[Open] The Assimilation

[Morlayaashia]

Timestamp: day 22 of spring 510AV

The young Dhani woman slept quietly outside of Sunberth in a large tent that felt almost more like home then the tunnels she'd grown up in. She tossed and turned, mumbling nothings in her sleep. The stars twinkled overhead, but the young Dhani, who's name was Ashia, slept purposefully inside. The night had a chill to it, but the tent kept most of it out.

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Ashia woke with the sun, eyes lazily opening. She sat up, rubbing her eyes with her small hands. She sat up, ready to start the day.

Then she remembered the promise she'd made herself and groaned, flopping back down. This was the day that she would go into Sunberth. And not simply to buy supplies for the year, which was normally the only reason she went into town. No, she was actually going to stay in town. The thought made her sick. Though she'd grown up around many, many people, she hadn't handled it very well. Her hands clenched into fists, revealing the faint scars that lined them when stretched taught.

She rolled over, sighing and speaking to herself as she often did, "Why did i make that ssstupid promissse anyway...nobody would ever know..I'm perfectly happy living wherever i want.." But she knew she was lying.

With that, Ashia stood. She packed her tent up with the speed of one who has done it a thousand times before, strapping it to her horse Kenia. She patted his back."Time to go into...town." She scoffed softly. If Sunberth was anything like the rumors twenty some years ago had said, this would be interesting. She mounted Kenia and galloped towards town.

[Morlayaashia]

As Ashia rode closer and closer to town, butterflies raged in her stomach. She was incredibly nervous, but her face showed none of it. In fact, she looked almost angry. Goosebumps rose on her arms, and she laughed a little at herself. "Relax....itsss not like anyone will know you.." That thought momentarily reassuring her, she rode right into town.

Then her stomach dropped. She had no idea what to do here. No idea at all. She murmured to Kenia "Thisss wass a bad idea.."

On an out of the way street that couldn't be quite considered an alley, Ashia nervously fiddled with her dagger, constantly checking the coins in her shirt.
"What am i doing here..." Her voice came out more of a slither than words..

[Morlayaashia]

Ashia slid down from her horse, eyes running over everything with a slight sigh. What in the world was she to do here? This had been an irrational decision. She didn't want to be surrounded by all these strangers, all these people who probably meant a girl like her harm. Her grip tightened on the dagger in her hand.

She wanted home, she wanted the warmth and love she'd had as a young child..

and the blood.

A shiver ran up her spine, her eyes falling to her arms. She stared, remembering. Then snapped out of it. That was ridiculous..so ridiculous. She'd gotten over it. But what would happen if she were to just...She mentally slapped herself. It was thinking things like that that made her do drastic things.

She put her head in her hands for a moment, eyes cold.

[Skylar]

"Excuse me."

The two words were spoken quite clearly to the Dhani. There were other people around, but the words included a light, friendly touch upon her shoulder. The man who had greeted her was of average height for a young human male and had a thin, slightly emancipated appearance. He had tanned skin and sandy brown hair with clear cool blue eyes.

He was smiling. It was clear that the city of Sunberth did not suit him. He was the kind of fellow who ended up dead and broke in a ditch somewhere within a fortnight. Nevertheless, it was hard to argue that he was indeed there, and staring right and her.

"Excuse me, are you alright? You looked ill for a moment there. This city isn't very safe, so, be careful."

The truth was that Skylar had been scanning Sunberth for a new body. He didn't as a rule like using the already-deceased for his new bodies. Nothing beat the feel of self-caught skin. The body he was inhabiting right now was the former: Found by chance among the gravestones. It didn't feel quite 'real' to not know anything about the man who's body he now used. He had nothing to go off of either... it was like half of himself was missing.

He'd come to Sunberth to remedy that uncomfortable feeling and find a new body for his ichor. At first he'd taken his time to try and scope out a new body, but time was growing short, and he was getting more willing to settle for anything. Not that he had approached Ashia for this purpose. He had other things in mind.

[Morlayaashia]

Ashia, knife in hand, moved very quickly, her knife almost finding its mark at the stranger's throat. She stopped herself just in time, careful not to hiss like she wanted to. Instead she lowered her dagger from the man's throat, clearing her own. "What do you want?" She snapped in annoyance, her seclusion from society (or perhaps simply her rudeness) becoming apparent from the tone of her voice.

Her blue eyes regarded him quietly, wondering what a man like him was doing in a town like this. Her lips curved upward slightly, wondering what she herself was doing here. She lowered her dagger further, assuming that he meant her no harm, but always wary. Her head tilted softly to the side, still smiling slightly.

