Alone once more... Returning from his now new job. Contracts, albiet extremely dangerous, the allure from them is undeniable. Those news he's seen on TV, perhaps some of them may be related to people that have been in this industry for a long time now... Abbas looks at his injuries, limping, heading to a hospital to recover. He has his I.D., yet managed to avoid answering as many questions as possible as to where the injuries came from.

Those eyes, the looks, abbas feels as he enters the hospital... Perhaps one of the staff member is a vampire, looking around, seeing a nurse pull a person thats bleeding furiously on a bed. Abbas walks up to the counter, requesting to be placed into their care, struggling, his words through, with a long silence after he finishes the receptionist turns him into the hospital, with a thank you he marches forward. Injured, yet on edge. Wishing to relax but unable to, he can smell the strong stench of blood from the surroundings. People ill, attacked by mundane and monsters. Those damn accursed monsters... His past resurfaces for an instant before he hears the door opening and a doctor entering with tools, an I.V. bag, and more...

His body sweats, as Abbas eyes the doctor, trying to gauge if the doctor is human or not. Nearly out of instinct dodging the mask being placed over his face, he holds his breath for an instant, before gritting his teeth, and deciding even in his current state, he will not be able to survive. Abbas sighs and inhales the gas from the mask, rapidly feeling tired and weak before embracing the darkness that is sleep. In his dreams, he remembers about his family, his wife, his child, that... monster. 

A beast so fierce even when it was weak. The lion, that was on fire, held down by broken chains on its limbs, its sneer, He could feel it even in what he knows is a dream. That sneer, the smell of blood, the taste of the dirt as he stumbles to the ground. The sound of the squelch, the humid air that traps and suffocates him. Feeling a rapid drop, as if he was falling through the ground, he gasp for air before awakening in the hospital bed once more. With a sudden lurch, he sits ups, looking around, seeing that its only 3 am. Alone once more... Abbas sighs and decides to quickly recover before he heads out again. 

2 Weeks Later

Leaving the hospital, Abbas smells the air, rotten, yet clear... He decides to warm up before deciding to do anything drastic. As he grabs his bow, immediately something feels... different. This wasn't like how it was before. The bow this time, it felt closer, almost like a limb, he could feel the crackle of the wood as it bent, the tension of the wood as he pulled. He could see where he would shoot, his hand stabilized quicker, feeling significantly more relaxed... his breath steadies as he aims at a target, letting go of the string, with a soft woosh, the arrows hit dead on. "amazing..." he mumbles. The payment, he feels now truly. It's something beyond just simple imagination nor weapons, its more than that. Its influences how one interacts with the world itself. Abbas takes a deep breath again and this time decides to try shooting with all of his strength, at a bird this time. Feeling the flapping of its wings, he see's it, and it see's him, as it starts flying towards him, time seems to slow down as he released his finger on the arrow, this time, much quicker than before, akin to a pistol, it pierces through the bird, pinning it into a tree. Shocked by this, Abbas goes over slower to retrieve the bird. Looking at the arrow, now destroyed, yet, its power cannot be denied. He can feel his blood boil as his heart starts pounding rapidly. This... This could truly lead him to his dream, to his revenge. 

Finally, he has a way of hunting down... the Nian.

Abbas sits on the plane back to America. Realizing how much of a fool he is, there were so many other ways to get through, and he tried just barging head on forward. Regret fills him as he regards himself foolish.

He lays into the chair as slumber rapidly overtakes him. Nightmare fueled as always. His slumber, while not a peaceful one to others, is to him.

It's been 8 months now since the incident. Fresh on his mind. His degrading social skills. He needs something to vent his frustration on and decides to go for a hunt. Stalking the woods, one step at a time. Climbing here and there, he watches a deer come by, sniping it with his bow and toxins. Watching it die under its own muscle. He walks over and grabs it, lifting it up over his back before returning.

Going back to his house, he skins and cuts the thing, letting it bleed dry before cooking it. His skills, not great, but enough to survive without vomiting. Feeling the numbness from his curare on his tongue, he coughs a little before continues eating, know that curare when ingested is barely lethal, requiring a much larger dose than the one he used.

He thinking about his mission, and realizes, not all humans are good, there are monsters amongst the humans as well, and if it comes down to it. He will have to hunt them down as well. Before himself at least, realizing he is already slowly falling to become one of these monsters himself.

Abbas looks at his loot. Some teeth, a large claw, and some of the beast hide. Remembering about someone he met recently. He thought of possibly making something for Jason and Mel who seems to be lacking in a bit of items compared to him. Deciding that the teeth would make great arrow heads, abbas calls up Jason.

"Hello? Jason? This is abbas. I'd like to request a order with the beast we hunted last time. I shall prepare the materials."

After getting his confirmation, Abbas will swing by his shop in Los Angeles, bringing the material and watching Jason work on the items before thanking him with a generous payment and leaving.

3 days later

With the items in his pack, Abbas will swing by mel and jason apartment, before dropping off a folded up Leatherwork outfits. Got a pair of arm guards and all. 

"I recently hunted something and uh... I managed to salvage this for you guys? Unfortunately I could only get enough for 1 person... but I got something else for Jason, its not his thing but he can try trading it with someone for a gun"

Mel pokes her head out of the kitchen. "Killed the Nain?" she asks loudly while clearly frying something based on the sizzling sounds. 

"Thanks buddy, but I have a gun." Jason holds up his keychain from the couch where's he's watching cartoons with Violet.

