As the dizziness subsided his feet had taken him down the very road he was advised to wander aimlessly. The eerie silence created a sense of caution around himself, but an added relenting pressure lowered his guard. A juxtaposition in which he could not determine which strategy was best for the moment.
Perhaps he could just ignore it for the time?
Daniel recounted the change within Kage. Even that person relented further and further leaving a relaxed expression to come over himself on multiple occasions since the hospital. If he did the same, he could change as well. Daniel would come that much closer to his object of worship.
Dropping his cautious self in a can, Daniel strode about the sidewalk without a care measured for the wind nor its subsequent flooding as the hurricane ravaged all in its grasp. It was only a matter of time before he struck headfirst, toppling over, into the next man he met, sending his suitcase and Daniel's schoolbag flying into the other's lap. Either recipient of this clustered wreck, landed harshly on the concrete. The man rubbed his butt from the abrupt impact while Daniel frantically stood up again to return to him the suitcase he had dropped.
"I-I'm so sorry, s-s-sir. I wasn't looking where I-I-I was going."
He handed the case back to the man who was forced to look up into Daniel's eyes for an unbeknownst sign. One which clearly left a snarling smile upon his mug. Yet, when Daniel finally managed to peer at the man's face he lost all reasonable thought, delving into a deep void of stupidity.
Decorating the edges of the man's jaw was thick black stubble that sought a scratch to enjoy its fuzzy nature. Along the stubble did a wafter scent of immense alcohol blow forth. All brought together by the angular shape to his cheekbones and chin, finely sculpted to a precise standard for marketability, that told his identity. The white hair was undoubtedly stuck beneath the tophat he wore, clogging the sides with their stuffing that wished to be swept back, even then, stray parts crookedly swayed from underneath the hem.
"Dont'cha worry about it." His right hand scratched incessantly at the back of his neck. A tick instilled by father to son in childhood days. Beneath his flavored tone was an unmistakable New Brook accent, usually kept under check.
Novelty wore from Daniel at his chance encounter with the icon himself. Furthermore, fatigue from prior exploits soaked his sopping shirt into an iron vest, forcing him slower than usual. Still, he could not bring himself to pipe up to the man as he took back his briefcase while handing off the schoolbag.
It was a foot apart from him that Daniel finally forced out some words, "YOU'RE!" Quickly he corrected the pitch to his voice, "You're, Nyn Night, right?" An unseen tickle spread in the man's face contorting it to a wicked smirk. Of course, Daniel was not privy to such disgusting behavior.
"Seem to be a fan o' sorts. How far d'you go back in knowledge?" The scratching slowed but continued. The funniest thing was, Daniel swore he saw no marks, but it was like the skin rolled with the incessant movement of his fingertips.
'Must've been a trick of the eye.' "Ever since you published your first thesis on the correlation between an Evolved's ability and their personality!"
A cringing expression devoured the man's mouth as his nose flared upward. "Geez, I thought barely anyone remembered that by this point." The hand left his neck; now out punctuating each word with some swift flick. "I really just wrote whatever came to my mind at first. Only reason those half-assed papers, pardon my French, were released is due to the family name. Should've burned 'em 'fore any to glimpse them."
"WHAT!?" Daniel's voice echoed down the street undoubtedly drawing unwanted attention from hiding critters. "It was b-brilliant! There was s-so much evidence supporting the possibility as well I-
"Precisely!" Mr. Night pointed a finger, with a dirty nail bitten to the nub, at Daniel's nose nearly poking it. "All of it supported a *possibility* of something I wished to be true. I so desperately lunged at and turned every stone to make sound at the bare minimum credible to warrant some thought over."
Daniel remained incredulous as to the change in perspectives from Mr. Night. He had followed the progress of said research for five years, turning to the station at any chance to hear what the man would think up next, perusing each issue of "Evolved Studies" for the small blurbs about the developments within his laboratories. All of which quieted with time as fewer scholars attended their work.
"What changed then?"
Folding both hands over his case, Mr. Night took some steps so that he rested under the covering outside of a flower shop rather than in the oncoming rain signaled by the heavy clouds overhead. Daniel joined at his side letting his bag slack across his back. "Not much changed. But you eventually realize something once everything has been turned over that can be…" The man looked out watching the gutters flood to apartments and stray trash float down churning moats into the storm drains. Deep in contemplation, his thoughts had transformed to a different concept entirely. "As humans, we have barely any control."
