Rooftops [Open]
Dawn had broken gently over the rooftops of Midgar some hours ago, the usual skyline broken only by the lone silhouette of the young materia bearer sat relishing the fresh morning breeze through his hair and robes to calm his slightly frantic self
( Read more... )
Luc rolled his eyes. Messing with the water had stuck an old Wutaiin fishing song in his head. Cursed thing.
Still, a soran boushi was little annoyance in comparison to that letter. Which he had still to find, he reminded himself. Perhaps -ugh- Seishirou knew something about it.
Reply
Well. Either Kimbley had developed the ability to blow shit up by sheer force of will, or for once an act of random destruction had happened in his vicinity that someone else had caused! The alchemist couldn't entirely decide whether it was intriguing or aggravating.
He had, for once in his life, been genuinely minding his own business, even if that business was trying to be inconspicuous and get back to the military base without anyone asking undue questions about the drying specks of red on his shirt or noticing his distinctly more crimson hands. The 'research materials' Bakura had procured for him had been excellent - with the past tense being rather important to note. So he had, most definitely and for one of the few times since the Wutaian War, not been thinking about blowing anything else up; like hell he wanted the attention that would bring him ( ... )
Reply
Previous train of thought had gone something long the lines of: Oh great... eh? It didn't help that ♪Soran, soran...♪ was still randomly floating in and out of his head. If he wanted any conversation with this person, it would be a severely irritating hindrance to it.
"I supo...ose so," he ventured dryly. And now if you'll kindly let me leave, you strange, annoying little man...
Reply
The kid seemed a little young to recognize Kimbley on sight, so he was probably just an arrogant little bitch. A talented little bitch, though, Kimbley would grant him. The kid hadn't been anywhere near the fountain when it tore itself to pieces. The alchemist had a good dose of arrogance himself and generally appreciated arrogance in people when they could actually back it up. Still didn't like the look the boy was giving him, though ( ... )
Reply
It was enough to make him nostalgic for the relative peace his apprenticeship of Leknaat afforded him.
Peace and intelligence he added, rolling his eyes subtley at the remarks being made. "It is only blatant," Luc began in such a monotone it would be clear, to those that knew him, he was getting slightly irked, "if I am known as the origin." He blinked and his expression remained stubbornly defiant of the man being impressed.
Looking him over again, Luc decided to briefly let off some steam in the form of a short caustic comment on his companion's fashion sense.
"But seeing the state of yourself, I see no reason that I should be blamed for this."
Reply
"You're Wutaian, aren't you?" he asked, a seeming non sequitur. The kid might've been too young to recognize him, but he ought to have heard stories...hell, Kimbley had a reputation on the mainland, and he hadn't even blown up that many people around here.
Reply
So the man was a railing racist, eh? Or at least that was the only conclusion the young mage boy could draw if he was going to make such a statement out of the blue. ♪Soran, soran♪ his mind interjected, as if trying to subconsciously jump into the argument. Luc rolled his eyes and assumed his clothes had been what sparked his addressee's interest - he never exactly tried to fit in on the mainland and it had often found him resentment before.
"And you're a jackass. What of it."
Reply
"I was just gonna ask if you'd ever heard of the Crimson Alchemist. Most Wutaians have." Well, that might be overstating his infamy a bit, but there were certainly a lot of craters in Wutai that he was almost solely responsible for and a lot of those piddly little villages nearly wiped out that he'd had a large role in. Most Wutaians might not know about him, but there was still a fairly large percentage that had to have heard of him, or at least his explosions. Some of them had to have been loud enough.
Reply
It was true, being only nine at the time of the war, most names and specifics had been too vague to be remembered or had simply been forgotten due to the handicap of age. However, time with the someone as all knowing as his mentor as such a huge sense of national pride had meant he had uncovered a lot of preceding information on the war he loathed so much.
This man's name apparently being among it all.
"I on the other hand," he continued suppressing the sudden surge of biting rage within him, very sure it was making the materia embedded in his chest react in a more visibly... luminous way than he would normally allow, "am perfectly aware of your little endeavours."
Reply
The alchemist's eyes finally broke away from Luc's face when spots on the kid's chest began to glow brightly enough to be seen through his shirt. Materia...well, that went a long way towards providing Kimbley with an explanation, and his ( ... )
Reply
This ..."person" had no idea of whom he was dealing with.
Calming the flow of power to the shards, he attempted to stem the shine of the materia. "You yourself have little comprehension of the power I can wield," he offered, by way of further explanation. Or what he would consider explanation. "I do not suggest you try anything with me," he added flatly, hands firmly at his sides and staring pointedly at his antagonist.
Reply
He finally returned his gaze to Luc's eyes, smirking almost insolently. "Hey, my days of blowing up Wutaians are over...more's the pity. But if you think you're going to make me take the heat for an explosion I didn't cause, I could always reevaluate the wisdom of coming out of retirement." He stuffed his hand back into his pocket, not wanting any curious eyes to spot the bloodstains. "Who was it that said that killing ONE person is really bad, but that one MORE person barely registers on the karmic scales?" He considered for a few moments, then shrugged. "I guess it doesn't really matter. But as an expert on destruction myself, some friendly advice - if you can't take pride in your abilities, then why bother using them?"
Reply
"Do not tell me to take pride in abilities I do not want," he said levelly, almost an octave lower than he had been previously.
Inwardly rolling his eyes at what he'd just said, he continued. "And I'm not sure what "karmic scale" you operate on, but I assure you that a death would send a shockwave down any onen of them."
Allowing himself to glare now, Luc waited on angry tenterhooks for this alchemist to make some kind of move against him...
Reply
Abilities he didn't want, hm? Maybe Wutai was a bit behind the mainland in that it didn't ask people first whether they wanted chunks of materia in them before sticking them in under the skin. Mildly interesting information, but not applicable to anything Kimbley could think of.
Once he'd had his laugh, he gave the boy a thoughtful once-over. "For someone who doesn't want his abilities, you were certainly making free with them a minute ago. Seems like if you didn't want them, you wouldn't be using them unless you had to." He raised an eyebrow. "Was the fountain threatening you?"
Reply
"You have no right..." he started to say but under the stress it came out in Wutaian. Just as well. It wasn't particularly awe-inspiring.
"No. Were the villages threatening you?" he said with a menacing calm, echoing in the sharp sheen that radiated throughout the materia in his chest. Luc's riling had spread into an attack-mode of sorts. If this 'crimson' one made one false step he was ready to blow him across the rooftops.
Reply
Let's see, it had been awhile, but the word no in Wutaian was one of the words he'd been intimately acquainted with. And - let's see - right? Ah, that made the rest of it click into place fairly easily.
Not many soldiers had bothered to learn even the bare basics of the language of their enemies, but Kimbley was intelligent enough to recognize the importance of knowing what one's enemies were saying. Particularly when they didn't know you could understand...
"No," he replied to Luc's question with a smirk. "But, see, I like what I can do...so I don't feel restricted to putting my talents to use only when absolutely necessaryHmm. The kid's materia was starting to glow pretty alarmingly. Kimbley wisely decided not to ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment