By Leaps and Bounds

[Lagunamov]

Too bad there are no piles of hay for a leap of faith from up here.
Heart

It was very quiet, a gentle breeze blowing from Elrick’s side, making his hair flicker to his right and strands get on his face. From where he sat he could see the entirety of this world he had just arrived at for the first time; an interesting change in pace from his previous visits to other stars in the sky. The almost eternal sunset felt somewhat disturbing, though he could get used to it. The bells above him rang, seven times in a row, marking the change of the hour, or the arrival of a train. He couldn’t remember what the clerk had told him they did twenty minutes before.

An hour before, he had just arrived into Twilight Town, after almost six months of being stuck on his ship without any human contact. The constant chattering from Orpheus didn’t count as any sort of human contact, answering their calls would give his position away, so all he could do was listen and try to block out their constant rambling. He was pretty sure six months of this had got the better of him, but every world he ran across was either infested with shadows, or desolated. He still remembered that strange distorted castle that somehow defied the laws of physics more than the shadows themselves; the only thing good that came out of that place was re-supplying food, which miraculously had not gone bad yet.

Either way, as soon as he arrived into town, he felt somehow relieved when he managed to produce some coherent conversation with a clerk at a store. The clerk offered him a free ice-cream, thinking of him as a tourist or something, and it certainly earned him some respect for securing a regular customer that way. Of course, Elrick wasn’t going to be buying just ice-cream from the guy; that would just destroy his balance. With his welcome treat in hand, he took his advice to check the view from atop the clock tower, which he said people tended to do at times, though the amount of visits up there seemed to have decreased .

The regular entrance to the tower, aka the stairs, where closed for renovation or something, so the regular way was out of the question. Since that wasn’t much of a problem for him, Elrick simply opted for a practical approach: he held the ice-cream with his mouth, and simply started climbing the tower, using his training to climb its side. Grab points were plenty, since the tower was old and as such, had several chipped bricks he could use to grab from. It only took about two minutes to reach the view point, where he simply sat and contemplated the view.

“Alright, the view’s not bad, gotta give him credit. But I fail to see the appeal in doing this every single day. I think I’d go nuts after the third time,” he thought to himself, finishing the ice-cream and throwing the wooden stick down the side of the tower. He could swear it read WINNER, but he didn’t particularly care about another free snack. It could only lead into a vicious cycle that would end with not being able to climb again due to excess weight anyway.

[Fate]

Winner Gets a Free Stick... Okay?

Lillian had used this day as an opportunity to get out of Radiant Garden, especially after what she heard went down in the Market Place with those silver haired guys. Sure, she was up for a fight now and then, but she didn't want to run into all three of them at once like the others did. She took off in her Gummi Ship and went exploring, deciding to see what other worlds were out there besides Traverse Town and Radiant Garden. This one looked sort of interesting, so she stopped here to see what was going on, wearing cargo pants and a tank top for a change.

Twilight Town was okay she supposed. The people seemed okay, though they tried to offer her some of that Sea-Salt Ice Cream stuff. Did they just sell that everywhere? It was in Radiant Garden too and Lillian didn't bother with it there; it looked sort of suspicious. She ignored the guy trying to give the ice cream to her, instead walking into a different part of town where the giant clock tower was. It must have an insane view of the eternal sunset the world was trapped in, though it would be sort of pointless to go up there just to look around; at least in Lillian's eyes anyway.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a wooden stick fell from the side of the clock tower. "Well that's not random at all," Lillian said to herself, walking over to pick it up. It was one of those ice cream sticks and it said "WINNER" on it. "And what the hell am I supposed to do with this...?" Probably nothing, but it sort of made her wonder who dropped it. Eh, that meant it might be worth a visit to go up to the top of the clock tower after all. She walked around the tower before she found an entrance to the stairs, starting up them immediately.

It took her a while, but she finally reached the top. There seemed to be some other guy there, the one who dropped the stick. She smirked and walked over, handing him the stick back. "Here, you dropped this," she said, then looking at the view from the top of the clock tower. It was okay she supposed; it showed just how big the town was and the sunset looked nice too. She would get bored of looking at the same thing all of the time though, so she couldn't see much of a point of staying up here.

