Missing: One Village Idiot...

[amos_moses]

Who: Amos and YOU
What: Amos is not monster hunting: he's on the loose in the cavern, and finding ways to entertain himself...
Where: The city park, the river
When: Jan 21st-31st
Warnings: None yet?

1. Down by the River: Amos stands on the river bridge, staring down into the water. He has a breadish substance in his hands, and is crumbling it industriously and casting it out across the water. The dark water ripples as many eager mouths gather up the crumbs: Amos is feeding the fish in the river. And talking out loud to...himself?

"Well, yes, I s'pse that'd be interesting...no, I'm not getting in the water. Said that afore. Ya'll might eat bread, but that one eats meat too, don't think I don't know it. I ain't as stupid as you think."

He's talking to the fish, of course. It's not very interesting, honestly, because fish don't think of much, but he's bored and he misses talking to animals of all kinds. So he's over here by the river, talking to the fish. He's learned a lot about algae, the river currents, and the best spawning places deeper in the caves, but not much else. Half the fish are eyeless, blind, and give him echoes of electromagnet currents and vibrations of sound through the water. The other half have huge surreal eyes meant for the lightless depths, and from them he knows of glowing fungi and waterweeds, of the silvery flash of prey, of the distorted world of air and his own muddled face returned to him. Most of them are albino pale against the river's darkness: others are black-patterned and one or two actually have spots that glow.

If he ever has to swim for it, at least he'll know the river's current well enough to survive a brief dip....

2. Target Practice: From Rage's armory, Amos has acquired a few more knives and a composite bow, small and compact. He's mocked up a target with a pillow and a few sticks, back here in the quiet depths of the park. He didn't want to do this anywhere he was likely to have people wandering through, after all! He's not as far away as he could be, but it's been a long, long time since he's practiced any archery with anything but a yumi, and that was purely for form and meditation. This is for something far deadlier, and he wants to be sure of his aim again before he starts practicing at the full distance.

So he's only about a hundred feet from his target, consciously breaking the habit of slow patterns. It's different from aiming a gun, more physical, and as he shoots, his aim improves. He's no master, but the arrows turning the pillow into a pincushion are mostly clustered near the center, at least. He'll never ever claim pinpoint accuracy, but somewhere in the vicinity of a heart or lung is good enough for him.

3. Never heard of parkour? Amos has explored a lot of the ruins by now, traced paths all around the living areas, the temples, the shops. It's quieter right now, and so Amos tightens up his boot laces, leaves his floppy camo jacket in his apartment, and heads out across the city.

He starts on ground level, warming up in front of the spiral tower he lives in with a series of long stretches and walking briskly in a circle. He's a short man but compact, muscled like a gymnast. The stretches evolve from simple to complex, executed with an almost disturbing level of boneless grace: between years of yoga, martial arts, and gymnastics, Amos is unusually flexible.

Once he's warmed up, Amos starts jogging along through the city, keeping a steady pace until he reaches the outskirts and turns...and amps up his little workout with a wild kind of grin.

Who's the madman that just ran up that wall, turned a flip, and went scampering across the crumbling roof of that building? Yeah, that's Amos, both having fun and learning every potential route for escape from monsters or other threats that he can. But mostly? He's having fun, grinning widely and moving quick and easy over, around, and through the city's debris.

4. Or Choose Your Own Prompt!

Comments

1

[casperdisaster]

(I now have these two songs stuck in my head thanks.)

Noah stands by and watches the whole fish feeding affair, quiet as nothing living can really be. This seems like something you would do for ducks, but Noah's never seen ducks here. They'd probably be twisted and wrong somehow. The little flashes of movement in the water give the fish away - he hadn't noticed them before, really. Or maybe he had, and just forgot.

It's hard to remember things sometimes.

"Are you talking to the fish?"

[amos_moses]

Amos turns sharply to see Noah, sudden wariness sharp in his face...which starts to fade into a welcome smile then just stops, as he blinks at Noah. Something...odd there, something that makes him think of New Orleans hot and humid and black in the night with the smell of incense and the glitter of eyes in the dark not human. Just that sudden brush of memory/sensation/disorientation, and it's gone, and it's only Noah standing there looking curious and melancholy and pale.

Amos quirks up a little smile. "Yeah. I am. It's a little boring - fish ain't great at conversation - but it's better'n nothing."

