Reign had already spent multiple days going around Zramore and the surrounding area, more like a ghost than anything else. He never properly entered the town, usually leaving before anyone could take notice of him. It wasn’t anything unusual for him to do. In fact, this had become the young man’s main way of living after the academies had fallen. He would always single out a single weapons or dust shop where he would restock, then go on a rampage with the local Grimm, return to the shop and then repeat. They had taken almost all goals from him, so why should he not be allowed to have his personal revenge, whilst also keeping the outskirts of the city cleared of Creatures of Grimm, as much as a single soul could clear an entire area anyways.
The remainder of a Beowolf pack was just closing in on him. A pack previously made of seven Beowolfs, now only had four left, which were trying to somewhat surround Reign. He looked for his best way of escape. He was a formidable fighter, but he still had to admit that four Beowolfs dogpiling him was no fun thought. Reign hurled one of his Traumfängers into the air, extending his hand toward it, and zipping up to his chakram in an instant, just to throw the other chakram right behind one of the Beowolfs and do the same again, this time getting pulled toward the ground however.. Once his feet touched the ground, he immediately pushed off of it again, starting to punch and slice at the next Beowolf with his weapons. After the first went down, Reign moved on to the next. Each attack with another, louder yell, and with his emotions growing stronger he just attracted more Grimm for him to attack. A welcome side effect.
It wasn’t long before the larger Grimm arrived: As a few Nevermores began to swoop down, shrieking as they extended their claws, preparing to dive down to the ground—before one of its wings was clipped by a whirling slash cloaked in a light blue hue.
“Tsk.” He didn’t know why hoards of Grimm was appearing near here, but Acroma was annoyed by it as he caught the metal card that boomeranged back to him after tearing through the Grimm’s limb. His vision was blurred, he was aiming for the head, and he had missed. The dust compartments mounted on the metal sheet went down by a third, the miss had terrible consequences as Acroma tossed out the card once more at the falling Nevermore. This time it was lodged into the creature’s neck, before light blue spikes created from hard-light dust exploded out, decapitating the Grimm. As the large carcass faded the young man went up and picked up the card, sticking it into the ouch mounted on the left of his belt, while pulling out a new one from the right container.
The growls and shrieks of Grimm still rang out through the area as Acroma decided to leave, the place was no longer safe, and he can barely fight. The air felt different, much more different than the last time he was out. It must have been months, months that he was trapped in some unknown place while the world moved on without him. The forest scenery was blurry and his head felt heavy, what was the last time he’d slept? A week ago? Or when he was passed out in a lab? But there was no time to rest, more Nevermore swooped ahead in the sky and the sound of prowling land dwelling Grimm became louder, as the scenery gave away to reveal a few piles of squirming black material. It was Grimm, Beowolfs, or something, but amongst the creatures was something else...it seemed like, a person. Muscle memory always served Acroma well, as a metal card was swiftly launched at the space between two Beowolfs, hard light blades extruded as it flew past the Grimm, skewering both. It was only then he could take a good look at the only other person he’s seen weeks. Acroma felt his breathing grow heavy as the idea of being chased out here for weeks sent paranoia down his mind again. No, no, this isn’t Atlas, it’s been weeks, he ran non-stop for so long, it’s not possible. But the young man wasn’t someone to take chances, chance wasn’t by his side at the moment anyway.
“W-who, what, I mean…” Acroma held up the metal card that just returned to him after finishing off the Beowolfs, and pointed it towards the other combatant. His voice sounded surreal, not only raspy but slightly shaking as well, it was probably months since his last normal conversation.
“You! What are you doing here!”
Reign was surprised by the sudden explosion of blue light and the death of the Beowolfs. As if by second nature he reached down to his belt, grabbing his other weapon from it and pointing it in the direction he presumed the explosion to have come from. Only to see through the sights of his gun that he was pointing it’s barrel in the direction of a blue clad, what appeared to be, human male, who was holding a rectangular object in his hand, made of some darkened material he couldn’t identify from this distance. He thought for a second, about using his weapon to close in, but decided against it. Best case scenario was that he would just make an unnecessary enemy. When the other yelled over at him, Reign lowered his weapon, the other didn’t appear to terribly hostile. Maybe very cautious at worst, which he couldn’t hold against anyone in a world like this. As he attached Albtraum back to his belt, whilst simultaneously having both his chakrams revert back to their more non-lethal rod state, he raised his hands slightly above his head, trying to tell the other that he wasn’t hostile.
