OiM - How it All Began

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry looked on in shock. "Hey, that was Shepard with Carpenter! We should go see what's going on, help if we can."
No bad feelings yet, so it couldn't be THAT bad of an idea.  

[SirBayer]

Smith turned to the son of a gun who had shot one of his men and brought him down with a veritable burst of .50 cal ammo, firing one shot, two shots, then pausing and aiming slightly more carefully for a third one.

---

Arthur was struggling to keep walking with his backpack. He was cold, tired, and... well, tired. "Let's... let's just do what he says."  

[NativeForeigner]

((Elesariin, Izamara, Shikyo, Anchou, and others REALLY should post. The last three even more so.))

Henry got a feeling as he approached the manger. It was a strange feeling, not exactly bad, but not exactly good either. It was more in between.

Ro shifted a little more of Arthur's weight onto himself to ease Arthur.
He sneezed and wiped his nose with his sleeve. "I agwee wit Arter." he said, his voice extremely nasally.
He coughed into his free arm.

***

Three of the soldiers, the soldiers in the trench, rose from cover and let out a quick burst of fire upon the convoy. Smith managed to successfully amputate the middle soldier's left arm.

The soldier fell. The other two sustained fire, causing Smith and his men to take cover.

Due to the distance, non of the shots were particularly effective and none of Smith's men were injured. The soldiers fell behind cover to reload and the other two soldier's rose, one behind the car had an automatic weapon, the other had some sort of gun with a long, wooden stock, what looked to be a steam gauge assembly, and something that looked like a pressure cooker.

This man took aim with the somewhat large weapon and fired. A large spike embedded itself within the door of a jeep, just barely missing a woman within.

Alastair grunted with disdain. There wasn't much he could do at this distance with a handgun.

The third soldier stepped out from behind the rock wielding a device that was quite obviously some sort of rocket launcher.
It could have been the weapon's massive size and mass of pipes and steel that gave it away, but the large projectile that could be seen within the perforated casing of the weapon could also have been the giveaway.

The man readied himself.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

"Then you guys go to the castle," Henry said distractedly. "It's just up the path, and we'll be in sight of each other. I'm going to check this out."
Enthralled by the feeling his power was giving him, Henry crept forward and looked into the manger.  

[NativeForeigner]

"Did joo see what happened to dem? You'll get killed!" Ro pointed out.
He continued walking.

When Henry showed no signs of stopping, the others continued along the path, Ro shaking his head.

As the group moved ahead of Henry, they seemed to slow down from his perspective, though none of them noticed it themselves.

Henry moved forward towards the entrance of the manger.

Suddenly his world went black and white.

Within the manger, there was no sign of Shepard or Carpenter. The fire remained still, yet it's now-colorless light still flickered ever so slowly.

He noticed that everyone else had now suddenly ceased moving.

Standing in the middle of the manger was a man of about five feet eight inches and of average build.

He was in complete color and stood out from the colorless environment.

He looked at Henry and smiled with crooked and slightly yellowed teeth. He wore a dark purple top hat with a yellow band, a lighter purple waistcoat that fanned out at the bottom and only had the two center buttons buttoned. He wore a darker yellow shirt beneath the waistcoat, a magenta bow tie, neon orange gloves, pinstripe slacks matching his hat, an orange belt with a green, metallic buckle, and extremely shiny shoes that, rather than having a color of their own, reflected the colors around the man's feet.

Needless to say, he was quite colorful.

His skin was pale and his eyes were dark, but his hair flowing out from beneath his hat and to about his shoulders was a canvas of color, sporting every color from red to green and everything in between.

He offered a slight bow to Henry.

"Henry, is it?" he said in a slight, but untraceable accent.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Still no immediate bad feeling, so Henry nodded slowly. "Do I know you, Rainbow?" he asked.  

[NativeForeigner]

((Gotta log soon.))

"I wouldn't say you do, Grayscale." the man responded with a roll of his eyes.

With a small wave of his hand, he put it to his chest, "I am Munkwon A. Driskoll, but you may call me Munk."

He smirked, "I, my friend, am a Duke, a MADman, if you will."

He spoke in an almost sing-song voice.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

((b*****d.))

Henry scoffed. "I see. And is that supposed to mean something to me?"
He stepped more fully into the light and nodded his head. "Henry Zidane, bassist and playboy. I'm new to this world."  

[NativeForeigner]

As Henry scoffed, Munk narrowed his eyes at Henry.

Henry felt a sudden shift to a bad feeling at the back of his neck. He felt that maybe he should watch his mouth around this man.

Munk cut Henry off with a wave of his hand and a brief laugh as he started to introduce himself.

"I know who you are, boy! You were in our house for Silvia's sake!" he laughed heartily.

He began to pace around the manger in a light footed manner. He twisted a fully around and pointed his index finger at Henry.

"Anywhoo, the point is, I have a proposition for ya. You interested?"  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry flinched inwardly as Munk pointed at him, but he tried not to let it show. "I might be. Lay it out for me."
He paused. "And who's Silvia?"  

[NativeForeigner]

Munk smirked, then scoffed. "Who's Silvia? Who's Silvia?" he began to laugh and began to walk around Henry.

His laughter stopped, "Honestly, I haven't a Heaven's clue who this 'Silvia' is! It's just an expression, sheesh."

He put his arms on Henry's shoulders from behind, "And why would I 'lay it down' for you? I think I'll just tell you! But why would I tell you unless I know you're up for it?! I can't have you spreading rumors around, now can I? What do you think I am, stupid? Crazy?" he chuckled and released Henry's shoulders and walked away several steps.

He quickly spun, his hands behind his back, "Well I'm not! So, are you with me? Am I 'laying it down'?"  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry blinked a couple times, confused. "Uhh...right then."
He turned to the Duke, carefully extracting himself. "I meant, tell me your proposition and I'll think about it."  

[NativeForeigner]

Munk looked at Henry with a dumbfounded expression, "I know what you meant!" he said, jerk his head back with the word "know".

"You still need to let me know if you're with me before I tell you." he said, twisting his head and staring at Henry with one eye.

"But!" he interjected, "I'll tell you anyway! We..." he flipped his hand and jabbed his index finger into his chest, "Want you." he flipped his hand around to poke Henry in the chest.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry blinked some more. "Who's we? And why do you want me?"  

[NativeForeigner]

Exasperated, Munk threw his hands into the air and looked upwards.

"Do you not listen? We, the MADmen, the Dukes! And why is our little secret, that is, until you give me an answer."