[casperdisaster]

It's the particular phrasing of that which makes Noah curious enough to come closer. Slow and careful like, even though Amos has only ever been friendly. Noah's still shy until he gets to know people.

"They talk back?"

[amos_moses]

Amos nods, then amends, "Well, they talk to me. I talk to animals, see, it's a...some people call it a gift, or a talent, or a curse." Amos shrugs and turns back to the fish, casting another handful, still smiling. "There ain't any other animals here...it's creepy. Not any bugs or bats or moles or nothin'. Just fish. So I've been chattin' with them 'cause the silence kinda bothers me."

Another handful, and Amos adds, "I mean, there's a few dogs here, an' I think a bird, but other'n that it's so quiet. Animals are everywhere, usually, even if you can't see 'em.... I'm just used to a lot more noise in my head, can hardly hear myself think, usually."

[casperdisaster]

Noah just sort of nods soundlessly at that, looking between Amos and the fish. It's easy to get lost in the glittering patterns they make under the surface of the water, even if they're creepy little things.

"Do they say anything interesting?"

[amos_moses]

"Well. Sorta?" Amos glances down at the fish. "I mean, if you're a fish, it's very interesting. Since I'm not, it's nothing very exciting. River currents, glowing moss, where the predators hide, the best spawning spot upriver." Tossing a smile to Noah, he added, "Mostly, the smaller the brain, the more it thinks 'bout survival an' not much else."

He scatters another handful of crumbs, then offers one out to Noah. "Wanna help feed 'em?"

[casperdisaster]

Noah thinks for a moment longer before giving a definitive nod, holding his hands out for the crumbs.

"So... you can talk to all animals, not just fish?"

[amos_moses]

Amos carefully delivers the crumbs into Noah's hand, smiling. It's nice to have someone join him in being a little silly and pointless. Just surviving gets a little bleak at times. Besides, the fish are enjoying the free food, and their enjoyment makes Amos feel more cheerful.

"Mmm-hmm. All animals. Just regular ones, though, not if they're enchanted or demonic or anything else."

He crumbles more of his breadish thing carefully. It's got a very bread-like texture, but it doesn't taste like the bread Amos is used to. He goes back to watching the fish for a moment, probing gently among the clustered feeding thoughts, and smiles at the ever-shifting tangle.

[casperdisaster]

"Well. I guess it's good to know that the fish aren't demonic or enchanted." Noah said, carefully holding the crumbs so they wouldn't spill before he scattered a few into the water. "They look weird enough to be. ... Don't tell them I said that."

[amos_moses]

Amos laughs, brightt and clear. "They're cave fish, 'course they do, chief. Things as live in caves don't need complicated things like fancy camoflage patterns or eyeballs, mosta the time. It's dark down there. Cave things back home would look just as creepy, promise ya."

Because that's just how're they're made, to live underground far away from sunlight or curious eyes. "Little bit like moles an' earthworms, see? Don't need eyes in the dark to do what they do. They got other senses to make up for it, anyways." Ways of seeing the world that Amos's human brain can't always wrap around or translate: but that's also the problem with knowing multiple languages. Something always gets a little lost in the translation.

[casperdisaster]

Noah is very careful as he scatters the crumbs out, like he's trying to work out the best way to make sure each of the creepy fish gets equal chance at food. Or maybe he's just seeing how far he can throw some of them.

"Aren't some, like.... uh, transparent? And glow? That's like... bio... bioluminescence, right?

[amos_moses]

"Yup. That's right. See, this fellow here glows, he's pretty neat."

Amos squats down on the bridge to point. One of the fish pulls from the mass to swim nearer his finger: this one does have eyes, huge-pupiled and eerie, and has several dimly-lit greenish dots along the sides of its fins. Amos drops it a big crumb in thanks, before he straightens. "Sounds like you did real good in science class, Noah." He smiles a little at the other boy, charmed both by Noah's shyness and his careful unfurling.

[casperdisaster]

Noah gives a little self-conscious shrug at the compliment, though he does smile a bit.

"Not... not really. I mean. You got kicked the hell out if you dropped below a B-, so compared to the other guys..." those were the ones who had a dedication to it, who were guaranteed a spot in an ivy league for brains even if they didn't have the money to pay their way in. Czerny had been a solid A- in basically everything, coasting along on 'good enough'.