“I am a wanderer, who had an unfortunate run in with creatures of Grimm nothing more.” As Reign spoke with his soothing voice he started slowly walking toward the other one. He held his two, now rod-like, weapons up high, before stowing them away at the back of his belt, now finally letting his hand fall back down to his sides. He moved carefully and slowly, as to not the startle the other, he appeared agitated as it is, and scaring him away would have no benefits. Who knew? The other might be in need of a helping hand, he seemed trouble enough to make that assumption.
As he came closer to the other he got a better look at him, taking in as much detail as he could. The other had long hair, just like him, partially black and partially white. He was taller than Reign, maybe six to eight inches. He wore mostly black, with a blue jacket slung around his shoulders, how ironic that the other’s clothes seemed to be the opposite of his black and red color scheme. Reign also got a better look at the object in the others hands, it appeared to be made of blackened metal, and on the back of the objects were tubes, five each, two bigger at the outside and three smaller ones toward the middle, filled with what appeared to be two different kinds of dust, one Reign assumed to be light dust, one thing was for sure, these things weren’t toys, they were weapons. What he could also see were the heavy bags under the other’s eyes, he must have gone at least three nights or more without sleep.
“My name is Reign.” He began, hoping introducing himself would make him appear at least a little more trustworthy or friendly. “Have you not slept the last nights? You know, lack of sleep might ruin that pretty face of yours.” He couldn’t help but make a small comment. It just simply wasn’t in his blood to keep his mouth shut when he saw an opportunity to make a small verbal jab at someone else.
“But what is it that you are doing here?” Reign asked, stopping maybe three and a half to four feet away from the other. Getting too close might just spark his suspicion even further, if his comments had not already done so.
Acroma's hand shook slightly as he saw the other approach. He took a good look at the man, trying to blink out the cold sweat the dripped into his eyes. A red cloak, tattered like his own attire, and weapons that were sheathed earlier. The shaking arm calmed down a bit as Acroma decided to return his weapon as well, but his arm's motion halted and instead sent the darkened steel sheet straight up. Another Nevermore shriek as the creature fell out of the sky branded by those signature light blades, struggling a bit before fading away.
Ah, the other seems calm. He was the one attracting Grimm now, he needed to pull it together as well.
“Y-you…” Acroma's hand steadied a bit but his voice retained the shake as the other introduced himself.
“My name...I-I, my name is…” He put his hand over his eyes, trying to gather his mind. Goodness, of course he remembered his name, but it's been so long. It felt like an eternity.
“I'm Acroma, my name...yeah, that's my name.”
Acroma stared up at the other. Reign? At least that was the name he caught between Grimm shrieks and his own head ringing. He had nice warmly colored eyes, like the warmth of the sun and air around them
“Here? H-here?” It made Acroma's mind feel blank when he was asked what he was doing here.
“ I-” He began speaking but cutted off with a deep breath.
“I'm not supposed to be here...no...w-what, what continent is thi—” Ah right, he didn't even know what
“here” is, the other would surely know and have an answer, but before Acroma could get that answer he collapsed. An iridescent light that reflected a rainbowly color briefly washed over him before fading away. It was his Aura, or at least what's left of it petering out.
The moment the other started to drop Reign rushed forward, catching him just before he hit the ground. The other, Acroma, he said his name was, looked as if he might as well be dead. His face had a sickly ashen color to it, even though Reign had never before seen Acroma, he was sure that this color was not natural, it was almost as if all the skin on his body was entirely devoid of color, not counting the heavy bags under his eyes.
The Grimm, that one of them had attracted started loosing track. Only few kept the two boys in sight. Reign sighed, defeated, he would rather tend to the other one now, he was clearly in need of some help. Reluctantly he pulled out both of his chakrams once more, having them eject their dust cartridges once they had folded over into the actual chakram. Both cartridges had only a little fire dust left. It’d have to do for the three Nevermores that seemed to stay around in the air, while the other Creatures of Grimm slowly took their leave.
