What's wrong with this place?

[Felix Lucas]

Ah, Rush Valley. Akito actually felt very little relief as he stepped off the train, but he couldn't stand being stuck in that train car a moment longer. It was almost as crowded on the streets as it had been in the car. Automail engineers, mostly. They didn't bother him, as he was clearly not in need of a limb. But they still took up space. At least there was plently of stone nearby. That was always reassuring. Just a few quick swipes from a piece of chalk that was sitting in his left pocket, and he had a weapon. Passersby stared at him; he didn't really fit in. It was far too hot out for a coat, even if it was the light grey he favored, but with all the emergency chalk and pumice he carried in its myraid pockets, plus the circle stitched on the inside to transmute said pumice, he didn't dare go without it. He decided to take to the back alleys in an attempt to get away from all the foot traffic the main street experienced. After walking for a few minutes, he heard a noise from around the corner. It sounded like someone being pushed against a wall. A voice followed, saying "Your money or your life." Oh boy. This is going to be good. Akito thought to himself, scratching a circle on a wall with chalk, pulling out some of the stone into a nice, sharp dagger. Walking around the corner swiftly, he saw the mugger turn, he probably heard the noise of Akito's alchemy. Holding his freshly-made knife up to the man's throat like he was doing to the woman he had shoved against the wall, he said "Would you care to rephrase that?"

[Guest]

Rush Valley. Why are we here, you little moron? It's too crowded, even I'm not crazy enough to kill everyone here... "Shh..." Animos walked down the backalleys of Rush Valley, in the alley in a Valley, like Valkyrie with an ally, or something like those words. The reasoning he was here is the same as ever- he had wandered here, and intended to explore before he left. So explorin'. And explorin'. And explorin' everywhere~ And ex- hey, what was all that ruckus up ahead? As he moved further down the alley, he saw a man trying to hurt a lady, and aq guy moving closer to the pair. As Cheese-Boy, it was his job- NO! His DUTY to stop that impromptu transaction! So steadily creeping closer, kukri in hand, he and the other guy approached the mugger at the same time... And as the other guy did whatever the other guy would do, Anim, still unnoticed by the mugger, brought his kukri down, aiming for the back...

[Felix Lucas]

The mugger started backing away from Akito as the latter brought his knife up. Akito saw another person sneak up on the man from behind, holding a metal kukri. What he didn't expect was the newcomer swinging the knife towards the mugger's spine. This pathetic excuse for a criminal wasn't even intent on harming anyone. Too cheap or too poor for a real gun, he had used a stapler with a hole in the end to make it feel like he had a gun to the woman's head. He definitely didn't deserve to die. Pulling the man to the side, away from the knife, he exclaimed in the direction of the newcomer, "What the hell? I stop a mugging to be rewarded with attempted murder on the mugger? Is something wrong with this town! Do you have ANY idea how long it would take to clean up the mess you would have made? Well?" Throughout this tirade, he kept the mugger pinned against the wall with one arm, holding the knife pointed lazily at his face with the other. Reversing his grip on the knife, he pried the stapler from the man's grip, tossing it to the newcomer to the scene. "See? Harmless. My name's Akito. What's yours?"

[Guest]

As Anim brought down the kukri, he heard a voice and stopped, the tip of the curved blade just barely having pricked the man's skin, releasing a few drops of blood before clotting back up rather quickly. Sheathing his blade again, he watched in curiosity as the woman moved quickly away, still rather afraid, and the mugger was EASILY apprehended by the masked stranger, who happened not to be wearing a mask at all. As the stapler landed in his hands, he glanced at it, before examining it. Well, guns didn't normally look like this. Setting it down beside him, he saw as a bit of the fondue in his teacup spilled as he stood back up. In wide-eyed fascination, it had spllatered in a crescent, with a little knob at the arch, pointing towards the stranger, Akito, he called himself. "The lid..." Shaking his head a bit, he glanced at the other man, a tad taller than Anim, but not as muscular, in appearance. True, Anim wasn't quite a body-builder, but it seemed this man was a bit more lithe, thin, and quite possibly didn't fight as close-combat oriented as Animos. "N-name? Uhh... Ja-JACK. B-but, call ME Ani.... Anim... Animos. Or Ch-cheese Boy. You f-fight c-CRIME?" So it seemed by this ended mugging...

[Felix Lucas]

Akito watched as the person spilled some fondue on the ground. It seemed to rattle him quite a bit, and he muttered something about a lid. After Animos introduced himself, Akito got sick of holding the mugger against the wall. Pulling his empty left hand back, he slugged the poor sap across the face, knocking him on the ground. Walking over to the wall where his circle was, with the small hole from the knife underneath, he slid the knife into the wall and used his alchemy to return it to it's proper shape and position inside the wall. "I suppose you could say I fight crime. Rather, I stop it when I see it, but I haven't quite started seeking it out yet." he said, in response to the cheese-boy's question. "Now, what was that about a lid, and what does it have to do with your sudden lapse into head-shaking nerves?" he asked, figuring the shift into the language that this Jack had muttered his little slip in would make him a little more open to conversation.

[Guest]

Well then... This was helpful. KIIIIIIIIIIIILL HIIIIIIIIIIM NOOOOOOOW. I'm bored, yah moron. Stop whining about some cheese crap, and drop that shiv'a yours in his back. HAHAHA~ Anim's face contorted into an angrier expression, though not quite as much angry as irritated. "No, Blade. The lid.... No kill, lid. Stupid Blade." Oh, and speak of the aforementioned section of a teapot. Glancing sharply back at Akito, his face had returned to its normal wide-eyed paranoia. "C-crime fighter, th.... then? G-good. Me TOO. I'm Ch.... Cheese-Boy." Attempting a grin, what he ACTUALLY gave was similar to a rape-face in appearance, but with none of the intentions. Waving to Akito, he then returned to his normal expression of everpresent fear of society and its tricks. "Lid. The ch-cheese, IT said y-you'd b-b-BE a c-crime fighter and th-that you w-were The Lid. The cheese n-never lies. Special ch-cheese FROM Cheese-Mman, hims-self."

[Felix Lucas]

Akito was getting fairly suspicious of this "Cheese-Boy". He seemed to be carrying on a conversation with himself as well as his conversation with Akito. Walking over to the side of the alley opposite him, he drew another circle, and slid some of the stone from the wall out into a makeshift seat. He did the same to the wall he was standing at before, sitting down upon the latter and jesturing to the former, saying "Please, have a seat. I don't know about you, but I'm more comfortable speaking in Amestrian." Switching to said language, he continued, "Could you please explain just who this Cheese-Man is, why you seem to think that I am some sort of lid, and what kind of crime fighter you are to commit random homicide? Because otherwise, I just may have to prove your magic cheese wrong." Akito was really hoping that the man would sit, but for more reasons than formality. Animos had a metal knife. Akito had only his alchemy. Since the threat he had created the knife for was now drooling on the ground, he had to return the knife to the wall to appear peaceable. By drawing a second circle, Akito had one more place he could stand where he had some form of advantage. If worse came to worse, he had a better chance of being able to truss this "Cheese-boy" up like a turkey, or the mugger.

[Guest]

Animos sat down. It wasn't too likely that Akito would get too much information from him, but skewed knowledge was normally better than no knowledge, eh? So, switching to Amestrian, though he DID like Cretan a bit better, he spoke, holding his teacup in both hands and staring deeply into it. "Cheese-man. H-he's a SUPERhero th-that m-makess cheese b-bl... explode. AND that's his s-signal. He's Ch-cheese M-man, y'know." Taking a few self-approving nods, to further emphasize that this was true, he carried on answering questions.

"You're the lid. The ch-cheese said S-sO. It said th-that YOU were s-smart and stuff, and y-you FOUGHT c-cr-crime." Again came the nodding, which seemed to make him look a tad more like a sane man, one who knew exactly what he was talking about, as did everyone else. Of course, it seemed only he comprehended some of what he said, which he found odd. It was a simple concept; Cheese-man blew up the fondue bowl and Animos' teacup had been the last thing to fill with the cheese before it blew up, making it magical. And Cheese-man explained the whole superhero deal to him.

Anyways, he thusly answered the last question, glancing up to look at the mugger, then at Akito, his face being rather innocent for a man almost thirty years. "I didn't w-want TO kill h-him. I j-just wanted to st-STOP him from h-HURTing th-that lady..." HE WAS A GOOD SUPERHERO!! Killing people was Blade's domain.

[Felix Lucas]

Akito listened patiently to Animos' answers, watching the latter nod his head like he was trying to convince himself of something. He was concerned about the situation he had gotten himself into. This vigilante seemed to have a moral compass that had been stepped on, hit with a hammer, and thrown halfway around the world before being returned to him in several pieces over the course of three weeks. He didn't seem to realise that stabbing someone in the spine was pretty dang lethal. Anyway, Akito still had some questions for Cheese Boy. "You realise that stabbing him in the spine would have most likely killed him?" he asked, gesturing to the mugger who would henceforth be referred to in his mind as Mr. Van Winkle. "Anyway, say I agreed that I was this 'lid'. What exactly does that mean?" He shifted slightly in his seat. This person seemed to be very dangerous indeed. Although conciously, Akito was concerned not to push the wrong buttons, some small part of him wanted some more excitement than Rip over there had provided.

