Abbae
(ex) Bandit
Pronunciation: (Aah - bay)
Abbae is a down on his luck bandit. Constantly picked on for being a scrawny 'kid' by his fellow bandits. he desperately wants to fit in.From a young age, he's always been bullied and gotten into fights. Now that he is 25, he has learned that the only ones he is accepted by, are the bandits he surrounds himself with.
One day abbae has been separated from his fellow bandits after a raid gone wrong. His 'friends' having left him behind in their escape from the guards pursuit. Abbae finds himself hiding alone in the woods one night when he hears a distant crying.
Following the cries he finds a young baby demon- barely able to walk. His mother and father recently killed by demon slayers as their corpses lay nearby. He feels sympathy for this creature, because of his own past and how alone it must feel. He takes it with him, naming it Lurid.
He returns to the bandit camp and reunites with his 'friends' and does his best to keep it hidden from them, worried about what they would do if they found it. Worried that they would hurt it, or take it away from him.
It quickly grows, and as such, grows fond of him. It's not a fully humanoid demon, as it walks on all fours most of the time, but has a general humanoid shape to it. It seems that it is able to talk, but does not speak easily, if anything just a few words here and there. It is mostly feral in nature, and with a mouth full of teeth that seem too big for it.
As he grows, Abbae begins to realize that it's quite attached to him, almost smotheringly so ( and as he knows nothing about demons, does not know that this is part of demon nature, an act of 'imprinting' on a human, that one does not typically wish to happen). it hangs off him all the time and never leaves his side, growing quite protective of him. And as it is no longer a small demon as such, Lurid is eventually discovered by Abbae's fellow bandits.
What began as a fear that he would be punished for bringing the demon into the bandit camp, quickly turns into a stroke of good fortune for abbae. Lurid's presence at first frightens the bandits, but when they see how it reacts to abbae's commands, believe abbae to have tamed such a horrific evil beast. They begin to put abbae on a high pedestal, and suddenly abbae's life of being bullied and harassed, is turned upside down. He is a king among the bandits, hailed as a mighty demon tamer. When in fact, Lurid's nature is not evil (as everyone seems to always believe demons are). Lurid is a sweet, caring soul, and despite his scary / monstery features, the biggest thing Abbae has to fear from him is the fact that Lurid never leaves him alone. which to Abbae, who has never known a true friend or someone else who cares about his well being, fully accepts Lurid's clingy nature.
But things grow dark when Abbae is threatened by the boss bandit, who sees Abbae as trying to steal his position among the bandits- and Lurid, (against Abbae's silent wishes) kills the bandit leader while protecting Abbae.
The other bandits see this as abbae's doing (having commanded the demon to do so), and raise him up to be their new leader.
And so begins Abbae's new life as a seemingly 'rough and tough' bandit boss. Doing his best to pretend to be as mighty as his fellow bandits believe him to be, in fear of being killed or cast out when they find he's been faking it all this time. To find out that Lurid isn't tame, he's just... not an evil demon, to Abbae's knowledge at least.
Abbae sends his men on some questionable raids, not something he'd originally wanted to do, but it seemed to please the men and he was doing his best to fit in as their new mighty leader- Abbae begins to feel the consequences of his actions, to really take a note at what he was doing to people outside of their bandit camp. Of course he'd always known he was doing wrong. but being put in such a position of power, he begins to see just how dark a life he's been naively leading. He's no longer just some nameless hooligan, either. People are beginning to take notice. They know his name. Abbae: The demon bandit. He's beginning to realize how difficult it is to make decisions that affect such innocent lives, lives as innocent as lurid's was when he found him as a youngling. And the guilt that comes along with all his choices begins to eat away at him.
After a particularly treacherous raid, one that got out of hand, his men doing more evil than he remembered having done on past raids. Abbae encounters a bounty hunter, someone actually sent a prize out after his head!
Having lurid by his side ensured his safety upon the assassin's attempts. But all this war, all these dark deeds, and the fact that lurid had now killed multiple people for Abbae, he begins to see changes in the demon that weren't present before. Dark things in the Lurid's eyes, and his overbearing protective and clingy nature begins to worsen, begins to become much more sinistar to abbae. Abbae feels suffocated and realizes he's starting to fear Lurid, as lurid's actions become harder and harder to control.
He has known Lurid a long time now, and still sees the demon as a dear friend. It breaks his heart to know that the demon is changing because of his deeds, how HE has been changing because of his own deeds- Abbae decides to make a change for the good.
He has to get Lurid out of this life. HE has to get out of this life.
And so, Abbae makes a run for it in the dead of night. Leaving the bandits who looked up to him as their leader, behind.
