capeandcowllogs | Chance encounters

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Chance encounters

WHO: Geddoe and Blue-chan
WHERE: some alley near some bar, midtown
WHEN: Saturday latenight
WARNINGS: psh the violence won't even be that violent
SUMMARY: anti-Import sentiment, Blue to the rescue, and maybe some chatting
FORMAT: ELLE

Sometimes, Geddoe just wanted a quiet drink, and sometimes the best bars in which to do so had the idea to have drink specials, bands, and massive crowds on just the wrong night. The one he frequented most, where the owner was cool with his sword, was unexpectedly busy this particular weekend, so he gave it a miss and kept walking, looking for somewhere else more to his liking. The seedier neighborhoods were more likely to have seedy joints where no one looked up and wouldn't notice a big guy in leather armor, but those locations naturally featured an increased number of drunks wobbling around the sidewalk looking for fights. To those also harboring a burning anti-Import feeling, Geddoe was a walking target.

"Hey, you!" Geddoe heard the accusatory snarl behind him, and knew exactly who was being hailed. He didn't acknowledge it or turn around until someone shoved him in the back. "Yeah, you! Tough guy! Think you're hot shit and all. C'mon, let's see you use that sword! C'mon!"

The mercenary turned slightly, but did not draw Wild Geese. He didn't want to give these sorts the satisfaction. His glare darkened at the situation; there were four of them, all reeking of alcohol. One pointed at him. "Haha! Look, he's a pirate! C'mon, Captain Jack! ARR!"

Disgusted, Geddoe turned to continue on his way. But one of them went too far, grabbing his arm. He swung around so fast that the fist was in the guy's face before he even saw it coming. But alcohol fueled courage, so instead of fleeing, they swarmed on him. The flash of orange light in the midst of the melee was the reflection of the street lamp on the blade of a sword.

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"While you are with me," Blue said, eyes still staring straight ahead with a focus on something unseen, "no one will even notice you carry a sword. Or regard you at all."

That much would be true the moment they left the alley behind for open streets; Blue did not even hesitate, turning to follow the trail of streetlights in a direction furthering them away from the scene. At the hour, there were few wandering the streets openly, but those that did didn't even bat an eyelash in their direction – no more than they would any stranger they'd no wish to communicate with. It was not hard for Blue to gently coax a passerby's mind to glance elsewhere, subtly assured there was no need to even give the two of them even the slightest concern.

It was how he managed to walk the streets unharmed, unnoticed despite his unusual appearance.

At first Geddoe thought it was an idle remark, but as they walked, he realized it was true. A state of fact, a warning. It was disconcerting, for someone used to brushing off the sidelong glances and outright stares. Even after two years, he still got surreptitious double-takes often enough. But no one looked at them, no one gave them a second thought. It was like being invisible.

"You must be quite powerful," he murmured so quietly that only Blue could have heard him.

"I couldn't tell you how I rank among the hundreds of forces at play here," Blue said, speaking in a less hushed volume to assure Geddoe of their security. "There are powers here that will never exist in the world I am from, doing things I could never dream of."

He did, however, silence himself when passing by too many people at once.

"I can only speak accurately of myself and what my power meant in the world I was born in."

"Nevertheless." The hush was more for his own sense of privacy than worrying others would hear them. "Stopping the car is one thing. Subtly willing every passerby to ignore us is another. The control required must be immense. I consider that a true test of someone's ability." He snorted a bit. "Anyone can throw a car around."

Well, he couldn't. But yes, there were many here who could.

The statement drew a small smile and a squint of scrutiny from Blue, who gave the other a curious glance. The demeanor he spoke with had...familiar facets, all wrapped up in someone very much different and of his own life and make. Still, Blue couldn't help but hear the tone of a different, gruff old man just under the surface of such things.

"It's taken a while to master," Blue said at last, turning his attention forward once more. "But being in a place so dense has been nothing but ample opportunity to. I doubt I would ever have this skill so refined had I never been here before. This, or some of the others."

Geddoe gave him the slightest glance out of the corner of his good eye. "You have more abilities," he noted. It wasn't a question, exactly, to leave it open-ended for Blue to share, or not. Geddoe was curious, but he wouldn't press.