[/size]

[Lagunamov]

Making that leap is looking more promising each passing second...

His thoughts kept trailing back to his home, wondering like always how things might be doing there. He was sure the world hadn’t been destroyed at the very least; otherwise he wouldn’t be so out of it at the moment and imagining voices in his head. That was the toll of having to listen to the ship’s radio for months without being able to actually interact with those calling. Though, considering they were more threats about what would happen to him if he was caught instead of simply returning, ignoring them was the best way out.

“Huh, what?” he was shocked when he heard the girl’s voice, surprised to see someone up there with him. He grabbed the stick that only moments ago had thrown to the ground below and looked at it. “You know you could have simply kept it and got a free snack yourself, right? I’m not planning on getting the free one anyway, you should keep it,” he said as he stood up, handing it back to her. It wasn’t such a big deal anyway, and that pretty much counted as the first nice gesture he had done for anyone in months.

“How did you get up here anyway? I thought the stairs were closed off or something. I had to climb the side of the building, you know? If you got up here in an easier way I’m gonna start feeling like an idiot,” he started rambling off, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand. The wind still hadn’t stopped, and now that he was standing on the ledge of the tower, he felt his sword, hanging from his lower back, moving back and forth thanks to the breeze. That was going to get old in a minute or so, so he reached back with his other hand and stuck the sheath under his belt.

“Where are my manners, I’m Elrick Wieland. And you, pretty lady?” he said, reaching out with his hand. It took him a second to realize he let out two extra unnecessary words. His mouth filter had certainly come off during the time he had spent alone, which was starting to be reflected on his slowly changing face. “Eh, never mind the last part. I don’t think you are… It’s not like I’m… I didn’t try to imply…” he rambled on once again, slowly digging himself into a deeper hole just because he tried to explain himself. “Aw, screw it, just shoot me and put me out of my mysery. Or you can push me off the building, no one will know anyway," he sighed, resigned to the fact that he had royally screwed up his first introduction in quite a while.

"So an alternate route up here wasn't necessary to prove me an idiot, good to know," he thought to himself.

[Fate]

Amusing Antics

"Oh, so that's what you're supposed to do with it," Lillian answered, taking back the stick and looking at it, "Never tried this stuff anyway. I might as well later I guess." She put the stick in her pocket for later use, deciding she might as well try one of these ice cream things that everyone kept raving about; it couldn't be that bad if everyone liked it. Her gaze went back to the guy now as he told her how he climbed up here. Her eyes widened slightly at that; he climbed? That had to take some level of skill right there.

"Yeah, the stairs say they're closed to the public," she told him, a slight smile on her face, "I just kind of slipped past them and got up here. You've got skill for climbing up here though. I don't think I could have. I'm Lillian Owen by the way." She took his hand to shake it, shaking it firmly before letting go. She then watched him stumble over his words, wondering if she should feel insulted or not. Nah, it was too funny to be insulted by; he was trying to be nice anyway, so no harm in that.

"Nah, I won't shoot ya," she said, taking one of her guns and twisting it in her hand before putting it back in the holsters, "I get that you're trying to be nice and all. Let's get out of here though so we won't get caught if someone sees us. I don't know if we're actually supposed to be up here..." She was still smiling, almost not caring if people could see them or not; what were they going to do, beat them up? Like that would ever happen.

"So do you live around here or something?" she asked out of curiosity, "Sorry if I'm being nosy and all that."

[/size]

[Lagunamov]

It takes some proverbial balls to make someone that large cry like an infant.

“Those were some mixed signals for a moment,” Elrick commented under his breath, a slow reaction to the gun waving while claiming he wasn’t going to get shot. He didn’t particularly like guns, if only because the only person who knew that used them was a complete prick. “Can you show me the way to the stairs that tricked me into stupidity?” he mocked, taking her offer of leaving the tower. The idea of watching a sunset that never ends for too long had started tire him. He had been there for almost twenty minutes after all; he had enough for possibly the rest of the month.

