Glint of Light [Asura/Alyssa]

[Deleted]

(Area theme)

He didn't really do... hobbies, by and large. It wasn't that Asura hated fun or anything, but he was generally too busy with work or training to really take up knitting or crocheting. Even better was the eternal bane of mercenary life - the grand old proclamation of 'hurry up and wait' while people far more important than you did whatever the hell they wanted, and you got stuck standing there for two hours waiting for them to be late. Needless to say, you either drank a lot or learned patience, and he had gone for the latter. Perhaps a bit stereotypical for the Sacaen, but the Indra did not raise their children weak of will, and he had a great deal of experience with hardship... perhaps more than the average Sacaen. So 'just waiting' had long since ceased to be a problem.

But right now, Asura was not working, nor was he training. He was waiting, but he did a lot of that anyways. No, what he was really doing was people watching. Just leaning up against a wall, arms crossed, the far end of his sheath in the ground and the handle cradled in his right arm to make sure no one tried to take it. And he was watching people. It wasn't really a meaningful activity. He wasn't looking for targets, or for work, or even for fun. Just... watching. Pherae was a large territory, full of life and trade, and so its towns and cities reflected that. The people varied wildly in every conceivable way, and it was interesting to try to guess who was Pheraen and who was from elsewhere in Lycia, or even Elibe. Sometimes it was obvious, a man in Bernese armor or the distinctive Ilian mercenary gear, but often times it was less so, and so he had to try to gauge their mannerisms, their hairstyles, the way they talked and moved and lives.

It wouldn't be hard to justify if he tried. 'Perception training.' A warrior needed eyes as sharp as his mind to survive - the ability to gauge opponents. Recognizing their armor, their weapons; knowing their fighting style ahead of hand, recognizing what tricks they might try to pull, knowing how likely they were to fight or flee. But there was little point in lying to himself. Even if it was partially true, and it was; he could rarely truly escape training, even in his own mind, whether it was trying to strengthen his mental fortitude or his perception. But for the most part, he was simply trying to enjoy what time he had in the afternoon.

[Deleted]

"Stupid Red Baron."

The frustation could be felt through the afternoon breeze; the pair of tired arms stretched above as a young woman wanted to do more than flex herself into a better mood. One person after another, yet not one of them had a clue as to where her target went to next. Still, it's a no-brainer moment to figure out that her brother's kidnapper knew the big sister was hot on his trail. What puzzled the archer the most was his aversion. Alyssa was tough, but a close-ranged soldier like Baron could take her out with ease when she's alone like this.

"Why do most bad guys have to be so dumb..." Alyssa said, allowing herself to release a long-overdue sigh.

It wasn't a good idea to hope Baron would have lamp of realization flash over his head that he was actually in the advantage — she needed every little opportunity to not have a spear through her face — but it was better than losing the guy's location entirely. The more Earnest was in the hands of that backstabbing, conniving, buck-toothed, lizard-riding freak of an ex-friend, the less comfortable she felt about letting the man have his way and just chill out.

Well, no use getting all worked up over it now. She could scream "Baron's a bowl of bullcrap" all she wants in private, but pretty sure people in public didn't want to hear that. All it did was set a bad image for herself, and Alyssa knew she's a lot more mature than that. Stress did the number on some of the most patience or well-disciplined people, Alyssa knowing she wasn't this almighty goddess of control and perfection. Last she checked though, goddesses didn't walk around in the streets looking aimlessly for some low-life ex-soldier and his hobby of stealing little boys.

That was creepier than it was supposed to be.

The info gathering took it's toll on her, Alyssa resolving to just doing what she did best: just being her usual, totally-not-annoying self. Maybe there was something stress relieving she could do in town? She was still technically in home turf, despite her village being a good ways back east. She knew Pherae like the back of her hand, so finding something entertaining was about as easy as shooting arrows at that homeless guy that stole her cookies one day.

...Speaking of strange people, one on the wall struck her as particularly intriguing. Well, mostly that stare of cold steel he had super glued to his expression. Alyssa almost wanted to ignore him for safety, but, uh... something about him was really bugging her. And who knows? Maybe guys like that knew that jerk, Baron. Unlike that idiot though, at least grumpface on the wall looked kind of cool.

With a bit of hesitance, Alyssa paced over slow, giving the man a brief stare of her own before her mouth finally caught up with her brain.

"So! Um... How many puppies have you strangled today, sir?"

...Had to start somewhere.

[Deleted]

"Five. Snapping the necks of the small ones is the most satisfying."

