Just Rolll With It [Vice]

[Tatsuma Kirihara]

The first thing Tatsuma did after getting out of the university gates and back home was to get his skateboards on, his regular shoes in a backpack, and head out to the big city for a roll. Putting on his black and white skating jacket as well as a good amount of his accessories (man, those wristbands and bracelets were already too much), he was out of the apartment within minutes of arriving. Rubbing his face, he also hastily removed the makeup covering his tattoo on his left cheek. He didn’t need that anymore when he was out of school.

He found skateboarding was a nice way to relieve some of his worries while it also gave him some time to think. It was a clear afternoon, with the sun still high and mighty, so he had no reason to feel down. With an idiotic grin plastered on his face he even ended up doing some simple tricks while avoiding the passengers and telephone poles, doing some mid-air twists and long jumps. He earned some not-so-friendly glances from the people around, and he somehow new that this city was used to delinquents. He shouted a few "sorry" and "oops" at the people he passed, but other than that he didn’t care how he acted as long as they didn’t get injured.

The wheels of the skates clanked sturdily on the concrete as he neared a more natural area, getting closer to a little park beside the residential area. Initiating another mid-air twist near the fountain, he jumped into the air as if he was flying through it, strong and graceful movements obvious even for the untrained eyes. He was excellent at skating as it was something he enjoyed to do and was doing even before he started school back home. At the same time, he didn't take note of the single black cat slipping out from under the bushes to the side. He noticed the feline late but he still tried to modify the angle of his landing so not to crush the animal, but that meant for himself to be off-balanced in the end.

"WA---!" The world spun once and he quite ungracefully fell on the bush, his back scratched by the twigs of the plant. "Owowowow..." He held a hand to the back of his head that also collided with a sturdy twig, though it didn't seem he had any visible injuries. Laying in the bush, being surrounded by its sprigs and looking around a bit embarrassed, his face twisted with disgust at the lame demonstration.

"Stupid cat! ... Gotta work on the landing later..." The cat, of course, was nowhere to be found by that time.

Vice Ysal

[Vice Ysal]

There was a rich kind of novelty in this type of experience. To have felt the world around you once before and to feel it again in such a different way made for one rather fun time of coupling them together and picking out which sensation felt so much better. The body of a human was rather different as compared to that of a shadow, so not everything was possible of being recreated but it sure as hell was worth seeing all of this again. It also coincided with his interests and objectives, so there was really nothing wrong with what he was doing right now. The presences of those around him were, however, becoming more and more varied and the Shadow was trying to do his best to segregate them to useful categories for when he was going to feed again. So far, he had yet to really find a flavour that excited him but sustenance was a necessity even if it meant he had to get used to one kind of taste until his menu was complete.

That said, Vice was having quite a time speeding down the traffic and bustling streets of town on his Human's motorcycle. It was a lot faster than just walking, and he didn't even need to waste so much time trying to acquaint himself with the piece of work. Oh what he'd give to be able to move with this speed at any given time, that would be such a boon for wherever he would be going. Oh and if he could fly, now that was just a pleasure he'd really love to experience. It would most likely be useful to try and explore his shadow form a bit more, both in and outside of combat would be helpful. The revving of his motorcycle then became significantly louder as the machine began being pushed to its theoretical limits.

Becoming a black blur and beating all the red lights presented to him in quick succession, the shadow meandered on over to what seemed to be a pretty colourful park. It was faint, but there seemed to be some flavour in the air that had piqued his curiosity. It wasn't much but it was a good enough tease that he just had to check it out. Burning some rubber as he brought the motorcycle into the flashiest parking manuever his Human was experienced with, the Shadow inadvertently gathered quite a few looks of either awe or annoyance. Taking the black helmet off of his head before shaking the hair out of his face, the sharp red eyes of a predator narrowed slightly as it began to home in on the presence that was being masked by everyone else within the vicinity.

Now if only he could pinpoint where it was coming from.