“I don’t think that’s noisy. Then again, you are competing against my sister, a girl who could literally torture answers out of people three times my size,” he reminisced with a faint smile as he followed Lillian to the stairs. The door leading to them was on the back side of the tower, and as he entered he was impressed by the mechanisms above his head that made the clock function. Not getting distracted for long, he simply followed her on the way down. “But yeah, I’m not from around here. I kinda had to stop at some world with sentient life before I got any nuttier. If I hadn’t, I’d probably end up making sock puppets or adopting a small shadow and keep it as a pet on my ship.”

It didn’t take too long for them to descend back to ground level, exiting the train station. Elrick stood at the base of the stairs leading to the station’s entrance, gazing up to the sky. “I’m still looking for a good place to stay. This world is fine and all, but I could use with some distractions in my life, and this place seems too peaceful from what I’ve seen,” he commented, looking back at her. “What about you? It takes one traveler of worlds to know another, so what’s your deal?”

[Fate]

But Climbing Down Would Have Been Fun!... Not

"Don't wanna climb back down? You're no fun. But sure, I can show ya the stairs and we can stop watching this not moving sunset." She led the way to the stairs that she had found to get up to the top, the door open from when she had gotten up there in the first place; she didn't think she would stay up here that long and she had been right. She was tempted to just jump down the stairs, but decided that she probably shouldn't waste her energy doing something kind of stupid; only kind of though.

"Remind me not to piss off your sister then if I ever meet her," she said, listening to what he had to say while they continued to descend. Elrick didn't seem to be from Twilight Town either, which made sense; he didn't seem to be like everyone else around here. He must have been flying around for a while too by the sounds of it, making her wonder just exactly how long. It didn't sound like flying for however long he did boded well for him either, though she guessed that if you flew around long enough without anyone else to talk to but yourself, you tend to go a little nuts.

"I don't think those things make very good pets," she told him, the two of them now at the bottom. He turned the question back on her now, which was all fine and good to her; it was fair and stuff. "You caught me. I'm not from around here either. I'm currently staying in Radiant Garden and helping them repair after the big attack we had there a while ago. It was one hell of a fight..." She lowered her head for a moment, now walking around in front of the train station. That fight had been probably one of the hardest she had ever been in and she hadn't won; they had all lost, every last one of them.

There was also the fact that her heart was tainted with the darkness... shoot, that didn't help things did it? Was that going to affect every person she came into contact with? Shoot shoot shoot. It was probably a bit late to even bother worrying about that now since she had been talking to Elrick for a while already, so she decided to just push it into the back of her mind.

"But yeah, I thought it'd be good to take a break from doing a bunch of work and see what else is out here. I can't say I like this place either though; it's way too quiet. You could come back and see Radiant Garden if you wanted to. I swear, there's something going on every day; it's nuts." In all of that, she never bothered to say that she wasn't even originally from Radiant Garden, but it was probably the closest place to home that she could think of for the moment since Libertas was gone. Then again, Elrick didn't say where he was from either...

"So if you're not from around here, then where are you from? Shoot, am I being nosy now?"

[/size]

[Lagunamov]

If good things came in small packages, three men wouldn't be scarred for life.

“Radiant Garden, huh?” Elrick couldn’t help but comment aloud, trying to remember any place by that name. Of course, if he had to think so hard about it, it only meant he had either never been there, or it was one of those worlds he found infested with shadows and simply left because no other human could be found. He didn’t find that many of them, only three or four, and the two that he remembered the most both had castles. Of course, he raided one for food supplies, so that place was bound to be stuck on his memory.

