Harpies Are Not Very Good At Playing the Harp

[backhandjustice]

Who: Ventus, Xigbar, and any other Harpy Hunters that wanna show up later (I guess?)
What: Ventus is getting ready for go out for his first Harpy hunt. Whatever the heck a Harpy is.
When: Today?
Where: Shuttles and planet side
Warnings:  Ventus being a dork, possible violence, harpies of a dubious nature, and Xigbar being Xigbar

Comments

[gravity_splode]

Whether or not Ven had meant to be alone, he wasn't. True, Xigbar could have easily gotten himself down to the planet on his own, but what was the fun in that? The ships worked just fine and it meant less work for him. Work that would be more than plentiful once he hit the planet.

So he'd take his time on this one. It didn't hurt anything. He'd even found a familiar and unexpected face. So really, maybe it was for the best he'd chosen the slower method.

Don't look up, Ven, but there's someone watching from the 'ceiling' of the shuttle.

[backhandjustice]

Ventus shivered, like he felt a chill hand run dow his spine. He had learned to listen to that sense and glanced around, trying to see what was on the ship that was giving him that feeling. He couldn't find anything, but it didn't make him relax, not a bit. He had spent to much time around things that could go invisible or mesh with the shadows to think it was just him being paranoid. Maybe it was the planet?

He bit his lip, clutching harder at his pamphlet as the shuttle began its landing sequence, his teeth clicking sharply with the bumps and jolts.

[gravity_splode]

Well, at least the kid's senses worked fine. Of course, that didn't mean Xigbar was actually going to make his move just yet. Yeah, he could tell that something was unsettling the kid, but it didn't mean it was necessarily him. For all he knew, it was a problem with the ship itself.

That and he wanted to see how much more nervous he could make him before the ship landed. Maybe he'd even think to look up~.

[backhandjustice]

He might have, but perhaps his time on the Thor had made him a bit complacent, absent as he it was from the threat of Vanitas or the Unversed. He rubbed his arms, but figured it was the planet and not anything on the ship itself.

With bumps and jolts the ship landed and gratefully Ventus hopped up, stepping off onto the planet's surface. He looked around, as always taken aback by how different all the planets were that they came to. He looked towards the inhabited areas, but he doubted harpies lived there if at all. So that meant the less inhabited.

He shifted to look towards that, and that spine tingling came back again. He frowned, looking over his shoulder and back at the ship and then at the city. Jeez, what was with him today?

Shaking his head and he slapped his shoulder brace and his armor slid over him, a comforting presence, and jogged towards the harpies' domain.

[gravity_splode]

Well~, Xigbar could certainly help with the complacent part. Or at least, he could as far as looking up went. And really, it wasn't like he couldn't blame the kid for getting out of the habit. After all, last time the two of them met he'd been sticking to ground like any normal person.

But Ven would get his first suggestion that he wasn't alone as soon as the ship landed. It was something that could easily have been overlooked, however, given how it was nothing more than the sound of his feet landing on the floor of the shuttle as he dropped neatly off the ceiling. But even that was still something.

As was the sound of a second pair of footsteps walking out of the shuttle, for that matter.

[backhandjustice]

Okay, that... got to him. There had been some other things on the ship, but not things with feet. That was the key there. So his should have been the only "footsteps" coming off. Why had there been a second pair?

He paused, wrapped in his armor, looking back to the shuttle and around him, fingers twitching though he did not summon his blade - not yet. No need to unnecessarily attack something, right?

A bit more cautious now he headed for the edge of the platform, though he kept turning his head side to side to try and hear what he could hear or see what had cause those other footsteps.

[gravity_splode]

No need whatsoever! True, Xigbar might have done a few things in his past to warrant such things, not to mention what he's done for the Organization. But he's generally fond of not being attacked and there's no further footsteps after those few. Being able to revoke gravity is a wonderful thing sometimes.

This time, however, he does actually speak up.

"Looking for something there, kiddo?"

[backhandjustice]

He nearly jumped out of his armor and his skin. He ducked down into a crouch, reflexively summoning his blade. That voice would haunt him, he was sure, for years to come, and he had not so soon forgotten it or the things it had done, even if ... what he was was no longer connected to Braig. It was still so hard to think of them as different and separate - Braig and Xigbar, Saix and Isa. Weird.

"Why are you here?" he asked, immediately less than trusting - not that Xigbar inspired much trust.

[gravity_splode]

Ha. Now there was the reaction he'd come to expect. And one of the many faces that had always thrown him half for a loop every time that Roxas had made them. But it was just so much better on Ven's face. You just couldn't compare with the original, especially when the original had a heart. Unlike Ven, however, he didn't both to summon his own weapons.

Yet.

"Came down here for a job. And I can't exactly not do it, you see?"

[backhandjustice]

The space between his brows puckered in a mix of confusion and disbelief, clearly debating actually believing him. He came out of his defensive posture at least, but did not relinquish his weapon or turn his back on the other. He had learned his lesson and he was not about to trust the other - not by a long shot.

"What job?" Because if it was something nefarious he WOULD have to stop him.

[gravity_splode]

That was a good start, and not just because it meant that he was now a good deal less likely to find himself on the receiving end of a keyblade. Even after all these years, the things still hurt far more than they had any sort of right to. Not to mention he was generally not a fan of sudden acts of violence (not perpetrated by him) in general.

As for the not trusting him, well. He wasn't going to say anything about that one way or the other.

"A little bit of pest control, I'm guessing. The job offer wasn't what I'd exactly call clear."

[backhandjustice]

"Pest control?"

He shifted, not at all sure what to do. The other was posing no threat, but at the same time he could not believe that the other was up to anything harmless. Some part of him KNEW that the other was not harmless and never could be. Which meant trust was not something he could give him, nor would he - ever. Not after what he had done, even if this was... not exactly the one he had met before.

[gravity_splode]

"Yep," Xigbar answered with a grin. "Something about harpies."

At least in this, he was being truthful. He might have had a nasty habit of lying, or otherwise hiding the truth, yes. But he didn't see a whole lot of point of lying about the jobs he picked up to make ends meet while he was out here.

[backhandjustice]

His heart plummeted. Harpies. Please do not say that they had the same job this month. It was almost more than he could bear. He glowered at the other further, as if he had done something seriously wrong though of course there was no way for either of them to know they had taken the same job. He would need to be more careful in the future.

"So am I," he growled, crossing his arms petulantly.

[gravity_splode]

Unfortunately for Ven, Xigbar saw that sort of glare far too often for it to have any sort of effect whatsoever. Not to mention the fact that not having a heart made it more than a little hard to feel remorse, assuming that Xigbar ever had felt remorse. He hadn't ever made much of an attempt to the be the guy who followed the straight and narrow.

"Well isn't that just interesting," he answered and in the blink of an eye, he was at Ven's side. "Just like old times, hunh?"

[backhandjustice]

Ventus started, jumping away like he had been scalded and glared daggers at the other. Normally so warm and caring, he just could not get his hackles to lower with Xigbar was near. It made him distinctly uncomfortable, to say the least.

"There are no old times with us," Ventus said with determination. "If I remember, you tried to hurt me and Terra!"