exsiliumlogs | Stray not into darkness (OPEN)

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Stray not into darkness (OPEN)

Date & Time: April 15 - Midday
Location: The Market and surrounding streets
Characters: Clive & OPEN
Summary: Clive is practicing his hiding skills before his trip to the big city.
Warnings: He may be stepping out of your shadow ~~like a stalker~~

Clive had begun to suspect the evolution of his new pistols a few weeks into his arrival, and he had taken time to make use of it through practice while alone or with certain individuals who he trusted. He was confident enough with it and had the knowledge of how best to use it with inanimate objects such as buildings, posts and even overhangs. Apparently shadows were to be his to use, and he was well pleased with it.

Now he considered the challenge of making use of people. He knew the principle was sound, and he had successfully done it once quite by accident. He hadn't consciously done it then, but he was going to learn to do it now before he made the trip into UE territory where it could be a skill that could save his life should things go badly while he was alone, since he knew he would be alone. He worked better that way, but regardless, walking from shadow to shadow was something he could use.

So, he headed to the one place that was generally populated with people looking for wears. He began in the streets leading to the market, easing from the shadow of a building and disappearing from it to a shadow two feet in front of him. He continued to walk, eyeing a person who seemed engrossed in their insignificant wanderings and stepped into the shadow of a support post, and he appeared from a shadow of a lamppost. Hmm, not his intended target.

He stopped, reviewing what he had done before he moved into the market itself. There were plenty of people here, and he moved around the periphery of the area, sliding into a passing individuals shadow and concentrating on moving to other. He stepped from another person's shadow, almost right on top of them, and he stopped walking to give them some distance. He moved off almost immediately to try again with someone else.

[Action or prose is fine by me.]

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"Not at all! Watching the people here mulling around with their daily lives is far more exciting than you think." It was about the only form of entertainment that he got lately, unless he went back to harassing those fire breathers. Which was entertainment in itself, but done too often and the special spark did tend to die off.

Placing his cup back down, the rest of the brew went forgotten as he gracefully pushed himself up to stand. His robes flowed like a beautiful waterfall around his slender figure even despite his hands clasping together joyfully. "Let us walk and you shall see!"

"I can't say I share your sentiments," he replied. The only reason that he bothered to watch people in a market place was so that he could pick out their vulnerabilities. If he had a target, he would find a right spot to harass and carry out his mission. Beyond that, people were disgusting, ungrateful, selfish creatures that he didn't bother wasting his time on.

He blinked and then his eyes narrowed as the man proposed that they walk anywhere. He had no where to be aside from to recover some of his strength so that he could slip away again. "Why would I want to walk anywhere with you?"

Clive's thoughts were heard loud and clear within the kirin's mind, and he lightly chuckled to himself as a result. My my, wasn't this one a rather bitter and uncaring individual! But considering what he could tell of his past and future, the kirin could see why.

"No, I don't suppose that you do," he muttered with amusement.

The challenge didn't bother him in the slightest, and he half-turned to face his reluctant companion. "You're trying to test yourself and those within this marketplace. What better way that to walk within those you're wanting to study?"

His eyes narrowed further at the reply, sensing as if this creature knew more than they should. It was like a nervous tick at the back of his mind, warning him to stay clear even if he couldn't tell the reason for it. He listened to his instincts though as they were all that he could really trust aside from a single person.

"I'm finished with them," he said with a soft growl in his voice. He couldn't step a shadow in his current state, and he suspected that walking would be an endeavor as well. "I'd prefer to stay right here. If you want to go, then go."

Such a suspicious little mind this one had! Sohki was rather enjoying himself with that along with the light growl edging into his tone. His smile never once wavered despite the 'threat', and when it became clear that Clive would't leave, the kirin turned back to face his reluctant companion.

"And leave such wonderful company? Hardly~" he cheerfully answered before gesturing to one of the seats at his table. "If you're staying then you must join me for tea." Clive would fight him, but Sohki was as stubborn as Clive was reluctant.