[Tatsuma Kirihara]

The bush was getting mildly uncomfortable, but Tatsuma knew he wouldn’t be able to get up without embarrassing himself further. The bush wasn’t the sturdiest thing in the end, so he might as well fall to the ground while struggling to stand up. He scratched the back of his head as a mother and her three-years-old little girl passed him, the girl giggling, the mother strictly looking ahead. He decided he still needed to be on his feet – well, his wheels – so he tried to brush the twigs away to slink to his knees and get up from there. It was a little harder to do with his rollerblades still on, but he was more used to that once he was on the ground again. He shook the leaves out of his hair and brushed some broken twigs off of his shoulder

Now, that cat.

He looked around. He vaguely saw where that cat ran off to while he was falling, so he rolled forward, scanning the bush for the stray feline. It was easy to point out the shining eyes of the hiding animal through the leaves, and Tatsuma was again diving for the bushes. The cat jumped out, and he was right behind it. Of course the cat was faster, and was already running past the fountain and through the park.

"Stop, you freaking dog-snack!" He wasn’t sure what he wanted to accomplish by shouting after the animal, but it was at least relieving some of his annoyance. The feline was dashing toward one of the lone passengers, and Tatsuma was rollerblading after it.

[Vice Ysal]

Consistently, his eyes kept scanning the place but soon gave up on the effort when the presence was slowly beginning to fade away as the scent of everyone else was beginning to cloud the taste in the air.Shaking his head, the humanoid shadow got off from his seat, locked the vehicle, doubly secured it to make sure no one was going to take it away from him while he wasn't looking, and began taking a few paces within the park's perimeter.

It was a sight to see, the park itself. It couldn't really hold his attention for long though, the smell of the air quite a bit different than what he could feel within the city itself, and that wasn't pertaining to just the smoke emitted by the vehicles. The energies revolving around the place sure was different, and for the time being could be seen as a viable area for feeding so long as the male did it discreetly as to not attract any weird looks, or any looks for that matter, while he was trying to sustain his body.

He was also just about to take another turn when a rather nimble feline decided that it was high time for it to find an owner and impressively leapt across the distance between the fountain's edge and the shadow's arms. The first instinct that kicked into the male's head was to slap the damn thing away as if it was a hostile but somehow managed to stop himself half way through and instead caught the thing instead. The animal begin to hiss and meow at him for the rough treatment, but for the most part Vice just stared at it.

"You lost?"

And all he got from that was a Meow. That didn't do much. If anything.

[Tatsuma Kirihara]

Luckily, most of the park had a nice and smooth pavement, and the stupid cat was actually running along it. If it decided to head for the grass and deeper inside the park, Tatsuma would say fuckit and leave it alone. His wheels weren’t any good on ground or grass, so he wouldn’t be able to catch up to the animal. However, proving the theories on the cats’ intelligence wrong, the feline was running on the path Tatsuma could easily follow it.

Another lucky part of the day was that the cat didn’t have enough common sense (for a cat, anyway) to run away and it ended up being caught even before Tatsuma reached it. He skidded to a stop in front of the stranger who had the cat in his hand. It was hissing at the stranger, and Tatsuma imagined it would scratch its capturer if it could reach any skin from its position.

"Hey, hand that thing over." He held out his hand toward the stranger, his voice seeped in mocked annoyance. He wasn’t really angry, but he can play angry. "I need to skin it."

[Vice Ysal]

"Hear that, Kitty?"

Vice said out loud, as if he was talking to a baby, towards the cat in his hands. The thing just started hissing a bit more, and apparently sensing how things were beginning to escalate, tried to redouble its efforts of either mauling its capturer or the wannabe-thug with the face-paint on. Decisions, decisions.

"He said that he's gonna skin you." Glancing over at the guy who had his hand outstretched as if expecting that Vice was actually gonna give the cat to him, Vice then turned back to the cat and continued talking to it. "Wanna prove him wrong? Yeah, I'm sure you do." With a rather careless flick of his wrist, and a rather unexpected amount of force behind said flick, the biker tossed the hissing and clearly pissed off cat right at the stranger's face.

"That might have hurt."

It was amusing though, and that's what was important.

[Tatsuma Kirihara]

Tatsuma wasn’t expecting anything from the stranger. Or to be precise, he was expecting everything from the stranger, since he learned to be prepared for the worst most of the time. Gang life does that to people, and thanks to Mother Nature, his reflexes were rather well-developed too. It was only thanks to that, he could catch the cat aimed at his face, but he still couldn’t get out of the intermission without a few scary on his hands. At least it wasn’t his face. Red doesn’t go well with blue, he won’t need any more tattoos than he already had.

