Barefoot Blue Jean Night [Tsar]

[semper]

The top of the sun had just disappeared over the horizon, but it still left orange all over the sky, kinda reminding me of a massive bruise. But in the sky..... and orange, not black and blue. So maybe it's not like a bruise; more like a giant streak of paint without the harsh lines of the bristles leaving clumps behind. You'd also never think that orange could easily morph into light blue with all sorts of shades in between, but it happens. All the time. I'm just too lazy to notice it.

But enough squishy-talk about the sky. I don't care for it.

I was lying on the ground on my back, staring up at the darkening sky. I was only wearing cut-off shorts; hell only knew where my shirt had ended up. And my shoes.... no idea where they went. Maybe I left them in the house. But it was so fucking hot outside that I never left the shade, pretty much. That old rotten shanty shack I'm forced to call a "house" doesn't have any sort of AC, so I'm stuck keeping to the shade like some damn sparkely vampire. But hey, it felt at least ten degrees cooler than out in the sun, so I stuck to it happily.

But there were disadvantages to being in the shade. It was hot outside, no breeze whatsoever, and gnats were buzzing around me like crazy. I closed my eyes to keep them out, but guess what? They just went up my nose, making me snort like crazy to try to get them out and caused me to swear up a storm, picking my nose in a very impolite manner to get those little wretched carcasses out from my nose. Hey, don't tell me you wouldn't do that, because you would. It's only natural to keep your nostrils carcass-free. And really, who'd want gnats up their nose anyway? They're disgusting little creatures that serve no other purpose than annoying the hell out of you and getting caught in spider webs and flailing around. Those fucking good for nothing no-see-um's. I hate them! They were all buzzing in my ears, going up my nose, and diving into my eyes as soon as I opened them. My hand was swatting all around my head like some mad, psychotic person, but I'm not crazy. Well.... not that much.

I slung my forearm over my eyes, groaning obnoxiously and buzzing my lips together so that I was spitting little droplets of saliva into the air above me. I was sick of this heat, but I didn't want to go back to the snow, so I was stuck. There was nothing I could do other than just wait it out in the hopes of being left alone by the damn gnats. But shit, that was a long shot. I felt like I was having a heat stroke, so I had quickly lost all the energy I had had to keep the gnats from flying into various facial holes and whatnot. So I just laid there, wallowing in my gnat-filled misery, muttering and cursing every single little flying black dot.



((This post went a lot worse than I had originally hoped. x.x ))

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[Tsarashi 2.0]

Unlucky. Utterly, ridiculously, preposterously unlucky. That was how Astatine should be describing herself from now on. It was to the point where it was mentally painful to think of how unlucky she really was. Over the course of the past few months she had run into so many weird strangers and had been caught out in the sunset a total of two times. Well… three now. How could she possibly forget the traitorously fading light that was surrounding her now?

One would think that being only able to see one color would actually make it easier on the eyes, but that was not true for Astatine, not at all. Seeing as red was not a very common color aside from clothing and she didn’t have to see it very often she would be completely fine with her condition, but of course people forget what color the sky turns every time the sun crests over the hills or when the sun leaves them for the day. That birth and death of the sun sent the sky ablaze, causing everything around them to obtain a crimson hue.

When the red lights played with the shifting red shadows Astatine could hardly ever see a thing. It was like being stuck in a red mist, followed by shapeless figures and shadows that can only be seen out of the corner of her eyes during those times. It absolutely terrified her. Once she was in the red light she would usually crawl up in a ball and wait the quarter of an hour for it to finally recede, but that was not the case today; she wouldn’t allow herself to do that in this part of the neighborhood.

Now, one might ask how a well off girl from the main part of town had managed to find herself far from her clean linens and fabrics and into one of the worse parts of the district. But quite honestly she wasn’t quite sure herself. That day being a very hot day she had wanted to stay in the house where is was cooler, but no, her body had been itching to take a walk since she had been cooped up in the house for the past five days.

It was only a short little walk around the block that was all, she had waved off her brother’s invitation to accompany her since she knew he had work in the morning and she didn’t want to burden him. It was only a walk around the bend, she had walked that way before, there was nothing bad on her street, and there were no bad people. The dogs though, they were a new fixture that she didn’t know about.