"No, the nian hasn't appeared yet. Though, as a fellow guy jason, i think this might appear rather awesome to you, though I'm more of a fan of traditional stuff."

Abbas will also pass a photo to Jason of a large bone sword.

He looks at the photo "Nice! where'd you get that?"

"A Tiger T-rex hybrid thing. I could've grabbed some dragon bones/leather too if we weren't sent back so fast" 

Mel sneaks a look at the photo between batches of pan-fried squash. The fire alarm hasn't gone off, yet. "Do you even know how to swing a sword?" she asks Jason casually before returning to the kitchen.

"Kinda. I shoot better but I'm no stranger to a good blade."  Getting up, he heads towards the kitchen, trying to move the conversation away from Violet.

"What's the other thing?" Mel asks, changing the topic as she attends to the stovetop.

"I had someone make some clothes out of the things leather, it's rather resilient and I think can even hold its own against sniper. It survived quite the uh... explosion to say the least." 

"Jason could use some armor," she says with a chuckle while transferring the food from large pan to plate.

Abbas walks over to violet and ask "how's little violet doing? Has mommy and daddy gotten into any fights recently again? Sorry I was gone for so long "

"I have armor, do you?" Jason looks at Mel dryly.

She just looks back at him with a you know the answer to that question expression and the proceeds to pull a tray of pork chops out of the oven.

"Besides, you could use a new outfit dear" He chuckles, then retreats from the kitchen before Mel can throw something at him.

Abbas gives a slight chuckle as well before he starts chatting with Violet, picking her up and letting her rest on one of his arm like a normal child.

As Jason makes a hasty exit, a wet sponge comes flying in his direction. It was aimed horribly and lands onto the wood floor with a splat. Watching the splat, abbas wonders if Mel would possibly require some training in throwing.

The truth is that Mel didn't mind Jason's jab on her fashion or even his ongoing leveraging of endearing terms. He had, however, done a decent job of getting on her nerves for the past two days and unquestionably deserved a wet sponge to the face--or anything, really. 

With an annoyed expression (in part due to her poor aim), Mel stops plating the food on the kitchen counter to pick up the sponge, wipe up the small puddle, and then clear off the table for dinner. At first she was just going to move the armor out of the way, but it's lack of weight causes her to pause. Instead, Mel unfolds it to examine what exactly what Abbas had made for her.

Picking it up, Mel will feel the leather is a bit rough. Almost akin to scales, yet also is a little fluffy. It feels kinda warm holding it. The item itself looks to be made rather roughly, like someone's first time doing leatherwork. It's main color being orange with pigments of blue and white on it like spots. With it, Mel might look a bit weird but it could also start a fashion trend! The inside of the clothes appear to be rather insulated. Seemingly covering most if not all parts of the body, with the gloves/arm braces, and the exception/lack of a helmet. Mel feels like she could go head to head with a boar and come out almost perfectly fine.

Mel silently takes in all the details of the gift for a minute, hands running over the different textures and even holding it close to sniff. "Jason, can you serve dinner?" Assuming the answer, she takes the bundle of leather into her bedroom. About ten minutes later, the Pathetic therapist walks into the dining room in almost full armor. She has a confused expression as she looks back at her family members who are now seated around the dinnertable, mid-meal. 

"Pretty!" Violet declares. "Like a princess!" Mel's confused expression remains, although she takes a mental note to explain the societal definition of a pretty princess to Violet during their next lesson.

Abbas observes Mel in her outfit before nodding to himself thinking "I still got my touch with size reading". 

"Maybe Xena, Warrior Princess." In between bites of the dinner Mel made, "You going to eat in that? Mommy may need to borrow your bib Nugget." Noticing her confused expression he asks "Do you need help?"

Abbas is already almost done with his food by the time he even notices the confused expression with the mention of Jason asking if she needs help.

Answering the question, Mel asks Abbas, "How did you get my measurements?"

"Totally not weird." Jason whispers

Abbas looks over at Jason and reads off his shirt size exactly after a quick glance.

"My wife used to make my uniforms and clothes and taught me some tips and tricks" he says without seeming creepy or weird or even anything at all.

"... Well, thank you. It's..." she looks down at herself, an odd sight for her (or most anyone outside of ComiCon or Halloween) to see, and then looks back at Abbas with a grin "... perfect."

Abbas nods, though internally, he is happy to be of help to Mel and jason. The only people he feels comfortable around for the past month. 

"Glad to be helpful. Jason, you can come by whenever you want to grab the sword. I don't really use such a thing, I got my own stuff from it" 

"I can do that, it may come in handy." Jason says

"What's my size?" Violet asks, not knowing what the range of answers could be or why Mommy even cared.

"You're about... a 3t violet" Abbas says with a soft smile at the child

Violet grins with satisfaction. "Three!" She announces just in case someone missed it.

"Good honey." Jason looks at violet, slightly proud of her.

"Yea, a three..." Abbas will cough, hide his face a bit and excuse himself before leaving the room. 

Thinking about it, Abbas randomly reminisce his own old family. His child that should've been 5 now. His wife who would help him with general public and outside stuff. His old hut out in the woods. 

The image of Violet overlaps with his own child. "Lucas..." Abbas mumbles softly, a tear falls down abbas face as he hides from everyone. 

It's been about 1 month after their 1 year death anniversary. Abbas spins his ring on his finger softly, it's not jewel, nor is it any precious metal. Appearing to have been made of random rock and string. On it is A♡A. Abbas looking forlorn softly whispers "Alice..." before he sighs and vanishes from sight. Disappearing into his own apartment...