Tomas (bittyandbroken) wrote in strangergamesrp, @ 2012-11-20 12:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | closed, kamizuki izumo, log, observable, tomas |
Not Completely Irresistible After All
Who: Kamizuki Izumo and Tomas
When: Oct 15
Where: Woods, near the water.
What: Izumo and Tomas meet. It doesn’t go well. Tomas gets a little bloody.
Warnings: Blood, animal death, swearing, two awful characters colliding.
Open or Closed: Closed
Observable: Yes.
Being able to play outside in an area with trees and animals in it was a definite plus about this strange adventure, for Tomas. He bounced cheerfully as he went running through the trees, making cawing noises occasionally in the direction of the crow that flew around him and occasionally - when he walked steadily enough for it to be comfortable - landed on him. He didn’t have Pooky with him at the moment, but he was trying to keep Lady Arabella at his side as much as possible. After all, otherwise she couldn’t do her job.
Underneath his blue overalls, he was wearing a pink t-shirt today, and his blue ribbon was wrapped around his throat as usual. He had managed to acquire blue tennis shoes that were certainly made for a kid - they had little cars on them! - and they crunched at underbrush as he bobbed along, not attempting in the least to be stealthy. Outside at least, he felt a little safer, as if he might be able to run or hide in a way he’d couldn’t in the dorms.
Thus, when he thought he saw someone up ahead near what looked like a pond, he didn’t veer away and find himself a corner to hide in. Instead, he giggled and went running in that direction, arms out like he was flying, as the bird flew above him.
Izumo had discovered the migrating waterfowl. They were ducks, he was pretty sure, though he’d never seen a green duck before. They were roosting at the edge of the pond. Izumo had already been after the chickens and the rabbits. Now, he had an idea that duck would taste good, too. He could have just gone to the cafeteria and gotten himself some, pre-cooked, but where was the fun in that?
Izumo stalked his prey slowly, carefully.
Or at least he did until something came charging through the underbrush like a herd of startled deer.
The ducks flushed from the water loudly.
Izumo swore and threw a brace of kunai. He pegged one duck under the wing and it spiralled to the ground. He clipped a second but not enough to matter. He went lunging after the downed duck, chasing after it in huge bounding leaps before he pounced on it and held it down. He grabbed it by the neck, stood, and with an expert flick of his wrist wrung the fowl’s neck. (Like he’d done for years with pigeons, only larger.) He stared at the kid that had appeared.
And the blue crow.
The fuck?
“You lost, kid?” he asked, gruffly, holding onto the bird as it flapped and kicked.
Tomas had stopped in his tracks when he saw the man pull weapons, but when it had become apparent what he was doing, he’d relaxed somewhat. Now he watched as Lady Arabella landed on one of his shoulders, reached up to run fingers over her feathers reassuringly. He doubted the crow was actually concerned; if anything she’d probably be likely to want to share the meat. Still, he couldn’t help but feel awkward about someone killing a bird in front of her.
He kept his eyes on the stranger, frowning as he tried to think if he’d seen him before. He was trying to keep track of who was who, but it wasn’t the easiest thing in a place full of strangers, most of whom didn’t pay a lot of attention to him.
That still felt strange too.
He shook his head, in a belated answer to the question.
“Exploring. Lady Arabella and I are trying to explore everywhere.”
Izumo scowled. “Well, be more quiet next time. I almost didn’t get one.” He started to turn, stopped, and squinted back at the kid: rather, back at the crow. “...that’s one of Itachi’s crows.” The chakra sense-note-sound was just right, jangling in his head. “Why is it blue?”
“She,” Tomas corrected automatically. He curled his hand over the crow on his shoulder a little, as if he might need to hold onto her. He didn’t want someone taking her away from him.
He jutted out his chin at the man.
“Because he gave her to me. But will everyone know she’s Itachi’s? I... was hoping no one would know. And you can’t take her away!”