“If that place managed to survive a big attack, then I think it might be worth checking out after I’m done with this town,” he smirked, walking around. He wasn’t going anywhere in particular, just walking back and forth, and looking at stuff. He even went and looked down to the side of the station, trying to estimate how long the fall would be if he jumped that one meter tall wall for security that surrounded the entire area. The town’s structure was interesting, being built with varying elevation all throughout it. “There are still a couple things here worth checking out. Heard some rumors that some white shadows could be found, but not in large quantities. I’ve never seen them, so it peeks my interest,” he was, of course, referring to the Dusk nobodies. His terminology, being from a world that kept itself isolated from others, was different that the rest, so to him heartless were shadows, and every heartless class itself went by a different name Orpheus had assigned them.

“You don’t want to know where I’m from, trust me,” he sighed, trying to sidestep the question entirely. It wasn’t that it was difficult for him to talk about it, or that he had grown to hate the world, or such and such. None of those applied for it. He still loved Eurydice, and wished he could go back and change things, but in his current state, the best he could get was an execution for him. What worried him the most was that, if people knew of the world, some might actually try going there, only to find themselves sucked into the vortex of chaos the place could be for a complete stranger. Hell, someone from another world could even be taken in for experiments by Orpheus, and that was not a pretty sight.

“My sister is also back at home, so it wouldn’t be a good idea for you to try and drop by if you ever got curious. See, I’m just looking out for your health,” he joked quickly, trying not to let the conversation get any somber. It wasn’t particularly helpful to dwell on that anyway, so he might as well crack a joke or two about the emasculation machine. “Those poor, poor bastards didn’t know what they were getting into,” he closed his eyes and shook his head from side to side.

[Fate]

This is What We Get for Talking About Creepy Heartless Things

'You say that now, but if you come back to Radiant Garden with me, they'll have you working to help repair the place," she said, still wearing a smile as she started walking toward one of the streets. "That's why I escaped. Repairing the place is a good thing at all, but man those moogles can be such slave drivers if you get them mad enough." She inadvertently rubbed the back of her head after she said that; she hoped she wasn't talking this guy to death since she just met him and all.

The creatures that Elrick talked about didn't sound like any Heartless that she knew of, though she didn't see that many different ones when she was in Libertas, Traverse Town or Radiant Garden. Maybe finding them would be interesting. "I never heard of any Heartless like that, at least not any that I remember. I kind of hope we find some now; my aim has been sucking as of late." Well, it wasn't like she could really practice on any Heartless in Radiant Garden; she barely had the time to anymore with all of the work that the town needed done on it now.

The conversation turned somber for a minute as soon as Elrick said what he said. It didn't seem like he wanted to talk about his world either, which was definitely fine by her since she didn't want to talk about hers. Though, it was quickly replaced with a crack from him, obviously not wanting the conversation to go to the pits or anything. "How thoughtful of you," she replied. They got into the street now, the streets themselves pretty darn narrow.

Well... at least they weren't too narrow to fight in. Three of those silver Heartless things showed up right in front of them, standing almost as tall as Lillian herself. Their movements were sort of eerie and they just looked downright creepy to her. Her guns were in her hands in the next second, a grin on her face.

"Your interest piqued now?" she asked Elrick, shooting at one of the creatures once with each gun. It creepily moved out of the way. "Guess I get to work on my aim too."

[/size]

[Lagunamov]

They warped from the ground and can slowly float in the air, yet CLIMBING is what impresses them?

“I don’t see what’s bad about rebuilding if I ever get the chance to beat someone silly over there,” he thought to himself, keeping his chuckle inside. Surely, his intention was to learn things and become stronger, but if that world was such a center of attacks and shadows, then the price of actually having to work would be a small one. “The hell are moogles?” Elrick had never heard of those creatures, so he couldn’t help but wonder that. They certainly didn’t seem pleasant enough.

They continued walking, him checking out the town and the structure. It certainly had been constructed in an interest way, not to say messy, since apparently a map or photographic memory would be needed to traverse it properly. It wasn’t long after they entered a particularly narrow street that the creatures he had been wondering about only minutes before showed up to greet them, moving erratically on the ground. “Oh, I’m interested alright. Though it doesn’t seem I can put a leash on them that easily as the other ones,” he mocked as he reached for his sword, withdrawing it from its sheath slowly and in a reverse grip. “Just make sure you don’t accidentally hit me with those things and we’ll be fine. These seem like small fry.”