He now hopes to find a quiet life somewhere, some normal life, with maybe a normal job, not surrounded by death and the evil intentions of humans.
He doesn't get far until he's spotted by his men, seeing him for the true frightened coward he is, all his fears laid bare for them to see and that Lurid was not under his control, and never has been.
They try to kill him but lurid of course, drives them back, far more ferocious than Abbae has ever seen. Abbae knowing he needs to leave and pull lurid away before there's any more of a bloodbath and he changes to a true demon forever, puts himself in harm's way (in lurid's way) to stop the demon from killing all the men. This pulls Lurid out of his frenzy, and escapes from the bandits with a wounded abbae by his side.
Abbae and lurid catch a boat off the mainland, to the next continent over, hoping they have left the life and the threats of the bandits behind forever...
---
10 years go by.
Abbae has found odd jobs, honest work, living in a small village within the Country of Ashra. He works for a high lord in the town he's he's begin to call his home. Lurid, living close by in the nearby woods. (It took a very long time before abbae could get him to live on his own without clinging to him every day- in fear that the village folk would drive Lurid away, (or worse yet, call the Demon Slayers that lived in the land to have Lurid killed.)
Abbae's job and life is going fairly decently. He's not super happy but he's content working for the lord prodomedently as a driver for his carriage when he has dealings in surrounding towns.
On his breaks or time off, he spends his time sitting with lurid in the shade of the trees, eating sweets/sharing them with Lurid, and reading etc.
It is one such normal day on the job, when Abbae is ambushed by the lord's men, having been tricked into accompanying the lord on a drive- and into a shipyard by the docks in a harbour town.
The Lord had found out Abbae's questionable past somehow and gained an interest in the bounty on his head. not wanting a treacherous man such as abbae working under him, he plans to send him to the authorities and collect the bounty as payment for Abbae's lies and obvious crimes when working under him.
Of course, as abbae is in danger, Lurid comes between the lord and abbae, frightening the humans at the sight of an evil demon - they attack lurid in their fear, causing the demon to fight back, and abbae helping as well- eventually leading to a massacre, lurid slaughters all the men and the lord himself.
As abbae and lurid stand among the bodies of the dead, they are spotted by a couple onlookers, and are chased by the guards out of town. Abbae knows it's only a matter of time before they are caught and is fearful for Lurid (and his own) future. But mostly lurids. He can't bare to see his only friend killed. He would rather die himself.
Demon slayers are called down from the city to kill Lurid, and it is here that Zerek, a boy of ten, is on his first slayer hunt with his father, heeding the call to exterminate a vicious demon that has killed a high lord, a bunch of men and is working with a well known bandit as well.
As it is Zerek's first demon hunt, he believes he can impress his father and fellow slayer squad by taking the demon down himself. Discovering Lurid by a stream in the forest while the rest of the slayers were preoccupied, he gives chase to Lurid.
Lurid easily escapes him, but leads him 'accidently' into another demon- a far worse demon, called Amvyos.
It is only a day after this meeting, that Lurid and abbae, having fled to a further woods in hopes of losing the slayers trail, encounter a young boy, wounded and alone in the woods: Zerek.
Having previously lost lurid, and encountered a far stronger, devilish demon as Amvyos, Zerek's slayer squad and his entire village is destroyed by the demon and it's horde of demon friends.
Zerek being the soul survivor, (simply allowed to live by the demon Amvyos himself), collapses at Lurid's feet and the demon takes him to abbae where they work on healing the boy who has grown a fever from infection.
Abbae goes to town to get medical supplies and while he's gone, Zerek wakes up to Lurid watching over him.
A scuffle happens, as zerek, raised to be a slayer, has been taught to hate all demons. Abbae arrives in time and stops Zerek from wounding himself any further- Lurid, merely watching in silent curiosity, as zerek begins to hallucinate from his fever wounds, passing out again.
As the days go on, Zerek learns to warily trust Lurid and abbae until he is well enough to follow abbae into town.
While in town, he sees the wanted posters for abbae and lurid, and hearing about how the evil demon has the human wrapped around its finger, zerek feels it necessary to separate the two, for their own good. He contacts a slayer, explaining the situation, and making the slayer promise not to attack lurid or abbae, since they have helped him and he doesn't feel they deserve death.
The slayer promises to the 10 year old kid that they won't attack the dangerous demon and notorious bandit duo. And zerek naively leads them to their hideout...
Extras:
*Abbae has a lot of scars, because he sort of sucks at fighting (but he's getting better!)
* He needs glasses but fuck if he'll wear them! They get in the way!!
