A Novice Vagrant [Open]

by **Victor Lark** on April 14th, 2011, 9:55 pm

Victor laughed when he was told to “brace your mind.” Despite his previous inquisition, he dropped his luggage to the sand and folded his arms, hiding his blatant interest with outward incredulity. His raised eyebrows and cocked stance said, what could you possibly have to say? but his arms dropped as soon as Reaver’s back was turned. He leaned forward a degree as if he could discern what was to be revealed before the time came, and when it did, he was not prepared for it.

The noise that came from his throat was not exactly a scream, per se. He was only surprised, is all. He was not expecting to be shown the secret, the horror story, the peculiar man behind his peculiar skin. It was not loud at all, and besides, there was no one around to hear it.

Recovering the balance he had not realized was lost, Lark stepped forward cautiously. He reminded himself that this man was the same one who had let himself fall on purpose in the middle of the city, and who at least claimed to be a doctor, to help people. Naïve to this world and most all of its nonhuman inhabitants, he might have showed an unintended wisdom in saying, “What... are you?”

He looked down at his shoes distractedly, straightening his posture to its usual stretch and composing his face. His tone reverted briefly to the comfortable distance of high society. “I mean, excuse me for asking. My apologies, for that... reaction. You warned me and still I...” A chuckle. “It was wrong of me to panic. But...” He resisted asking the question again. Now that the initial shock was fading, the old curiosity snuck back into his eyes, bringing with it the edges of another smile.

by **Reaver** on April 15th, 2011, 4:12 am

Reaver smiled, his face not quite wanting to do so. "That is a long question to answer. Let me sum it up, I'm dead." Reaver began to remove the rest of his armor. "That reaction of yours was... everything nature has to say about me. Things that are different and those not understood should be removed according to nature." Having removed his leggings, he then removed his gauntlets. The gauze wrapping him up was tied to him around several parts his armor covered, including his wrists. "Thankfully, humans are not forced to follow nature, and can control it instead. Like making a city on water, yes?" Having removed his armor, he moved out to the beach.

"Though, Nuit are about as trustworthy as the Ebonstryfe. Trust only what you must, and be ready to leave should something go wrong. Many call us Nuit evil for a reason." Reaver was cautious as to how Victor would respond. He sat ready to evacuate to his boat, should need be. "How is that for your horror story? Like the tales a mother would tell a child to keep them off the streets, though I may have started a few of those."

by **Victor Lark** on April 16th, 2011, 1:47 am

Victor was neither shocked nor offended by the dead man’s reaction to his reaction. A true citizen of Ravok, he had never before been directly accused of xenophobia, but neither was he concerned with educating himself on the various races. He preferred to learn by doing, and he was learning about the Nuit by meeting one.

He returned the corpse’s eerie grin with a bright smile of his own, fascinated by Reaver’s new appearance. Initially interested in learning more about his people, Victor found himself restless. He could not identify with his plight and was not quite certain he knew the sort of nature and humanity of which Reaver spoke, so he quietly let the bitter doctor complete his lecture. It would take a little more talking to convince him to sit down and ask questions. When Lark finally spoke, it was to add another useless, witty remark to his growing repertoire.

“My mother couldn’t keep me off the streets if she tried,” he replied, trying to make light of the situation. “And you don’t have to worry about earning my trust. I don’t think it’s very critical to this relationship. Anyhow, you don’t seem evil to me. You cannot let the reputation of your race determine your character!” He did not let himself seem too encouraging; he said it as if it were a joke.

“But enough of that.” Victor shifted his weight and rubbed his hands together. “Where were we? Oh, yes: try at the original strategy. It’ll work better here in the sand, without your armor. Try to fall on the long parts of your legs and fold up. That’ll help you capture that momentum. Do you—” He almost offered to push him again, but a brilliant idea rose on his brow. He interrupted himself by running to and opening his trunk. From it he pulled a small, simple eating knife, barely sharper than a butter knife. He showed it to Reaver with a nod and a smirk. “Pretend it’s a dagger.”

And with that, he ran at him.

by **Reaver** on April 16th, 2011, 11:57 pm

As Reaver concluded his lecture, he found himself caught off guard by Victor's lack of reaction. He didn't seam to care at all, that was a plus. Perhaps this was a good day after all. He simply continued right where he left off, and added a bit of advice he left off before. Fold up. Folding up? How does one suppose he does that? As Reaver went to ask, he found his teacher pulling something out. A knife? Looks dull. “Pretend it’s a dagger.”

Reaver had a lot of thoughts in a short amount of time. He's coming, attacking? Yes, how to dodge? Too many variables, he's going to hit? As Reaver went to move back, he started to fall anyway. It was then that he remembered that was the point. He tried to move his upper leg in the way, and fold? His upper body leaned and he caught his fall with his upper arms, reducing the impact. Not athletic, but I suppose it counts. "That was sudden, perhaps you should demonstrate the ideas first? I saw the demonstration on landing on the leg, but not the 'folding' you mentioned."

by **Victor Lark** on April 17th, 2011, 1:22 am

“Of course.” Victor replied, stopping mid-slice as he composed himself from the charge. “But you did well, I think, from reflex.” Surprisingly well, for a man who looks as old as death.

Holding the knife carefully but tightly, he dropped voluntarily once more. While he had verbally explained the importance of falling on the whole of one’s back, his physical demonstration would have shown a careful eye what he had failed to elucidate: he rolled on his arched spine, touching the soft sand with his lower, middle, and upper back sequentially. From there he could have tucked his head and continued backward over his shoulder, but for Reaver’s sake he moved sideways over his arm and onto is chest for an instant before he pushed himself up again.

Reminded of another trick, the human added, “Hold your chin to your chest if you can, too. It’ll protect your neck.” Then he stepped forward as suddenly as possible, trying to surprise Reaver again with his vicious utensil.

by **Reaver** on April 20th, 2011, 3:15 pm

"Reflexes aren't my specialty." Reaver did his best to observe the acrobatics before him. He noted the shape Victor had put himself in to avoid the damage from the fall, and what he landed on. The end result was different, but one he thought he could do.

Despite Victor's attempts, Reaver knew the attack was coming, just a matter of when. He readied quickly, and fell back. The start of his fall matched Victor's quite well. Once he reached the point where he should have rolled over his arm, he used his other arm to shift his weight. This added sideways momentum to his backwards fall, and he instead rolled over his left arm and landed on his belly. "Next time, I'll bring my legs up to catch myself." Standing himself up, he repeated the tumble two more times without being able to do that, and on the third landed on his knees. "Maybe that isn't as simple as I thought. This would be even harder with my armor."

by **Victor Lark** on April 22nd, 2011, 10:09 pm

Victor stood with his arms suspended in a forgotten attack as Reaver fell yet again, even better than before. “Yes...” he replied distractedly to the nuit’s analysis of his own progress, similarly concerned with the consequences of adding the armor again. He had little experience with any acrobatics in anything but cotton clothes, and he could not think of a way to advise his student as to his unique hindrance. So he invented some advice. “Now that you have the right movements in your memory, though, you can learn to adjust your body around the armor. If you want, you can put it back on and see what specifically you need to change to accommodate it. Or you can practice more.”

But he had nothing left to tell him. While he could have come up with greater levels of difficulty and technique, he simply did not want to. As quickly as the teaching had consumed his attention and distracted him from all other topics, it was melting from his list of interests. He did indeed have questions about Reaver’s race, but they only emerged in the back of his mind now that he felt the current activity was complete. Also, he was eager to have his own lesson begin, whatever it may be.

More importantly, his great desire to control any and all unfolding events left him indifferent to Reaver’s opinion on the matter, or to his potential confusion with the changing conversation. “Why do you wear it, anyway?” He said, “To sink? Is your body more fragile because you are... dead? What does that mean? Why are you walking and breathing if you are dead?”

He flipped the knife in the air but failed to catch it, flinching as the wrong end grazed his finger bloodlessly and fell to the sand. He picked it up, dusted it off, and tossed it up again.

by **Reaver** on April 23rd, 2011, 8:46 am

Reaver was contemplating how this new art could aid him, and did not see the change of topic coming. “Why do you wear it, anyway?” Reaver looked up, a bit lost. "What?" “To sink?” Oh, my armor retort. Reaver thought of how best to describe a Nuit, taking a break from his training. He's a visual learner, so describing it did little. Besides hurting myself, how could I show him best? Reaver decided a demonstration might be better. He walked up to Victor. "How do I live and breath? A silly question, I don't really do much of either. Feel my heartbeat, that would be a good start." Reaver will make an attempt at leading Victor's hand to his chest. While holding it there, Reaver simply stopped breathing to make his lack of heartbeat more apparent. After attempting to hold it there for ten seconds, he inhaled and asked another question. "How long can someone hold their breath?"

After your answer :

by **Victor Lark** on April 25th, 2011, 12:07 am

Only a thin layer of gauze stood between Victor's hand and the nuit's cold flesh. He tried in vain to stretch his human senses, to reach out into the dead thorax and detect that which should have been there, which would have been natural. But of course there was nothing. Just emptiness. Reaver broke Lark’s focus by pulling himself from the human’s grasp, to answer another question.

“I... don’t know.” He replied, unsure as to the point. “A minute? Two?” The man preempted the inevitable next question and Victor quickly caught on. He followed him to the water, even as it washed up over his shoes, and watched as his pale head sank under. The lack of bubbles or a struggle fascinated him—for about half a minute. In the meantime, he practiced his knife-flipping and dropped it more than he caught it. He wished he had a clock.

When the student-turned-teacher finally reemerged, Victor did not perceive the sarcasm in his voice. His curiosity remained unfaltering. This whole demonstration showed that nuits did not breathe, but he most certainly did; he had a breath to hold. “So you can breathe, then, but you do not have to? Do you have all the insides of a person, or are they different?” He wondered if the dead man could cut himself open. On that train of thought he added, “Can you fix yourself up as well as a person, doctor? What’s the difference between fixing you and fixing me?”

by **Reaver** on April 25th, 2011, 2:25 am

Reaver took a moment to gather his thoughts to answer the questions in order. "Yes, I do not need to breathe, but it doesn't stop there. I don't need to eat or sleep either. I have all the insides of, a person, but I do not need to keep anything beyond my muscles." Reaver paused a moment before continuing. "Though, having more things inside, such as bones, can be very useful." Reaver paused once again, hoping his words would sink in some. "Now to answer that last question. I can't fix myself up at all, only slow the rate at which this body breaks down. Aiding others ability to heal does not work on something that cannot heal on it's own. That is the difference."