He had never really been called wonderful company by a relative stranger before, and he couldn't detect any sarcasm in the other man's tone. If there had been, he probably would have snarl at the slight. As it was, he simply glared at the idea of that he was good company to keep. He was a Gunner and he was not good company for anyone.

"I don't particularly enjoy tea, so no," he replied gruffly. It was also because he didn't entirely trust that things of this place weren't going to kill him. He liked to make his own food, and he considered meals and beverages safe from Elza's hand. She had too much invested in him to poison him.

Everyone needed to enjoy tea! Or so the kirin thought. It was one of the few human luxuries that he did partake in along with their eye for desserts as well. Still he didn't pry as to why given that Sohki was already more than well aware of it in the first place.

"Such a shame really, but your company will suffice!" The kirin exclaimed with that every cheerful expression on his face. "Given your training, I take it that the ability you were using was one you obtained here in this world?"

This creature was very annoying, yet there was no way that he could just walk off just now. He was tired and was barely controlling the need to have his hands shaking, so he knew that walking away was out of the question for the time being. He had his pride to consider in a situation like this.

"Why are you still talking to me?" He narrowed his eyes at the question, and he leaned back against the wall behind him. He folded his arms across his chest and took the moment to rest slightly. "What do you know about my training?"

Clive's answer was returned with a patient smile on Sohki's end. The pointed questions and narrowed eyes didn't bother the kirin in the slightest. Not much really did when it came down to it, and he took another sip of his tea.

"Why not?" Sohki asked in return. Watching the people mulling around them in the market, he watched with an expression that almost looked like one from a grandfather to its grandchildren as he answered Clive. "Whatever you tell me. Well apart from what I've watched here. It's easy to tell the ability you were using wasn't something you originally had."

He didn't like that he couldn't tell what this man was thinking, and he most certainly didn't like being constantly smiled at. It reminded him of a few people of the army, and most of them still knew to leave him alone. This one wouldn't just leave him to his peace what with those bothersome questions.

"You must be bored," he said and his upper lip threatened to curl, but he held in the reaction. Having never had family of his own, he frowned at the patient almost paternal look, stepping away as if more distance would take him away from such an expression. He didn't like it. "How can you watch when you're blind? I was practicing, that's all."

The young human's thoughts ere loud within his mind as he sat there enjoying the moment. It didn't bother him in the slightest to be the only one seated out of the pair, or the fact that there was an assassin beside him... not that the human in question was aware that he was aware of that!

"Quite the contrary," Sohki once again cheerfully answered. The fact that Clive stepped away from him didn't cause him bother, and he simply sipped at his tea instead as if he hadn't noticed the distance the human was putting between them. "One doesn't need eyes to see~ I see with my heart."

He didn't like the idea that this creature was managing some kind of entertainment out of him, mostly because he considered anything he did that was considered to be entertaining a possible insult. He didn't like being insulted, not even an interpreted one. No one should enjoy his company save those few he liked or couldn't understand. This man hadn't found a place into either category just yet.

"See with your heart?" That was the stupidest thing that he had ever heard before in his life, but it wasn't anything to laugh at. What kind of person came up with that sort of words? It was the kind of words posh aristocrats spoke of to woo the attention of ladies with too much caked on make-up. "Are you mocking me?"

The skepticism was expected, and he had to hold himself back from chuckling too much in amusement. Humans were all the same really, but the answer he'd given was the easiest explanation in reality. Perhaps there weren't those in this man's world who could do such a thing? That wouldn't have surprised the kirin in the slightest.

"Do you think my words are mocking?" Sohki asked in return. It was obvious that he was hardly bothered with Clive's reaction, and the subtle but amused smile on his lips spoke of that. "Tell me this, do you solely rely on your eyes to know your surroundings?"

This question game was getting very old quickly, but he refrained from snarling about it. He suspected that this man would only derive some amusement from his reactions. He hadn't yet been able to wipe that smile after all.

He looked away at the question, thinking that was answer enough. He knew better than most that all five senses were used to work through the world that they lived in, and one of his caliber was train to make use of all five effectively. "So what sense are you using to sight without eyes? Certainly not your ears."

