Private A Fellow, A Drink, A Reprieve [Req. Kaen]

[Shieo]

Found somewhere in the middle of nowhere and between somewhere in the great Desert Expanse of Wind Country was a small saloon, found conveniently off the side of the road-path formed from compact of dirt and sand to maintain it's form throughout the billowing and flowing sands. It wasn't much to look at, it's foundation of the building was a patchwork of old dried wood, clay and sandstone; the interior looked akin to what one would expect with wooden support beams and furniture made of mostly dried darkened wood leaving a lot to be desired. But ultimately, as the owner came to understand; that was a luxury that wasn't incredibly necessary to many travelers and all that truly did was some drink and food.

With lingering and spotty clinks and clatters of the spotted patrons of the saloon that were mingling amongst their own crowds, whether it was a small caravan of merchants, scouting bandits, locals of a relative distance to the region for scavenging and the like. Otherwise; the day was simple with the typical dry and hot air permeating through the room and the occasional breeze with sand particulates coursing through cracks of the structure.

Among the small crowd of miscellaneous people, was a bit older of a man nearing his forties sitting at the bar, atop a rickety looking stool. With dark saddle brown, near black ponytail down the nape of his neck and some fringe over his face. Creases in his facial features beginning to show his age despite his fairly physically demanding profession which helped maintain shape and form. Donning what would be a bit out of place in attire comparative to the rest of the circus of people; with tanned leathers, hide and some furs that latched over one shoulder; most notably was alabaster porcelain scales that were what one could assume makeshift armor that latched to his other shoulder and some down from his waist along the length of one thigh. And along the length of his right uncovered arm were tribalistic tattoos that seemed to express a story, though to what; was seemingly undecipherable. And his left arm, covered quite heavily with thick cloth and the hand gloved as if it were intentionally hiding the arm.

What the patrons, including Shieo- Were not aware of was the encroaching swarm of unbent that had been slowly making their way towards the Saloon. The immediate reason was not quite certain, but they had up to this point gone unnoticed.

Peering down into the confines of the metallic cup gripped in my left hand, the faint but muffled clink of metal had been diffused by the cloth material between my hand and the drinking container. Dwelling inside I simply stared at the gently twirling blackened liquid that existed inside, just coffee with a splash of some liqueur the barman had suggested to help satiate some thirst and to help my mind off the oppressive heat that one could simply not escape out here. I knew what I was getting into, but it still lingered in the back of my mind as a haunting gesture of my choices.

Deigning out a pent up sigh; the billowed air from my mouth caused a light stir and ripple on the liquid in my cup. Sniffling once afore I brought the lip of my mug up for a few sips of the liquid inside.

"Canna' be too far n'now from Suna hn.." Passing aside my thought, upon lowering my drink down to the bar counter. I decided upon whim to peer around the building, mostly taking in the sights to remember for my journal, and ultimately seeing if there wasn't anything that didn't catch my attention.

 

[Kaen]

Roughly about the same time Shieo began to glance around this fine Sunan establishment the worn, partitioned saloon styled swing doors serving as the main point of entry swung open. Nobody here would even care that another individual had entered, he was just another nobody as far as any of them knew. But Shieo might care, if not care than at the very least take notice. He being of a certain caliber of people, a chakra sensitive person more specifically, would more than likely feel something. Depending on the level of training, or even perhaps his affinity for being a sensory type of that was his area of expertise, whatever the case was Kaen would certainly catch his eye. At the most basic level there would be a noticable increase in temperature, but little time had passed so the sun reaching its peak couldn't have been the case. The rest of the patrons would still go on about their business despite the added level of discomfort and would pass it off as another odd day in Wind country.

Oddities seemed more than plentiful in this region, being so close to the hidden village of Sunagakure. And with the rise of Dominus and his Unbent army only increased the abnormality of day to day living. Impending doom seemed to always be right around the corner, and the threat of war was hardly just that anymore. Unbent monsters roamed the dunes at all times, never tiring and difficult to overcome due to their power in numbers. Dominus' horde seemed endless, and that was just his lowly minions. He had special elites at his disposal, massive war beasts and that's not to mention his personal children, if you could even call them that. But none of that mattered right now, Kaen's thirst needed quenched and he was in just the right place to remedy the issue.

