"Why do you have to exist?" the other had returned to their single-bed room after talking to all the dignitaries, to see Lysa, propped up on a chair nearby, her laptop open before herself, her eyes were a little red, not from crying, but from making sure she didn't.
The other brushed past her, ignoring the question, taking the bed for the early evening, curling up under the covers. She'd sleep 4 hours and give it up.
Lysa didn't say anything else.
===
"Uuuuugh." groaned a man, he was tall and built, groaning in annoyance, as he leaned against a signed hazard tank, tape stretching from it to the next tank, to the next, as far as the eye could track. "Why we got to be out here all day, on the off chance people are imbeciles??" He complained to his troop mates, who were playing cards, set up on a box nearby. One of them shrugged at his complaint, popping a vape, "the situation is too unknown, and he wants the area untouched, can't help if there are kids who want to be idiots, plus…there are always the other countries' spies, tryna get in on our business."
"Uuuuugh." he sighed again, leaning back harder, glancing around again, at the wasteland they were guarding…well, other than the now empty buildings standing up where the city had been, completely empty of any form of life, be it vegetation or human.
The city which was inside a huge crater, made years ago, built inside with heavy, invasion-proof buildings, this city had been quite famous for its minimum-wage work opportunities in its underground factories, when suddenly they had completely shut off communication with the outside, and then, sending in people, with the first of them also completely disappearing without news and the last of them returning with only news of how strangely empty it was, it quickly became a nation-wide problem.
However, right as he was gazing over the cliff side, idly, suddenly a spot of blue caught the corner of his eye. He instantly leapt upright, quickly running over to block the way of the strange intruder.
A man, clothed in blue, and with bright blue-dyed hair, looked a bit miffed at being stopped, staring him up and down in annoyance. He'd taken an entire day to walk over here, lucky that such a gate had opened in the country he was currently residing, and trying to beat the sun who was attempting to remove itself from the sky, he'd decided to just walk straight in, but then this….annoying shoat just had to block his way?
"What is it, now?" he complained.
The man, who was to guard the hazard zone, was instantly confused at the man's temperament.
"You can't go in there, it's been sealed off under government sanction."
"What?" complained the man in blue, completely exaggerating his movements, "so i can't go on an evening walk?"
"Uh no…" the man was confused about what the citizen was missing, these blue-haired wokes were always strange though. "I'm saying you can't walk there, because the government has closed off the area, it's for your own safety!
"Eh? Is this private property? Are you infringing on my rights as a human citizen to walk?" the man in blue just became more exaggerated, pointing at him.
Ugh, these wokes were always talking strange about their rights, as if they were the ticket to win any disagreement, the man resisted the urge to rub his forehead in annoyance. "No, this isn't about your rights, it's just for your safety, we can't let you pass."
The blue guy looked at him, dead-eyed, then raised his hand, in a swearing motion. "I'll take full responsibility for any injuries that will be incurred by me stepping past this tape, i swear by my great, powerful country of China, and my honor as its citizen!"
"...it doesn't work that way, you still can't pass." grumbled the man, this woke really was weird in the head.
Meanwhile, the man in blue couldn't help but grumble in his head about the annoying habits of humans, even 300 years later, never being reasonable about anything. Ah…he should have snuck in, but, looking at the sky, he decided, if I want to get there before dark, delaying my entrance any longer is impossible.
He instantly gave up talking, and ignored the man, pushing past him, and dipping under the tape, to continue on his way toward the cliff. It only had a couple ladders down it, none of them were where he was heading.
"Stop right there!" shouted the enforcer, he leapt in front of the blue guy, wires erupted from the ground, to block his way forward, as he summoned his fusion abilities.
The man sighed in annoyance, and blew a little of his long blue hair out of his face, glancing around for a good thing to use as his 'fusion ability' for the day, however, to his disappointment there wasn't really anything but barrels, tape, and…dirt, to use in the vicinity, so…
The guy guarding the way just blinked, watching the man in blue sigh, and lean back a little, and suddenly, the entire ground behind him rose up, forming a huge dust cloud whirling with energy.
The man in blue turned his head a little back toward him, his eyes lazy, but fierceness swept out from them. "You really wanna fight me?" He licked his lips, provocatively.
The man, not ready to back down, called up his wires, to form his favorite whip-like weapon, meanwhile, his friends who were playing cards, seeing the commotion, one was already cutting through the sky, two white sheets, flying down, and the other, summoning a long steel pole, struck at the man in blue. They'd instantaneously connected this man to being a spy. However, this man, simply smirked at their attacks, flicking his hair back, he stepped into the sky, as if stepping on stairs, the dust his staircase, the two sheets barely missed his legs, falling right below himself, as he casually turned his body to one side, easily evading the pole, barreling at him. Haughtily tilting his face slightly to the side, to let the whip fly past, he snapped his fingers, and the dust flew out from himself, each of them turning into a mini-bullet, piercing into their skin. The paper-man, the strongest of them, had his sheets that were coming up from the ground, shredded to pieces, the other two merely had their clothes pierced through innumerable times, strands fraying from every spot. Their eyes and every other part of their body screaming in pain, from the dust, piercing into them, even though each particle barely made it past their skin layer. The large man, from the pain of getting pierced so many times, was forced to his knees, along with his colleagues, as the man in blue, set himself back on the ground, walking past as unbothered as he'd originally come up to their hazard tape, treating the men on the ground as if they were just air. They saw through bloodied eyes, as he stepped over the edge, not falling, but standing, suspended in space, dust curling up the ankles of his shiny boots.