Astatine had to start running! If she hadn’t ran then those dogs, which must have been twice her size, would have easily ripped her to shreds. She didn’t think that she would be very filling, but that didn’t seem to matter to the angry maws that were drooling and snapping in her direction. It was life or death; she continued to tell herself, trying to make up an excuse for her actions. Why she hadn’t run straight home was obvious, she didn’t want them to know where she lived. But why she had run in this direction in particular was still not too clear to her.

The dogs were gone, they hadn’t even chased her off the street, but she had continued running, going as far as her fawnlike legs would take her until finally she had collapsed. That was when she first realized that she was further away from home than she had originally planned to be. She was choked up, she didn’t know if she should be feeling terror or if she should be crying her eyes out, in the end she simply decided to bite her lip, smudge the blood from a small cut on her face, brush the dirt off her khaki smock dress and start walking back before the sun set.

What a wonderful idea that was, seeing as her internal compass never seemed to work right. Somehow she had only managed to get herself further and further away from home. Never could Astatine ask for directions, she had too much pride for that as well as too much fear of strangers. When the sun started to set Astatine panicked. The shadows danced around her, morphing her world into a visual hell.

But Astatine was determined to keep forward, no matter how scared she was, no matter how much she just wanted to wait it out. She continued forward, her hand constantly gripping on the closest thing near her to keep her from forgetting which way was up. For the past five minutes that thing had been a low, broken down fence which she held onto as she slowly inched her way forward. But now that fence was cut off abruptly and was forced to face it alone.

Astatine squinted as she tried to take in her surroundings. From as far as she could tell she had never been to this part of the district, and for good reason. The sun had been blaring down at her for hours and all she wanted was a little break before continuing on again. Much to her relief she did see something not far from her, and it looked like a tree, though it could be a pole knowing her luck. Either way it was sure to provide her shade, a small little oasis of relief before heading forward once again. With a new found determination the tiny girl started heading towards it. Maybe there she could wait out the rest of the sunset?

[semper]

My mind slowly began to wander and I soon found myself day dreaming, wondering what it'd be like if I was the dead one instead of Malachai. Would anyone miss me? I doubted it. I'm a cannibal and rapist, for fuck's sake. I tend to do bad things to people, so I bet you people would be glad to have me dead. But that's alright. Soon enough, they'll all be dead too, and time will just go on. No one lives forever; people just die early. Malachai, though... the fucking bastard. We needed him. He was vital to Stained Transactions, and then he goes off, somehow ending up caught and killed. That stupid one-armed wench.... getting himself killed when we needed him.

I drew my arm across my face, wiping off the beads of sweat that had accumulated on my forehead. You'd think that the heat of the day would have died down by now, but nooo, of course it hadn't. The one evening I decide to stay outside of the house, it's a bazillion degrees and the humidity makes me feel as though I'm breathing in molasses. Now don't even get me started on the mosquitoes, but I'll tell you anyway. Those little wretched critters with insanely long noses that poke your skin and suck your blood like some damn vampire, I hate them. I hate them, hate them, hate them. Then the spot they stuck their rotten little nose into you gets itchy like hell, so you sit there for hours and just scratch your skin, making it all red and eventually bleed if it drives you bat-shit crazy like it does me. And yet here I was, lying shirtless on the ground, my entire torso exposed for those little dastardly creatures to drill a nose in and suck my blood. I hope it poisons them and they all die. Fall right out of the air like a pebbly and die.

"I've had enough of this." I muttered, rolling over onto my side and pushing myself up so I could stand, wiping the bits of dirt and grass off of my skin and shorts. I hadn't gone around barefoot in so long and my feet were sore, but at least the tough callous lining was coming back. I loved my boots, but they were getting to the point where they'd need to be replaced, and until then, I'd just have to go barefoot, so might as well get started getting used to it. As for being shirtless, though it was due to the heat, I didn't mind having it off. All of my scars were exposed, so it made me feel slightly more bad ass than usual. The only bad thing was that this tremendous heat was making my hair stick to my forehead and it was getting into my eyes and making them sting. I tried to wipe my eyes with my fingers, but that didn't work, so I quickly went over to a creek that was close to where I'd been laying and splashed water on my face, relieving my eyes. Not to mention that the cold water felt good on my skin, so I cupped the liquid with my hands and poured it onto myself, giving myself a bit more relief. But that didn't last forever. The heat quickly made the water on my skin hot, so I gave up, stuck my feet in the water, then turned around and started heading back the way I came.