The red-headed sunan was alone, only his thoughts to keep him company, till now anyway. Taking a seat at the bar he would signal the owner over. "I'll take whatever's on tap, don't let it go empty and you'll earn yourself a sizable tip." The owner would nod and grab a glass mug from behind the counter and pull a lever to dispense a frothy, murky mixture of liquid. Upon delivering it to Kaen the red-head would finish his statement. "Let it run dry, however, and there's a fair chance someone is going to have a bad day." The owner would roll his eyes in response to Kaen's attitude, it was nothing he's not heard before. The only difference was this one wasn't joking, and was certainly capable of delivering on that promise despite the owner's sense of safety due to the firearm tucked underneath the register. With drink in hand Kaen would scowl into the bottom of the glass. Something was on his mind, something that needed a drink to continue pondering over.


[OOC MFT]

 

[Shieo]

Though I know I hadn't been leaning too heavily into my glance upon looking back towards the entryway. A keen enough eye would have been capable of clocking that I had watched the newcomer for a couple seconds; I didn't terribly care much for obscuring my attention given the current environment.
Upon quirking my mouth, my right hand swapped to grab my mug and lift it up to my mouth while simultaneously turning my attention inwards towards the bar to maintain a natural motion. Feeling the liquid run down my throat had drawn my attention to the slight increase of temperature around me given the dynamics of the heat adhering to my senses all over; it drew a dour look into my expression, feeling it fell mostly on my eyes with their half-lidded look of what one could figure is probably exhaustion-- Even if it were just my face.

As the newcomer made his way to the bar, I drew my left hand against the wooden surface; the glove simply making a fabric-like rubbing sound in motion. Maintaining some silence, I awaited until the red-haired man finished his declarative towards the barkeep afore I gave a side-long glance to the man. Offering myself a shrug for the moment, as I once more drew the mug up for one last audible sip. With closed eyes for effect, I finally spoke out in a monotone droll- a heavy Marsh-country accent escaping. "Looks'in like t'sands are givin' ye' a some trouble. Hm? Bringin' you all out here."

 

[Kaen]

As he finished his first glass of ale, or whatever the hell they were trying to pass this bathtub gin-esk liqueur off as, the bartender already had one prepared for him and quickly replaced the empty mug for the filled one. More than a few seconds had passed by after Shieo had finished his inquisitive sentence before Kaen had even noticed he had directed that towards him. "Eh?" With a side-eyed look and a raised brow he would attempt to quickly digest the visage before him. His garb was slightly interesting, but a lot of different people wore a lot of differnt things these days. And with the vast influx of refugees Sunagakure had been taking in these days a new sight, or type of clothing, wasn't entirely surprising. But that accent though, dear Suna!

"I'm sorry," He started, not really sorry at all. "Were you talking to me?" After whatever sign of confirmation he received from the stranger he would continue to answer the guy's otherwise nosy question. "That sands give everyone trouble these days, I'd watch my back out there if I were you. The Swarm is crawling all over these dunes. As for what business brings me all the way out here is between me and this drink here." Raising the glass and tipping it back he would quickly finish his second one. With an exagerative sigh of relief he would place the empty mug back onto the bar. "Or lack there of, am I right?" He jested lightly as he insinuated aloud that he already needed a refill, to which the owner rolled his eyes and supplied Kaen with a third drink.

