#51 - The Bitty Invasion Continues

[inthecenterfold]

Looks like I'm stuck not working until I can use . my weapon again. Guess we better hope things stay quiet - weird, but quiet.

And don't think _ I won't still kick your ass if you try anything.

- Smoke

[Okay that last bit was mostly for Black lol]

Comments

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

Usually it's neater.

Did the tree do something else to you?

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

Should've seen haow bad it used to be.

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

[Pause, then he decides to let it go.] I'll take your word for it.

QL~

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

[A 12 year old redhead is in the Bazaar yelling at someone]

Look! I've got my own cigs already! You wouldn't be doing anything except giving me something I already own! I'm going to run out in a few days, that's all! And I AM gonna pay you!

QL~

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

[Sometime after seeing Smoke's entry in the journals, Cloud ended up walking over to the Bazaar--still trailed by the black-and-white koi fish, though Sensei wasn't talking much at the moment. But he was bored just sitting in his room, and the Bazaar would provide a distraction and quite possibly food. It was one advantage to being so small and skinny... even without him doing anything, people were inclined to give him free food.

The sounds of someone shouting made him curious, and he made his way over to where it was coming from. He could see what looked like a child arguing with one of the vendors, but chances were it was another adult, like he was. Cloud drew a bit closer, wondering who it was... Lea, Smoke, another red-head...? He couldn't recognize anything about the person from this distance.]

QL! Let me know if you want this changed <3

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

[Smoke reached out beyond the man and snatched a pack of cigarettes, then dumped a few coins at his feet.] There!

[Despite the man's protests, Smoke started running off and waited until he was a few feet away to look behind him. Sure enough, the merchant had given up and wasn't pursuing him. However, that meant Smoke wasn't looking where he was going--]

OOF! [And suddenly he was on his side, having slammed right into the white-haired boy in his path.] Owwwwwwch. [When he looked up he did a double-take, but didn't say anything just yet.]

QL - And this is why I shouldn't do tags this late at night

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

[The fish 'swimming' through the air above Cloud's head chuckled.]

[Cloud glared up at the creature, and he was just opening his mouth to say something in response... but then someone cannoned into him, knocking him off his feet.] Ouff!

[He just lay there for a second, the wind knocked out of him, before he was able to sit up again. Opening his eyes, his hand automatically went up to make certain the hair was covering his left eye--his bangs were a bit shorter than usual in this body. Hopefully if his hair had moved aside his eye had been closed before anyone noticed... he finally got around to seeing just who had slammed into him. It was the red-haired child who had snatched the cigarettes. His gaze went to the marks right below the boy's left eye... they looked familiar.]

...Smoke?

Re: QL - lol

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

Cloud? [Because really, who else in Edenpshere had short white hair that covered one eye and recognized him? He scrambled to his feet and offered a hand to help Cloud up.] Sorry 'bout that.

QL

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

Yeah. [Cloud accepted the hand, allowing Smoke to help pull him to his feet.] That's ok.

[He glanced over at the stall. The man was watching them in a way that suggested he was thinking about coming after Smoke after all.] C'mon, let's get out of here.

Re: QL

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

Good plan.

[And together they started walking away from the stall. For awhile Smoke didn't say anything, just alternated between aggravated and pouting-quiet looks. However, this was still Cloud, and he was still Smoke. In a game of chicken for who could stay quite the longest, Smoke would lose any day of the week except to someone like Goku.]

Didn't lie. Really can't use my weapon an' it really does suck.

Re: QL

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

[Cloud wasn't really interested in breaking the silence first--he was a bit preoccupied thinking about all the people who had changed, and most notably the ones who had changed into children. Krile, Smoke, himself... those were the ones he knew about for certain. Of course, the weirdness wasn't over; who knew how many others would find themselves in a smaller form before it stopped?

When Smoke chose to speak, Cloud glanced over.] ...you know, I don't think I knew you had one. [At least, he didn't remember noticing one the times he'd met up with the other man... but then, he'd met him when he was in any condition to notice that kind of thing maybe once.] I can understand not wanting to say that kind of thing over the journals.

Re: QL

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

Well. I have one. It's like a staff. And even if I was stuck like this, if I had my weapon, I would still be able to work.

[Smoke was going to keep pretending like that was the biggest issue at the moment if it killed him.]

Leave it to someone like you to guess, ugh, why is that way too familiar. Read me like a freaking book.

QL

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

I see.

[Cloud paused for a moment. Knives he could understand, or a gun, or even a sword. But where would you conceal a staff? Or at least carry it so that it wasn't immediately obvious to someone looking at you.

Well, only one way to find out.]

...I've never seen you carrying a staff?

[His voice only rose slightly at the end, leaving it to Smoke to take that as a statement or the question it was, as he saw fit. And since Smoke only seemed comfortable with addressing the issue of his weapon... Cloud would stick to talking about that.]

Re: QL

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

Oh.

[It had been a pretty long time since it'd last occurred to him that his weapon was a strange part of his daily existence in Edensphere.]

Well, normally it just works like this... [Smoke held out his left hand, balled like a fist. He then quickly opened it, palm up.] And it's just there. I can make it go away like that too, whenever I want to.

[He grumbled then and finished his explanation.] Somehow I can never seem to use it when I'm not myself, though. Normal me, anyway, I guess.