It didn't take long before I spotted someone coming my direction. She looked scared from far away, but I couldn't quite tell from where I was. As I drew closer, she did, in fact, seem scared, but of what? Surely it wasn't me... but then again, I hoped it was. I didn't want to have to deal with anyone at the moment, so I narrowed my dark eyes onto her, rerouting my path so that I went straight up to this girl. "What're you up to?" I asked in a gravely tone, trying to both look and sound intimidating so she'd -- hopefully -- run off.

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[Tsarashi 2.0]

Relief was only a few feet away. Not much longer and she would be in the shade of the tree-like structure. She could only imagine how much cooler the shade was compared to the heat of the blazing sunset that burned her skin and her eyes. As soon as she was in that shade, she kept telling herself, she would be able to curl into a little ball and close her eyes, she could hide from the sun for a little bit in her solitude until the red has left her vision. But apparently it was not going to be as easy as she had originally anticipated.

She heard a stern voice, demanding something from her, but for the life of her she couldn’t see the owner of the voice. Perhaps she was suffering from dehydration and was starting to hear things, or she was just going insane from the murderous color that surrounded her. Astatine tried to keep her shock hidden, but she couldn’t help the widening of her eyes. Out of fear, out of anxiety, her eyes widened humorously as she stumbled forward.

That was when she stopped. Suddenly, out of seemingly no where he had appeared before her and she couldn’t hold back the startled gasp that came from her throat as she tried to keep herself from falling backwards. Pure terror ran through her. He could so easily over power her; she wouldn’t stand a chance if anything were to happen. With the sunlight being as it was he could virtually appear and disappear from her vision, depending on how close he was of her.

Truthfully, Astatine didn’t mind her condition. In fact she felt that only being able to see one of the colors that others could see was easier on her eyes. She could only imagine. If she were able to see all of the colors would she become blind like this whenever one became brighter than the others? No one else seemed to stumble as they walked so they must be used to it, but Astatine could only imagine a world where dozens of colors glared brightly and mixed together into a blurry, dizzying dance. The very thought of it gave her a headache.

And right now, at this very moment, what did he see? He must see the red of the blood that was slowly drying on her cheek, the neutral colors of her short dress; he must see the brown of her hair and the shining green of her eyes. Her own eyes, which were shimmering with shock in fear, the same eyes whose color she had never been able to see for herself. Were they beautiful? Or were they boring and plain?

Astatine could feel tears coming to those same eyes as her hands came up to act like a barrier between him and her. Quickly she retracted them, pulling them to her chest in protection. What if he was able to break her arms? That would be very painful and she rather liked her arms, as tiny and frail in one piece that they were. Tears stung as they fell down her cheeks, they were cold against the hot of her skin. The more her vision blurred the more she wanted to cry. She truly couldn’t see a thing.

Slowly, as if in slow motion, she felt her legs give way beneath her. She fell to the ground on top of her frail, deer like legs. The worst case scenarios played out in her head as if she were watching a horror movie dedicated completely to her. The sheer enormity of the fear caused her to shiver, her body forgetting about the heat that surrounded her. Desperately she hoped that somebody would save her, but who was there? The strange man who appeared out of nowhere? Somehow Astatine didn’t think that that would be a good idea, and so she sat there crying, waiting to be free of this curse.[/color]

[semper]

So this girl, after I asked her what she was doing, her eyes got about as big as my foot. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a pair of human eyes get that big. You know, when you go in to kill someone, their eyes get huge. And in those freaking ginormous eyes, it's not unusual to see quite a bit of fear. Then again, who wouldn't be scared if someone's coming after them with a knife and there's no chance of escape? I haven't been in that situation yet and, well, I don't exactly plan on experiencing that. But anyway, even though this girl wasn't being murdered, she sure as hell looked like she could have been. Of course I had my knife placed at my hip where it normally is, but I didn't have it out or anything. Why the hell was she so scared?

Then she comes tumbling toward me like when servants shove some unlucky bastard toward the king that is going to behead them. I just stood there silently and awkwardly, looking down at her and just watching. What had got her so wound up? I hadn't done anything to her..... all she did was see me and then there was instant panic. Heh. Actually, now that I think about it, I kind of like that instant fear. Oh no! It's Bear! Run! Ha, I was really beginning to like that. If only I could instill fear like that in everyone. A cannibal can dream, can't he?

Oh, great, now the little runt was crying. I gave a frustrated sigh, rolling my eyes and grumbling. Okay, when I said that I liked people getting scared when they saw me, I didn't mean bursting out in tears and throwing your hands up as if it'll save you in the least bit. And then guess what she did? She fucking fell over. What the hell? Seriously. Now that's being utterly terrified.