His absolutely flat tone and deadpan expression betraying absolutely no hint of whether or not he was serious, Asura turned his attention to the yappy little, uh, his train of thought derailed momentarily as he absentmindedly noted that her skirt was impractically short, even by Ilian standards. Had he been going for a dog thing there? The swordsman wasn't fond of being jolted out of his thoughts, but then again he hadn't been expecting a busty blonde with a bow to approach him and start accusing him of murdering puppies. Or was that green hair? Blondeish-green... for the sake of his own sanity, he decided not to think about it too hard. She was welcome to whatever color of hair she wanted, even if it was against the laws of man and nature alike.

None of that really answered the question of WHY she had approached him, though. She didn't look much like an employer or a target, or... really any kind of mercenary at all. She actually looked a bit more like a singer or a dancer of some sort. One with a fixation on puppy slaughtering. Was he about to be murdered by an insane woman? Asura considered the idea and carefully set it aside, albeit within arm's reach - he didn't dare completely discard it just yet. Whatever the reason, she seemed interested in him, and not in the 'hey there handsome you want a good time?' kind of way. Which was probably for the best. He generally just found it annoying. For whatever reason, though, she seemed almost... hesitant or skittish or... something. A bit of a counterpart to her eccentric greeting. Was she afraid of him? But he hadn't even killed anyone today! Well... yet, anyways.

All in all, he was a bit flummoxed on what she wanted, but it seemed apparent that she didn't much care for him. Asura wasn't especially perturbed by that; not everyone liked Sacaens, not everyone liked mercenaries, and above all he had met very few people who actually liked the Indra, so by this point it didn't even register as an insult or a reason to dislike anyone in return. They weren't going to get anywhere staring deeply into each other's eyes, but it didn't really pay to blow off a potential employer... just in case. And it didn't cost him anything to be nice. At least by his standards, which wasn't saying a lot. Speaking slightly more kindly, though with about the same expression, the Indra survivor continued shortly after. "May I help you, miss?"

[Deleted]

"God damn, that's just eeeeevi—" Alyssa had to clear her throat, shutting off her words as her face went near pale before slow laughs followed after each other in a frightened rhythm. "N-nice one. You alllllmost had me!"

He was joking, right? It was hard to tell with how unchanging his face was. Perhaps he was one of those dudes that had a permanent frown or something. Either that, or he was pretty darn good at dry humor. Alyssa's color returned, hoping that the stranger didn't have any plans on strangling her to death for approaching with such an oddball joke. Maybe looks were deceiving? Maybe this guy wasn't bad. Alyssa wanted to grip onto that belief with the same strength she held onto when she fires her arrows. Mr. What's-his-face must be a good guy; probably just some traveling comedian... with a sword.

She's getting scared again.

Well, fear can go sit down for a minute, because the upbeat woman wasn't done annoying the swordsman yet — him asking what she wanted might have been a bad idea on his part. He fed the blonde troll. But after all the waves of pure retardation passed from her mind and the actual smart waves decided to kick in, Alyssa took notice of the man in deeper detail: Non-Lycian attire, having more of a tribal style; no doubt he was Sacaean. Didn't see too many of those guys in Pherae. Despite what ignorant people commonly say about his kind, she envied them for coming from a land surrounded by vast plains.

She was only just starting out her adventuring and now she wanted to get all side-tracked. Priorities, Alyssa. If he wasn't from around here, then he had a better chance at knowing Baron.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah," Alyssa finally answered. "Maybe you can help me out, bud bud! I'm Alyssa Velmont. You look like a guy with many answers and secrets and stuff. Like my aunt used to say—"

"Waaah! What the hell DID she say!?"

"...Frieeeendship is maaaagic..."

That wasn't part of the script. "...Roll with it."

"...So yeah, know a wyvern rider named Baron?" Much better.

While she waited patiently for the man's response, she took the time to examine him more once she got past the whole fearing-for-her-life phase. He really did seem like a decent guy; a little quiet, but that never bothered her. He was polite enough, too. Alyssa's just glad he didn't want to run that fancy sword through her chest — that's if he wasn't planning on doing that already if she kept bugging him.

"Long story short, he's this evil dude I wanna deck in the schnoz-" She said before her finger rested on her bottom lip. "Nah, more like arrow him in the schnoz. Yeah, totally more accurate. Anyways, I lost his trail here and was wondering if you've seen any wyvern riding jerkfaces around here or any old Bern rider by that name? You look like you travel a lot and meet all sorts of strange people."

...Including her.