Why he assumed that man would try to, he didn’t know. But maybe he thought he’d somehow stolen the crow from Itachi, or was doing something wrong. Tomas wasn’t used to being given presents, and he felt almost protective of this one, despite the fact that she was only his for the time being.
“Itachi’s crows aren’t blue. Why is it blue?” Izumo persisted, even as he pulled the kunai from the now-still duck and slit the bird’s throat. He held it by the black legs so the blood would run out. “I know it’s his because I know he has them.”
He was only interested in finding out why it was blue. Crows did not come in that colour. Not even summoned crows.
Tomas watched the hunter working on his kill without any particular concern over it. He certainly wasn’t squeamish, though he wasn’t sure he understood why anyone would hunt when food was in such ready supply.
“I’m Tomas. So she’s Tomas-colored,” he said, as if that explained everything. The bird wasn’t actually anywhere near the shade of blue of either his hair or his eyes, but ‘Tomas-colored’ had come to apply to any shade of blue in his mind.
The boy stepped a little forward, reached down to trail his fingers over the water of the pond, while the bird that had been riding on him flapped its wings and moved to a nearby branch. Instead, her eyes trained on the dead duck a little hungrily.
“Are you a friend of Itachi’s?”
“...stay the fuck out of the water, there’s something in it,” Izumo admonished. “And how in hell does that make sense? She’s blue.”
Tomas took a couple of quick steps back away from the water, then turned to look at the stranger, trying to decide if he was telling the truth. He didn’t have any idea though, and the man hadn’t answered his question.
“It’s just a trick I can do,” he said, shrugging his shoulder. “I thought it’d be less likely that...” He wrinkled his nose. “I didn’t want anyone to associate me having her with Itachi, but I guess that doesn’t do any good if people know he has crows.”
He took a second to dig in his overall pocket, tugged out a blue crayon, and held it up with a little smile. “Would you like to be blue too?”
“Fuck no.” Izumo shook the duck still in his hand. “Not everyone knows he has crows. Does he know you turned it blue?”
“Suit yourself,” Tomas said, tucking the crayon away. It was so much easier not to act afraid now that he felt Itachi would back him up, and when he was outside.
He scuffed his tennis shoe anyway though, trying to find his footing in the conversation.
“Uh huh. He was there when I did it. He’s really nice, Itachi is.” His voice was very soft and fond. “He-he fixed my teddy bear.”
Somehow, “really nice” did not square with “teenaged homicidal traitor,” but Itachi had always been polite. Izumo sized up Tomas again, not bothering to hide it. He shook his head and looked up at the crow. “Aren’t you kinda old to have a teddy bear?”
Hell if he knew. He’d not known anyone with toys like that growing up. And he stayed far away from kids. Faaaar away. And in a little bit he’d stay far away from this one, too. He just wanted to know a thing or two first.
:Probably,” Tomas agreed. He was always curious about whether people would call him on things like that, or feel weird about the obvious dissonance between his apparent age and his behavior. It didn’t happen all that often though, strangely enough.
He put his hands into the pockets of his overalls, one finger pushing at a crayon there. There wasn’t a lot that he could do to defend himself with Talent, not directly or suddenly, but it was soothing all the same. Made him feel powerful again.
He shrugged his thin shoulders.
“But Pooky makes me feel comfortable and safe. It’s more important than what people think. And Itachi was really nice about it.”
….taking care of a kid. With a toy. Mmm. Izumo made a slight face. “Yeah. Nice.” He paused. “Now scram, kid.”
“That’s not very nice of you,” Tomas said, frowning. He took a few steps closer, straightening his shoulders in a defiant pose.
“But you didn’t answer my question. Are you a friend of Itachi’s? Is that why you know about the crows?”
He narrowed his eyes.
“Are you from his world? He said some people were.”
Izumo narrowed his eyes. “Yeah well I don’t have to be nice. And I don’t have time for kids. Go bother Itachi, he likes kids. Now fuck off.”
The frown deepened. Tomas stood very still, trying to come to a decision. He was feeling rather more confident now that he’d looked around a little, but he still knew that a grown man could likely cause him harm. And this one might.