I took a few steps closer to her and bent over her, looking down at her face. She wasn't that bad looking.... actually, in a way, she reminded me of Phoenix. Phoenix was a nice girl. I liked her a lot. Too bad she had to die in the Games. Such a pity. I would have loved to rape her again. But anyway, to amuse myself, while this panicking girl was on the ground, I reached down and tried to flick her on the arm with my finger, hoping to provoke some sort of loud or flailing reaction from her.

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[Tsarashi 2.0]

Astatine didn’t know what else there was that she could do. She couldn’t run since she couldn’t see, she couldn’t hide because she was out in the open and she couldn’t fight back because she was probably no stronger than she was when she was six years old. So what more was there than to simply wait for death? Truthfully she didn’t want to die, she liked her life. She was good at what she did and would be going to college soon to further her learning. She had two elder brothers who loved her very much and a father who would be completely heartbroken without her. And yet all she could do was sit there and wait for the blow to come that would end her meek existence.

But the blow never came. Instead, and this startled her, she found that she was being flicked. Flicked! That was certainly a rude way to get someone’s attention. Astatine didn’t shout out in shock or fear though, her voice couldn’t come. She did jump a tad though from the initial contact since she had been expecting much worse. It caused her muscles to tense, which caused them to ache since she was already so sore.

Maybe if this person was not planning on killing her after all she could actually get some help from him! No, that wouldn’t work. He was still a stranger and Astatine knew better than to trust any stranger. Strangers were dangerous, especially in this district, especially in this part of the district.

Tremors shook her body as she allowed herself to cry. She didn’t know what else there was to do! The finally Astatine decided to take a leap of courage, sure it wasn’t much to anyone else, but for her it was a leap into the lion’s den because she knew what even just a glance could instill. Her tear tracked face slowly tilted upwards to face him, but her eyes were still trained to the ground.

What would she see if she looked at him now surrounded by all of this cruel red? Would he be a monster bathing in blood? Would he have hair of fire like she had only seen once before? She wouldn’t know until she looked. Curiosity got the better of her and the brunette looked up at the man bending over to look at her and she was shocked to say the least. He had dark hair and dark eyes, nothing out of the ordinary, but his eyes were so dark that they were easy to focus on. It was as if the red sun at his back was no longer there, but it was. The color surrounded him like a bloody halo.

Her breath caught in her throat as she caught herself staring. The red didn’t seem as strong or as taunting around this angel of death, though that was probably because she was focusing on a dark focal point and everything else around it became muted. Through all of this somehow her tears slowed, but they didn’t stop completely. She only looked away from him to close her eyes when a hiccup escaped her that sounded feminine and high pitched.[/color]

[semper]

The girl didn't do anything when I flicked her. Well, there went that idea. This was boring. She did jump somewhat, but it wasn't enough to amuse me. I muttered to myself, looking up and away from this girl to regather my thoughts and figure out a way to once again try to provoke something out of her. Hmm... I could always kick her. That gets people all worked up. Or I could hit her, but she was on the ground and I didn't like bending over for this long.

I straightened back up, stretching the muscles in my back. For a moment, I considered asking her why the hell she was out when the sun was going down, but that would be stupid. I was out here and I'm sure that there were plenty of others out and milling around aimlessly. It was nothing out of the ordinary, really, but I was getting curious, especially since she seemed to be scared as hell over something. I looked around, seeing nothing but an empty road, trees, the nearby creek, and dead-looking grass. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

Hearing a small, high-pitched buzzing noise right by my ear, I quickly raised my hand and swatted at the air beside my head, feeling a little tiny bump on my hand as I managed to hit what I think was a mosquito. Fucking little insects. They all deserve to die. You know, that's about the only reason I like spiders. Spiders make the webs that catch mosquitoes -- or I think they do -- so it keeps the wretched population of the flying Satanic devil creatures down. I then lowered my hand to my chest and scratched at where one of those damn needle-nosed blood suckers had bitten me, or whatever you'd say when they make that bump on your skin that itches like hell.

When I looked down at the weird girl, I found her staring up at me, so I glared right back. "What the hell do you want?" I growled, drawing out each word as if I doubted she'd understand what I was saying, pausing only a moment to hear her hiccup. Pfftt, that was the most pathetic sounding diaphragm jerk I've ever heard. Such a shrill noise. Having nothing better to do, I lifted one foot off the ground and jabbed down at her with my heel since I didn't have my boots on.

