stupid cloak boy skulks around . overboard! & below . 39th metal

[godsays]

[ Cloaked figure, moving through the Floating Market. The movement of the cloth is odd, indistinct, shielding his form. From time to time, he pauses at a stall, and when he pays, it is with small beads of metal - usually greeted with stunned amazement, quick action, and, on occasion, sudden bouts of generosity from the stallkeepers.

He buys flowers. A few indistinctly wrapped parcels. Some smoked sausage that he actually pulls his hood back to eat, seated on the edge of a fountain. ]

[ the maze ]

[ All the rest of the time, he stays deep below London. Networks of patched and stolen growth lights flicker along the approach tunnels, slowly overtaken with greenery; after a close thicket, it opens into a sporadically lit maze of plants. Be careful: they all have thorns, quiet poison, deceptive traps. There are moving vines, willing to grab and sip the blood from your veins, trees that will start to choke you if you stay still. And the path never stays consistent.

Rumor has it, at the end of this, there is the mysterious metal atium - a mineral of incredible value, and deeply powerful.

If you make it all the way through...

Then there is a metal tunnel, curving out of sight. Perhaps the smell of tea and baked goods. Come on in...? ]

[ other ]

[ He slips through London Below quietly, staying out of sight. He pauses by the places he has errands, pauses by the people he knows, or owes.

If someone is in trouble, nearby - he will probably help. ]

Comments

market

[patheticvillain]

[Cassel can tell something's different right away, but that doesn't stop him running up to Zane like an excitable puppy the second he pulls his head back, sitting down next to him on the edge of the fountain with a bright grin.]

Zane! You gone native?

[godsays]

[ Pins the newcomer under a stare, and he moves with deliberation, slowness. He much prefers the pace of life exhibited by a flower than by the noisy riot here. They show respect for the plants of the park, at least, but he could never prefer a garden like this - tamed into submission. His plants only obey him because they choose to. ]

I'm not native to anywhere.

[ He considers himself a creature that doesn't belong, never belonged, conceived in some wingbeat-twist of air and made solid through luck - borne, not born. He is determined to be the last of his kind. The secret of atium cultivation will die with him. ]

[patheticvillain]

[While someone else might find this statement disconcerting, Cassel doesn't appear fazed in the least. He just raises one eyebrow, as if he finds all this very dramatic, and shrugs.]

So that's a yes. Well, you don't know me right now, but I know you. What weird secret shit are you up to?

[godsays]

[ Unsure how to react. His impulse is to be cold and brisk, to keep his careful wall of silence. But he feels curiously gentle. Unwilling to hurt, akin to how he feels with the rabbits that populate his garden. ]

Nothing.

[ Watches Cassel, trying to analyze this feeling in himself. He likes the taste of it, but is shy of it all the same. ]

I always visit the Market.

[patheticvillain]

[His grin gentles into a smile, goofy and comfortable.]

So standard-issue weird secret shit.

I'm Cassel. Like I said. I know you, but you don't know me. Nice to kind-of meet you. Somewhere else, we're brothers.

[godsays]

[ The word jolts him.

Zane has brothers. They all died or failed. But this sizzles like a broken wire; it shakes him like a train blew past. ]

I believe you.

[ He's surprised by this. ]

[patheticvillain]

[Oh. Good. Cassel didn't expect to be relieved, because he expected to be believed. But apparently a part of him didn't, because he relaxes somewhere around the shoulders.]

Good. I don't lie to you, Zane.

[He leans his head against Zane's shoulder, deliberately pushing him to accept this as the state of things. They are brothers. It might be the truest thing this Zane has ever heard.]

[godsays]

Why not?

[ Why don't you lie. Zane is the sort who is often lied to, from the price has gone up, you don't know the difficulty of securing this kind of good to I didn't come in here to steal. ]

[patheticvillain]

[He thinks about this, trying to come up with both a concise and an accurate answer. Eventually:]

Because you don't lie to me. And because you reminded me of how to be human again when I didn't want to think about it. That's why.