“Stay calm. You can’t risk having all of them rush back to you.” The Nevermores now seemed to have spotted him proper, and were trying to attack. Reign tossed both of his chakrams toward the two Nevermores on the sides, in an arc. The blades of his weapons slashed through them, like a knife through butter, and when they first impacted the Grimm, both of his weapons started catching fire, still spinning, now both arcing toward the last remaining Nevermore, burning it to a crisp, like it’s two companions. When his weapons dropped to the ground Reign refrained from using his semblance, the more Aura he had left the better, instead he took out his sidearm.
“Four out of six shots left, with some spares at the ready. Should be alright if a stray Beowolf decides to turn up.” Slowly and cautiously he retrieved his weapons and returned to Acroma.
“He doesn’t even know where he is? Oh dear, what have I gotten myself into?” He knelt beside the other boy once more. He was certainly not dressed like he was from Vacuo, the fabric of his clothes was much thicker than Reigns, long sleeves, thick pants that go down to the ankles, a thick jacket, even if just worn as a makeshift cape and to top that all off the thick fabric was also black? Yeah, certainly not from Vacuo. The sweat on his brow was another sign that he was dressed the wrong way, not accustomed to Vacuo’s temperatures, or both. Luckily, the boy didn’t seem to have passed out from some sort of heat-shock, he seemed to merely be catching up to all the sleep he had skipped.
Reign carried the other to a shadowy place. Despite him being smaller, Acroma was surprisingly a good few pounds lighter than Reign, so Reign had few trouble carrying him. After finding a spot cast over with shadows he took of the other’s jacket and propped his head up on it, as if it was a makeshift pillow. He was lucky to have passed out in one of the small forested areas in Vacuo as well, and not directly in the sun. Reign then went to open up the other’s shirt, as much as it felt wrong and odd to be undoing a total stranger’s clothing, at least he wouldn’t overheat.
The next thing he did was taking out one of the spare bullets he had for his gun. He pressed it against the palm of his own hand, and it ever so slightly emitted a crimson glow for about three seconds, Reign’s sign that the bullet was now tied to him and his semblance. Carefully he tucked away the bullet in the pockets of Arcoma’s pants. If he wanted to get to him quickly, for whatever reason, this should do it.
“So, what’s next? He hasn’t been sleeping for ages, so I’ll go out on a limb and say that he either hasn’t been eating well, or food poisoned himself. So I guess that’s next on the list.” Reign took another look at the other one. From what he could tell, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully, good, that way he wouldn’t attract any more Grimm, although Reign was not going to go terribly far away, he didn’t want to have an unnecessary death on his hands. Acroma likely had family and friends, somewhere, and it would be unfair to take someone away from them because of his laziness and carelessness.
A few hours had gone by. Reign had gotten lucky, he had managed to find a small, what seemed to be, hare family. One of the few animals that lived in the heat of Vacuo and was easily huntable and edible. Reign had managed to pick two of them off, likely too much for two people, he couldn’t even imagine eating more than half of one of them, but he would rather have too much and then give some of it back to mother earth instead of not having enough food. Besides, to his knowledge, hares reproduced rather quickly. The animals were easily prepared, even though he questioned why his mother insisted on teaching him how to cook and everything that has to go along with it, now he was more than happy that she did.
“Hey... sleepyhead. Wake up.” He whispered to the other, trying to make his voice sound as melodic as possible and shaking him out of his sleep gently.
“You know I went through the trouble of making you food. Now you better wake up and eat. My cooking isn't that bad, or so I’ve been told.”
The shaking woke Acroma, as his eyes fluttered open he felt his muscles tense up once more and his instincts took over for a moment, before remembering what happened.
“O-oh.” When he saw Reign, reality finally took over once more, he blinked a few times, trying to get himself awake. The area was quiet, the Grimm were gone, it would be bad if more were attracted here.
“Thank you.” Acroma whispered as he tried to calm himself.