He wasn’t always the best at impulse control either though.
One foot kicked at a nearby rock and sent it flying in the stranger’s direction.
“You’re mean!”
Izumo dodged on reflex, scowled, and flicked the duck in his hand. Blood sprayed over Tomas. With that, Izumo shot up into the nearest tree, heading after his missing kunai. So there! Teach that kid to kick rocks at people.
The smell of blood wasn’t something Tomas had dealt with much since he’d come into this world. Of course, he saw other people on the screen in the common room fight, but that wasn’t the same thing as seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting. And the few injuries he’d seen around the dorms hadn’t really been close enough either.
So suddenly being covered in blood made him feel more than a little like he’d gone home somehow.
He didn’t know whether to flee or express his extreme displeasure at the man who’d done it. He did fervently hope that the man didn’t see him lick his lips, or the strange expression that crossed over his features as he did so.
“What is wrong with you?” he cried out, balling his hands into fists and walking over to the tree the man had disappeared up. He took out a crayon and started to draw on the bark, which didn’t work quite so well for texture, but the squiggly lines and messy shaky bumps did have an effect: the tree shook as if in a strong wind.
Izumo had wrenched the kunai free at last and had turned to sneer down at the kid. Smeared blood, anger, and little hands against the bark.
The tree swayed and Izumo instantly sank and swayed with it, chakra flaring, riding out the movement with the ease of a ninja who’d climbed trees all his life. Safe? Safe, read in bark and root and sap and the flow of chakra against the living tree. He glared down at the kid, sheathed his kunai, and simply dropped out of the tree, angled to land just beside Tomas instead of right on his head.
Tomas turned so that he was facing the man again, took a step back, and clutched the crayon in his fist, though he wasn’t sure what he could do with it. He could inflict pain by drawing directly on skin, but that took a bit more effort than making a swipe at someone with a knife.
And the way the man had moved in the tree made it quite clear he was a fighter, even if killing the duck hadn’t proved that point.
Tomas wiped fruitlessly at the blood that still spattered him with his other hand, took another step back.
“T-throwing blood at a kid is just cruel,” he muttered, as if trying to excuse his own actions.
“Yeah and kicking rocks at me is real damn polite. Now fuck off, kid.” Izumo scowled threateningly.
“But you were rude first!” Tomas cried out. He was actually shaking by this point, really frightened. Getting into a fight with a strange man was not a good idea. Even if this guy did know Itachi. But he was so frustrated that it was hard to back down.
He blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill over, and clutched his crayon tighter, really wishing he could risk a real attack.
“I was just trying to make friends!”
“Go make friends with someone who gives a damn. It’s not me,” Izumo said, sharply and clearly. “Get lost.”
He turned and started back up the tree.
Tomas leaned back against the trunk of the tree, slid down it, and burst out in tears.
They were not quiet tears, not the controlled ones of an adult. No, they were loud, uncontrolled, heartfelt sobs like any child would cry. He didn’t even look up when Lady Arabella hopped back over to him, and he didn’t look up at the man in the tree either.
Reason had, for the moment, completely left him.
“If you want sympathy, try not to lick the blood off your lips next time,” Izumo called down, before he started across the treetops. Something was off about the whole situation, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like the kid either.
“YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT!” Tomas screamed, at the top of his lungs. His voice cracked and broke, and he pushed a hand against his throat almost desperately.
He wanted to stand up and go after the man. He wanted to send for Itachi, but he wasn’t really in danger, so it wouldn’t be fair. He wanted the blood off of himself. He wanted this jerk’s blood all over him.
He couldn’t do anything. He curled in on himself further, instead.
Izumo glanced back briefly at the shout. Then he shook his head and went on his way. He didn’t know anything, true, but he didn’t like what he’d seen and he didn’t want to really know more...except in terms of how dangerous the kid really was.
The trick with the tree? Pointed to some definite power there.
Izumo was going to go find a quiet place, eat his duck, then go ask some questions.