QL

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

...oh.

[Strange, but not as strange as suddenly being in the body of a child. So.]

..that's pretty handy. [Cloud could think of lots of ways it could come in handy, especially if you had your hands full but wanted to carry a weapon anyway.]

Can you do it with other things, too? Or just your weapon?

Re: QL

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

[Smoke looked a little dumb-founded, then stared the ground where they were walking.] I've actually never tried.

... You think I should? I mean, I never even thought about it before. I just saw Kenren do it once and tried it myself.

Re: QL - wrong icon

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

...maybe? I mean, the worst that could happen is you can't do it. But if you can, it would be handy for carrying a lot of things without having to use your hands.

[Cloud hesitated, curious... he'd never heard that name before.] Who's Kenren?

Re: QL - wrong icon

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

I guess you're right... [Smoke took the pack of cigarettes in his left hand and tried to focus on it as they walked, then pulled his fingers in like he did with his weapon. Except nothing happened.] Maybe it won't work no matter what because I'm like this.

[He shoved the pack back in his pocket and stared up as he answered the other question.] Kenren's the name my evil twin used, uh, two years ago or something like that.

Re: QL

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

Yeah... guess you can try again when you're back to normal. [It made a certain amount of sense that Smoke couldn't do it now, since he couldn't use his weapon. Actually, Cloud was very curious to see how pulling something out of thin air worked...] ...you're going to have to show me how you can do that, once you can again.

[He blinked a little.] ...evil twin? What do you mean? [Sometimes he forgot how long Smoke had really been in Edensphere... from his perspective, the man had shown up long after he had arrived.]

Re: QL

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

Exactly that. [He tapped out a cigarette and put it in his mouth as if it were the most natural move in the world.] Guy who looked exactly like me showed up one day calling himself Kenren & wanted to kill me to prove he was better than the original flavor~ [He said that mockingly, obviously not believing it to be true himself.] Happened to a lot of other people back then too.

Re: QL

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

[Cloud's gaze rested on the cigarette for a moment, and then he reached for his obi and the bag he had hanging there. The most annoying thing about kimonos, he had decided, was the lack of pockets... but luckily, a pouch fixed that nicely.

It was the work of moments to pull out one of his cigarettes and some matches. Really, things were a bit better organized in the pouch than his pockets usually were. Lighting it and inhaling, he had to suppress a cough briefly. This body wasn't used to the smoke.]

I see... how strange. [He held out the matches a little, offering them wordlessly to Smoke.]

...did he? Kill you? Or...?

Re: QL

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

[Smoke accepted the matches with a nod and went about inhaling, then exhaling, exactly as when he was an adult. Somehow the body didn't seem to protest at all. Then he replaced the cig again.]

Nope.

[He sighed, more breath than smoke that time, as he let the dead match fall to the ground.] Buddy of mine and I faced our twins together. It's hard to explain, but breaking this object it actually killed his twin. Made it pretty easy to promise that I'd never let that happen to the real him, but that still left mine. And also hard to explain - not that I won't, it's just complicated - but he couldn't kill my twin.

[He shoved his hands in his pockets with the pack there too. Then he turned his head to face Cloud directly, eyes serious.] So I did.

Re: QL

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

[Cloud listened to all that without interrupting, though he was certainly tempted. What object? Was his friend still alive? But he holds his tongue until Smoke finishes.

It's not an unexpected conclusion.

He nods slowly. Kill or be killed, he can understand that... especially since it sounds like the 'evil twins' weren't about to listen to any sort of reason.]

Alright. [He honestly can accept the idea that Smoke has killed someone without flinching. He's not quite sure why... but he's pretty sure that Smoke doesn't go around killing people randomly, so... anyway.] ...I'm guessing your friend isn't here anymore? I am a bit curious about this thing that killed his twin so easily.

Re: QL

[inthecenterfold.livejournal.com]

Nah, Trust hasn't been around for a long time, [Smoke replied with a sigh. It sucked, no doubt about it; Smoke hadn't gotten to say goodbye to him... not that anybody got the chance to say goodbye to anyone, usually, but it was different when he wasn't around for it to happen. In spite of himself, he sounded wearily resigned as he explained all of it.] And if he'd been reborn, wouldn't have taken long to spot him walking the streets. White tiger that walks on two legs and wields a sword kinda stands out. He was the Captain of the Guard before Bastet.

[He removed a hand to pull at the stick in his mouth and exhale again, then replace the cigarette.] Trust had some kinda thing where he couldn't do all of his cool powers unless he was contracted to someone - bonded to 'em. The way his partner told him to do this or that was with a toujinki - little electronic bracelet sorta thing. Made little beeping noises and you had to make symbols in the air with it. [He made some motions, a little sloppier than he used to do when he was Trust's partner, but it was enough to give Cloud an idea.]

Apparently our evil twins had something identical to that, and breaking it killed Trust's twin. I was the one Trust was contracted to, so as a friend and his partner... it was my job to keep that thing safe.

Re: QL

[eatenbylight.livejournal.com]

...huh.

[A tiger, really? And... that bond thing...

Cloud doesn't really understand how a 'bond' would allow someone access to their abilities, but it must just be the way things worked for this 'Trust' person.]

I see.

[It felt like a very understated thing to say after all that...] Nnnn... about this bond. Do you think you'd be able to tell if he came back?