Manhandling the aggressively protesting cat, he managed to grab it by the back of its neck. At that moment, its instincts kicked in, and it got relatively still. It was still waving its limbs around in discontent, though, but it wasn’t as harmful anymore. With a low grunt, he stared at the cat, before turning toward the stranger with the same expression, carelessly waving the poor feline toward his face while it was meowing, dissatisfied.

"Thanks for the kind help. A cat in the face isn’t the healthiest of things, you know. Learn to throw money instead of animals, if you would, I'll gladly accept that."

[Vice Ysal]

"Oh, don't worry about it. Means a lot to me to know that I've been of assistance in anyway I can." There was a sarcastic tilt of his voice, but Vice didn't exactly put too much stock into it. If the guy in front of him wanted to be a rude prick, then by all means just go on ahead. Emotions were that much tastier when he didn't have to try and uncover all of the dirt that often got piled on top of it.

"And a cat to the face isn't the deadliest of things either, I'm quite sure you know. Besides that, I'm confident that you aren't a beggar, even if your outfit states otherwise, thus I have no reason to throw money at you either." Ah, it was always fun riling people up. His Human was a lot more subtle about it, and there was the novelty to be enjoyed for when the other guy was actually smart enough to pick up on the insult, but there was a different kind of joy to just being blunt about it too. Not limiting himself to a single course of action was sure to bring him quite a lot of different experiences and with how things were now, that'd be more of a boon than anything else.

[Tatsuma Kirihara]

"Your sarcasm is honey to my ears, but your ignorance is a stab in my heart." Two can play at this game, Tatsuma decided, as he replied in a similar manner to the stranger’s words. He can play sarcasm well, and he was the kind who didn’t actually get insulted by it. He learned to take sarcasm, and he found it was always much more fun when he was playing along and didn’t get all high and mighty for the insults. He looked down on himself, checking that he was indeed in a presentable state and didn’t look anywhere near like a beggar would.

"Even if I’m not a beggar, I’m sure you know people can use whatever money others throw at them." For effect, he was waving the cat around in the air, pointing at the guy with it from time to time. The cat seemed to accept its destiny by that time, and was mostly motionless. Tatsuma actually pitied the poor animal and scratched at its ears, carefully minding its paws for the claws.

This guy seemed fun, Tatsuma decided for himself as he was met with replies he didn’t expect from the other. Then again, he should learn not to expect anything from anyone. He pushed his wheels on the ground to start to roll in a small circle around the stranger. "I’m glad though, this means my clothes aren’t as hopeless as my co-workers say." Mindless chatter was all he could do until the conversation would get into a more interesting field.

[Vice Ysal]

"Since you're not crying yet, then I guess I'm just not stabbing hard enough." The shadow continued, slightly beginning to enjoy this a bit more. It was always a lot more fun for when people began playing along, but sometimes it was just as fun breaking apart their self esteem. This one, at the very least, knew how to hold his ground long enough for the Shadow to lose interest which may or may not have been a good thing.

"And I'm rather surprised they let you into work like that." With a careless shrug of his shoulders, Vice then placed both of his hands into his back pockets and leaned back a bit on them. An easy grin was on his face, borderline lazy for some, but the Shadow wasn't up to much more verbal sparring from here on out.

"Sup, name's Vice."

[Tatsuma Kirihara]

"Oh my, whatever did I do to deserve such a hard treatment?" He glanced at the cat still hanging from his hand. "Aside from chasing after a cat, and saying I want to skin it, of course." After another ear-scratching he decided to release the cat, which basically meant he would throw it unceremoniously toward a bush and dust off his hands for dramatic effect. The cat ran away so fast Tatsuma was sure it was waiting for the opportunity and would never again get near that part of the park.

"Intimidation is kind of a good thing at work. Also, peeps seem to dig the bracelets and the claw." He waved his left hand, now sans the cat, to show the claw shaped metal ring he had as an extra. For some ungodly reason he liked to have those accessories on, probably in spite of his heritage. It meant he was anything but a saint priest-to-be, and that was what he wanted.

