peeping Tom?" The girl in front of the youth asked, her tone as cheerful as her outward appearance, though Revan could hear the tiny undertones of hostility creeping into her patterns of speech.

At first, the black haired teen said nothing to her, content to just swing softly from side to side, occasionally getting turned by the girl whenever he started to rotate away.

"No," was the only response given when he finally ended his own silence.

"Yeah. Sorry about that. Tione can be a bit of a brute." Undeterred by the lack of response and emotion, the girl easily responded without too much trouble. "She didn't know you'd be so weak."

"Didn't know and still don't care," Came the shout from behind. A young woman who looked almost identical to the one in front of Revan, the same one who had been glaring daggers since the youth regained consciousness. "I'd do it again too. Damn perv!!"

Revan glanced in the direction of the one who had made the outburst, black hues flicking over the moment she started speaking. Everything about the shouting female screamed brazen and easily angered, at least from the black haired youths current swinging perspective.

Standing at the same height as her similar looking counterpart, she seemed to be the exact opposite when compared to the cheerful one, barring the same skin color tone.

She had long black hair that trailed down to the middle of her back with two braids on either side of her face, framing her strong features and dark green eyes. Around her ample chest, she wore what was essentially just a bikini top, a dark red piece that was open in the back and held in place from the front by a small neck piece. On her waist she wore a pareo similar to the boisterous female but much shorter and more revealing, showing off her cloth covered legs and bikini bottoms, both of which were the same red as her top. Off of looks alone, color scheme, and the way she held herself, Revan pinned her as aggressive and crass, one who would pick a fight over a mere shoulder bump.

(("She's the one who threw me," )) Revan noted internally. He heard the exact yell right before he had been yanked out of the water and tossed like a football. (("Best not to get on her bad side. Or converse with her for that matter."))

As far as the boy was concerned, anyone who could EASILY pluck a full hundred pounds out of the water and throw it with such force WHILE keeping themselves afloat was to be avoided. With that much strength, his face would probably cave in on itself with a single punch, and he wasn't exactly ready to accept such a luxury until he had sorted everything out and got to the bottom of the events unfolding around him.

"You can ignore her," the cheerful girl said, capturing Revan's attention once again. "My name is Tiona Hiryute a member of the Loki Familia. Mind telling me yours?"

"And afterwards you can tell us what you were doing at the bottom of the lake," A voice continued, causing the teen to glance in the direction of it.

A woman with jade colored eyes and hair walked up to the two of them, one of the three females that had been standing near the back. She was about 170cm in height and extremely pleasing to look at. She wore a green outfit with yellow borders, a white cloak over it, a black belt, a yellow sash, black leggings, and long brown boots. Pointing out to the sides of her head were a long pair of pointy ears, like the kind one would see on an elf. First impression wise, she gave off a motherly air and held herself with confidence, giving Revan the immediate summary of someone with knowledge and intellect. He could have been wrong, but she seemed to be the leader of the group, especially given everyone's body language when she walked on ahead.

Still, despite her appearance and her slick entrance into Tiona's and his conversation, Revan didn't really have any interest in talking to her. Or to anyone really.

Only thing he truly wanted was to be cut down and left alone.

"Revan," the black haired adolescent said after some careful thought, freely divulging his name to the lot of them. "Revan Knox."

"Your name is Revan? That's an odd name," the jade haired woman commented. "Don't think Ive ever heard of it before."

"And yours is?" Revan asked, once again getting rotated by Tiona when he spun too much. Normally he wouldn't have spoken up, but it seemed to be okay since she was obviously addressing him. "Shouldn't make fun of others names when you haven't given your own."

The jade haired woman frowned slightly. "My name is Riveria, vice-captain to the Loki Familia."

(("Okay. Your name is weirder than mine,")) The upside down teen grumbled in his head. (("Whose name is weirder isn't the question. It's that you felt the need to judge my name at all that's weird."))

"Now, tell me. What were you doing at the bottom of the lake?" Riveria asked her earlier question again, taking on a much more serious tone. "Give a satisfactory answer and we'll cut you loose."

"Refuse to answer and we'll leave you dangling there for someone else to find," the identical girl from before chimed in, walking up, a smaller blonde girl following close by. "After I get in a few good licks in."

Revan took a deep breath and let it out ever so slowly. He was tired, cold, wet, completely famished and the ropes weren't doing him any real favors in terms of comfort. The last thing he wanted to deal with was people, especially individuals he knew next to nothing about. Back home, he already had to put up with an overwhelming amount of day to day incidents designed to break him physically and emotionally. The LAST thing he needed was to have another group of people wailing on him over something he considered to be stupid.

Closing his eyes, Revan pieced together what he knew during the few events he could recall since before, during, and after being thrown. Even the tiniest scrap of information was laid out before him as the attempted to click together a plausible story.

(("Excluding the time of my supposed death which can't really be explained yet, there's only one plausible answer.")) Revan frowned slightly. To everyone else, it wouldn't seem like no time had passed at all, but to him it felt as if hours were passing as he carefully shifted the puzzle about. (("The female named Tione was the one who chucked me and called me a pervert. Tiona, the one I assume is a twin to the other, referred to me as a Peeping Tom. A giant lake, bursting from beneath the surface, thrown, tied up, questioned, negative emotions abound. Pretty clear cut they think I hid under the lake to sneak a peek."))

Revan opened his eyes and looked at each female in turn, his mind still running full throttle.

(("That begs the question, did I just appear there and they didn't notice? Or did I splash down into it instead and just sink down right before they arrived?")) The black haired youth didn't have anything to support the line of thinking and he definitely wasn't about to ask them directly (("I can hold my breath for 5 and half minutes. Six on a good day. Unless they were taking a quick dip, it seems unlikely I splashed down. Reasonable to assume I just appeared since they were probably bathing themselves."))

"I'll ask once more," Riviera said after waiting for a few seconds. "What were you doing at the bottom of the lake?"

"I don't know." Revan answered honestly, speaking up after a moment. He wasn't really lying but he also wasn't going to tell them the full story, considering how crazy it sounded. "I don't really remember much of anything besides my name honestly."

"Quit lying," Tione shouted, getting all up in the males personal space. "You just wanna skip out on the consequences. How about I give you something to jog your memory?!"

(("Why is she so....hostile?")) Revan muttered curiously, ignoring the specks of spit that hit him in the face. (("I don't even know you."))

"That's enough Tione," Riveria chastised, flashing a disapproving look. The blonde haired girl from before reached out and slowly pulled the tanned ogre away from the youths upside down face. "If what he says turns out to be true then it'll partially your fault."

"Tch," the enraged woman let out an annoyed scoff before turning on her heels and walking away from the area entirely.

Turning back to look at the black haired amnesiac, Riveria frowned slightly. "Cut him down if you will Ais."

Without any prior warning or hesitation, a line of silver flashed past and severed the rope holding Revan to the tree branch. If he hadn't been paying the utmost attention to his surroundings, he would have missed the cut entirely as he plummeted to the ground. Readjusting midair, Revan crashed onto the grassy floor shoulder first, nearly smashing his head on an overly large root. It was only due to Tiona's intervention that he didn't acquire a brand new concussion, her hand catching his noggin before it could suffer any more serious damage.

"Get him up and take him to get healed," Riveria said curtly, also walking away from them. "I'm gonna report this in."

//Make sure to vote. Next chapter out in a bit. Trying to get into the swing of things.