“...For saving me.” And likely many others too. The past few weeks Acroma has been fighting not only the Grimm roaming in the outside world, but also the one that was put into him. It was dangerous out here, at day he forced himself to be calm and staggered along, but whenever he tried to get a moment of sleep nightmares began to return. Acroma didn't mind the nightmares, he had prepared for what happened to him, it was the Grimm that approached him at night. It kept on awakening the Grimm that was in him, it tried to take control, so it could fight for its survival. Acroma couldn't let it, he's seen what people could become if they relinquished control. He wasn't about to become one of those.
After a few moments Acroma managed to wake himself up. He can feel his Aura replenishing, gradually healing the fatigue from the past days.
“It smells wonderful.” He replied with a soft smile as he looked up at Reign.Who Reign was and what he does is still unknown to Acroma, though his actions made it clear that he was friendly.
“And, um, you're a little...too close.” In an attempt to get up from the ground Acroma can see that the other boy was basically right beside him. He tried to point it out as gently as possible, with the same faint smile. He was talking to the person who just saved his life after all.
“Am I? I apologize then.” Reign said with a wide grin as he moved away a little. Reign suspected that no one would know that his questions wasn’t entirely rhetorical, a stranger would not know anyways, but the concept of personal space had always escaped Reign to a certain degree. He understood that some people where not comfortable with others close to them, but that’s where it stopped. That wasn’t helped by the fact that Reign had never had any sense of personal space, he had always been perfectly fine with people being close.
“Well, eat. I made it pretty much just for you. Assumed you haven’t been eating well if you are as tired as you are.” He gestured towards the food he had made.
“And let me know what you think, alright?” Reign himself wasn’t sure if he was entirely serious with what he just said. Reign let a bit of time pass by, just laying down on the ground, with his hands behind his head, looking up at the sky.
The smell of the food was distractingly tempting to Acroma, like how he can barely remember the last time he properly slept, he can barely remember the last time he ate real food as well. What the hell was he eating anyways? Probably the grass. Standing up he picked up his jacket after straightening out the wrinkles, it wasn’t needed, but it was something he was used to, before grabbing some of the food that Reign showed to him.
“It’s amazing.” While it is true that Acroma haven’t ate in a fair amount of time, he had to admit that even in Atlas it was hard to comeby meals that are this well cooked. Well, most things up in Atlas was processed anyways.
“Well, much different than what I’m used to.” He looked up at the other, who seemed to be busy looking at the sky.
“I thank you for the compliments. And you are in Vacuo.” Reign spoke up again.
“You asked before what continent you are on, right? Well, the continent is Sanus and the kingdom is Vacuo.” Reign sat up again. He voice had changed as he spoke, from his usual rather cheery, slightly raspy voice to a more silent and sincere tone.
Vacuo. When Acroma heard that his heart sank a bit, but along with a sense of relief. He was far from Atlas, and he probably won’t be able to get back there soon, but the Atlesian military had less power in these parts of the world. It’ll be less likely for him to get caught again before sneaking back.
“You are definitely not from here. The clothes you have on you are not at all fitting the temperatures in Vacuo.” Reign now undid the ragged red cloak and put it aside, just leaving his upper body in a thin, black, sleeveless shirt.
“Most people here wear thin fabrics, and either go around with their shirts and jackets always opened or without sleeves. If you don’t want to get a heat shock, then you shouldn’t put on that jacket, and leave your shirt open, like now.” Reign snickered a little.
“Who knows? May attract some pretty guy or gal, wouldn’t be surprised. The jacket can help in the night though, then it gets colder and then you should probably button up that shirt, unless you’re used to the cold anyways.” Reign kept explaining with as soothing a voice as he could muster.
“Speaking of clothes. There is a bullet in the left pocket of your pants.”
“You never answered my question. What is it that brought you here?” Reign looked Acroma directly in the eyes. The color of the two boys’ irises was another contrast. Reign’s had a warm beryl, almost red color to them, while Acroma had dark blue eyes, they even seemed a little cold to Reign, a welcome difference from the almost constantly hot weather.
“I don’t know what brought me here.” Acroma tried to remember what happened to him after he was locked up in Atlas for awhile. “I came from Atlas.” He fumbled a bit with his shirt collar and buttons as he replied, thinking about Reign’s earlier comment on his attire. Putting a hand on his side he can feel a few ribs clearly, before this he haven’t realized how much his body wasted away. A deep sign came out of the young man as he tried to organize his outfit and push his dual colored hair locks out of his eyes.
