ZAHIR
hearts turn to dirt
along with the rest of your body
along with the rest of your body
Matching Ronin’s humour, Zahir huffed a low chuckle at the responsibility comment. Humour, he knew well enough, didn’t show well on his face. Naseem had described the mood on him as putting her in mind of creepy painted dolls with waxen, fixed smiles carved into their faces, if it registered visually at all. In the hopes of not scaring Ronin off entirely, Zahir pushed his dark-tinted glasses up his nose, hoping they might hide how his smiles never much seemed to show in his eyes.
“You don’t know me well enough to know the truth of this, so just take it on faith: I would never expect responsibility from anyone. If you ever happen to meet my travelling companion, Naseem, you’ll understand fast enough why I think that’s a fools game,” ae hums, tone wry. Ae had yet to discern how serious Ronin was, how dry his amusement, what worked with him, in short.
“I’ve blown through the Silk Houses once or twice,” Zahir answered, as Ronin gazed elsewhere, and Zahir kept aer attention neatly on Ronin even as ae turned aer head as if to follow his looking. “From what I’ve heard though, Stormbreak is best avoided by people like me, and in want of people like you— hence why I imagine you don’t want anyone extra laying responsibility at your doorstep.”
And speaking of responsibility, Zahir didn’t miss the way Ronin flushed at the mention of Flora. Interesting. Zahir filed that way for later inspection, and made a mental note to do a little digging on the history of those two. “A great shame,” Zahir agreed, trying to judge where Ronin sat on the more illicit activities Zahir understood to have operated out of the bar. “Home for me is always seedy corners in shadowy bars. Kind of goes with the whole only-wears-black aesthetic and all.”
Ae looked, for the first time, away from Ronin, back at the beach he’d come from. “But I fear I’ve interrupted your run too long. I don’t wish to impose. Or, if you’d like, I could walk you the rest of your way. If you don’t mind a slower speed. And I can warn you of any strangers ill-placed in the sun to avoid walking into. One meet cute per day is probably a good rate to stick to, else you’ll never get anything done.”
“You don’t know me well enough to know the truth of this, so just take it on faith: I would never expect responsibility from anyone. If you ever happen to meet my travelling companion, Naseem, you’ll understand fast enough why I think that’s a fools game,” ae hums, tone wry. Ae had yet to discern how serious Ronin was, how dry his amusement, what worked with him, in short.
“I’ve blown through the Silk Houses once or twice,” Zahir answered, as Ronin gazed elsewhere, and Zahir kept aer attention neatly on Ronin even as ae turned aer head as if to follow his looking. “From what I’ve heard though, Stormbreak is best avoided by people like me, and in want of people like you— hence why I imagine you don’t want anyone extra laying responsibility at your doorstep.”
And speaking of responsibility, Zahir didn’t miss the way Ronin flushed at the mention of Flora. Interesting. Zahir filed that way for later inspection, and made a mental note to do a little digging on the history of those two. “A great shame,” Zahir agreed, trying to judge where Ronin sat on the more illicit activities Zahir understood to have operated out of the bar. “Home for me is always seedy corners in shadowy bars. Kind of goes with the whole only-wears-black aesthetic and all.”
Ae looked, for the first time, away from Ronin, back at the beach he’d come from. “But I fear I’ve interrupted your run too long. I don’t wish to impose. Or, if you’d like, I could walk you the rest of your way. If you don’t mind a slower speed. And I can warn you of any strangers ill-placed in the sun to avoid walking into. One meet cute per day is probably a good rate to stick to, else you’ll never get anything done.”
it's all claimed by the
earth
earth
