He paused before answering, taking a second to survey her body, though not even a flicker of lust could be seen in his gaze.
Her hair was too long. As a woman, and possibly an intelligent one, he would’ve thought she might have cut it. Her face was nothing, though he filed it in case of future need. Her ear… was that a piercing gone wrong? Maybe an earring torn out? Only an idiot would keep an earring in here, but lack of intellect was as abundant as dirt. One shoulder had serious scarring, though he wasn’t sure what it was from, maybe a tear from something being caught on it. Her arms were nothing great, but he was glad to see a little muscle on them, though he was sure he could overpower her physically. Her breasts were of no interest to him but her stomach… What had happened there? It was easy to see that she would not answer any questions. A quick look into her eyes spoke volumes. She was used to defending herself, and though disconcerted by him—which satisfied him. It was predictable, but he still enjoyed the fear he could make appear in others just by not bothering with his charismatic facade—she was obviously scared, but he didn’t see the terror that so many tried to hide. And failed. At least from Silas’s probing gaze.
His first guess would have been knife wounds. He had his own after all and knew the look well. It spoke better of her though that she carried such scars and didn’t seem shaken. Most abuse survivors would have instantly broken under this place. Or turned vicious. She seemed too sane, but that did not mean Silas ruled the possibility out.
Her legs were well enough; though also full of scars (Who was this girl? What had she been through?) but muscled enough that he wondered if she could run better than him, though his height would give him some advantage—and he still needed to find some meds for his knees.
“No,” he answered, staring unabashedly back at her. “I was out to find Emily from the frozen food. I wanted something. I saw the crowd and decided to come.”
((tango: if you fight well enough usually no one gets close enough to use your style against you. aesthetic rules all anyway))
Evelyn sighed and folded her arms like Evelyn sighed and folded her arms like a child that had been waiting in line at the amusement park for an hour. "Well it doesn't look like it's gonna be much of a fight," she grumbled. "So someone else died. Probably gonna happen to all of us soon anyway." Someone on the outskirts of the fight turned and looked at Evelyn. Their face was bewildered as if to say "what the fuck is wrong with you?" Evelyn pressed her lips into a line and turned back to watch the fight. She didn't need her mouth giving her another black eye.
She touched her eye and winced softly. That hadn't been fun, to say the least. None of the people who had chosen to camp out in the bakery section had taken to any of her jokes. Especially that girl and that guy who were actual bakers. She never knew bakers were so touchy. She had decided against groups after that. She would still talk to people, sure, but no more groups. And she had been doing just fine on her own so far.
Speaking of people. . . . Evelyn took a moment to survey the people close to her. The girl seemed nice enough. Well, whatever nice means in here. She was ballsy, though. And ruthless. That's all Evelyn really knew about her.
Then there was the other guy. Evelyn didn't like the way he had scanned her when he first came over. She'd had plenty of men scan her throughout her life and it never ended up going well. He didn't seem particularly interesting to talk to, either. Usually, the men that looked at her like that were at least charming, but this person didn't pay too much attention to her. Evelyn decided she could deal with that.
Silas’s lips twitched at Tattoo’s comment. Not a soft speaker was she? He smirked, blatantly staring her up and down, purposefully making her uncomfortable.
The tattoos told enough of her story. And her thinness. That was also worth seeing. Pain. Abused probably. It would make her more ruthless than some. Or it would make her easier to break. Silas was tempted to try, just for the fun. But no. It would not do to spoil a possible ally.
“Pretty tough are you?” His posture was relaxed, but the knife that casually appeared in his hand backed him up. “Where’d you get that black eye?”
Tango couldn't help the snort that left her at the girl's comment. She may have been right. It wasn't very hopeful of her, of them, but in a situation with no foreseeable out…she couldn't fault anyone for jokes like that. Shaking her head, she glanced between the boy and the girl with interest. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about the male.
"There's like, three ways she could've gotten it." She said, linking her fingers and stretching her arms above her head. Luckily, things around them had devolved more into heated conversation again. Better than violence, as long as they stood in the middle of it. Injuries mean you're slow. And with the way Mr. Psycho is giving you names, you need to be as fit as possible.
Jukka could continue observing from his own, quiet spot. He could, and he could leave once this was over, and proceed on, just like any other day. But that wasn’t what Jukka was. At least, not the current Jukka. His attention turned to some of the people on the outskirts; a small group of people that seemed to be engaging in conversation together. Not necessarily a complete, actual conversation, but he could see the movement of their mouths from his current spot, and he just had to get closer.
Or at least, he tried. Jukka didn’t get a few steps away from his position before a hand got him on the shoulder.
Jukka was tall - it wasn’t often he found someone to be taller than himself in this store, at least with the smallish population. And the fact he hadn’t met very many people face to face. This person - the other man behind him was slightly taller, keeping a firm grip on Jukka’s shoulder. He - Jukka could easily gotten free if he wanted to, but he decided not to, instead, waiting to see who this man was.
“Killed one of my friends.” The man said, his voice rough in his ears. It wasn’t a high pitched voice by any means, but it wasn’t extremely low.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Jukka’s voice came out softly, a whisper. Loud enough for the man to have clearly heard, quiet enough that not everyone and their mother heard him. Even if it was an ‘apology’, it wasn’t a real one; the man caught onto it right away. Jukka could practically hear the scowl in his voice.
“You don’t get away with that sort of thing. Not in my world.”
“But this isn’t your world.” Jukka quickly pointed out. That was true. A better reply, in Jukka’s opinion, would probably be ‘not by my book’ but what did he know?