“You know, this type of thing tend to happen up there….” Acroma wasn’t sure how much Reign knew about Atlas, but despite their riches and power corruption ran rampant, kidnappings of people and exchange of information was almost common. His family had dealt with it for years now, he knew it was coming to him, but it still took its toll.
“I mean, getting kidnapped and shipped to another continent that is.”
“Kidnappings happen in Atlas just like that? Must be a very, interesting everyday life then. Atlas is pretty much on the other end of Remnant, so getting there might take a while. Well, just your luck that you met someone who’s been strolling around in Vacuo for… a little too long to be considered healthy.” Reign smiled brightly at the other, he hadn’t been so excited for a long time.
“And don’t worry about that there.” he gestured toward the slightly exposed ribs.
“You did say my cooking was good, so here’s to hoping I can get you a little more on there. On a more serious note. I doubt that kidnapping is a regular thing in Atlas, especially if you then end up in Vacuo of all places, where no one benefits from the kidnapping in the first place. So, is there maybe a reason someone pulled a sack over your pretty face?” The look on Reign’s face was a weird mix of happiness, excitement, but also concern, although the wide grin did not leave his lips.
“Of course it was an interesting life.” Acroma replied a bit more light heartedly,
“I’ve fought a Leviathan one on one before.” He left out the part where he used over half a ton of hard light dust. When Reign brought up the doubts about him being shipped to Vacuo, Acroma paused for a moment. He wondered whether or not he should tell the other about what was happening back there. The screaming, the battle, and the Grimm that haunted him. Looking down at the ground Acroma felt that it was better to not let just anyone know, if the information would be made public, it would be by his family.
“Well, of course there is a reason.” While it’s true every powerful person, powerful family in Atlas had their own agenda, pulling illegal stunts was always the last line.
“My family...most militia in Atlas don’t like us.” Acroma shrugged as he tried to portray the situation in a lighter fashion,
“You see, we do our own thing and we don’t tend to listen to the military, so that annoyed a lot of people. They kidnapped me and tried to ransom the rest of my family into listening to Atlas command.” A light chuckle came from Acroma as he finished the sentence,
“Too bad I was good enough to get out on my own.” He looked up at Reign with a prideful smile.
Reign couldn’t help but snicker at Acroma’s expression,
“You, my dear, are good enough for a nap, and that’s about it.” like a child the smaller one stuck out his tongue a little, winking at the other,
“Say then, if it’s your family that caused all this, even if not directly through their hands, what’s your last name then? Maybe it’ll ring a bell.” Reign said, with a more serious expression again.
“I guess my performance hasn’t been the best then.” Acroma shrugged off Reign’s comments with another small laugh, since it was true that the first thing he did in front of him was pass out cold, probably didn’t leave the best first impression. Though the air quickly turned more serious as he was asked about his family name. The Leicesters had a complicated relation with Atlas, and a more complicated one with the rest of the world. While they didn’t have any major reputation stains compared to other families like the Shreiks, their transformation from a dust research lab to entertainment center certainly didn’t come without controversy.
“Leicester, Acroma Leicester.” His full name was never something he had to tell others, as everyone knew back in Atlas. But here is different, it would be something reserved only for those who are trustworthy.
“
Leicester…” Reign repeated the name a few times, each time with a different pronunciation, hoping to eventually get it right.
“I have never heard of that name, sorry.” He said eventually shrugging apologetically,
“So, you are an atlesian guy, who is apparently a thorn in the side of the atlesian military, I will just not ask whether or not you are a criminal, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt with that. Well then, welcome to Vacuo, my name is Reign Beaux DeWynters, I hope you have a fun stay. I will be your tour guide, just tell me what’s next.” Reign was somewhere in between being serious and joking. But he did mean being Acroma’s glorified tour guide, what else would he be doing? Going around killing Grimm for the rest of eternity was the most likely answer, and with that being the other option, he’d rather risk actually siding with a criminal than doing what, in the end, would amount to nothing. And a trip around the continent, and maybe even others, with someone else could certainly be fun. Reign liked Acroma, to the degree that you can like someone who you have just met, he brought a little bit of excitement into the otherwise rather grey life he had lived, and while he wouldn’t say it aloud, he was already thankful for that alone.