Removing the entirety of his sword from its sheath, Elrick dashed towards the creature on the farther right. He planted his right foot to abruptly stop in front of it, his body sideways compared to the Dusk, and tried stabbing the monster with his sword by plunging it forward. The creature avoided it by creeping through the air to its side as easily as it had done the bullets, which was expected. Elrick quickly changed his posture in response, and slammed the nobody with the sheath of the sword, which he was holding in his left hand. The creature was hit midair before it even had the chance to land after the last attack, and was sent flying backwards, slightly stunned, but not yet finished.

“They are more resistant than they seem,” he commented aloud, seeing his target slowly recover only some meters away from him. The other two had turned their attention to him in those last seconds, which was only natural for he was standing less than two meters away from them. “Oh, no you won’t!” he yelled when he saw them creep towards him, prompting him to put the sword back in its sheath and jump to the wall next to him, quickly climbing almost five meters up. Hanging from just his right hand, he shifted his body to see the street below him, noticing the nobodies appeared a tad baffled at what he had done, if that was even possible. “You guys can break the laws of physics, how the hell is this impressive to you!?”

[Administrator]

Hmm, these two could be quite interesting.

A shadowy figure looked down at the battle playing below. It had been watching these two for quite some time now, ever since they met up on the top of the clock tower. It grinned as it stared down at the two who were fighting Nobodies, a few Dusks by the looks of it. They would make excellent test subjects, if properly worked with. It would have to be careful with these two, and find what exactly their weaknesses were.

Of course, nothing exactly worked out as it had planned. The male proceeded to climb the building on which it stood. In reaction, Inhumorph immediately turned into Shadow form and flattened, only reverting to original form when convinced that the male was no longer looking near his direction. Of course, the creature was not as careful as it should have been, and, leaning over to watch the battle, managed to fall downward, over the side of the building.

Luckily, it fell directly on top of one of the Nobodies, which cushioned the fall. Unluckily...it was not wearing anything with which to hide its form. So, its true from was bared for all to see. Rather than let on that it was truly a monster, it rubbed its head and sighed, deciding to speak up and pretend to be something other than what its form implied. "Ah, that hurt. I am glad this thing was underneath, rather than the more solid ground..." It looked around, the deep voice it was speaking in interrupted as it seemed to take in notice of the other two who shared the area.

"Oh, I did not see either of you here," it said in its deep voice, looking around, at both of the combatants and then the Nobodies. "I apologize for falling into your battle...I do not wish to be cumbersome." Standing up, the creature brushed itself off and kicked backwards, slamming its foot into the Nobody and knocking it, while it was already stunned, to land a few feet away, floating in the air and jerking itself around in odd motions. The rather gargantuan Heartless stretched itself out and flexed its odd muscles. "I do suppose I could help you with this fight, as a more effective apology." The creature prepared to attack any of the Nobodies that got near it, and waited for the battle to continue. It was not that effective in a fight after all, despite its massive stature. It was much better at running away.

[Fate]

Seriously, What the Heck?

"I'll try not to," she said, getting into a good position with both feet planted firmly on the ground shoulder width apart. During Elrick's first attack, the Heartless-thing had gone into the air. That was her opportunity to shoot it and not accidentally hit him. She shot at it a couple times, though it avoided one of the shots. Elrick slammed his sword back into it and sent it flying, leaving the other two to deal with until the other did that creepy 'swimming through the air' thing to get back.

The opportunity to shoot at the Heartless things came again when he climbed up the wall, causing her to be a bit baffled as well. Damn, he was fast. She knew he said that he climbed the clock tower and she knew that it took skill... but wow. Well, she couldn't focus on that too long. The Heartless things seemed to have their attention on him for the moment, giving her the chance to shoot them. She shot at just one of them for the time being, six times in succession. About four of those shots hit, it dodging the other two. They were resilient... and annoying.

The other Heartless thing she wasn't attacking had something-- or someone-- fall on it, startling it. She wasn't sure really what to call it when she looked at it. It looked sort of human and talked, but it definitely wasn't human. Her guns were aimed at it for a second as she saw it land, though she didn't shoot just yet. It, or he since it talked in a low masculine voice, seemed to just be just as startled about falling into the little fight area as she was. She momentarily lowered her weapons.

"It's fine..." she said, not sure what else to really say here. This day was just turning out to be really odd. Eh, it was going to help them fight so she guessed that was okay. She concentrated on the creature she had been fighting, getting a slightly different angle on it so she wouldn't hit the new guy before she started shooting at it. Six more shots went off, though it avoided them slightly better this time as it came closer to her. She backed up a little bit, not liking to be too close, and shot at it some more with the same number of shots. They hit, causing the creature to falter but not disappear.

"Okay, these things are officially annoying," she said to herself.

[/size]

[Lagunamov]

And here I thought I might be able to make a white jacket out of its skin...

His eyes wide open in disbelief upon what had just happened, Elrick could do nothing but just hang from his safe spot far up on the wall and stare at the thing that had fallen from above and onto one of the White shadows. It was speaking like any other human, but its appearance alone, and possibly the way it moved around, proved quite the contrary. Despite its male voice, Elrick thought he knew better than to immediately classify it as an actual male; the closest he could classify it as was as a sentient shadow. Neither he nor anyone in Orpheus had seen one during his stay there, but the research team had certainly speculated one could be created eventually, either naturally, or by artificially implanting a personality onto a shadow.

“The guys back at home would have a field day with it,” he thought to himself, remembering the ‘field days’ the research team used to make. Strapping the subject into a table, making sure it couldn’t move. Opening its chest while it was still conscious, evaluating its pain tolerance and breaking point. Dismembering, swapping and reattaching limbs from different subjects, experiment on their compatibility among different kinds of shadows. Elrick wasn’t about to judge the sentient-shadow-creature in front of him, pilling it with the others, but previous experience made him cautious about it.

“Numbers are even now. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go after mine,” he said as he looked down from above. He took a good look at both the creature that had shown up and Lillian, making the latter one a small signal with his head by slightly tilting it in the direction of the former. Once that was done, he jumped from the wall to the opposite building, hanging from the ledge of the room and quickly climbing onto it. That particular roof was at a shorter height than the building he had originally started climbing, which would come in useful for what he had planned.

Standing on the roof, Elrick looked down back to the street, focusing on the Dusk he had originally attacked. It appeared to be still slightly confused, its head flailing around while looking for its attacker. If it wanted him so badly, he just had to comply. Unsheathing his katana once more, Elrick started running through the roof towards the nobody, gaining speed as he moved forward. Reaching the edge of the roof, he jumped from it in the direction of the monster, aiming his blade forward in his fall towards it. The Dust didn’t even see him coming from above, but that somehow was still not enough to finish it. At least not yet.

“You serious?” he exclaimed annoyed, standing on the creatures’ tiny shoulders, his blade impaled right through the monster’s head. Its body was flat on the ground, Elrick standing on top of it simply to keep it from moving away, though the sword could certainly do that as it had most likely gone through a couple of centimeters of the ground below, so it was essentially pinned down, no matter what. Sighing at the resilient little bastard, Elrick brought his sword back up, leaving the creature’s skull. It was then that it kicked the bucket, vanishing completely. The act made him lose his balance for a second, which was natural since he had been just standing on the damn thing in the first place, but Elrick quickly recovered from that little shock. “That’s more like it.”

[Administrator]

It is Dusk o'clock.

Humor observed the other two. One seemed to look at him, at least for a moment, with scholarly wonder. That one, the male, was not going to be a worthy subject of study. He had too scientific a mind, and therefore would be too difficult to work with. The other, the female, yes, she would do nicely. She wasn't as curious a mind, as dissecting, rather, as the male was.

