I like my food with chili in / I like to laugh 'til it turns in
Characters: Principally: Smoke/Sha Gojyo (inthecenterfold), Aniki/Ganju (stonewave), and Suzy (rappig). Also featuring: Sniper/Usopp (longnosedliar), Snake/Ichimaru Gin (kamishininoyari), Juliet/Grell Sutcliffe (esoteric_rose), and Peachblossom/Keladry (of_mindelan)
Date/Time: Afternoon of September 16th 2010
Location: Wilderness-as-Japanese-Festival
Rating: PG-PG13
Summary: Smoke and Aniki go wandering in the Wilderness ( Read more... )
Date/Time: Afternoon of September 16th 2010
Location: Wilderness-as-Japanese-Festival
Rating: PG-PG13
Summary: Smoke and Aniki go wandering in the Wilderness ( Read more... )
It was a good place to keep his hands busy while his mind worked. He wondered why people who disappeared came back far more seldom than those who died. He wondered why all who died came back at the same time. He wondered why the culprit did it, and why the Watch seemed intent on imprisoning him instead of executing him.
Sniper had a worrying habit of wondering about just about everything, but as those thoughts nagged at him from the back of his mind, he was also wondering if anybody would notice if he just took a particularly nice looking green wrap from one of the stalls and one of the rice balls stuffed with dry fish in the other one, and maybe he could steal - borrow - some of the sparklers that were lying around. At the moment, he was occupying himself with casually stroking the fabric of the aforesaid green wrap and contemplating just grabbing it and running.
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His mouth still tasted like soap and Smoke was still no where to be found. Aniki's angry run had diminished to sullen stomping and the rappig hung limp and indignant under one arm. So he stomped past the stalls and stomped through the crowd and almost didn't notice when he almost stomped right into someone intently studying a green wrap.
"Watch where--!" Aniki forced himself to take a slow breath. "Sorry, sorry, just lookin' for a guy. Didn't mean to run into ya." He stood up straight and juggled his armload of pig and purchases. "Tall guy, scrawny, red-headed twerp. You seen 'em?"
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"Don't worry about it," he said, staring at the creature held underneath the stranger's arm more than at the stranger himself. "No, I haven't seen anybody like that around here, I don't think. What's his name?"
He leaned over, staying a comfortable enough distance away from the pig just in case it felt like developing a taste for human flesh but close enough to have a good look at it. "And why are you carrying a pig?"
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Sniper knew little of him, besides the fact that he seemed rather congenial before that whole going-blind-and-screaming business, but he seemed nice enough. As nice as you could seem for knowing the other for a total of two minutes, anyway.
"I know what he looks like, but I haven't seen him around here yet."
He tilted his head, still amused at the fact that the pig underneath this guy's arm was apparently his pet with the name of Suzy. A smile played across his face as he straightened and looked at the man in front of him for the first time. "Why are you looking for him?" He asked, unfazed by the expression on Aniki's face. "I can probably help you look."
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"Why not?" He said, shrugging. "I'm only here to look around--" and to take things, he added to himself "--so it's no problem. Besides, you said it yourself! Smoke's pretty recognizable, so it shouldn't be too hard to find him."
He jabbed a thumb into his scrawny chest. "I'm Sniper. How about yours?"
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He started off down the path, bundle of clothing tucked under one arm and Suzy pulling him ahead. "How long you been in this place? Th' Sphere, I mean."
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He followed Aniki down the path and kept his eyes to the periphery to see the glint of red that would give away Smoke's position--unless the man had the sense to cover it up with a scarf or something. He would only admit that he wasn't great at much in the confines of his own head, but even he knew that he had sharp eyes; you had to, if you wanted to be a sniper.
Deciding against regaling Aniki with stories of how his name was known far and wide - he had a feeling that the man was in no mood, anyway - he shrugged and said. "I write on the journals sometimes, so maybe that's it."
After being asked how long he'd been in the Sphere for, he ducked his head and muttered the months underneath his breath, looking a little surprised at his own answer. "Four months," he said.
Four months in the same place. He hadn't realized it had been that long... that was a little troublesome. But that was something he had to sort out himself.
"And I remember that Smoke came here not so long ago, so you're still pretty new, huh?"
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Curiosity got past his annoyance for a moment, however, and he looked over at Sniper. "You... ah... You remember anything yet? From before?" An odd question and out of the blue, but one that'd been hovering at the edges for a while. Smoke remembered. Aniki shuddered at the thought of that.
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He contemplated this as he looked at the ground they were treading on and noted the small grooves Suzy's hooves made in the sand before noting, "Y'know, she doesn't look too bothered by whatever it is she was fed. Are you sure it was actually bad for her?"
Sniper hesitated before tentatively nodding his confirmation to Aniki's question. For some reason, it felt like something he wanted to more or less keep to himself, but there was no point in lying about something like this, especially if the guy's brother had been through it too. "Just one thing," he said. "When Smoke did, actually."
He lifted one hand to ruffle the curls at the nape of his neck. "But I guess you would have heard about all that already, huh?"
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He walked alongside the other for a time, grim and silent before he replied any further. "Yeah. Didn't see anything of my own, just... Just his. Bad enough it was somebody else's, couldn't imagine if one of mine were like that."
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Once he got thinking about the memories again, his expression flattened considerably; his own memory was less than pleasant, but he couldn't imagine what made that one woman run off like that, or what had made Smoke scream. The blindness had been absolutely crippling, and he had spent the majority of his time blind in a sullen panic, knowing that if that condition persisted, he'd be even more useless than he already was.
He wondered what Smoke had gone through. "I didn't see his," he said, holding his hands behind his back as he walked and staring off at some unknown point in the distance. "But it didn't sound good. I mean, nobody's really did."
Sniper flicked his eyes in Aniki's direction. "So you haven't had any of your own then, right?"
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"Nothin' but that first dream," he said at last. It was strange for it to seem so personal when he had nothing of his own to connect to it. "Just some kid screamin' for his brother, that's all." No mention of body or that strange small person dragging it along. "Haven't heard much of people rememberin' good stuff. Mostly just th' bad."
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That was to say, as much company a pig could possibly provide.
He shrugged when Aniki mentioned his dream of a kid screaming for his brother, recalling his own, rather surreal dream. "Most people don't seem to remember good things. Or maybe when they do, they don't want to talk about it as much."
Sniper let his gaze be led astray by a particularly colourful display off to the side and the familiar smell of takoyaki drifting from ahead of them. "It's not as if we have any control over what we see, anyway."
After a moment of thought, he added, "Or when we see it."
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Aniki forced a bright grin and hitched Suzy back up under his arm. "Why th' hell're we talkin' about this stuff? We got this whole festival goin' on around and a manhunt in progress! Let's track 'im down!" Better than focusing on things he couldn't chase after.
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