A wave of relief washed over him as Reign admitted to not knowing about his family, being commented on by the outside world was always a pain.
“It’s good that you don’t know, the more you know in this world the more tiring it is to live.” He reassured the other with what his brother always told him.
A cough came out of Acroma as he heard Reign questioned whether or not he was a criminal, perhaps he had underestimated the impression that the Atlesian military left on the rest of the world. But even so the boy offered to be his guide in Vacuo, which let Acroma question whether he had anything better to do.
“Ah well, if Atlas paints me as a criminal I won’t even be surprised.” After all he escaped with a secret that might collapse the world’s trust in them.
“My tour guide?” Even though the other offered on his own, Acroma still felt like he should question it out of courtesy.
“But, don’t you have anything to do? I mean, you said you were a wanderer but...don’t you have a home? Or a job?” Despite that Acroma felt happy that the first person he ran into at Vacuo was someone who was not only willing to save his life, but also continue on. He’s always anticipated the journey to be lonely, and he’s glad that it didn’t have to be that way.
At the mention of a home or a job, Reign didn’t know whether to be laughing or sad.
“There was… something… I- I can’t quite explain what happened, I think I’m still trying to process it myself. But all the huntsmen academies just… well things went sideways in the most colossal way. Now? There isn’t much room for a huntsman, so I just go places. Getting some Lien from occasional small jobs some people are offering and otherwise sleeping out under the stars and hunting my own food.” In the end a smile did creep back on his face,
“Well, you have to make the best of everything and crying over spilled milk really isn’t my thing to do. So instead I’d be pleased to show you around, it’d be a nice change for once to not be entirely alone walking my feet off.” He let a short silence settle in, pressing his lips together, and seemingly think about something.
“If we do take off together then I will have to ask you to do something. Remember that bullet in your pocket I mentioned? Keep it there, it might come in handy at some point.” Reign said eventually, again with a voice that was somewhere trapped in between serious and joyful.
Huntsmen. When Reign mentioned the huntsmen academies Acroma began to understand him a bit more, after all he himself once wanted to go to one, but that was all in the past. Atlas wasn’t a fan of huntsmen anymore, and anyone who wanted to learn how to fight needed to enroll in the military instead, it was at times like these that Acroma was thankful for his freedom.
“I’ve heard what happened in the past.” He didn’t know what to say to Reign, but the other’s cheerfulness manage to rid him of his concern.
At the mention of the bullet Acroma pulled it out, it seemed like a regular bullet, but it felt a bit warm. Aura can be felt within it.
“Huh. Is that so?” Acroma assumed it could be a type of semblance, as his own semblance can be used in a similar way. As his thoughts went to that he realized that his weapon was still unchecked since he woke up, quickly he pulled out two stacks of darkened metal sheets from the pouched on his belt, one pile empty of dust and another full. His fingers ran through the sheets as the young man counted up his remaining dust,
“that’s more than forty…” Forty out of a little over fifty that’s ran out.
“Tell me, where can I get dust?” Throwing out the question to Reign as he checked through his card stack once more, a few plastic Lien pieces fell out of the metal cards.
“I guess the people who caught me didn’t do a good check, my Lien and my card are still here.” God, the last thing Acroma would want was for Reign to pay for his ammunition too, when he still didn’t have anything to give for the life saving. In that moment Acroma remembered his semblance, he sighed and pulled out one of the empty cards and quietly infused some Aura into it — his good luck charm that’ll protect someone with his semblance.
“If I’m keeping the bullet then you’re keeping this.” Sliding the card towards Reign he mimicked the other’s tone when he requested him to keep the bullet.
“It’ll come in handy at some point, now get me to a dust shop.”
At the mention of dust reign remembered that he had to have ran out by now. He took out his Traumfänger again, and let them unfold, then triggering the mechanism to have the weapons eject the cartridges. The moment they poked out of their slots, the smell of burnt plastic hit Reign and a wall of smoke immediately hit his face causing him to cough. He will need to get some replacements for sure.