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[Tsarashi 2.0]

She was staring, she knew that. But she couldn’t help it; using him as a focal point made her bloody world easier to bear for just those few moments. His dark eyes made the perfect contrast against the blood, did that sound strange? If she told that to him he would probably laugh at her or curse her out for saying such a strange comment that could be interpreted as rude. Astatine couldn’t help that thought though since it was so true, him with the glaring red haloing his back, he certainly was an angel of death.

For the second time the brunette heard his strong, stern voice posing a question. She admired him and hated him at the same time, to be able to speak so freely when her voice always caught in her throat. And he asked a good question; what did she want? From him. From anybody. Did she want complete relief from the horrors that haunted her sights? Or was simply shelter that she sought in his eyes?

While holding his eye contact Astatine didn’t even noticed that his hand moved, she didn’t even see his foot lift. Then grubby foot met her pristine shoulder blade and she was practically kicked face first into the pavement. Her bottom lip and chin scraped into the gravel hard before she caught herself with her palms, saving her nose from disfigurement. There was dirt smudged all over her clothing now and she was beginning to regret wearing a dress that morning.

So much for her shelter! He had kicked her while she was already down! Sure, Astatine had been expecting death or worse, but not something to trivial or insulting as being kicked while she was already on the ground in tears. It stung, and she wasn’t talking about the lovely new cut on her bottom lip that was blossoming with fresh blood. Her heart stung, because she knew already. This was why she didn’t trust anybody! This was why she hadn’t spoken to a single soul outside of her family for years! Because other humans were dirty and cruel!

Slowly and tentatively the tiny brunette made her way to her feet. They were shaking, but they held her up none the less. An energy filled her that she had never truly felt before. Was it anger? The strangest combination of frustration, anger and a relatively strong desire to live willed her to clench her small hands into fists and take a step nearer to him. She had never truly been angry before, but of course, she had never been in a situation like this before either.

Astatine stood a good head and a half shorter than him despite the fact that they were around the same age. That height difference made her feel like an insect compared to him. She wanted to scream at him ‘Don’t be like that! Don’t be like them!’. ‘Them’ of course being the cruel people who she stereotypes in her head. The strangers who she swears want to kill her slowly and painfully.

This one stranger, this angel of death, this one person who made the sunset less frightening, why did he have to follow her expectations!? Before she could stop herself Astatine closed the distance between, being braver than she had ever in her entire life, and she clung to him. Her hands fumbled for a minute, trying to grasp a shirt that wasn’t there before finally gripping his upper arms, her hands didn’t even fit one third of the way around them. She pressed the top of her head against his chest to hide her tears of pain, humiliation and anger.

Why did her mind’s eye have to chose this person to make her feel protected from the sun’s fiery wrath?![/color]

[semper]

Oh, good, the girl was getting up. Maybe it was because I had kicked her, I don't know, but she now had a nice cut on her bottom lip from the pavement high fiving her face. A small smirk crept across my face. Her legs were wobbling like some pelican doing a jig and damn she was short. Or maybe I'm just tall, because everyone in this district seems to be pretty dang short.

For a moment I thought she was going to turn and high-tail it. That would be no fun. But no, she was coming closer, not away. Weird. I watched her and raised an eyebrow, about to say something when she hugged me. Hugged me. Hugged me, of all the people in the district. Why? I'm not a touchy-touchy-huggy type of person, so why was she compelled to just throw herself onto me and latch onto my arms like that? I wanted to just swat at her like I did those damn mosquitoes, but a thought crossed my mind: I could do to her like what I did to Phoenix. I could get her to trust me and then I could offer some of my jerky and then rape her. Oooh, I liked the sound of that.

However. What was I to do now? She was crying for no obvious reason... I hadn't hurt her that bad, had I? Hell no! Damn, if just that little kick was enough to throw her into tears, she needs to toughen up a lot. Sheesh. But now it was time to implement my obviously awesome devious plan. Who knows? Maybe this'll work like a charm. I, in an awkward fashion, returned her hug and patted her back gently. "There there, it's alright..." I said, trying to sound as convincing as I could.