“Don’t try to play smart with me you-“ Although the man’s voice had raised to a louder volume, his words were cut short by Jukka interrupting. Jukka tilted his neck back slightly, enough so his eyes could meet the dark ones of the man.
“There’s already a major quarrel going on here, and I’d hate to interrupt them. I’d also hate to become the centre of attention since I’ve stayed so quiet here for the past few days.” He paused. “You’d do best to not make a scene. Especially with me.” Unlike the man’s, Jukka had kept his voice low and quiet.
Tango, who had always been good at surveying her surroundings while focusing on things, glanced up as someone else approached. When the person was stopped by another, she assumed they knew each other. Her focus went back to her 'acquaintances' before things started getting loud again. "You're kidding me." She muttered, watching as the man who'd approached the kid sneaking around started almost yelling.
It wasn't her issue. Hell, none of these had been. She had never had to care about things that weren't her own problems. Why would she? Add another issue to her own stack? She didn't even know exactly what was going on. Maybe it was the body language that drew her attention. Who knew.
And yet, she found herself striding over to the two that hadn't been noticed by the larger group, a grin on her face. The expression seemed off, too sharp and didn't reach her eyes, but it was directed at the larger man.
"Hey buddy! We were just lookin' for you. You just missed another almost fight, my man." She said, throwing an arm over the small person's shoulders and giving them a squeeze. "Who's your friend?"
Evelyn look at the girl and laughed a little. "Actually, with the trouble I get into, there's at least fifteen." She turned back to the guy to her left as the girl walked off. "At the beginning of all this, I was hanging out with the blokes in the bakery section. Apparently, some of them actually were bakers and they didn't take too kindly to my "baked" jokes. Mostly the ones I made when I was drunk. They had a surprisingly good stash over there. So I got punched and left pretty quickly after that." She grinned and raised her eyebrows, laughing at herself. "Still think I'm tough, then?"
She looked over at where the girl had gone and her eyebrows narrowed. Her eyes darted around, assessing the situation. The tall man looked menacing and ready for a fight. The shorter man, though short wasn't exactly a word Evelyn would normally call him, looked calm, but the girl still had her arm around him and was smiling wide. It didn't look like a great situation. Without stopping to think if the girl would need help or not (and in retrospect, she would not. She was more than capable of handling herself and others.) Evelyn walked over, copying the girl's expression. "Hey man, there you are! We were looking for you." She turned to the girl. "Weren't we looking for him?"
Jukka had barely moved from his spot, only slightly tensing when he’d felt arms wrap around his shoulder. But instead of immediately acting, Jukka waited to see what the deal was. Turns out, it was a good thing he did.
Were they looking for me? The question had appeared for a moment, in his mind. But he’d put together the whole idea quite quickly, taking a brief moment to inwardly congratulate himself for solving the rather easy question. Jukka, though confident in his abilities, would rarely deny help if it came to him in situations like this. Strength in numbers.
“Hm, just a person I’ve got business with later. He came to confirm the time we’d be meeting at.” Jukka’s voice came out casual this time, the type of voice one would use in a more relaxed situation. He looked around a bit, making eye contact with the taller man.
The taller man, who seemingly got the memo, and backed away from the group.
“Not exactly a friend, just another acquaintance, y’know?” Jukka added.
Almost-fights seemed to happen a lot in this store. Like right now. Two almost fights within a short amount of time. Both for different people, but for the same - or at least similar reasons. “Thanks for looking for me. Hate that I missed another of of those…almost fights,” Jukka said, slowly returning his focus onto the tall man, who while had seemingly retreated, but still kept his eyes on the group.
Turning her attention more to the boy under her arm as she answered the girl, she made sure not to lose sight of the one who had been causing problems. "We were. Your acquaintance seems nice. C'mon though, we–" She nodded her head to the girl. "Can catch you up to speed on what you missed. I almost regret diffusing the fight. Might've been fun to watch."
She was gentle in guiding the boy. Her arm held steady though, almost like she was trying to remind him to keep up the façade until they were in the clear. "Tall guy over there," Her free arm lifted to point. "Killed the short and angry one's friend. He's upset 'cause she was a kid. Sixteen's kinda harsh, but I mean…for all we know, tall guy has five kids at home he's tryin' to get back to. 'Sides, what else was he gonna do, right?" She explained, guiding him back to where they'd left the other guy. All they had to do was pretend to be friends long enough. Tango happened to be a decent actor.
Jukka walked along. He nodded, showing his understanding of the information that was being said to him, but mainly, to keep up the act. So there’d been another fight. Well, almost fight.
“Uh-huh.” Jukka nodded. “Cruel, but we don’t know everyone’s situation here. Sad to see someone die that young, but in the end, we’re all just looking for a way out. Doesn’t mean the guy can’t be angry or upset, but surely he knows it won’t help anything by putting his energy into a useless fight.” He spoke, not quite voicing his true thoughts on the situation, or all of them. Sixteen and died young - killed by another person. That hit a bit close to home, Jukka could almost think.
The man who’d originally approached Jukka had held his stare for a few more seconds, but seemingly retreated after the two had gotten a distance away, and perhaps their acting skills held up well.
“Everyone dies,” Silas broke in. “If we happen to hasten that arrival, it is an unfortunate thing, but hardly worth the energy to be furious. Not in this place anyways.”
He turned to Tango. “If I got your name, there would be nothing that could stop me. I’m sure you would do the same.” He looked around at the others as he spoke, even the new boy with the lanky build and—he noticed with an inward roll of the eyes—too long hair. Would these people never learn?
(Sorry for short + taking long.)
