Re: The Sound Of Running Water Is My Call [CLOSED: Zane/Xan/Ado]

[TOOTSIEGIRL]

[[cough cough Xan post cough]]

[Xan]

Xanthus looked back to make sure that Adokenai Darke and Zane Valentine were still following him. With a small grin, he saw that they were indeed right behind him, and looked like they had every intention to follow him to wherever it was that they were going.

The Ishvalan walked forward, through crowds of people, looking for the local bar. Luckily, it was not a bad place, and they sold drinks for children, not just alcohol. After making his way through a particularly dense section of crowd, the alchemist could finally see the building up ahead, and in the heat of the overhead sun, the bar looked as though a little piece of heaven had fallen to earth.

When Xan turned around to tell the two chimeras that they had reached the bar, he noticed that Zane was holding his head in one hand and was grimacing as though in pain. With a concerned look, Xan walked over to him and asked if he was feeling ill. As far as Xan was concerned, the drinks could wait if Zane needed help of any kind.

[Guest]

"So where are we going?" The other chimera asked as the boy caught up to Xan and released the man's hand, feeling some kind of strange vibe from him as he adjusted his blindfold so that it was in place. His feet seemed to find their own way as he simply used the sounds around him to navigate, even though it wasn't very concentrated, he knew where to go though, which was good.

He'd actually left his stick behind in the crowd, but of well, he didn't need it as much as he claimed; it was more of an accuracy helper and accessory. As long as it was crowded, he could find his way easily when he focused slightly. Of course, unlike with the staff, he could not sense his way around with the staff or anything of the sort, so that meant he'd miss cracks in the ground and tripping obstacles, but it was good enough.

Before they knew it, they were at some kind of loud place, resembled a bar if Adokenai didn't know any better, and Xan stopped, asking the man next to him if he was okay. The young male-female boy blinked blind eyes behind the blind fold as he navigated himself in front of the other chimera and clapped loudly in front of him, registering him rubbing his head with the sound waves before it all turned into block-blur again (that's what uncontrolled sound did to sensitive sound sensors).

"Why are you holding your head?" The boy asked as nimble, yet boyish hands came up and very gently prodded at the chimera's face, while he wore a frown. He would've stood and clapped in the guy's face for hours, but that's just get on his own nerves, so he settled for touch. 'Annoyance...? No, that's pain... yes, the contortion of the lip and slight bend in the eyebrow... yes, definitely pain, agony... I'd think he had a headache if it weren't for the fact that something about his aura upsets me somewhat.' The boy thought with a furrowed expression as he pulled down his blindfold and gazed his blind eyes at the man, only to just get sound signals and nothing else.

"My apologies in advance, Zane." Ad said with a smile as he pulled off his cloak and covered both his own and Zane's head, tying it loosely to keep out light as his night vision finally kicked in, or infrared was a better term. 'Definitely distress...' The boy thought as he narrowed his mismatched eyes slightly, before removing the cloak and retying it on himself, pushing the blindfold back over his eyes, "Sorry, I'm blind, so it's the only way I can see, even the slightest."

--

_WORDS__455
_TAGGED__Xan/Zane
_COMMENT__Expect Ado to act like that ^.^;;

[Guest]

All these words and acts of concern we to no avail. All other voices were muffled and Zane felt as if his senses had been shut down. He watched on helpless transfixed as the mental images of Slither changed to show Slither creeping up on an unaware Ado and Xan, looking ready to kill. The pain know was at its worst and was unbearable, as if his brain was being pushed against his skull. Zane couldn't help but begin gasping for air. He was now sweating

What do you want from them? Leave them alone! He mentally shouted. Through the gasps of air and weak sentence escaped his lips,

"leave them alone."

Slither just laughed and continued to creep up on them. His voice the rang out, seemingly from all directions.

I'm just protecting you in the best way possible, little brother.

After these words the pain began to subside. Zane was beginning to return to reality. He could feel the sweat on his hand. He blinked furiously, trying to see where everyone was, but all he would see was an outline of a head, for some reason he was in darkness. However that matter was pushed to the back of his mind.

"Water." He moaned, "Some water please."

Word Count : 209

[Xan]

Although Xan was intrigued by Adokenai’s trick with the cloak, he did not take his attention off of Zane. He saw that the man was obviously in pain, however he was unsure about what to do for him. Were his pain of a physical source, the Ishvalan could simply use alkahestry but, since the pain seemed to be of the mental source…

The Ishvalan heard Zane ask for water, and promptly went to go get him some. Half running, the Ishvalan went to the bar and bought a large glass of water for Zane. With great speed, but being careful not to let any spill out, Xan brought the water back to Zane and held it out to the man. If Zane could not reach out and take the glass, then Xan would simply put the glass to his lips and have him drink that way.

Do you need anything else Zane?

[Guest]

"Water." The man, 'Zane' moaned, "Some water please." was followed soon after with the command with Xan's comment of "Do you need anything else Zane?"

The boy's eyebrows creased in worry, but just as he was about to move in order to comfort his new companion, he went rigid as pain began to thump in his eyes that he'd just used. Thump. Thump. Thump. He sucked in a harsh bite of air as his teeth automatically grit, followed by a wet feeling like he was crying from behind his cloth; from his eyes.

