― TOWER INCARNATE .

❝ I'm not meant as your entertainment. ❞ or really anybody's, especially when it came to fate an the laugh it offers to his very existence. why she had called him over was beyond his knowing, truly, granted it was an array of drinks that sit upon the table. she had said something about combining them to try, last he recalls, but why should he? ❝ Taste them yourself. I have no reason to do it for you. ❞

❝ You shouldn't wish to learn from me. ❞ whether in terms of a blade he had been training with just moments ago or something more mundane, only misfortune would truly find its way to those who interacted with him. and with how young this one seems, he finds it would be ill-suited to subject him to something as that, given his presence. ❝ Is there no other to have as your teacher? ❞

❝ Hmph. So you think I'm the fabled Grim Reaper they speak of? ❞ nothing too far-fetched, given the looming essence of death and rebirth which clings to him. in the end, he was merely a monster in some despicable guise as a person. for one to mistake the man skulking about as such, well... he could hardly blame them. ❝ I was here seeking it myself. Nothing more. ❞

arguably, he was just as lost as he is now than he was when he first was pried from that haze. at the very least, he was nowhere close to how adept the woman with scales seems in her way through the clothing.

❝ These clothes. ❞ so he speaks to her, noting her own intrigue in an outfit a few places down the rack. ❝ Are they not meant to be tailored to our form? If it doesn't fit, then it matters little if the outfit would suit you. ❞

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀and yet, he cannot help but feel drawn toward the warmth of that bracer—

❝ Imbibitor Lunae... ❞ the name leaves his mouth like a long lost friend, familiar upon his tongue, yet distant like those who fate has torn asunder. a chuckle follows suit, too, low beneath the rumble of his voice. ❝ To think our paths would cross soon after our parting. This place... is a blot of ink upon the pages he writes, I have come to learn. So, then... ❞ he muses as he keeps his distance, deep ambers ever watchful of the other, as he's left to wonder why they might find themselves within the same planet by no intentional means.

❝ Do you think of this city as another means of escape? That these Stars can wipe clean the sins that haunt us still, even now? Here, there is no place to run. ❞

fingers twirl the hunk of wood, his grip remaining taut, ready for a moment's notice, as he redirects its aim behind him in his stance with a soft hmph. for now, there was little threat in his presence that he can discern, though that means it could not change within the blink of one's eyes.

❝ Have you come to find it, too? This Grim Reaper— ❞

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀but maybe this city can already give what he wants—

❝ Kafka. Is this part of his script, too? ❞ she would know better than him, he rationalizes, arms across his chest as he halts his strides to the wayside where she stands. ❝ This city is strange. Entering it... those feelings. They don't plague me like back there. ❞ nor does he feel himself sewn to an unwanted life. at least, he can tell, not one like he has only known for so long now.