Something I've just discovered myself liking more than I would have expected, and something I've enjoyed since what feels like forever.
The landscape rolled past, somehow dim, even in the full light of day.
Or maybe it was just the mood, she reflected as the train rolled onwards nearly-soundlessly on its magnetic cushion.
She was a failure, and it was because of something she couldn't control. If it were just her who was affected, but no, the fates weren't that benevolent. Everyone, everything she touched, or even came close to ...
"Well, don't you look like a bundle of issues. What's got you so down on your luck?"
The incredulous nature of the comment and its timing threw her as soon as it registered, and then she started shaking. For a moment, she thought she might break down ... and she did, but not in the manner she'd expected to.
It started with a choked off noise deep in her throat, and a burning in her lungs, and soon she was doing something that would have had her comrades and teammates boggling at the sight.
Hong Lihua, or simply Reika to those she was on speaking terms with, was snorting, then chuckling, then guaffing with a manic, near hysterical laughter, complete with tears. Not because, beyond maybe that one moment of ironic self-criticism, she found it funny, but because as soon as she'd given some space to her emotions it was a choice between breaking down laughing, or just plain breaking down and maybe going as far as ending up a basket case.
And when it was over, she felt ... better. Not 'good', maybe, but better than she'd been over these past few days, maybe even weeks.
"Tissue?" the voice asked. She grasped about herself, half-blind, before snatching the white bit of kleenex from the offering hand and wiping her eyes.
"Thank you," she said, after she'd composed herself. "I think I needed that."
Then she actually saw the person who'd sat himself opposite her in the otherwise deserted train compartment, and was instantly put on-guard. Not because he was an albino, or because of the odd clothes (who in their right minds wore a -cloak- nowadays). There was a sense of otherness there, obvious to a medium as talented as herself. It was gone almost instantly, but she'd noticed all the same.
"And who, exactly, are you?"
"There's days I'm right uncertain of that myself," the red eyed man replied, with a faint snicker at the end. "You looked like you could use a pick-me-up. Or a pun. And I hate to see good food go to waste. Speaking of which, are you going to eat that?"
He gestured to the meal she'd ordered and half-forgotten, sitting on the table in front of her and having noticably cooled.
"Yes," she said coldly.
"Oh. Oh well," he gave a little half-shrug. "Sorry to have bothered you, then."
The man made to get up, then blinked, and slapped his forehead.
"Here," he then deposited a tan/off-white colored bundle of material beside her, and pointed a thumb at her light coat hanging from the hook beside the compartment door. "You won't get much milage out of that one, trust me on that. And you'll need all the milage you can get soon enough, since there's a mother of a storm coming."
Reika chanced a glance out the window, and the weather didn't looked to have changed at all ...
"Not that kind of storm."
And suddenly, the sense of otherness was back with a vengeance. Not threatening, exactly, but certainly commanding attention.
"It should serve. Or at least keep the wind off your back. Justy said he didn't need it anymore, but he did't want a perfectly good bit of tailoring to go to waste. He's got the devil's own luck, if you believe in that sort of thing, so maybe a bit's rubbed off on it."
Then there was silence, and it took her an eyeblink to realize that the speaker was gone, the only sign of his presence the bundle beside her ...
... she hesitated, then grabbed it ...
Her eyes went wide wide wide as soon as fingertips touched the rough fabric, unfolding the long coat almost on instinct.
Almost on its own, her body moved, ignoring the fact that she was inside and didn't need to, flowing into the coat with an easy grace she didn't know she had.
It felt right.
"Captain, hmm? It ... has a certain ring to it."
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
The landscape rolled past, somehow dim, even in the full light of day.
Or maybe it was just the mood, she reflected as the train rolled onwards nearly-soundlessly on its magnetic cushion.
She was a failure, and it was because of something she couldn't control. If it were just her who was affected, but no, the fates weren't that benevolent. Everyone, everything she touched, or even came close to ...
"Well, don't you look like a bundle of issues. What's got you so down on your luck?"
The incredulous nature of the comment and its timing threw her as soon as it registered, and then she started shaking. For a moment, she thought she might break down ... and she did, but not in the manner she'd expected to.
It started with a choked off noise deep in her throat, and a burning in her lungs, and soon she was doing something that would have had her comrades and teammates boggling at the sight.
Hong Lihua, or simply Reika to those she was on speaking terms with, was snorting, then chuckling, then guaffing with a manic, near hysterical laughter, complete with tears. Not because, beyond maybe that one moment of ironic self-criticism, she found it funny, but because as soon as she'd given some space to her emotions it was a choice between breaking down laughing, or just plain breaking down and maybe going as far as ending up a basket case.
And when it was over, she felt ... better. Not 'good', maybe, but better than she'd been over these past few days, maybe even weeks.
"Tissue?" the voice asked. She grasped about herself, half-blind, before snatching the white bit of kleenex from the offering hand and wiping her eyes.
"Thank you," she said, after she'd composed herself. "I think I needed that."
Then she actually saw the person who'd sat himself opposite her in the otherwise deserted train compartment, and was instantly put on-guard. Not because he was an albino, or because of the odd clothes (who in their right minds wore a -cloak- nowadays). There was a sense of otherness there, obvious to a medium as talented as herself. It was gone almost instantly, but she'd noticed all the same.
"And who, exactly, are you?"
"There's days I'm right uncertain of that myself," the red eyed man replied, with a faint snicker at the end. "You looked like you could use a pick-me-up. Or a pun. And I hate to see good food go to waste. Speaking of which, are you going to eat that?"
He gestured to the meal she'd ordered and half-forgotten, sitting on the table in front of her and having noticably cooled.
"Yes," she said coldly.
"Oh. Oh well," he gave a little half-shrug. "Sorry to have bothered you, then."
The man made to get up, then blinked, and slapped his forehead.
"Here," he then deposited a tan/off-white colored bundle of material beside her, and pointed a thumb at her light coat hanging from the hook beside the compartment door. "You won't get much milage out of that one, trust me on that. And you'll need all the milage you can get soon enough, since there's a mother of a storm coming."
Reika chanced a glance out the window, and the weather didn't looked to have changed at all ...
"Not that kind of storm."
And suddenly, the sense of otherness was back with a vengeance. Not threatening, exactly, but certainly commanding attention.
"It should serve. Or at least keep the wind off your back. Justy said he didn't need it anymore, but he did't want a perfectly good bit of tailoring to go to waste. He's got the devil's own luck, if you believe in that sort of thing, so maybe a bit's rubbed off on it."
Then there was silence, and it took her an eyeblink to realize that the speaker was gone, the only sign of his presence the bundle beside her ...
... she hesitated, then grabbed it ...
Her eyes went wide wide wide as soon as fingertips touched the rough fabric, unfolding the long coat almost on instinct.
Almost on its own, her body moved, ignoring the fact that she was inside and didn't need to, flowing into the coat with an easy grace she didn't know she had.
It felt right.
"Captain, hmm? It ... has a certain ring to it."
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm