[Flashback] You Talkin' to Me?! (Solo)

[Zachariah]

3rd Day of Spring, 509 AV “Zachariah.” “Gabriel.” “I want to teach you something.” His brother looked the sixteen year old boy straight in the eye, dead seriousness in his eyes. “What?” Zach asked, stepping back from the door, intrigued more by what his brother had wanted than going out that evening for a night of frivolity. “Sunberth is not full of sunshine and unicorns, you know life here is not easy…” Gabriel started, sitting down at the small table in their tiny room in the slums. Zach took a few steps closer to the opposing chair. “Well, No shit, Gabe.” He chuckled, using his brothers’ shortened title. “And you insist on this pickpocketing…” The twenty-six year old continued as patiently as a saint. “You know it’s my gold miza that I bring in that allows us to keep this room.” Zach barked in defense. “You know I’ve never condoned such work, but SINCE you continue to do it. There is something I can teach you.” Gabriel gestured towards the empty seat, silently ordering the young charge to take it. Zach was obedient, slouching down in it in a sloppy manner. “Tell me already, old man.” Zachariah had taken to calling him old man since their real father left the scene. “If you shut up, THEN I MIGHT ACTUALLY GET TOO.” The sudden change and demeanor in the elder brother’s tone and inflection was enough to literally scare Zach into pushing his chair away from the man almost flipping backwards in the process. “That.” Gabriel continued after a moment in the same tone, as the moment before had never happened. “Is what I want to teach you, Zach.” He said with a smirk. “What, scaring the living daylights out of me?” The teenager gaped, his heart still going an hour a minute from the outburst. It resembled their fathers’ outbursts, though that tend to lead to violence. “It’s Intimidation, Zachariah. If you can master being intimidating, then you won’t need to lay a hand or defend yourself physically.”