 

[Shieo]

Raising my brows as he checked in whether it was me talking to him, as I offered a slight dip of my head to help reaffirm the case. "Mhr... Swarms'er crawlin'? Swarm'a what? D'think I've seen anythin' of t' sort." Pausing my speech as I watched him from the corner of my eye whilst he finished the second drink, a momentary sigh escaped my mouth afore I took another sip from my beverage. "Na' to worry. I don'na need t' know yer' business"

Rolling my right shoulder, following I wiped my brow. "S'pose my intrigue. Mh' mostly cause yer' not so normal, y'know? Troubles'n keepin' yer' heat'n down aye?" Upon saying such, I had lifted a brow; perhaps an air of a joke lingering in my tone. "Aye'a keep' coulda' get a refill neh?" Tapping the lip of my mug while I spoke. After affirming the barkeeper was in-fact retrieving the mixture for my drink, I returned my gaze a little less guised towards the Sunan. "Name'sa Shieo-- Though'a I am interested'n them swarm. Mind sharin'?" Taking in the sight of the probable chakra user that has a bit of a leakage whether it was for intentional means to intimidation, or a genuine lack of knowing that it was occurring passively was difficult to discern off-hand. Nevertheless, I figured gathering some information from him seemed worthwhile for being in a country I am not completely familiar with, or even just a little bit. And if there's some degree of a horde roaming the lands, it could be valuable covering my bases just in-case I run into them.

[MFT]

 

[Kaen]

Kaen would give a decisive wink coupled with a very brief flicker of flame dancing in his other, open eye. He was indeed not normal, though what exactly was normal anyway? To him it was simply those without chakra, but even some of those types were weird and abnormal in their own way. The Sunan red-head would tip his head while lifting his glass towards Shieo. "Pleasure to meet you, Shieo. Mine's Kaen." Taking a long drawn out drink from his glass he contemplated the topic of the Swarm and how best to explain them to this outsider. Setting the glass down he would take a deep breath before sighing exaggeratively. "The Swarm... I suppose in the most basic sense you could say they were undead. Think... A plague of locusts, but instead of bugs it's humanoid abominations. And instead of crops it's people. Heh..." He would chuckle lightly at his own analogy. It wasn't the best description, honestly it's better to experience them than to just hear about them second hand. "An Ancient being known as Dominus seems to be their creator, and he's bent on conquering Wind Country, possibly the world. The only thing that's standing between him and that are the Sunagurian Shinobi and their allies."

Play Me


Suddenly the door would slam open wide, a panicked man stood in the doorframe with fear stricken across his face. Eyes filled with terror told Kaen all he needed to know and turned non-chalantly back to his drink to finish it off before waving to the bartender, indicating he wasn't going to need a second drink. The man was panting heavily as if he had been sprinting for miles, he could barely catch his breath as he tried to spit out his message. "The... They... It's... Ugh... Un... Unbent, they... They're coming!" This apparently wasn't the first time the owner of this shack-like bar had dealt with these creatures and promptly whipped out a large gun from under the counter. "Aight, if ya'll value ur lives get on outta here. There be a swarm a'comin. Flee or fight, it be your choice." The owner's eyes sharpened to a scowl as he mentally prepared for what was coming, others quickly rushed out of the establishment either to run for the hills, seek shelter or climbing atop their mounts and fleeing as fast as they could.

Kaen, turning towards Shieo, hopped off of his chair. "Well, Shieo. Ya heard the man, flee or fight. What's it gonna be? Myself, I'm gonna take care of business." And with that Kaen calmly walked out the front door and waited to see which direction they were approaching from.

Upon exiting the building Shieo would see upon the horizon a scene that appeared to be a dust storm approaching. But upon closer examination he would be able to see that it wasn't the wind. It was a mass of bodies sprinting crazily towards their location. It was difficult to gauge just how many there were. But it wasn't uncommon for Unbent to travel in large swarms ranging from just a handful of maybe five to ten all the way up to hundreds. But just based on his quick analysis it appeared to be roughly around forty or fifty. Hopefully this was the only Swarm in the area, the heat of battle seemed to only draw more in, it seemed. They were drawn towards the flesh, but they seemed to have a peculiar hankering for chakra sensitive types. "Well, stranger. Care to have a bit of fun?" A sly, mischievous grin spread across his face as the air around him warped and twisted like a mirage. His inner fire was slowly rising as his anticipation for the battle at hand grew. He lived for this, he was in his element and perfectly comfortable. How would Shieo feel about this?​

 

[Shieo]

[Exiting topic]