[Deleted]

For his part, Asura simply stood there as the woman continued her assault on common decency and his sanity in equal parts, completely unable to formulate an actual reaction to her antics. What had at first seemed like an innocent reaction to his vile humor turned into strangeness beyond measure, a cascade of crazy without end. As far as he could decipher, she was looking for a foe named Baron - not an actual baron, though it was possible he was mistaken - for... some reason. She either forgot or didn't find it necessary to include the reason why she was hunting this man, which did little to convince him it was necessary to provide any information.

Not that he knew who the hell this Baron guy was in the first place, but even if he did. Hm. It was hard to tell if she was actually completely cracked in the head or just, ah, charmingly eccentric. Asura wasn't sure there was much of a difference anymore. He was, however, sure that this problem wasn't going to go away if he ignored it really hard, so swallowing his pride and a pulse of anger at being interrupted, the sacaen turned to the archer to address her properly, uncrossing his arms and grabbing the sheath of his blade to keep it from following over without the lack of support. "Never heard of him." Simple, curt, and to the point... completely out of character for Asura, obviously.

What? Did she expect him to magically know some random bumfuck wyvern rider? Asking strange men if they knew some villain was hardly a good method for sear...ching... wait, did she think HE looked like a villain too? Was that why she approached him? For some reason, that actually did bother him a little, though he tried not to let it show. What part of standing there, minding his own business, was so damn threatening? Though... giving her a proper once over, she didn't exactly look like a hardened killing machine. She was too soft, in more ways than one; not necessarily weak, but certainly not sharpened by a life of slaughter. And she seemed a little out of her depth... though not entirely aware of it herself.

Asura sighed.

"Do you have any more information on him?"

He had no one but himself to blame for this, really. Not even Alyssa. The intelligent move would be to brush her off and hope she went away, but for whatever reason he felt a deeper current of emotion from her than just the casual joking of before. He could be wrong of course, Asura wasn't a mind reader by any means, but he had a pretty good eye for people, and it felt as though there was something more beneath the surface with this girl.

[Deleted]

"Okaaaaay..."

Welp, that went well enough; he didn't know him. Time to pack up and head on ou- wait, did he ask for more info? Another bad idea. The blonde troll's been fed once more.

It was hard to read the guy, though. Must have been really good at playing cards with a face like that. But he bothered to ask more about her little runaway crook, which she didn't expect. Most people didn't care about why you ask them things or interested enough to even help more. At least this... seemed to push her further away from meeting the sacaean's dancing silver that he made her aware of enough times already.

"Well, he likes little boys... for some reason; stole a family keepsake and my lil bro with it. So aside from the guy just looking like the average joe you'd see in Bern's flying lizard squad, I'm sure he's riding around with a teenage boy with similar hair to mine as his hostage." That totally sounded normal. "The wyvern he rides is an odd color: violet. Does that help a bit?"

She kind of doubt that made much of a difference, though. Once she delved deeper into her own network of thoughts, it only then occurred to her how fruitless her information seeking would be; she and Baron were barely friends for a while. He betrayed her trust quicker than an enemy spy in one of those dumb wars Elibe's so hot on right now. She only got to know a little about the guy before he went straight thief and pedobear. It was sort of a depressing thought — she couldn't shake that one as easily as other gloomy stuff, for some reason. She remained oblivious to her own dilemma in it's purest form, still unable to grasp how much the events of that dreadful night actually affected her mentally.

"Aw well, if you don't really know him, then it's no biggie! Sorry 'bout that." The ethereal smile accompanied by her words was more genuine and pure than the horrible jokes she told.

Now, time to run away before he chops her head of--

"Ooooooh~!" Her piercing gaze of intrigue met with the top of the swordsman's head. "You use some kind of special, extraterrestrial hair gel or something? How'd you get your hair to stand up like that?"

[Deleted]

Likes... little boys.

That wasn't a warning sign or anything.

"No. There has been a recent resurgence in wyvern riders in the last few years - it's not that uncommon anymore." And while violet was a somewhat unusual color, most people wouldn't really notice or care unless it became an immediate, personal problem. It was such an irrelevant, inconsequential factoid when related to the wyvern's combat strength or temperament that unless this 'Baron' was fairly well known, it might very well not even come up at all from those who HAD seen him, much less a subject that would come up in passing.

