(Untitled)

[longnosedliar]

Characters: Sniper and YOU!
Date/Time: February 12th - 19th (though if this doesn't work for you, it's subject to change as I am contemplating leaving him as Mansopp all month)
Location: All over the place! He is most commonly found in the Scavenger's Yard, the Bazaar and the Park, though he can plausibly be found most places.
Rating: PG
Summary:

Comments

asdlafkjd the 13th?

[eatenbylight]

Cloud was still being followed by the black-and-white fish--frankly, he was beginning to find the creature's apparent need to comment on everything he did to be quite annoying. Very unfortunately, it seemed the fish had to follow him everywhere--even when he managed to successfully trap him in a room, he always turned up again soon after--usually annoyed by the attempt to leave him behind. Cloud had given up by this point.

He was sitting in the park, as it was more interesting than sitting in his room, when he caught a glimpse of a new person out of the corner of his eye. The wonderful thing about the park was even in the dead of winter with snow absolutely everywhere, it was still the best place for people-watching in all of Edensphere. Turning to see who it was, he was struck first by the fact that though he'd never seen this particular man before, there was definitely something familiar about him...

Something... very... familiar...

...that nose...

"...Sniper...?"

Sure! XD

[mightymansopp]

Hiking through the forest was quite a bit easier in this new body, Sniper had to admit. It had been a trial trying to find a shirt that fit his new body properly, so he'd settled for leaving one of his usual ones half open; he had so little money as it was and wasn't keen on buying clothing for a body that wouldn't last.

Sniper didn't see Cloud at first, but his voice alerted him of his presence. "Oh, Cloud! You're still small!"

[eatenbylight]

Cloud kind of bounced to his feet and trotted over to where Sniper was standing. It was easier to do things in a childlike manner in this body, somehow... probably because it literally was a child's. "Yeah, it's been ten days now. This can't last forever... but it's a little worrying it's lasted this long." He was getting tired of being so small, and equally tired of people asking him if he needed help.

But that wasn't what he wanted to think about right now. "And you're... different." He reached out one hand, intending to prod the abs he could see through the shirt with a finger, but aborted the move and brought the hand up to finger his bangs instead. "When did that happen?"

[mightymansopp]

It was kinda... cute, watching Cloud act so childlike. With how serious he always was, it was easy to assume that he had just been adult his entire life. Yeah, yeah, he knew intellectually that everyone was a child at some point in their lives, but it was hard to imagine.

"Ten days now? Maaaan, that sucks. You must be getting tired of it." He crouched to talk to Cloud face to face, then glanced down at where it looked like Cloud was about to poke.

"It happened yesterday. I think I'm older, 'cause my hair's a lot longer now and, well..."

The rest was pretty obvious, but he stroked the bit of hair on his chin anyway. "Weird, right? Do you think this is what I'm supposed to look like eventually?"

He had a hard time imagining it.

[eatenbylight]

Cloud nodded. "Yeah. I'm starting to wonder if this is going to last all month." He took a step back as Sniper crouched down, putting them at a conversational distance again.

"Well, you still look kind of like you..." But it was hard to say for certain. With the way things were going these days, Sniper could be in the body of his older brother... if he had an older brother. "It could be."

Ignoring the fish that was swimming above his head--he was asking Cloud something about who this person was, but he didn't feel like explaining who Sniper was to him, or getting weird looks for talking to himself/a fish from Sniper--he asked, "Did you come here for a reason, or were you just going for a walk?"

[mightymansopp]

Sniper slipped comfortably into his crouched position into a sitting one now that it became clear that he and Cloud were going to be talking for more than just a few seconds. "One other guy said that he figured he was older, and since some people like you get younger, it makes sense." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I mean, I guess I could be in a different body than my own, but that's happened already."

He placed his hands on his knees and watched the fish swimming around Cloud's head with interest. "I'm just going for a walk." After a pause, he added, "Are you going to explain about that fish swimming around your head?"

[eatenbylight]

Cloud resisted the urge to flop down next to him, sitting carefully instead. He might as well, and Sniper had done it already. "Oh yeah." He'd forgotten about Sniper mentioning that on the journals. "Someone else did, really?" He'd only been half-paying attention to the journals since he became a child, so he really had no idea what was going on with most people.

Cloud followed Sniper's gaze at his question. "Oh, him." He glanced back at the... older man--he couldn't think of him as 'the kid' right now--and shrugged a little. "He just showed up one day. He can talk, but I think I'm the only one who can hear him. I call him Sensei."