The 'tears' the began to seep from the cloth and down his cheeks and a very distinct and definitely familiar smell hit his nose; he choked back a gasp as his sonic radar began to fuzz as well. Something was fucking up in his system and he knew it, and by those 'tears', he knew it definitely not good. That was when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

The boy spun around roughly, before he felt he was stopped by a pair of hands to his cheeks and someone resting their forehead against his. His eyes till ached as he felt nimble fingers travel over his face, before stopping at the blindfold. 'Equivalent exchange; What has been done with eventually, always, come undone.' An airy voice spoke, before the presence vanished all together.

The blind boy outstretched arms somewhat and felt around, but that feeling didn't return, and when his sound sensor checked back in with a bit of effort, he realized that no one had been there in the first place, but he seriously could've sworn that someone had been, and that voice...

...That was the voice that belonged to his long-lost sister, Fuketsu...

{The 'person' was all a hallucination}

[TOOTSIEGIRL]

(*bumpcoughbump*)

[Guest]

Zane smiled weakly as he took he water and drunk it all at once. He allowed some to dribble onto his cheeks and slowly drip off his face. Once finished he gave out a sigh. It was good to know that he was once again free. Although the happiness was hollow, and always will be as it was now an undeniable fact that Slither would come back. It had become increasingly active over the past couple of months constantly stalking him in his dreams and even making the effort to torment Zane during the day. and said,

"I just need to sit down for a while. Although somewhere other than the floor is preferable."

Zane was just getting up when Ado spun around on the spot, knocking Zane back onto his backside. He looked up at Ado, wondering what was so important to see. His eyes searched the empty space that Ado had fixated himself upon. He got back up, and spoke to ado.

"Hey, Ado. What is it?"

Word Count: 169

[Xan]

It was official; Xanthus Icarus was beginning to wonder if the two chimeras were being affected by the heat, or if some things from their respective pasts were haunting them. ‘Either way, these two have behavior that I find interesting, yet somewhat disturbing at the same time. I’ll just chalk this strange behavior up to heat and stress from something that happened a long time ago.’

Bringing out a long stick of pitch black chalk, Xan wrote his special transmutation circle on the ground of the bar. Using his alchemy, Xan created two golems that were both eight feet tall and made of rocks and dirt that could be found on the floor of the bar, and in the ground underneath it. Putting the chalk back into his pocket, Xan ordered one golem to go get two chairs and bring them to him, then turned around and yelled across the bar for two big glasses of water. Turning toward the other golem, Xan ordered it to wait until the man handed it the glasses, then to come back as quickly as possible.

Both constructs nodded, then went to follow their creators instructions. Meanwhile, Xan turned to Ado and asked him if he was feeling alright.

[Guest]

"Hey, Ado. What is it?" Zane asked the boy as the noise of transmutation went around him, striking his curiosity. He momentarily ignored the question as he ran his hand over the newly made golem constructs. The boy giggled somewhat, before turning back to the empty space and sighing. He really, really missed Fuketsu, more than anything.

'If I had a choice, I'd undo this fucking transmutation and bring you back...' He thought with an annoyed tone, before Xanthus asked if he was okay, making him turn back in the direction and give a light chuckle, nodding.

"Y- Yeah, I'm fine, I just thought someone behind me wanted my attention, you know how you can get tricked when blind, eh-heh" Well, they do say the best lies are the ones engraved with truth. The boy, however, failed to wipe away that blood streak down his cheek as he took a glass of water that was pushed into his palms and said thank you, just in case it was a human that gave it to him, before letting out a rather loud sigh.

What a day...

[Guest]

Ado's blind comment was pretty hard to reply to without seeming harsh, so the conversation began to die.

"Well this has been an unfortunate couple of minutes."

Zane commented to break a silence that was starting to form. Of course Slither had to be kept a total secret. If he were to go around telling him about some enhanced split personality he had that wanted to kill anyone close to him, he'd be locked up forever, and he gotten used to living a free life. Slither was the only true burden he had at the moment. Well, that and his hideous appearance, but he could live with that. He stared at the golems that Xan created. He wasn't too surprised, he knew the wonders of alchemy, although never really learned it. Alchemy never really appealed to him. He took the other glass of water when it reached him and took a large drink of it.

"So guys," He continued "Shall we move to somewhere cooler?"

Word Count: 169

[Xan]

The Infinity Alchemist watched as his constructs followed his commands to the letter with a small smile that disappeared when Ado made his blind comment. It made Xan realize just how fortunate that he was, to have each of his sense in perfect functioning order. He could see the blue skies, hear the birds chirping, and feel…heat.

‘Man, Zane’s right. Even with the water, it’s still hot in this place.’

Xan started to think. Well, they were all going to be here for some time, long enough for the temperature outside to get cooler.

Well guys, perhaps we should head to an inn? I’m pretty sure that all inns have AC, and at this point, a shower wouldn’t be out of place.

After the sun went down, perhaps Xan could look for something exciting to occupy his time, but for now it was too hot to do very much but go somewhere cool and stay there for a few hours.

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