Daniel disagreed with that phrase, "No, we have plenty."
"Really? How?" Mr. Night's eyebrows perked up shooting the ball back to Daniel.
"W-Well… This whole situation is our fault in the first place."
"Which?" The word stabbed just when Daniel had decided to take a breath.
"Just the p-pov-poverty, the death, the v-v-violence. No one trusts each other anymore unless you got a cape on your back. And those that do, they don't last long." The sadness showed through without him having tried.
Mr. Night scrunched his eyes into slits that wished for honesty in the lad. "You see all of this as bad, but do we have a choice in the matter of how the world turns? We were not the ones who created all of this. THAT had been determined centuries ago, it's just laziness of the mass that kept it on its path. Where you may see the death of a friend, those rats starving having had nothing more than scraps for generations are now able to feast 'til famished. Maggots, although widely disgusted by culture, now have new nutrients. No, this wasn't decided by some humans but rather twisted by nature… then something grander."
"I thought you were an A-Atheist, and not fear G-God?"
"I don't dare be. That implies I believe in 'em that has allowed all this to occur yet still looks at us, his creations, and finds us well off."
"Doesn't that mean He has a p-plan for us then?"
"Maybe, but then he would know which ones of us will be sent to hell and the others to heaven. Then, he just mopes about complaining how we never changed when he didn't do nothing to change our own ways."
He slid out a cigarette from a pack emblazoned with a crying mule, lighting it in a single stroke with a gold-plated lighter that flew from his lapel. "Nah!" The word was coughed out in a subdued yell. "But there is something out there. Making rules, making us, and introducing something new to further our advancements."
A stern yet stoic face encrusted by jewels of wisdom burned into Daniel's eyes. "That's why I stopped pursuing the answer to my theory. For, I deluded myself into believing the impact that humanity had. We have been given everything since our conception. A thriving planet, a stable food and water supply, even functionable intelligence to continuously adapt. Starting from there, how could we as humans possibly control the concentration of spinal fluid ensuring what tier we land ourselves in."
Mr. Night adjusted the brim of his hat so that his vision was not overcast by its shadow. The rain was growing with some sections flooding immensely. Cars not tied down correctly took to drifting through the streets in a slow race. Daniel also took in the same imagery contemplating Mr. Night's reasoning. If there truly wasn't a way for humans to impact the world, leaving everything to be spun by natural phenomena, then what was even the point to dreaming?
Dreams would happen in a flash then never be noticed by anyone else. If Daniel truly fixed the problems of the system, then what would that change if it had been determined since the onset. Which then meant that no person is with freedom but rather bound by it due to a preconceived notion of the opposite. In short, his actions would be pointless.
Urges were spilling over at his fingers to paint again. Pointless had been his life. Pointless were his thoughts. Even in this refuge of an idol long admired, did he feel this pitiful pointlessness following his steps without tiring.
The man's shadow cast over Daniel.
'Was he always this tall?'
Mr. Night now eclipsed Daniel, his head touching the cover blocking out the rain. His eyes glowed with promise at the boy, reeling him closer to what was wanted. "That was, of course, what I had thought. But now, I correctly found how to switch the terms in our favor. Instead of nature affecting us we can now take a stake in our lives once and for all." He left the comfort of the shade allowing for the rain to completely drench him head to toe. "To truly stake your claim in this world, you need to take some risks."
His head cruelly turned with an ominous creak, "Seems to me, like you can handle such risks. Considering you're a fan, I'll give you some front row seats to the spectacle."
'If I can just get out of these thoughts, to toss away the howling faces, maybe I can get there as well. I can help Kage. We can then do what can't be done.
I… I-I will be someone.'
Daniel left the cover as well, following Nyn Night to whichever avenue that presented itself. His rationale dipping as an ignorance bloomed from within clouding his judgment and shifting probabilities.
Although the man's skin crawled like insects hatching within and his face a malformed muzzle. Nyn Night knew what he was doing, just the way he carried his weight demonstrated this fact to Daniel. These were the mannerisms of someone with brimming confidence and the intellect to support it. But, absentmindedly, did Daniel impose another person over the scientist. A boy darkened in mind then face as his innards lay locked in a cage only to have the glowing red eyes betray that lock.
The similarity was undeniable.