Scarred Bodies, Strong Souls (Ari, HE Event Thread)

The diminutive genin moved through the crowd of the Emporium as the festival was underway. As before various lanterns were strung up along lines down the various streets and boulevards giving the area an aetherial glow to it. People of all walks of life moved through the streets playing games, eating food, and having fun watching shows and dancing themselves. The night was young and fairly cool, although Valen’s body temperature was always higher than normal so he was comfortable. Indeed he had been waylaid once or twice by members of the female populace for warmth via hugging. He didn’t quite understand what any of that meant or why they did not just purchase coats but none of the requests particularly bothered him. He himself wore a black silk yukata with black satin along the hem of the sleeves and bottom. The black satin was also utilized upon the back to emblazon the symbol of Kirigakure into the back, causing the light to reflect off of it mildly and cause it to be visible. Around his waist was a simple red silk sash. His hair of course was up in it’s normal vertical manner and he wore his katana at his waist. He had gone without it last time but discovered he could in fact wear it so long as he didn’t try to draw it in a crowd.

Moving through the crowd he would take a look at the various games and food stalls. Yakitori stands, Yakisoba stands, corn dog stands, and other various types of foods of all kinds of varieties, be they salty, savory, or sweet, were represented. Colorful masks and fans were seen throughout and Valen had his own mask in his hands. A red and black one that matched his attire with the stag emporium symbol upon it. He also had a mask, although it was hanging around his neck, easily out of the way. He might wear it at some point but he wore enough masks working with the Nightmare Brigade, he was here to have fun, not be reminded of work if he could help it. Moving up to a game where one was meant to try to throw a hoop around plastic pink birds that stood on one leg. Valen would watch whomever was playing the game at the moment. He was probably too close, given his lack of a concept of personal space due to his years sharing space in confined spaces with other slaves. But if so he would apologize and offer to buy them something in recompense. He was use to it by now. He just couldn’t get a handle on how far from someone he was supposed to be.

[1]

Being in a festival was something Ari has not experienced in literal years. Not since the tragic events that occurred in Land of Iron. In fact due to the war and her trauma, the idea of being in a festival was foreign to her. However, her grandfather insisted that Ari attend this Heavenly Festival. The smells of food being grilled filled the air as there was a lot of muttering generating a lot of white noise so to speak.

On this occasion, Ari wore a colorful kimono that was half white and half black with a floral design on her sleeves. The sash that neatly wrapped around her waist was an orange silk with similar designs of golden leaves like they’re being carried by the wind. Her short, silver hair brushed thoroughly until they shone like silk as a black hairband allowed only her bangs to frame her face. She did nothing to hide the lightning scars on her face or hands as they are the only exposed parts of her flesh.

Ari found a game that seemed to be simple to do as she watched a mixture of people try their hand at getting the ring around the plastic flamingos. Some succeeded, others did not. Eventually Ari herself tried her hand with the game as she grasped the ring. However she felt an intense stare at her that actually made Ari a bit uncomfortable. She opened her mind to the sensory field and got a reading that there was indeed somebody standing uncomfortably close to Ari. If she held her former mentality Ari probably would have sucker punched the guy. However Ari simply threw her ring with a practiced motion and watched as the ring wrapped around the flamingo’s neck. Then Ari turned her head to look over her shoulder at the mysterious person.

”You know, standing this close to someone you don’t know is gonna send some wrong signals. Hopefully I’m wrong about those signals, but least to say be more careful in the future.”

Used Sensing Technique

As he watched the girl, she had to be around his age he thought, play the game he would watch as she neatly threw the ring and successfully flung the hoop around the flamingo's neck. He was about to comment on the good throw when she turned her head at him. White eyes met his as she spoke, commenting on how he was standing too close. But what was this talk of signals? Tilting his head to the side a bit he would study her. She had distinctive scarring on her face and what he could see of her hands. Scarring that looked as if she were made of broken glass. As if someone had physically broken her and put the pieces back together. It was an interesting scar, and it made him unconsciously touch his neck where a pair of vicious fang marks lay just barely hidden from view due to the cut of his Yukata. Still, she had spoken to him, and that needed to prompt a response right? Besides, he did not know what she meant by these 'signals'. So he would have to ask anyway in an attempt to understand what she meant.

"I apologize, I did not intend to cause alarm. I'm still trying to figure out what an 'ok' distance to stand near people is. I thought if you were watching them it was fine to stand closer. Was I wrong?" He would say, his red eyes meeting her white ones in curiosity. "For that matter, do you mean by 'signals'? I don't understand." He would say, taking a step back immediately in an attempt to assuage the girl so she might be willing to help him by answering him. As he stepped back he would mistakenly step back into the path of someone walking down the path. It was not that the crowd was tightly packed or anything. The person walking had just seen empty space to walk through and had begun to do so. So while Valen would have had plenty of space to step back to give the girl some space the act of doing so at that precise moment would cause him to collide with the individual.

The impact would not be overly dramatic or anything, just two people bumping into each other. However the individual who had walked into Valen, at no real fault of their own. Would proceed to pick Valen up by the back of his yukata. Seeing as Valen was all of 5'1. That was probably not difficult. The large man who was very tall with a bit of paunch to him did it with seeming little effort and he looked at Valen angrily. "Watch where you're walking brat." He would say before idly tossing him back in the direction he had come. This would of course make Valen airborne. That would in fact make it so that he could not change his trajectory. Of course, in the funny way the universe seemed to work 'back in the direction he had come' would invoke the law of murphy and send him sailing right back toward Ari. Red eyes would widen a bit in surprise as he flew but the distance was too short for him to do anything about it. Otherwise he might draw his sword and try to stick it in the ground to stop or shift his momentum. As it was though he had already been standing too close to the scarred girl and taking the step back had not put him very far.

If the impact occurred, they would probably clear the counter for the game Ari had been playing. If that happened Valen would try to angle their descent so that he took the force if possible. It had not been her fault, he had been standing too close and when he stepped back had not looked around first. So it would hardly be fair for her to be potentially hurt in the impact. If she moved in time, Valen would simply sail over the counter and proceed to knock over every flamingo on the way to the back wall. Should he impact the wall he would hit it with a fair amount of force, but not enough to really hurt. He would however definitely have the wind knocked out of him. Blinking in momentary dizziness and confusion the first thing out of his mouth would simply be "What's a brat?" Even as his mind wondered he had the urge to yell 'Strike!' after he had been thrown through every flamingo, knocking them down.

[2]

Standing himself up and dusting himself off as the large man scoffed at the ignorant question and left. Valen would be left confused before shrugging to himself and turning to begin helping the stall operator put his game back together. He had not really been hurt by the throw so it did not really bother him in the least. So he would take the time to ensure everything was as it should be before moving out of the stalls actual game area and turning to the tan skinned girl that had initially spoken to him. "I apologize for standing too close before. I'm having difficulty knowing where to stand around people." He would say simply before walking into the crowd. Perhaps he would go get some kind of food or something. Or maybe go train at one of the training grounds so that he could progress further. Either way he had clearly caused a scene here and it would probably be best to vacate in general in order to ensure everything continued to run smoothly.

Exit