[Guest]

What? A knife in the back was DEADLY? Animos looked at Akito in a state of confusion for a minute or two, before looking the the man. Well, he certainly hadn't known THAT. Perhaps he SHOULDN'T back-stab people... Or you should backstab EVERYONE, MORE OFTEN. Just an idea. Errr... While Blade DID tend to be right about a lot of stuff, he wasn't ALWAYS right... Nor was he, in THIS instance... Oh well, Anim didn't have time to think thoughts, he was probably intended to listen to Akito. WHICH HE DID. And he didn't know what the Lid did? How odd... Well, ANim should enlighten him! "The lid. Y-you'd have to DO uuhhh... Erm... Thingss. L-like uh, LOOking out f-for criminALS a-and telling m-me about th-THEM. Lid s-stuff, righT? A-and don't TELL any-nyone." Placing a finger to his lips, he made a shush gesture before smiling, perhaps a little too awkwardly, as he now looked TWICE as deranged as normal. Ah well...

[Felix Lucas]

Akito listened intently to the deranged explaination Animos gave him, almost laughing when he made the universal sign for "shh". Standing up, he said, "Well, Jack. You want me to locate criminals, then tell you about them. Sorry, but I don't think I'm interested. You seem like you've escaped from an asylum, and I don't want any blood on my hands from your little problem with morals. I'm going to give you one chance to convince me otherwise. Show me that you can solve problems without murder, or your magic cheese will have been wrong." Placing his right hand behind him on the wall, he used his alchemy to move his seat back to its proper place. Directly after, he formed a small knife inside the wall, with the handle sticking out. Granted, it was a blind reach and slightly uncomfortable, but Animos could probably not see it. And this way, there was no time wasted if Akito needed to defend himself.

[Guest]

Animos stared at him, perplexed beyond belief. Now what was he even trying to say? Did he think Anim TRIED to kill people!? Not to mention he said he escpaed an asylum and had bloody hands? What? Glancing at his hands, he noted that they weren't very bloody, and in fact, had NO blood on them at all! While Blade may think that was rather wrong, Animos quite liked not having bloody hands. "Hmm... W-well... I never went to a asylUM b-berfoe, and m-my hands are c-CLEAN. But I c-c-can solve PROBLEMS with-oout muuurd-ER. I can't expLAIN h-how, cus there isn't a p-problem NOW, b-but trusttt m-me. I h-have clean handss." Solemnly holding his hands up, he gave as best of a look of intense gravity as he could, if not for his slightly widened eyes and his frantic hair. He was truly serious, of course. Hopefully, Akito thought the same...

[Felix Lucas]

Akito listened to Animos. While slightly deranged, he really didn't seem like a bad person. He didn't seem to know what was and was not fatal, but he was trying to help. "Alright, then, Jack. I'll agree to be this lid. But let's get something straight now. If I don't like what you do with the information I give you, you will not get any more." Looks like he didn't need that knife after all. Leaning back against the wall, he reassimilated it into the brick it came from. He turned to the sleeping would-be mugger, and considered his course of action for a second, before walking out to the street and flagging down a pair of patrolling officers. He brought them back to the scene, and told them, "This man here tried to mug a woman. My friend, Jack here, and I stopped him." As he said Jack's name, he indicated the person. The officers cuffed the would-be mugger and took him away. Turning again to Animos, he said, "That is how you should deal with minor criminals like this. You don't even need to use that knife of yours."

[Guest]

So he was the Lid? Well, of course he was the lid. If he wasn't the lid, then who would the lid even BE? It couldn't just be nobody, it had to be somebody! But there were conditions? Well, they seemed to be simple enough. So Anim would make an honest attempt to follow suit. "G-g-ggg-GOOD! Th-thank yoUuUuu-" Squinting his eyes, he shook his head a bit, to try and ease his nervous stutterings, as much "good" as that did. "T-thank you, Ak-Akito." His smile decidedly less deranged this go around, he watched now as Akito went to bring over some men in fancy clothes. The men came and took the bad guy away, kind of like the men in white that took away Anim away, way back when, hehehe... And as they took him away, Anim turned back to his new friend, who was speaking. Glancing at his kukri, he turned it in his fingers for a moment or two before sheathing the blade, smiling up to Akito the best he could, with a general air of self-control. HE HAD THIS ON LOCK.

[Csilla Angelis]

{BUMP}

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