[Skylar]

A part of never quite belonging in your own body is a certain dulling of reaction times. Most people act as quickly as it takes for a thought to get from their brain to their bodies, but in Skylar's case there was an extra step: First from the soul. This made him, well... slow. So it was the case that before he'd even processed the consequences of the action she was already lowering the dagger. Skylar's eyes widened something between fear and excitement. Luck had brought him through the scores of centuries of his existence and this girl had nearly ended it right there. This child! It was almost magical.

He put his hands above his head to indicate harmlessness. When he spoke, he linked his words with a subtle hypnotic suggestion so Ashia might put more stock in his words than she ordinarily would: "I mean you no harm. I'm harmless." It might not do much, but at least it was unlikely she would notice the mental tampering. A subtle little hypnotic suggestion like that barely registered.

"I'm sorry! I really didn't mean any harm. It's just that I'm a bit lost here and you looked a little friendlier than most people here. I'm supposed to meet a contact at some inn, but I haven't found it at all yet. I was getting pretty lost but most of these people would soon stab me as look at me so I thought I'd ask you... obviously that was a mistake. I'd rather you didn't you know... kill me."

He looked at her with soft, doe-like eyes. Inside he was thinking something else entirely.

[Morlayaashia]

Ashia watched the man's slow reaction with obvious suspicion, her emotions playing out clearly upon her face. Her eyelids narrowed, lips pursed. But as soon as his words were spoken, the suspicion in her mind became less. Her thoughts completely unguarded, she wasn't suspicious of anything but casual conversation passing between them.

"I don't think i can help you, sssir." Her lips turned back upwards. She was trying very hard to be sociable, but it just didn't come naturally to her anymore. "I'm jusst asss lost as you are here." She smiled further at his next words, a laugh almost escaping her lips. If only he knew.. "Thatss not likely." She eventually said, still smiling to herself. "But i'm sssure the Inn won't be too hard to find." Ashia gestured around at nothing and everything. "I mean, thiss iss a city....how hard could it be?"

[Skylar]

Skylar only gave an uncertain smile as he felt the danger ebb away from him. Minds were like clocks, and it was only a matter of winding them up and up, and knowing when to wind them down. He could almost dance, but that wouldn't have been very wise. Fear still undercut his every action, it was euphoric.

"Ah, lost together, are we? That's some serendipity. A couple of lost folk in quite a dangerous city. Well, I can't help but feel safer around you now that I know you can kill me and yet here I am. I hope you won't mind if I accompany you at least until we reach a place of at least relative safety? I'm only going to tag along, pay me no mind. My name is Skylar, by the way... what was it you were looking for here in Sunberth?" That simple sweet smile never once strayed from his lips, and Skylar's soft movement of sweeping next to her carried a lot of trust that she wouldn't just stab him in the back right there.

[Morlayaashia]

Ashia listened to his words, watching his smile. She could almost smell his fear; it made her heart race like crazy. The fact that he was calming down partially bothered her, but it also made her hope that she still had some social skills left in her. She smiled back at him, looking more like a beautiful predator then anything.

"You're lucky i didn't just bite you." She laughed, attempting to make a joke, but not waiting for him to react before continuing. "I don't mind if we find safety together, i was getting quite disoriented. I'm Ashia...." His question made her think. It wasn't like she was going to spill the past twenty years out of her lips to him in the middle of the street..or anywhere for that matter. However, the pause in speech was becoming overly long as her eyes followed his movement. "I..um. I came to Sunberth to.....actually, i don't know why i came." Her words were meant to have a light playfulness, but in actuality they ended up sounding very true, as they were.

[Skylar]

"Oh, is that luck?" He responded slyly, his eyes shining as he looked at her sideways as they walked side by side. Of course she didn't mind if he accompanied her a bit, why would she? Why should she possibly mind at all? Skylar was beginning to get a sense of her. She shifted moods rather quickly, she probably kept him around because she felt a certain power over him. And one or two other things occurred to him as well.

Starting up his hypnotic power again, Skylar pushed an emotion into Ashia's brain, it was a minor use of the ability that only caused the emotion to flicker across the brain and could be easily squashed by someone who was paying attention, but if he was lucky she wasn't. He placed his cold hand on her elbow and smiled at her, pushing the emotion of 'comfort' into her brain, trying to make her feel more comfortable and content in his presence. He smiled as he looked at her. "You don't know why? Well, I can understand that. We're often driven to do things we don't fully understand, you know. Perhaps you were looking for something."

Skylar was eager to get off the streets. They happened to be passing an establishment called 'Tall Johnny's', if the sign were to be believed. It seemed to be some kind of gambling establishment. Skylar grabbed Ashia's hand in his own frigid hand and moved to enter it. "Shall we get off the street, then?"