He ticks the time away--

[neargenius]

Who: a neargenius & a soldiershin
When: shamelessly/shamefully backdated to Tuesday thanks to my lame & F. Scott Fitzgerald!
Where: the super secret no-one-allowed MN apartment in some slightly sketchy sector in scenic Siren's Port!
Summary: Jomy has never played Risk. This is a crime against humanity. He also promised not to cheat. Oh, and he might be useful in the

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[soldiershin]

Near's text had come to him as a surprise. He hadn't expected his impromptu request to be humored, nevertheless followed through with. It was a nice break, though; he enjoyed games (more than reading), and he always had a keen interest in learning something new. Even if it was something as small as a game.

It would be a lie if he said that he wasn't doubling this opportunity to meet this Near, however. Always using text, Near was one of the few people he would be meeting in-person that he'd had no information about beforehand, save the fact that the boy (girl? What gender was Near, anyway?) was clever, and smart. He wouldn't read Near's mind, as promised, but his empathy was a passive ability. Nothing he could control.

Emotions gave away someone's personality more than their thoughts anyway.

Now, a few things to note: he actually didn't take the long way (that is, walking) so it'd taken him a much, much shorter time than it may have had any other person. (Still, he made sure he was on time than being too late, or too early.) He was

[neargenius]

Near didn't lift his head at the knock on the door. He stayed where he was, curled on the floor, one hand in his hair. But he did narrow his eyes, and his finger stopped winding around the strand of hair, leaving it half-coiled just short of his knuckle.

It was a faster arrival than he had anticipated. Immediately, his brain began to work on this: to think a faster arrival was to assume that it was Jomy at the door; to question if it was Jomy brought back the familiar paranoia, thoughts moving quickly past paranoia and straight to caution, because paranoia was boring and trivial and kept one anchored, whereas caution allowed for curiosity and investigation

[soldiershin]

It was the quietness that was novel, the blankness that felt both strangely welcoming and. . . not. It was almost like sticking his head into a sound-proof room against the backdrop of loud cacophony. A little jarring, but not an altogether a bad experience despite its rarity in this city.

Jomy peeled off the layers covering his face before he stepped inside, eyes flickering here and there around the revealed living room. That lasted for about a second, as his focus snapped back onto Near (a... child?) with barely concealed curiosity. The boy was smaller than Jomy had anticipated (though, really, he hadn't entirely expected a child either), even when he was compared to Jomy's physical body.

Of course, there was no way to know if Near was really a child. This city did not allow one's abilities to remain unique for long - it wasn't unreasonable to think that there were others like the Mu, was it? Though Near had told him that he didn't have abilities like his, it'd been through text. Nothing he could make judgment over

[neargenius]

Near shut the door the minute that he could, carefully doing up all the latches again. Then he turned to watch Jomy silently for a moment longer, continuing with this treatment even after the pleasantries had been offered. As each of Jomy's layers came off, he was afforded the opportunity to study his opponent more closely. Opponent seemed too strong of a word, even to Near, but there was no other way to express this.

Guest, maybe. He tipped his head slightly, eyes sliding over to study the wall instead as he considered the change. Guest would probably be okay

[soldiershin]

A smile tilted at his lips at quiet excitement unconsciously, a habit more than anything. It was the kind of innocent (if one could call it that) type of emotion that made it sometimes enjoyable to be an empath. Such instances didn't come all that often, so Jomy didn't have the habitual curbing of physical reactions as he did the negative ones. So his smile was out in the open as he followed the other further into the apartment

[neargenius]

Near wriggled the top of the box off and began unpacking the pieces. He had already played by himself, three times, so they were separated into plastic bags, sorted by color and type. After a glance, he picked through the pieces--blue, black, red, yellow, green--and then selected the gray pieces, carefully starting to line them up against the edge of the table in a neat, straight row

[soldiershin]

His answer was instant, like naming a favorite color. "Blue, please

[neargenius]