It seemed proper to share, lest any previously unseen power surfacing in the future give Geddoe more reason to regard him suspiciously. At least, that's the way Blue felt about it; he never wanted to hide what he was, but...it was rather a matter of life-and-death in his world, and with the way the population's mood was being so steadily pushed toward malcontent...

"All Mu can sense the hearts and minds around them," he said. "Feel what is being felt. Some are more sensitive to it, much like some people are naturally more empathetic than others. But I'm..."

His step hesitated at a corner, uncertain of where to go. It seemed better to just stay on that side of the street, so he turned with it.

"They manifest but one distinct ability for the type of person they are. Protective shields, offensive bursts...It seems to depend on just what they're like, if anything. I have all of these abilities for some reason." His voice hollowed out, trying to empty out the value the last remark really had.

"There has not been enough...research. Into such things." Nor would there be, if he could help it. Not that kind of research.

The explanation was helpful. Geddoe did not lower his guard but did relax ever-so-subtly. Powers were no longer secrets, not with things they way they were in this world. "I see," he responded after a bit. "It is not due to this world? I've noticed that abilities are altered, being here. My consultations with other magic-users have told me as much. Our powers don't work quite the same as we're accustomed to."

His head turned, his gaze straying to his gloved right hand. Force of habit. At least the Rune was no longer wholly dormant, as it had been upon his arrival. It was not particularly active at the moment, but the dreams still came, once a week or so.

"I'm not sure I'd understand much of that," Blue admitted, looking back at Geddoe, following his gaze. "Magic is a foreign concept to me."

He frowned a little as he stared, finding it difficult just then to pry his gaze away. He did, eventually, as his attention was needed elsewhere, but...still. Something nagged.

"Yet there are those in my world who would consider what you do to be a form of magic," Geddoe said, rather casually. "The source matters little, if the effect is to perform feats beyond the norm."

He missed the moment of staring, as his own attention had been distracted at the same moment. His hand flexed naturally, as he began to allow himself to stand down from readiness and not be keen and eager to reach across and draw his sword in an instant.

Beyond the norm.

Such things they could do, be it magic or...otherwise. Wasn't normal. Wasn't going to be normal, was it? Though he and Jomy would strain and strive...

Blue's head shook quickly, as one would try and startle a buzzing away from one's ear. Those thoughts were for another time. Not now. Refocusing, he listened in the silence, until realization settled in.

"I apologize," he said, slowing to a stop, looking about the area as if for the first time. "I hadn't..." He looked at Geddoe. "Where is it you needed to go?"

Geddoe came to a stop beside him, towering over him. "Need? Nowhere, I suppose," he sighed. "Out of range of anyone investigating that scuffle is fine enough." He closed his good eye briefly. "I had been on my way out for a drink, but my interest in that has gone down. I may as well head back to the MAC building, now."

A soft sound escaped him, thoughtful and muted. It sounded to Blue as if Geddoe had resigned to a perfectly disappointing evening, and that was...well, disappointing. It only impressed upon the troublesome quality of their encounter – that fight, regardless of what little impact the motives of those drunk men had...

"May I accompany you, then?" Blue asked, glancing up at him. "If only to keep any other troublesome people at bay along your way."

Geddoe eyed him. "I hardly need a bodyguard." As long as no one else was going to drive a car straight at him. He huffed and looked away, then. "You're free to walk wherever you like, if our paths happen to be going the same way."

He didn't know Blue didn't live at the MAC. But he genuinely did not care one way or the other. If the willowy guy wanted to walk with him, so be it.

Blue's mouth quirked, quickly pressed into a thin line to suppress it. It really is like talking to Zel again... (But not that Zel. It's all coincidence or conspiracy, truly.)

He said nothing more to it, simply bowing his head and leaning into motion again – this time toward the MAC, as long a trek as it was. Not just once did he wonder suggesting to fly, assuming, somehow, he'd get the answer he knew he'd have gotten from his old friend...

Old friend or new, Geddoe would not have relished flying one bit, no. Fortunately, he wasn't even aware it was an option and contentedly strolled along. He kept Blue on his good side, mostly because it was still, after seventy-odd years, disconcerting to be talking to someone hiding in his blind spot. "You mentioned the growing tension," he said off-handedly. "It was no mere speculation. Can you sense that it actually is growing worse?"

