strangetrip | [EP] a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life*

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[EP] a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life* - backdated

Yasmeen "refused to be bored, because she wasn't boring."**

She'd read that in a book in Gotham. But then, Gotham had a library, bookstores, and her Lady. Not being bored was a lot easier. So, when the city opened, Yasmeen all but bolted through the portal into the wet jungle heat in search of anything interesting to do.

It didn't take long for her to discover there were no airships, no weapons modern even by her standards, and very little for non-natives to do. But there was always work in a port city, even in a river port, and she knew how to find it.

On day two, she met Ek Sothea, a young woman with a gift for spotting an opportunity. By day three, she'd agreed to front her the gold for a salvage operation in the river. It barely touched the reserves of what Yasmeen had with her when she arrived from Gotham, but it was enough to finance the operation and get Yasmeen a tip on a bar by the docks where Ek Sothea had gotten the initial information and the name of the man who'd supplied it. Soksan.

The third night, she staked out the bar and by the fourth, she'd met Sar Peou and his contact Hu Chariya who needed an ancient and valuable map retrieved from the business partners who'd kept it after a deal went bad. Early on the morning of the fifth day, she'd slipped into the third floor above the Phann Raksmei bank, picked the locks on the safe chest, and obtained the map. On the evening of the fifth day, she met Sar Peou at Soksan, slipped into his back corner booth and delivered the map in exchange for a healthy payment that covered her investment in Ek Sothea's salvage operation.

Business transacted, she bought herself an ale to nurse while scoping out her next job.

~*~*~*~
* Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf
** Zelda Fitzgerald

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Good thing I have a name to use instead, then." A sniper, was it? It was interesting, how many people at the Inn were some kind or degree of dangerous. Possibly there was a pattern to be discerned there, but it would bear more thinking on. "Care for a friendly game, then? Your aim against mine." Eyes and skilled aim was likely to beat skill alone, but it did no harm for Ignis to be seen to lose occasionally.

MacCready's cigarette went between his teeth as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I don't have enough gold to be playin' against you." He plucked the cigarette from between his lips and continued. "'Sides, hand thrown projectiles aren't really my thing. You'd wipe the floor with me tryin' even less than you've been."

"Friendly game means no stakes, MacCready." But Ignis shrugged, letting it go, and moved to collect the darts off the board anyway. When he returned, he arranged the darts on the table in as close to an even line as he could by feel. "I'll throw them all, then. I need the practice." It had taken longer than he cared to admit to get all his skill back, and letting them slip again was very nearly a nightmare.

"Friendly games are how you work your way up in a hustle," MacCready said fondly. Still, at least Ignis couldn't see how terrible he was at darts. Didn't mean a whole lot when anyone else he respected could walk in any second. If Vax saw how terrible he was, he'd never live it down.

He grabbed a chair and sat down backwards in it, making sure not to get in Ignis' way. "How do you know where the board is?" There wasn't anything cruel in his voice, just genuine curiosity. He'd seen a lot of people do impossible stuff. Blue made frankly unlikely shots all the time.

"Experience, logic, and by now I've retrieved darts more than a few times." Curiosity was never offensive, especially when (as now, with MacCready) there was no edge of disbelief or censure. "When people play darts, they array themselves directly in front of the board, not off to the side." Sometimes, there were even 'stand here' marks on the ground. "The board is a short distance away - eight feet or so, usually - and the bull's eye is little over five and a half feet off the ground. I know exactly where I need to throw."

He rested his arm over the back of the chair and then his chin on his arm. "Huh," he said, a simple note of acceptance. His own vision in the dark was usually just fine, but he was pretty sure that just came from growing up in a cave system. He still remembered how much the sunlight made him squint whenever he had to leave as a kid.

His dark and Ignis' dark were probably super different. "Can I ask what happened?"

"Of course." It had stopped hurting years ago in any sense of the word, after all. Other things hadn't, but Altissia had. "A little over ten years ago, my friends and I were trying to evacuate a city before an angry sea goddess destroyed it. Imperial troops - daemons of a sort, as it later turned out - outnumbered us significantly. So, I assume it was gunfire, claws, acid, or some combination." Ignis tapped the most significant scar, the one that spread visibly around his left eye, briefly. As an illustration.