[mightymansopp]

"Yeah, some guy whose writing I haven't really seen around before. Maybe he's one of those people who don't write much, but he wouldn't have much of a reason to lie."

If one thing about him stayed the same - okay, okay besides the nose - it was his hands, and he took some small comfort in twiddling his fingers in his lap.

"Oh one of those. I heard about those." He gazed at the fish curiously. "But I didn't know that they could do impossible things, like swim around in the air. Maybe he was your teacher for something?"

Though... Sniper couldn't quite imagine Cloud with a teacher. And this, young student, is how you wander around forests with a box on your back! Be careful to rarely make connections and be sure to get hurt a lot and worry your friends!

...Naaaaaaaaaaah.

[eatenbylight]

Cloud nodded seriously. "Yeah, this place does enough insane things, I don't know why someone would make one up." Except for the people who wrote in rainbow. He didn't expect them to do rational things.

He looked back at the fish as Sniper went on. "Yeah, well. I figure it's something the Tree did, so him being able to do a lot of things most fish can't is to be expected." He looked back at Sniper and blinked. "...that's what Castor said, too. I don't think he's that kind of sensei, though..."

If he could have heard Sniper's thoughts he would have laughed--though maybe a little uneasily at how right they felt.

[mightymansopp]

"Some people do that for fun," Sniper said with a shrug. "Some guy did it to me when I first came here, remember? But I don't think this guy did."

Teacher, teacher... was there more than one type? Of course they all taught different things, but he couldn't think of any other person who'd want to be referred as that. "Maybe he's your senior?"

Sensei, in this case, is another way of addressing a doctor

[eatenbylight]

"...you mean Youth? With the apples?" Frankly, Cloud couldn't really recall a lot of what happened to Sniper when he'd first come here; he hadn't stalked the other man, or really been interested in him aside from 'another new person with their memories gone.'

He shrugged a little. "Could be. It's hard to say for sure, and he doesn't seem to be able to give me any information, either."

Ohh. Since Usopp's not from Japan, I've just been making the geass say "teacher"

[mightymansopp]

"No, no, not Youth. He wasn't wrong, he was just... explaining it really, really wrong. It was this other guy who was telling me that this place was some sort of scary police state where they're watching you all the time." Sniper looked a bit sheepish, recalling how easily he had believed him. "He disappeared a while ago, though. What an asshole."

He gazed at the fish curiously. "Well, if he doesn't know, then I guess you'll never know. Does he need to eat?"

Sniper wondered if he pooped, but decided not to ask. There were some places that he just didn't want to go.

Sounds good! :D *shakes fist at HTML*

[eatenbylight]

"Oh, huh. Guess I missed that." Cloud thought about that for a moment. "Well, there has been some evidence that that's actually true... that something seems to be watching us a lot of the time. But from the way it sounds... yeah, he was just, uh. 'Winding you up.' " You could hear the quotes around the last three words Cloud spoke; he was trying out more new vocabulary from one of the patients that often came into the Clinic. "Or at least, making things sound worse than they are."

Cloud nodded, then hesitated, looking up at the fish again. "...I don't know." He stared at the fish for a moment, and the creature finally seemed to be aware he was waiting for him to speak.

I haven't felt hungry since I showed up. Not eating doesn't seem to do me any harm.

"Could you eat if you wanted to?"

We could always test it later, if you wanted.

Cloud finally turned back to Sniper. "He says he doesn't feel hungry, but we might test to see if he can, later."

[mightymansopp]

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense if this place just created him," Sniper said thoughtfully. "No offense, fish-guy."

It was strange thinking like that, though. That the Sphere could actually create things with personalities out of the blue? It wasn't a thought that Sniper enjoyed experiencing, and he steadfastly pushed it out of his mind for now.

"Tell me if he can actually eat, okay? I'm interested."

[eatenbylight]

"...I guess so," Cloud said, a little uneasily. Similar thoughts about the Tree creating things were occurring to him as well, and he shifted a little where he was sitting.

Maybe a subject change was in order.

"I will. So... what have you been up to lately?"

[mightymansopp]

Sniper shrugged in response. "Not much. Even with all this... stuff happening, it's actually pretty boring. There's not actually that much to do. I go to the Yard, I come here, that sort of thing."

Having a job felt wrong. He wanted to get out, desperately. He wanted to travel. He wanted to do any number of things.

He wanted his crew to come.

"I guess you haven't been up to much either, since you're a kid and all."