"Wait!" the large man wouldn't be defeated like this, he struggled to his feet and sent out a wire, whirling towards the man. The man in blue, tilting his head back a little, so that one of his eyes caught the fusion warrior's, a small spark of respect in it, and then, he leaned backwards, and gravity took hold, his entire body disappearing from view, into the chasm below. No sound was heard, as he probably caught himself before he hit the ground.
"Tch." the man drew back his wires, as the man with the paper pulled out his radio to quickly communicate the invasion to the higher ups. The man was too dangerous for them to chase on their own. His buddy was now looking at their card game in suspicion as he cleaned his wounds…the cards were from the other fusion warrior.
The man in blue strode into this heavily metal-crafted city, admiring the large factories, rising on either side of the street, as his eyes swept around the area.
"Ayah~, where is that gate~ i'm almost sure there must be a gate here!" However, night had fallen, and not having caught hide nor hair of it, and his species, hating the dark, especially outside, instantly found cover in one of the abandoned residential areas for the night.
===
"Yo, you gonna get bored just sitting there?" commented Lin Shu, who really was already incredibly bored, having been stuck as a wall for who knows how long…luckily the vines supplied with nutrients and water, and…what he assumed was a method to stop aging, since his muscles and skin felt better than they'd ever been.
The old man he was addressing, continued to ignore him, just sitting, staring at the emptiness around him.
"Wow, you really are dull, say, i noticed you weren't very straightforward earlier, have you ever attempted small talk? It's a great way to pass time, without letting the person you're talking with know anything about you."
Only silence responded to his invitation.
"Ah, I see, so you really don't know? Well, you're in luck, I'm actually a perfect teacher."
The silence only encouraged him.
"So, what people usually do is they say, how are you? Now, when someone asks that, it is a test, if you answer, "i'm good," it means, you don't want to be disturbed, if you answer, "i'm ok" it means you want small talk, and if you answer "not good." That means that you want an in-depth, personal conversation with the person. Following these guides, to enter small talk, you must say you are ok, and then, also respond with a 'and how are you?' to make sure they are ready to small talk as well, if they respond with 'same' that is probably a good indication of small talk commencement, so to begin it off, there is the legendary phrase of: 'isn't the weather nice/bad today?' There is also the legendary phrase of: 'life is so tiring, isn't it?' but beware of the second, because they might decide to actually fall into personal talk about their exhaustion and what caused it, so the first phrase is much safer to keep things at a distance, there are other phrases of course, similar to the first phrase, such as 'the restaurant here is nice, isn't it?' or, 'grocery prices went up again'. These are all great phrases, making sure to perfectly never mention the person you are talking with in any kind of personal way, so as to avoid getting to know them, or allowing them the strongest rebound phrase of all time: "and you?" which will definitely put in detriment your desire for an impersonal, meaningless conversation, merely crafted to whittle away time. However, if they are the one to ask any of the above phrases ro something alike to them, make sure your response does not include-"
"-please stop." the old man finally interrupted. It seems it didn't' even take him 15 minutes of yapping to get him to respond, nice, however…it also revealed something else.
"Well," sighed Lin Shu. "I'm awfully bored and talking really does relieve it quite well. If you don't want to hear it, you can always walk a little that way, am i right?"
The old man glanced at him in annoyance. "I'm an overpowered being: I am where crying stops, and laughter ends, I am where vice is dropped and kindness is forgotten. I am the last of-"
'-ok, i understand, the yapping is annoying, i'll stop." Lin Shu wasn't ready to hear the old man monologue about himself again. If you're going to talk, please don't say the same thing three times in a row with different words. "So you can't walk away and stop hearing me, because you're so OP you can hear me no matter where you stand in here, wait…" Suddenly lin shu had a thought. "Does that mean you're trapped in here?"
The old man suddenly stiffened. "...I'm not trapped." he grunted. "This isn't a trap, it's a-"
"-gateway." finished Lin Shu. "A one-way gateway."
The old man glanced up, confused how he had figured it out, he looked back into the man's past, indeed the man didn't particularly stand out in intelligence but he…could read people as efficiently as a computer database searched up articles.
He whirled around, annoyed.
"...and it also seems you don't have the power to deafen things, or can't touch me, and don't dare deafen yourself.." mumbled Lin Shu to himself. However, he knew the old man could hear him, mumbling it outloud to see his reaction, unfortunately the old man restrained any reaction this time, ready for his tricks. He sighed, "so, since you're willing to speak now, wanna have some small talk?"