When the card was handed to him, Reign couldn’t help but chuckle at the impression of his new companion. He pocketed the card and took a few steps away from Acroma, until they were about five feet apart, then he turned around on his heels, smiled at Acroma and seemingly disappeared. Only for a split second however, the smaller one seemed to reappear out of nowhere, almost chest to chest with Acroma. With a sly smile on his lips he took the bullet from Acroma’s hands and put it into one of the other’s pockets,
“Careful, you don’t want to lose it.” He whispered, smiling from ear to ear, barely able to contain his laughter.
“Now as for the dust, I think I know a place in a nearby town that could suffice.” He said, taking a few steps away again.
Sharpened battle senses let Acroma know that whatever Reign did was probably a semblance. If he didn’t have a semblance that can’t be controlled he probably would have done something back, though he did pull out another card and activated its gravity dust, jumping a few feet higher than the tree tops and struck a landing in the exact place that Reign stood earlier. With a quick step he tugged on the other’s long hair lightly, being tall does have its advantages, like a longer stride length.
“Then come on, let’s go.”
As the other tugged on his hair, Reign stopped dead in his tracks. Looking at him, with a halfway deadpanned and halfway devilish expression,
“Oh, I will remember that!” Reign said stiffeling his laughter. It didn’t hurt, at all, in fact Reign was surprisingly happy about it. The last time someone wouldn’t get mad at his teasing was back when he was 17 or 18 years old, which seemed like half an eternity ago. He had a feeling that a trip like this would at least be some fun, travelling with someone he could have his fun with, but who would also strike back a little.
Reign led Acroma through the small forested area that they met in, until a town came into view. Reign had been lurking around that specific town for a few days now. Even though he tried to stay away from cities and even smaller villages, it was always beneficial to be close to some civilization.
“That should be Zramore. I don’t know what exactly, but something went down there, I could hear at least some of it even here. We’ll just keep away from that area, and then we should be golden.” Reign explained. Starting toward the town.
“I do have one more question.” the smaller one began as they reached the city and he began leading the other through the streets,
“Your name, I’ve never heard something like that before. Is there anything behind it?” As he spoke he lazily clasped his hands behind his head and turned a little to see of Acroma was still following.
“My name?” Acroma was a bit confused a first, but soon understood that in Remnant, color names were popular, it would be indeed strange to come across someone who is named after having no color.
“It’s a family thing you know, Aura colors. Our bloodline’s Aura just happens to not have much color, so the kids gets these names.” He paused a bit before adding:
“Well, kind of, it’s like a crystal you know, it seems like it has no color but if you look at it from the right angle…It looks like a rainbow.” As they approached the town Acroma tried to flatten out the wrinkles in his shirt and, trying to look more presentable in actual civilization.
After a little bit more silent walking they reached a building that Reign stopped in front of,
“This is Xanthia’s Bullet Craft and Weapon Repair. I did some asking around two days ago, someone recommended this shop to me, so now we are here.” He explained opening the door.
As he entered he saw that the shop was filled with numerous other people. For a second Reign stopped, before entering slowly, looking like a child who had stolen something and was now coming back to admit it,
“Can… can you do the talking? P-please?” Reign whispered as silently as possible to Acroma.
Reign’s reaction was a little concerning, there were other people in the shop already, Acroma didn’t know who these people were, but if they’re in a shop out in the open it was probably alright. He waited as a woman in front picked out some dust crystals.
“Umm, excuse me.” It felt a bit rude but this was a shop after all, he doubt that the shop owner would ignore any customers.
“How much gravity and hard-light dust do you have in stock?” After asking the question Acroma looked back at Reign.
“And fire dust too.”
Reign was intimidated by the situation. He may be cheery and outgoing, but not with more than one or two people around him. He felt like turning into a small puddle and sinking into the ground, pulling the collar of his cloak into his face even more than before. Like a sad puppy he followed behind Acroma, fighting the instinct to grab hold of the other’s hand. Reign hated these situations, he always felt like everyone was looking at him and that then made him feel like he was being squashed under a 50 ton weight. When he heard Acroma finish, he just mouthed ‘thank you’, hoping the other would see it.