Hardcore Parkour

[notjustinthemirror]

The Demon has had a hard few weeks. The guy who's the closest thing to a friend he's ever had died. He got his ass handed to him. He was buried in a box. And to top it all off some asshole jumped off a roof into the alley where he was sitting and started bouncing off of everything around which while fun to watch is fucking annoying to someone who just wanted some peace and quiet.

Too bad he can't sink into non-existence like he could back home.

"The fuck are you doing?"

Did he know this guy? He didn't look familiar.

[amos_moses]

Amos had misjudged his jump, and the stability of the roof he'd been landing on, so he'd ended up on ground-level again. The opposite wall wasn't so high he didn't think he couldn't get back up it, so he'd taken a running start again and gotten partway up before something spoke to him in a cranky-sounding tone. With a startled squawk Amos lost his concentration and momentum, and turned his fall into a writhing half-flip worthy of a cat or an acrobat, landing on his feet in a deep crouch and facing the direction the voice had come from.

Not an animal, and he hadn't seen a person...oh. It's person-shaped, but not a person, not if that face is anything to go by. Amos's crouch shifts a fraction, his weight balancing differently, one hand pulling back to hover over his hip-pocket.

"Hi," he offers, cautiously, eyes dark and wary. "Didn't mean to disturb you. Was just passin' through."

This very politely, as is his habit.

[notjustinthemirror]

"I see that."

If he was impressed by the acrobatics he didn't show it. Not making a move to get up he tilted his head to the side, just studying the newcomer. Or so it looked anyway, the mask made it hard to tell what exactly he was looking at.

"You make a habit of jumping off buildings?"

[amos_moses]

"Just on accident," Amos answers, promptly. "When I misjudge. I can get on, if you're not lookin' for company."

Because that first comment had been cross, but now he - it? - doesn't sound all that mad. But this is the usual kind of delicate dance performed with the possibly supernatural, and Amos is not wholly unused to it. He still doesn't enjoy it - uncertain danger is not his favorite thing in the world - but he's done this before. Being polite always helps.

[notjustinthemirror]

"Is something chasing you?" Because he can't think of a reason why leaping from building to building would be a good idea otherwise.

He finally gets to his feet, movements disjointed in a way that was not quite human.

"You don't look familiar."

[amos_moses]

"No. Just excercisin'." Amos rises to his feet as the Alcohol Demon does, warily. But... "You sound a little familiar, but can't say we've met." Just...something about his voice pings as familiar in the back of Amos's head. He can't place it, though.

[notjustinthemirror]

"Exercising." He doesn't believe that for a second, because what he knows of humans is that their default position is melded with the couch and marinating in their own juices.

"Were you one of the ones trapped in a coffin or a digger?" Because that is how people are divided in the Murdercave. Looking Amos up and down he then glances up at the roof above them.

"How are you going to get back up?"

[amos_moses]

Amos grimaces at the memory and shivers. Yes, thank you, he just needed that reminder to totally brighten his day. "Buried," and the answer is a bit more clipped, his lips thinning.

The second question is easier to answer. He also glances up: it's not that high, really, a single story...

"Running start, an' a little creativity."

[notjustinthemirror]

Oh he sees that, and inclines his head to the side. It's always so fascinating to see what strange things cause those sorts of reactions in people.

"Not a fan of closed spaces? Or is it being alone?" Humans are so fickle, for all he knows it was the color of the inside of the casket.

"If you're planning on running vertically up a wall, don't let me stand in your way."

[amos_moses]

Amos is actually a fan of small closed spaces: they are especially ideal for having private little panic attacks where no-one can see. But the whole inability to open the door and walk out...yeah. His smile is wan.

"Six feet under just isn't my choice of living space, shall we say," he answers, evasive but without being rude.

[notjustinthemirror]

"No. Not fun for anyone involved." He shrugs, seeming to look past Amos, or maybe at him, it's hard to tell.

"I didn't have to explode anything, which might still be a negative depending on how you look at it. I could have taken out a huge chunk of the cave. That'll show Hope and Fear."

[amos_moses]

Amos blinks, the conversation settling into place in his memory. "Oh! You're the...demon who makes alcohol, then?" He's pretty certain, but just to be sure... Always better to ask than assume!