He ran over to the Dusk he had knocked off balance and grabbed it, then formed into one of his alternate forms. A Wyvern Heartless hovered with the Dusk in its talons. Flying upward into the sky, Humor changed back into his regular form when a good distance above the ground. Falling, he held the Dusk above and behind him with his right arm, waiting until he got close enough for impact to...

...slam the creature into the ground. He wasn't injured, due to the Dusk having broken his fall, but the Dusk was. He released it and it got up, floating in zigzagged lines. "I suppose I should introduce myself to you. That would be the proper course of action, I do believe," the Heartless rambled slightly, his voice quieting near the end. "You may call me Humor, it is what I am called, most times."

[Fate]

Well This is a Bit... Awkward

Well, at least the numbers were even now. The new guy... thing... fought its own Heartless thing now while Elrick and her dealt with their own. Elrick was attacking from above, showing some pretty awesome skill in dealing with his Heartless thing; she had better think of a new name for them or she was going to drive herself nuts. She continued to shoot at hers, not having to worry too much about hitting her allies. That gave her a little more room to work with, though she still stayed pretty stationary. Her Dusk was approaching her now, causing her to just shoot at it more.

Their new ally transformed itself into a Heartless while Elrick shot down from above and attacked his opponent. Lillian's eyes widened a bit when she saw the Wyvern Heartless, persuading herself that this guy... thing... was just trying to help them out. It probably just could mimic the Heartless or something and could fight as them; she didn't need to shoot at it just because it looked like a Heartless. She concentrated on her Heartless, shooting faster now to take it out. It was shortly before the Wyvern took out its Heartless thing, or let it go rather, that she took out hers-- Elrick had finished before her. She noted that she would have to avoid ever pissing him off; he had some serious skill.

The new guy/thing introduced himself to the two of them, its name Humor. Good, she now had something else to call it by; it would be really awkward otherwise. Though, this whole situation was just sort of awkward. She couldn't explain why, but she felt put off by Humor. For now, she supposed she was going to have to ignore that feeling and be civil back; she could do that, right?

"Uhh... thanks Humor for your help," she said at first, putting her guns back into their holsters, "I'm Lillian." She decided she'd let Elrick introduce himself if he wanted to. She crossed her arms over her chest for now, not exactly sure where to go from here. She sort of just wanted to high-tail it out of there, but that would be rude. She would stay put for right now; if Humor tried anything funny, she'd shoot the hell out of him... it.

[/size]

[Lagunamov]

Holding back a malicious comment takes quite an effort.

Having decided to wait and watch Lillian and the creature fend off for themselves, Elrick simply stood with his arms crossed in the exact same spot he had landed and slayed the white monster. They could both fend for themselves pretty well from what he could see, which he figured was only natural if these things popped up frequently enough for two people simply passing by to stumble upon them.

His eyes widened however, the moment the unknown humanoid creature morphed into a type of shadow he had encountered in the world with the large pink castle. Of course, it appeared relatively different, mainly color-wise, but it was certainly the same kind of shadow. Mimicking a shadow was something he had never seen before, and he wasn’t about to dismiss the possibility that a human with special abilities might be able to do so. But the ‘man’ who had just done so looked nothing like a human, so the transformation, as temporal as it was, only raised an alert flag inside his mind. Well, more accurately a flag, stationary defenses and an interstellar battle cruiser on stand-by.

“The name’s Wieland,” he omitted his first name as he approached both of them, deciding to stand in such a way that the creature that had asked to be referred as Humor would stand in between them. If the creature tried anything funny, it would find itself victim to a pincer attack, though the fact that Lillian used guns could pose a problem if it dodged and he got hit by a bullet. “Could ya finish that thing off? I was planning on buying us a cup of coffee at a shop I saw when I arrived. Quite the lovely place, nice folk gather there,” he extended the invitation to both Lillian and Humor, but it was more than that. It was a way of getting rid of the sentient shadow in a polite way. After all, when was the last time a shadow walked into a coffee shop? It’d probably get shot with a shotgun by the store owner itself. So, even if it agreed to go there, Elrick would have something to entertain himself.