((The ending is rushed. D: I have to leave for rowing. But yay! It's finally up! :D ))

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[Tsarashi 2.0]

This is wrong. A little voice in the back of her head told Astatine as she felt his arms wrap around her. The contact burned with warmth that was all that was remaining from the unbearable heat of the day. She had no idea whatsoever why she had taken that leap forward, why she had taken the initiative and hugged him. It wasn’t truly a hug; no, it was more like she was pathetically gripping on to a life preserver for dear life. But yet, he had returned it. His hand was tapping her back softly like a parent would a child, and it was wrong.

Oh, how she wanted to give into the comfort that he was offering to her. From where she was pressed against him, there was no sky, no red light, no bloody shadows. There was only darkness and a musky, sweaty scent that was coming from his skin. Astatine liked that she could feel safe, but yet she knew that the feeling of safety was foreign to her. She didn’t, couldn’t trust it.

It wasn’t until his voice rang so close to her ears that she froze, her body stiffening and at that very moment she forgot to cry. Tears dried, never being given the chance to fall from her eyes onto his skin. Thoughts raced through her mind as she stood there, frozen in confusion. How was it that he could change his persona so quickly? How could her stranger go from harming her to caressing her in kindness in a matter of seconds? There was only one logical explanation to all of her answers. It was a trick.

Slowly, Astatine looked up at him, her bottom lip brushing against his bare skin, leaving a small trail of blood behind. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her green eyes glimmered with confusion. When she tried to push away from him she only found herself trapped within his embrace, but she did manage to put a good ten inches between them while pressing her small hands to his chest. Never before had she been so trapped, and yet, never before had she felt so confused and safe at the same time.

“Nih-“ She opened her mouth and out came that cracked sound, which was meant to be a ‘no’. How long had it truly been since she had last spoke? Probably well over a year at the least. Silently Astatine closed her eyes to compose herself. This stranger probably would not care either way if he knew that he was the first person that she had shared her voice within well over a year. After one sharp intake of breath she was ready. She needed this to be said. She didn’t know this stranger, but she knew that how he was acting was not right. Astatine needed him to chose, or else she would forever be in pain and confused.

”…Chose.” She said, her voice was small and weak, but she said it. Carefully she looked back up at her captor, her eyes brimming with a determination that she had never before in her life felt. Even with such determination her lower lip betrayed her and started to quiver. ”Destroy me or save me.” Finally, she said it. After the gentle words fell from her mouth their smooth, bell-like tone could still be heard echoed in both her mind and the emptiness that surrounded them. She could only hope that those words would get her point across in some way.

[semper]

What the hell was I even doing, letting this girl cling to me like this? I don't do hugs or emotional physical contact like this, and yet here she was, her arms around me and her face against me as she was crying. And why was she crying? No one had been chasing her.... maybe something had happened at her house and she had just run away. Hm, I like that story better. All the more easy to try to lure her away the way you lead around a starving dog with a piece of meat.

This was becoming all too easy. She had willingly thrown herself at me, and now I had my arms around her. She wouldn't be getting away so soon now, and even if she wanted to, I could easily overpower her. I was looking down at her, keeping my dark eyes trained on her to watch for any sudden movement she might have. All she did, though, was look up at me, her green eyes filled with confusion, I think it was. Why was she confused? Well, the reason didn't really matter to me, so I didn't really bother asking. She also tried to push away from me, but I wouldn't allow her to go very far. My arms were still around her when she got as far back as she could, and I tried to keep from having a smirk on my face. But when she asked me to "save or destroy" her, I couldn't hold back. A grin came onto my face and I couldn't help but laugh. "Save you? From what?" I was the only one near her. Maybe someone was chasing her! Then I could hope to take that guy out, too, and then I'd be set for a month or two with jerky. I was really liking the idea of destroying her, but I wouldn't let her know that. Not yet. "And why would I destroy you? I've only just met you and you haven't done anything to me." Okay, maybe I was just sugar-coating it, but I was willing to do anything I could to get this girl to trust me. Making a personal connection to this girl would be good, so I figured telling her my name would work dandy. Just not my real name. "My name's Ishmael, by the way."

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[Tsarashi 2.0]

It really was an amazing thing, the sheer magnitude of differences between her voice and his. Astatine couldn’t help but listen and compare them, since it had been so long since she had heard her own voice. Her voice was tiny and timid like a mouse, but yet it was soft and twinkled like the small chimes that she had hanging above her bedroom window. His was much deeper and stronger, arrogant even, it sounded like the reverberating feeling you got in your head after you’ve hit too hard. Like the wave of sound and air that brushes tauntingly against your senses from the beat of a drum.

His voice was hard for her to describe, but the one thing that she was able to put a name to, that arrogance, reinforced her logic that told her not to trust his actions. That stranger’s voice had been laced with arrogance from the moment that he started talking to her and continued regardless of his change in behavior. Astatine heard it in his questions, in his introduction, but most of all in his laugh. There are many things that a person could change about themselves to change their persona, be it acting or lying, but laughter was not one of them.

The confusion that she felt still radiated from her, especially as she cocked her head to the side as she gazed at him, for good measure. Yes, she was still confused, but not at his change in character. Astatine allowed herself to silently admit to her heart that he was tricking her, playing her as if she were being controlled by sickening sweet tendrils. She had been led to the web like a moth to the flame and he was the spider, waiting to strike, watching her squirm for his own amusement.

Then why did his web feel so much like a warm embrace? She couldn’t trust his words and she couldn’t trust his actions, but the question remained; would she able to trust herself to keep from giving in to that foreign, selfish urge to keep him close? Feeling more than slightly nerve wracked the small brunette attempted to place more distance between them by pushing as hard as she could, which wasn’t hard to begin with, away from him with her shaking arms. The first step was to get away from his cage-like embrace, the second step was to get as far away from there as she could before she could figure out what his plans for her where.

To distract him from her attempts at escape she answered the question that he had presented her with. Her tiny voice was feeling both weaker and stronger every passing moment. “From the world. From you.” Her sights drifted from his grey orbs, past his grey skin and over to the rosy grey surroundings. Only three more minutes and the sun would have been completely set, leaving her in complete blackness. Where would she run? Was the moon out that night so that she could actually see two feet beyond the shadows and darkness? Or was she trapped with her stranger, her savior, her spider until morning?

Astatine chose to ignore his second statement. Sure, she had not done anything to him, but he had already attacked her, the warm blood slowly dripping down her lips was proof of that. He had already proved that he cared nothing about her, that he thought of her less than the dirt itself. The proclamation of his name though, required a response. So, of course, Astatine did the most logical thing that she could have thought of to do in that moment. She gave herself a fake name. “Alicia. My name… its Alicia.” Though, if it was money that he was after she would eventually have to give him her real name so that he could contact her father. But, until that happened she would play innocent until she could get herself away from him, the fluttery feeling that he brought her in the pit of her stomach wasn’t quite worth the pain.

[semper]

Save her from the world or myself. What the hell? Saving her from the world I could understand: Panem was in such a shitty shape that even I wouldn't mind someone coming in and sweeping me off my feet and taking me to a much better place. But to save her from me? How did she expect me to do that? Technically me just walking away could count as saving her, but that would mean I'd lose out on my jerky opportunity, and I really didn't want that. So what now?

She tried to get away from me again, and this time I let go. I could chase her down if need be, but I still had to attempt to keep up my "good guy" attitude. I looked down at her, watching her every move to see if there was any indication of her running away. So far there was nothing -- or so I thought. I was never really good at telling when someone was about to high-tail it in the opposite direction. She didn't seem to be displaying any of those signs... but hey, it was getting dark and I was tired, I bet you I was just missing everything.

I lifted my finger and used it to wipe away the blood that was on her lip, trying to be as gentle as I could, which disgusted me for some reason. Bear Keeni, a gentleman. Ha. "Well then, Alicia," I said, "Which would you prefer I save you from? Because I can't exactly save you from the world and I don't exactly know how to save you from myself other than running away, which I'd rather not do." I glanced briefly up at the sky. "Getting kinda dark. Where do you live? Is it anywhere nearby? You shouldn't be out this late in this part of town. There's all sorts of criminals and thieves just waiting to steal from you." Of course I was referring to myself at some parts of my barrage of questions, but that's completely besides the point. I had to find some way to get her into some sort of enclosure since we were out in the open and there could be witnesses everywhere if I tried to murder her. And plus, if she decided to scream, I had nothing to smother her with other than my hand. Sheesh, this was just getting more complicated the more I thought about the fine details. Oh well, it'll all pay off in the end. For now, though, I was just growing impatient while I waited for her to answer me.





((Why did this post turn out so short DDx -hides in corner- ))

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[Tsarashi 2.0]

Astatine almost staggered back when he released her unexpectedly, but she held her ground. What else was there for her to do? It was dark out now, so very dark, and she didn’t remember which direction she had come from. If the sun was out she would have had no problem figuring that out because of where the tree would have been, but the shadows had eaten away the tree. Only darkness remained. Darkness and the man in front of her.