"I can," Blue affirmed, sending his gaze about once more at the prompt. "It's not the easiest thing to explain, but...if you thought of this city as a kind of canvas, and the minds of the millions of people here as the colors on it...brighter shades have darkened in many places, changing the atmosphere of the whole composition." Color, he thought, was as close an comparison as he could get. Color...or sound.

"Or...music suddenly taking on a lower key in enough places to affect the entire ensemble's tone." He looked back at Geddoe. "Though many aspects remain about as similar as they did at the start, the influence of so many darkening tones inadvertently begins to darken the rest. It's unconscious in many, and hardly isolated to the natural-born humans here."

This was useful information. Metaphors aside, Geddoe could understand the vibe of growing tension. "Not isolated...? That would not bode well," he murmured thoughtfully. "Imports fighting amongst themselves. I have never been impressed with our inability to unite, but darker influences turning us against each other is far worse."

He had little loyalty to the cause, he didn't see the whole of Import-kind as an "us" to be against "them," precisely because they were so varied and really didn't know how to work together in the slightest. He thought of the tribes of the Grasslands and Zexen, and the squabbles around the war table while the Harmonian army marched to their doorsteps. This is more than any one man can handle, to be sure.

"Time and repetition," Blue said, his head and stare still turned elsewhere. "A...conditioning. Expectations. Ill-conceived good intentions. Apathy. The things here that seem to be nothing but predictable ebbs and flows will alter as time passes." His gaze fell, watching straight ahead with a thin-lipped frown.

"It can be assured that those here who feel the weakest here will be the ones to reach for the greatest extremes to change everything. It's already begun. And it will alter the scope of everything you've come to expect, little by little."

Saying such things allowed was hardly any comfort; Blue's shoulders drew up a little against it. "I do worry about it. What it means for everyone. What it might lead to. There's too much good here which could sour slowly."

"Such things are hardly unusual, in the scheme of life," Geddoe mused. "Taken alone, it is simply the human condition. If it all connects to one source, though..." His lips pursed with a frown. "Feelings are one thing. Prompts to take action, that's another entirely. If you must worry about anything, worry when people take those feelings and use it to fuel action. Like our drunk friends tonight."

His attention shifted to the Rune again, briefly. Even a will which could impress itself on another could be resisted. Feelings harmed no one, he thought, only actions. When it crosses the line from one to the other, then he would worry.

"Hardly unusual..." Blue's voice trailed from a soft sound to quiet. It was all natural, then? The course being taken? He'd wondered if it was, perhaps, something exclusive to the world they inhabited – the kind of humans it raised. No different, anywhere?

That was a sad thought. Sad, yet hopeful at the same time.

"Humans are similar here and where you're from, then?" he pressed at length, though already assuming the answer.

Geddoe gave him a small frown, wondering at the nature of the question. "Of course," he answered. "No different at all. Those here may not worry as much about war as they do about their music and famous people, but in spirit, they are all the same." That it could be otherwise never occurred to him.

Blue's stare lingered for a few moments after the answer, slowly turning toward the way ahead. No different at all? With or without centuries of external breeding? Did that even factor in? He couldn't help but feel it would, despite what he'd heard often contrary.

It was left to silence, ultimately, as Blue gave no reply aloud. It was footsteps and the hum and growling of vehicles slowing and speeding up at corners, streetlights glowing all the brighter for the heights compact buildings reached in covering the sky. Many, many minds wrapped up in sleep – sometimes more vibrant in that state than waking, in ways.

And that gentle tug of something close but not altogether known. That, too. Blue frowned.

Without other runes around to react to, True Lightning's voice was muted, uncertain. It did not stir for just any power. But it was there, and as Geddoe was already thinking about his homeland and the past, it was showing a tendency to encourage those thoughts. Memories were the Rune's stock and trade, and it stored ten times as many as the century-plus-old man now carrying.

As for Geddoe? He was paying more attention to their surroundings than anything. But the long silence was comfortable, making that frown noticeable enough. His eyebrow twitched, and he gave a little "Hm?" as if to ask a question.

Prompted aloud at last, Blue's attention was pulled away from the puzzle, and his gaze followed back up to Geddoe. Seeing the question spelled out further in his demeanor, Blue pressed his lips together all the tighter as he tried to think of how to explain.

"There's..." He let out a small huff of air, brow furrowing. "It's almost like another mind, but not really...I've been trying to listen, but it's very quiet. But...still there."

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