He watched Jomy work on his pieces, glancing down at his own to note the similarities between them. A copy, in a way, though a bit more ragged. That made sense: as someone who hadn't played before, he would naturally watch for cues. Near made note of that, slipping one finger into his hair, twining the strand around and around and around. Jomy had read the directions quickly, as well. He could be lying about never having played. But that was too obvious--if he were lying, then he would do a better job of maintain that lie; his reading would have been more deliberate and painstaking. He could be a very fast reader--or he could not have read them too closely. Likely the latter, Near thought, nodding a little as he let the strand of hair spring off of his finger

[soldiershin]

A shake of the head at the question, "No, not at all."

He then glanced down at the pieces, the piece that Near chose, and paused in slight confusion. The instructions had mentioned different roles for different pieces, but he couldn't properly appreciate how they worked (together) without a first run through. This type of battlefield (that is, fighting on land) was also new, where it felt two-dimensional compared to the three-dimensional nature of space.

Then again, this was just a game. So Jomy made made due with gut feeling. A slight tilt of the head later, he picked up a horse-shaped piece to place it a little far from Near's piece - somewhere on the Asian continent (India, he would later learn).

That done, he gave the apartment another glance around before his gaze swung back around to Near. "Do you live here alone?"

[neargenius]

Near watched Jomy's initial choice of territory with interest, leaning forward over the board just slightly. Opening moves were often very telling, but there was little to learn from this particular choice. India was centrally located, but too easily advanced upon. Definitely a novice at the game, then, and not lying at all. Confidently, he placed his next token on North America, and sat back

[soldiershin]

He took the land above his first move after (China) with little hesitation. Not due to a lack of effort on his part, but due to an ingrained tendency to keep (his) people together. Pack mentality - it was both dangerous and safe to stay together so close, but the familiarity of the habit gave him a degree of comfort and confidence. He would adapt at a later time, when the game was actually underway.

It was kind of fun, being able to go head-first into a mistake. He would feel a bit embarrassed at his mistakes at a later time, he was sure, but that wasn't now.

Sitting back, he glanced in the direction of the cat. He smiled at it, almost in wonder; he had his own cat now, but seeing these animals on Terra? It still felt amazing, in a way. He did, however, refrain from giving into his desire to go pet the thing; his lava cat had an extremely mild temperament (to Jomy's luck, really), but it'd still nipped at him once or twice. That had stung. He didn't want to really dive headfirst into a bite.

Back to Near: "What's his name?"

[neargenius]

Near leaned against the table, pushing the little gray tokens forward with his forearms. He let his chin drop to rest on his arms as well.

"Mello," he replied, idly, his voice slightly muffled by his arms. He selected another token and set it down on Mexico. It would be organized to select all of the pieces of a single territory, but this was more fun. "It's okay to tell you, because everyone knows, mostly. but it used to be a secret."

He looked back at Jomy, rolling his eyes up to consider him through his hair again. "You live by yourself." It was a guess, but he was probably right.

[soldiershin]

Placing another token on yet another piece of the Asian continent, he glanced up with a blink. His face was wrought with obvious surprise because - a secret? The name of the cat? That was odd. Head tilting a fraction, he amended his thoughts. No, Near was probably referring to the roommate. Why the roommate would be a secret, he wasn't certain, but it made more sense than the cat angle.

Jomy nodded in response to Near's statement shortly afterward. "I do."

A glance at the animal again. "Though I also received a cat recently."

[neargenius]

"A cat from where?" There was always curiosity to be dealt with, even over the smallest things. Near put down another token, this one on Africa, and looked up to watch Jomy decide on his next piece. "Or did you just find it? Everyone here seems interested in having pets."

He nudged his finger against the token he had just set down, tipping it onto its side. "The things people name their pets is more interesting than actually having them. Sometimes they give them boring names. Sometimes, they aren't boring if you know what the person was thinking when they named them." He sighed a little, pulling in an extra breath. It was a lot of talking to do at once. "What's your cat named?"