MacCready nodded and forgot for a second that Ignis couldn't actually see the gesture. "Sounds rough," he said, leaning back in the chair to stretch. "Glad you made it out alive."

"Likewise." Ignis threw three darts in quick succession. Despite not being able to see where they hit, he was fairly sure they were at least grouped decently near the center. Dartboards didn't move. "It took quite some time to get back up to form afterwards, of course." Repairing his confidence had taken longer than the physical re-learning, but Ignis had some suspicion that MacCready would understand that without being told outright.

MacCready let out a low whistle. "Show off," he teased playfully. "Were you ranged before it happened or were you more of a melee guy?" There was combat. Everyone had a preference. From what Ignis had said so far and the way he was now, his stance and everything else the man had been trained in something.

The 'show off' accusation won another smile and no argument. He was a showoff. "Melee, for the most part. Daggers and lance. I still am, but range keeps me from having to split my focus."

If it were him, he'd probably switch to melee if he couldn't see. How the hell did Iggy find out where his stuff had gone after he'd thrown it especially if whatever he threw it at wasn't dead yet. He gave the man a longer, appraising look wondering how he wasn't decked out in knives. Then again, it wasn't super obvious how armed to the teeth he was himself either.

"This your plan for the rest of the night?"

"More or less, unless something else comes up." Certainly, others in the Inn were socializing with locals in various ways, shopping, what-have-you. All that felt like too much of a risk to Ignis - he had, after all, no one but himself to make sure he didn't get lost in unfamiliar territory. "I expect I'll get bored and return to the Inn sooner or later."

"Would you like something else to come up?" he asked, not realizing that it was a double-entendre until the words were already out of his mouth. Even blind, he swore Ignis could probably see his blush. He took a swig of his beer to cover any weirdness the guy was probably psychically aware of.

Ignis never expected entendres of any kind, so he treated the question as a serious one that meant only what it seemed to. "I could use some sort of variety in life, so yes, most likely."

There was definite relief in MacCready when the guy was just stuffy enough to miss it. If he was gonna flirt, he wanted to flirt intentionally. Not that- Fuck. "Anything in particular you're into?"

"As in hobbies? None of those, I'm afraid." Ignis threw another dart. "My focus is quite narrow."

None of those what? MacCready wondered, frowning a little bit. Probably hobbies in general. Just as well. It wasn't like he really knew what people outside the wastes did for hobbies even after living at the hotel for so long. He thought for a moment and then took another swig of his beer to screw his courage, pinching his cigarette out between two fingers. "Dance with me?"

...what? Behind his shades, Ignis blinked, all thoughts stalled out briefly. What?

It wasn't an unwelcome question or even an unwelcome idea, though neither question nor idea was one that had ever been put to him before. And certainly it fit the definition of something else coming up, but... "I don't dance. I'm sorry."

"Oh," he said quietly. MacCready cleared his throat. "Just seemed like something to do in a new place you ain't gotta be able to see for." Maybe better if- Well, it wasn't like Ignis could see anyone staring. Yeah, the music in the bar wasn't really the kind to dance to, but it'd be something. Lucy'd always managed to get him to dance with her to nothing at all. "I'll uh... I'll leave you to your darts."

"I am sorry." After a moment, Ignis added too quietly for anyone else to hear, "This is the only way I know how to be." Especially among strangers. Anything like an actual human being - a blind, unarmed, and unarmored human being - as opposed to a remote and unapproachable danger could too easily be labeled 'target'. And Ignis hadn't survived ten years in a daemon-infested and ruined countryside by allowing himself to be an easy target.

"You ain't too old to learn otherwise." Mac took a deep breath. "Come for a walk with me, then. Or something else you are willing to do."

"I think you're underestimating how set in my ways I can be." There was a note of teasing in his voice, but Ignis was otherwise completely serious. He'd been himself, as he was, for as long as he could remember. It wasn't a situation likely to change. "But a walk, I can do."

Really, the goal was to spend more time with Ignis. Dancing gave them excuse not to talk. "You care where we go?" he asked, getting out of his chair finally.

"Not at all." One advantage, at times, of being blind was that to a greater or lesser extent, one place was the same as any other. There was more or less to trip over or avoid falling into, true, but... well, 'the sights' was never exactly a draw.

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

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Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like

Re: Yasmeen definitely, anyone else if they like