Unfortunately he didn't really do 'encouraging' so there wasn't much left to say. If the woman had offered to pay him, sure, but she hadn't, and she didn't even have the vaguest idea if where to start looking in the first place. Not exactly the best place to begin a business relationship... or a personal one, if she was actually as crazy as she acted. Perhaps it was just 'delightfully eccentric' but his money was on something else. Maybe losing her brother had finally caused her to snap? Regardless, Asura quelled that train of thought before it went further; it was unnecessarily cruel even for him. Some people just dealt with stress by trying to be positive... and besides, who was he to say that his way, being quiet and morose and apparently looking permanently vaguely annoyed, was any healthier?

Not that HE thought he looked angry. Obviously. Asura nursed his wounded pride on the subject slightly as Alyssa continued to berate his aesthetic. Dammit woman, you find the ONE merc within a 100 mile radius who actually makes a point of trying to take care of himself, and all you can do is talk about how unhappy he looks and his hair being spiky? Way to kick a guy when he's down, lady! Possibly... SLIGHTLY influenced by his wounded pride, though not severely of course he would never ever ever be in any way affected by a woman who might be in some circles considered somewhat attractive repeatedly commenting about how little she liked his looks, the Sacaen's response had a very light edge of curtness to its normally dull delivery. "I style it in canine blood daily. Why else would I throttle them, stress relief?"

[Deleted]

"....."

What was once an ethereal smile transformed to that of an awkward, half-smile. Uh, did she say something bad? Her eyes shifted to different directions, baffled as to what to say next. Must have been self-conscious about his hair or something, even though Alyssa believed she wasn't insulting it. She didn't know, and as much as he liked to play with her jest with dog slaughtering more than she'd expect, it still made the woman wonder if he really was joking about that anymore. What if he did murder dogs? While getting the hell out of dodge sounded nice, she couldn't leave yet... for some reason.

Seriously, his stone face was making this so much more difficult to where her gaze directed to the wall itself he leaned on, trying to keep that half-smile fixated. Was hard to tell if he was upset, annoyed or just a really freakin' good actor and comedian. Alyssa had to stop her lips from moving, actually thinking about her response as she cut herself off before she could even start. Oh, but another sentence came to mind! ...until she stopped herself again. The confusion and awkwardness was apparent as her fingerless gloved hand ran through her hair in an unorthodox rhythm.

"Hm...?"

Though something else other than the awkward situation wanted to pull at her attention, witnessing a group of villagers walking away from the corner of her eye. They seemed frantic and in a panic; as if they were trying to get away from something. Didn't seem like a village-wide panic or anything, causing her curiosity to spark in ways they shouldn't. Something was going on around the corner?

Could be just some village squabble — maybe two idiots got into a messy fight over some beef jerky or something and they were foaming at the mouth like rabid animals on who'd get the first bite, scaring away all the women and children. Or, y'know, could be related to Baron. He was here before she lost his trail, after all. With nothing else better to do and wanting to leave the swordsman alone before she screwed anything else up, she made a sudden turn around followed by a wave of her left hand.

"Um. All right then. Guess I'll, uh, hit the road then. Sorry for the distraction, sir. Take care~!"

[Deleted]

This young lady certainly seemed to overreact to everything he said. Admittedly he wasn't the best jokester ever, but privately he thought the puppy blood thing had been pretty funny, if a little tasteless. Obviously he didn't actually go around killing puppies but Alyssa had seemed initially amenable to going along with the joke and recognizing it for what it was, so he'd thought it was safe to continue. She didn't, uh, actually think he was serious about the hair, did she...?

Asura found himself profoundly disturbed by the idea. Who didn't like puppies?!

It seemed his counterpart was no less disturbed, though at this point he didn't really want to know why. Regardless, it wasn't healthy. That much stress put wrinkles on a girl's face quite early, and on a more serious note, he'd never met anyone who was that high strung all the time and still managed to enjoy life. Okay, granted, 'enjoying life' wasn't all there was to life - but he didn't see the point in being angry about everything. And while this lady archer was a bit high strung for his tastes, she didn't seem like a bad type at least. Certainly he'd seen worse. So despite his better judgement, Asura spoke up as she turned to leave, figuring he could get his one good deed out of the way quickly and move on to doing better things with his life. Like killing people, or knitting, or finding out what the ruckus was about.

"You should relax a bit. Stress only ages you faster."

His sage(?) advice spent, Asura gripped his sheathed blade under his arm and pushed forward into the crowd to see what all the fuss was, Alyssa more or less pushed from his mind. He had no intention whatsoever of getting involved in the shenanigans of the day, but it paid to have some idea of what was going on, and checking it out wouldn't cause him any problems. Probably. Then again, after how today had been going...