So this one hadn't taken his answer at face value? The thought had him shaking his head lightly. Humans, they were a race that rarely seemed to have their minds opened to other possibilities. How they survived, the kirin did sometimes wonder!

"My heart isn't enough?" Sohki asked with a mock-surprised look on his expression. Placing the cup back on the saucer, the kirin peered over at his unwilling companion. "I can see far more with that than I can with any of my other senses combined."

He didn't believe that a heart could actually be used to sense much of anything in the world around them. It was used for keeping a person alive, and he was of the opinion that the use of it for emotions simply lead to weakness, particularly for weak people.

"A heart contains no senses." He found that odd, but then again, this creature wasn't human. The rules might not apply. He hadn't had many conversations the beast races after all. "Probably because you aren't human then. We have no such senses. Once your blind, you cannot see." For a gunner (if they lived that long), losing one's sight was a death sentence.

Such a closed mind, but that was the human population in general. How they managed to survive and evolve was sometimes even beyond his comprehension, and he had to try hard not to shake his head with amusement in return. When Clive seemed to go through the motions though, the kirin regarded him pleasantly. That was how it was meant to be!

"You're quite right there!" Sohki said in return to the whole not human aspect. Tilting his head, he watched Clive thoughtfully before offering the other a smile. "And thus your life is forfeit? Survival of the fittest is the oldest law of nature."

Well, it seemed that he could pass no real judgement on someone who wasn't even human. They worked different obviously, but that didn't mean that he had to like them any more than he did for anyone else. It was far easier not to get attached, to realize that death was a part of every life.

He narrowed his eyes before frowning and nodding his head. "Unless you're in a position where your advice and past experiences can help others, you may as well slit your own throat. No one should be a burden."

That answer had him laughing lightly beneath their cover. My wasn't he a rather morbid human? The training he had gone through must have been rather severe to offer that type of answer. That was why he peered at the human with amusement clearly evident on his face.

"No fighting for you life? Mmm now that does rather go against the natural element of it all," he muttered with a playfully thoughtful tone.

He shifted, uncertain if the laughter was mocking or not. He supposed that he could take offense, but if this creature wasn't human, he wasn't about to attack needlessly. He would research first to get an idea of what he was dealing with before taking his vengeance for the slight.

"Why should you when you can't see? An arrow to the back will end your life," he replied with a simple shrug of his shoulders. "The only power left is to choose the time and place of your end."

"And what of your remaining senses, hmm?" Sohki asked in return. It was difficult to ever get him not amused over something, and that was much the same here while he continued to regard Clive with that same closed-eyed expression. "Close your eyes."

While this fighter did have a point about choosing a time and place, not everything always worked out that way. In fact, there were times more often than not that resulted in such unknown endings.

"Humans rely mostly on sight rather than sound, taste, touch, and smell," he replied simply. "Most aren't trained well enough to use all of them, so they rely on sight more heavily than anything else." He knew that was true because he had worked alongside far too many people in the last few years.

At the request, he narrowed his eyes but didn't close them. "I don't see the point," he replied simply. He didn't follow orders from anyone, even if they were actually requests.

"And that is the problem with you humans. Most of you have extremely functional other senses and yet they all go to waste!" Oh the travesty of it all really! He supposed that it was lucky that there were so many of them in the world.

"If you could humour me." The narrowed eyes didn't bother him in the slightest. His expression never shifted though, and he remained patiently waiting.

"In most of us, but not all of us," he replied stiffly. He wasn't about to be lumped in with the commoners around here, especially when he knew that some where content to just exist rather than take advantage of a situation. No wonder the Initiative had to force people to train.

"I don't humor anyone," he replied, gritting his teeth and folded his arms across his chest. "Find someone else to play with."

The stiff reply didn't bother him in the slightest. He supposed that was rather true as there were some humans who lacked function with some of their senses whether it be sight, hearing, or any of the others.

"You think that I'm playing with you?" He asked with his voice all cheer. "My my! I'm not leaving a very good impression now, am I?!"

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