"Tatsuma." He introduced himself simply and was wondering about whether to offer a hand for shaking. Considering the other just shoved his hands in his back pockets, he decided against it. The chances of his offered hand being accepted was low as the self esteem of a snail. "Hey, you might be able to help me with something." He said suddenly, an unknown instinct urging him to get a bit more specific with Vice. "I am searching for a... place. Nothing specific, but I want it to be shady. Maybe you can point me somewhere I can have a little work out." Tatsuma wasn’t the best at beating around the bush, but he couldn’t really say that he wanted to kill and get information on Shadows, could he? "Basically, I want to leave the city." That, at least made it obvious he had already tried it, but failed.

[Vice Ysal]

"You…you need to work on your subtlety."

The shadow had to hold back a snort at that, because oh man that was such a poor attempt at trying to be secretive about whatever it is he wanted to do. Of course, Vice pretty much knew already what the whole shady place was, or the whole workout thing. And honestly, going out of the city? That was just pretty much admitting that you knew something about what was happening to the outside. Still though, for that to happen, the guy must have at least been able to get out already…or at least woke up in the Terminal one way or another.

"You don't really look all that tough." The biker continued as he tapped his foot twice over the concrete while sizing the rebel-wannabe in front of him. There wasn't much to look at to begin with, and unlike the others , Vice wasn't really feeling much from the guy still. There was no presence whatsoever, and the way he held himself wasn't really reminiscent of the others who he had fought with already.

"Give me a reason to tell you how, and I might. Cause looking at you right now, I don't think you'd last all that long."

[Tatsuma Kirihara]

Bingo.

True, subtlety wasn’t exactly Tatsuma’s thing, but he found that getting to the point was easier. Even if someone turned out to be an enemy, and he would get into trouble with being straightforward, it still meant progress. He assumed there was something else behind the blockade and why they can’t leave the city. If he caught and asked someone of the other side that would just prove his suspicions. It was progress, even if he was beat up for it.

A grin spread on his face. Of course, this guy also knew something. While Tatsuma weren’t subtle, Vice also let his guard down, and the answers he offered made it obvious he knew something. Tatsuma wasn’t sure if that would be of use to him, but any information would be appreciated at this point. He had nothing to go on by yet. And he had to admit, he didn’t look thought. His first encounter with a Shadow left him exhausted – or maybe that was just Behemoth going on a rampage, who knows.

"To tell the truth, I didn’t last long, indeed." His grin never faded. It seemed like he wasn’t down from admitting he was a failure. He would just go back for more once he was strong enough. Everyone started at the bottom, right? "Maybe getting strong enough to leave the city is my exact reason for wanting to leave the city." He looked back at Vice and raised an eyebrow. "Does that sound contradictory?"

[Vice Ysal]

"I can tell. Most first times never really end well. So there's nothing to worry about, you're still within the part of the norm."

The shadow commented, idly double checking on his shoes if there was any piece of dirt that would have clung to them when he had absent mindedly took a walk in the park. It was still a bit dirty from all the dust it picked up from the ride here but at least there weren't stains. According to memory, that tended to last quite a while even after getting cleaned.

"And yeah, it is contradictory. That's why you stay inside the city for the time being and get yourself up a good foundation. Learn how to take a punch with your face, and I'm confident you can at least live long enough to return fire or at least do something that doesn't include losing." Shaking his head, Vice honestly had to curb the urge to cross his arms in a disappointed way.

"That said, you've yet to prove anything right now."

[Tatsuma Kirihara]

Stay inside, he says. Sadly, Tatsuma wasn’t the kind to take advices, especially if it concerned his own well-being. If he had to look out for others, sure, he could hold himself back. But only staying behind to protect himself wasn’t something he could easily do. The desire to burst out and get away was stronger than the instincts of self-protection.

"It’s a prison. This whole place is. You are saying I have to learn to take that punch, but what can I do within these walls?" It wasn’t only him. Behemoth inside of him was clawing at the walls of his mind, and he had to wince to force the mental strain caused by his persona away. He rolled back on his wheels, slightly away from the stranger he just met. He learned quickly that Behemoth was hard to keep inside. Venturing toward the circle was actually a way to relieve the strain of imprisoning the beast in his mind.

"Prove, huh." His grin turned somewhat predatory and he raised his arms to place his hands behind his head lazily. "I don’t feel like proving myself to you."