1 Something dark, something bold. Wed Jun 26, 2019 11:09 pm
Xιon
D-rank
WC: 880/880
The day had just started. The sun was faint on the horizon, but the air was already getting warm. This summer was going to be hot. What else was new in the Land of Fire?
Chattering throngs in the lively market, nearly drowning out the trembling of the leaves in the wind. Children huddled in the shade of the trees and the alleyways. Some of them wielded faux kunai and chased each other. Merchants cried their wears and the smell of linoleum tarps hung in the wind. The market rarely saw a slow day. As artisans always turned out to make a living. This route was the quickest way to the coffee shop lying just out of the brush near a delta. One could hear the babbling brook as they approached.
Ever since he last came here with Chiaki, he’d always order something bold, and sit at the bar, giving him a direct line-of-sight to the kitchen where the kind barista first took his order. He never wanted to admit it, but he was the kind of person to dwell on things. Ever since he’d left Giant’s Scar and came here, he’d been so reluctant to people. To change. But one’s past doesn’t deny time. Life goes on. And he supposed that that was only fair.
He didn’t think he’d build any intrinsic relationships while he was here. For however long he was here. Until he met her, just the other day. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, a symbolic light in the dark. It had been a while since he’d held a conversation. He remembered being speechless. And when he did talk, he fumbled on his words. Not the schoolyard, crush fumble. But the bereft of speech that only happens when one has truly had no contact for quite some time.
He looked at her seat, or where’d she’d sat rather. Her hair was dark, her eyes were big. Skin fair. But he supposed, anyone could be fair when next to himself. She’d left in a hurry, and he was too gobsmacked to say anything. Sod the world.
Despite their near fatal meeting in the dark of the forest, the evening ended immaculately. That was enough for him to want to open up to everyone, more. But where to start? Where to go? And what to do? He pondered about the exclusive groups that existed here. The Anbu. Acclaimed for their prestige and secrecy. One had to show earned ire and prowess to even dream of joining their ranks. What better way for one to test their mettle?
"I need a goal. Something to work towards. Something--benevolent."
‘Benevolence? You jest! Did you forget--[darkness] is your shape?’
Xion winced at his Otherself. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t do good things. Try to do good things. Draw from the Void, light the way, right?’
His Otherself vanished immediately. Displeased with the answer, but with no words to say. Even though he was tied to the Deep, to Naraka, that didn’t mean he couldn’t do good things, right? Right?
He could still be kind. Heroic. Wholesome. Even if ‘Darkness was his shape’.that didn’t mean he had to conform. The right side of wrong. It had a nice ring to it. He remembered a certain someone. His aura was dark, yet in open challenge to everything that was wrong. The darkness that came for the darkness.
Xion winced as he sipped his coffee - it was tepid, overly bitter and lacking real cream. It was a source of caffeine though and so he drank like a sailor new to whiskey. He looked over the counter to see the same barista hard at work. He didn’t notice Xion, not yet at least.
His smile was as warm as hour old coffee, limp, anaemic. Xion could see him take a small sip of his own drink, making an effort to keep his own smile in tact. He probably still has a long day ahead of him.
Deep in thought, Xion thought that ever since he left Giant’s Scar, there was nothing else to be had. That is what the darkness would have him believe anyway. Really, he thought, he was just a strand of wheat in the vastness of the prairies. His colours are as muted as those around him, allowing him to hide in plain sight. With his primate brain he can only ever truly love the friends and family in his small circle.
And they were gone.
That’s just the way we're wired, he thought. Yet he still hurt to hear of pain around the world, empathy does not allow him to switch off. He wants to reach out, to heal, to bring light where there is dark. Or rather draw from the dark, light the way. Especially considering the growing tension with Kumogakure. Or so the official word has it.
“We are herd animals at heart--just a strand of wheat in the vastness of the prairies and however feeble or shallow my roots are, I need them.”
Another thin, timid sip, his eyes longed out the window. Expressionless, but they held wonder. An appetite for adventure.