Wrestling with these contradictions.

[eaglesonofnone]

Altaïr was still unsure about this place. He'd been keeping to himself so far with great intent, watching from the rooftops and, though he'd been assigned a building and a room, he'd yet to enter it, having slept on those rooftops as he had countless times before.

The story they told about rebuilding, about strange magic - though he couldn't deny the magic, as much as he wanted to, it struck him with doubt. If this was a place to rebuild, why him? He was a killer. It was what he'd been raised and trained to do. He had no purpose in a place trying to rebuild unless someone specific was hampering that process. He could eliminate them, certainly. But why?

It wasn't as if he wanted to return to Masyaf. Not consciously, at least. Now that he'd seen precisely how conditional Al Mualim's care was, how he would be treated for doing precisely what he'd been raised and taught to do. He'd already wanted to leave the Brotherhood. That, he'd certainly done. Not of his own accord, true enough, but he'd left. This was, in its way, a chance to change things. It was what he'd hoped to do with Adha. But at least she would have been there and taught him another way of life.

Here... what did he have here? Nothing. Nothing at all.

He dropped own onto the street level between a pair of buildings, careful to not be seen before stepping out into foot traffic. He was hungry. While he had no money beyond what had been granted to him on his arrival, it was surely enough, with what he'd saved so far, to purchase a bit of food. He could've stolen it, but why? It served no purpose. Not yet. And he wasn't yet that desperate.

Food. For now, that would serve as a goal.

Comments

[mobprincess]

There was a lot of cool stuff about being a vampire. One of which - and one of Holly's favourites - was the ability to shift into a bat.

Granted, this was a skill she was still needing to practice before she had it down, but she was getting better at it. Which brings us to how she noticed a dude freaking sleeping on the roof one night for some reason?

Definitely something worth investigating.

So when she sees that very same dude appearing out of an alleyway the following day, she's curious to figure out what his deal is; he's dressed kinda weird too, but that doesn't tell her much. Weaving between people on her skates isn't too tricky, although keeping an eye on the mysterious hooded guy is. Luckily though, it doesn't take her long to catch up.

"Hey," she raised her voice enough to be heard over the general din of the street, "I gotta question for you."

[eaglesonofnone]

That sounded, Altaïr thought, like a young person. A girl, most likely, calling in his direction. And when he glanced around to see if anyone else was attending to the call, he could see that no one was.

...Him? A girl was calling to him?

He lowered his brow but paused, half-turning. He said nothing, but at least he'd stopped moving and had proven that he'd heard her. The question - he'd wait to hear it before giving any kind of answer. If he answered at all.

[mobprincess]

The idea that she may not get an answer hadn't really occurred to her yet; Holly was generally a 'cross that bridge when she came to it' kinda girl, at least with situations such as this.

Coming a stop close by as her hands found her jacket pockets, she gave the guy an appraising look.

Yeah. Definitely dressed weird. But in a cool kinda way.

"How come you were sleepin' on the roof? Seems like a lot'a effort when we've all got our own places t'stay. I mean, not that I can really blame you, it's way shady that they just have empty apartments left right an' centre t'give away, and it's way less space than I'm used to, but anyway, that ain't important- I was just curious why you picked the roof is all."

[eaglesonofnone]

He stared at her for a long moment as he parsed what she was saying. Her accent made it slightly difficult, but he'd heard worse. More, he didn't quite understand the words she'd chosen. Shady, to him, meant the space under a tree. But in the end, he simply shrugged. "Fewer here climb to the rooftops. It is safer."

Especially as, if he had been given a key to an apartment, how was he to know who else might have one.

[mobprincess]

The 'trying to figure out what she's trying to say' pause was one Holly was rapidly getting used to. She didn't think she talked all that weird, but being around some of the other folks here was starting to make her realise that maybe she did.

"Mm, that makes sense I guess...I haven't seen anyone actin' super suspiciously yet, but that ain't sayin' much considerin' the whole 'bein' brought here in the first place' situation."

[eaglesonofnone]

...Strange.

He wouldn't have expected such observations from a child. But how often had he been around children? For all his brows drew down at the surprise, he brushed it off quickly enough. Obviously, she had made that observation. No reason to doubt it. "Suspicion often keeps people alive."