She could barely see him, that Ishmael, even though he was only a few feet in front of her. A shiver ran down her spine when he touched her lips, when he pulled his hand back she could see the red of her blood on his finger. Looking further she could still see her blood on his chest too. What frightened her was the thought that came with it: it looked like it belonged there. Even without the sun at his back he was her angel of death. She could easily picture him with jet black wings and long blood stained claws, but of course, that wasn’t possible. That was a silly, illogical thought. Humans couldn’t have either of those features. They could, however, be bloodthirsty.

Another shiver raced through her body even though it was still hot outside. That was something she really didn’t want to talk about. That brought her to the question that he had asked her. Her answer was almost glaringly obvious now.[/size] “You.” she answered. He was definitely who she would prefer to be saved from at this moment. The world was fine now, even though she was left in darkness, there was no longer any bloody sky. But now she was stuck here, alone, with this strange person. And a strange urge to be back within his arms.

He really was a talkative one, not that she minded it. The more he talked the more he was giving her time to think about what she could do, where she could run. The tree line wasn’t very far, she could distinctly make them out against the blackened sky. If she were to run that would be where she would go, to hide until morning. The only problem was that her sight was practically nonexistent in the night. She looked up slowly to look at the sky, praying that the silver orb would be in the sky to guide her way.

Much to her dismay, it wasn’t. Dismay crossed her features as she whispered, “New moon.” That meant there would be no running, only hiding. If she could even get that far, which considering the circumstances the probability of that happening was rather low. If she could only find a way to lure him in the opposite direction of where she wanted to go. Numbers, equations and diagrams flooded her mind, creating various scenarios that she could use for escape, but the outcome in each one was poor. Perhaps she simply needed to wait it out a few more minutes, maybe something could change in her favor.

Until then she would answer his questions to the best of her ability, so not to make him angry with her. Answers that were only part truths. So that, if she could manage to get away now, she would still be safe in the long run. “Near the District Square.” She said in her small voice, her hands holding tightly to the hem of her dress. A few blocks away from there was her house, and from there was probably the only point where she knew how to get home from. But, the question remained, how far had she strayed from the main part of town?[/color]

[semper]

I snorted with laughter. Save her from me? Well, as good of a statement as that was, if she really had wanted to save herself from me she would've run away by now. "Really, Alicia, if you had wanted to save yourself from me then you would've high-tailed it and you'd be long gone by now." I said in a rather smartassy, matter-of-fact tone of voice. "So I can't really be all that big and bad from what you're saying to either save you or destroy you. That kind of made no sense, but I'm sure you get the point." I waved my hand to dismiss the fact that my words were obviously not stringing my thoughts together properly, but hell if I cared.

I looked up at the sky for a moment, noticing how dark it was getting. Hmm, Gerya might have turned up at him and she'd probably be wanting some supper, so I might as well get home in time to fix her up something. But Alicia, delicate little Alicia, was still here. Why? I don't know. "Well, then, we're pretty close to the town square, so why don't you get a move on and go home?" I tried to make it sound like I cared about her getting home safely, but there was no telling if she had picked up on my underlying mischievous motives. If she went on home, I could follow her and then have fun taking out her whole family. If not then I could just stick with taking out Alicia for now. Either way I'd still get what I wanted, but it was a matter of quantity now. "You know what, never mind. I'll walk you home. There's people still lurking around here that're even worse than me, and that's pretty hard to come by." Not that she knew the difference; she was the one who was wandering out here all by herself in the first place.

Not even bothering to wait for an answer from her, I turned around and started off down a path I frequently used to get to the District Square faster and easier by avoiding the traffic of the large road/path thing. "Turns out I'll be saving you from the world instead, girlie. There's bandits and thieves in these woods, so stick close." Again, I doubted she really knew what she was dealing with in the woods in this part of the District. I was one of the biggest and baddest criminals District Six had to offer; no one dared to face me without severe consequences. I have an ego as big as Panem, and I'll be damned if I get that destroyed, so I was ready to pound anyone's face in who tried to deflate my ego, even if it's a little kid. Kids taste good, by the way. They're almost sweeter than stale adults. Probably from all the candy they get from the sweets shop in the Square. "Keep up, Alicia. Don't want you getting lost in the woods at night, now, do we?"

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