“Tracks. Lingering scent.” Living as long as she had guaranteed acquiring a specific skill set. Clarity’s job bounty hunting stemmed from that of contracted sniping for the military once upon a time. Black water ops. They had a new name now, but she wasn’t associated anymore. She knew how to track, read the earth, see the signs that something had passed through recently or not. It was difficult to explain to someone who hadn’t learned how to read the signs, but still she gestured toward the dirt. “The leaves are all fucked but they’re settling now. You can tell someone passed through here. And … whatever they are isn’t human. But it smells more like petrichor now than anything, and it’s stinking the place up. So it rained for a little bit after they passed through, or maybe during, and it drowned a lot of whatever they were out.”
Fingers tapped thoughtlessly against her thigh, and after a spell Clarity turned to face Sebastian. Lips were pressed, the corner of her mouth upturned as if she were going to sneer, but it never came. Once the rapping stopped on her thigh she pointed, raising two fingers lazily from the fabric of her pants to indicate to his own lap. Once brow rose, visage too matter-of-fact. The jig was up. “That one.” Pretending that they hadn’t shared some form of intimate moment was a joke. The tension between the two of them was palpable at any given time … she just pretended to ignore it. And while Clarity didn’t really know what he boasted, she certainly felt it at that time. “You look pleased with yourself.” She would be too, if she were him, honestly.
His eyes focused to where she gestured in the dirt, trying to decipher the subtle tells and hints in a broken stem or a trampled leaf. There was a mental note that he should have paid more attention because the tells she referenced now he didn’t recognized when they set off or now. To him, it looked like dirt, and if he wanted to impr-- hold that thought. No, that wasn’t how he should word it, not here and not with an open mind she could tap into at her rare discretion. He would enjoy having a similar skill set as her, even if he was lacking in the more refined senses that allowed her to smell pass the earthy tones filling the moisture in the air. Yet, to his defense of poor awareness, Clarity had intentionally, and effectively knocked him off guard in last few minutes.
But that smile he was holding back appeared on his lips without thought to stopping it, not for the game of words they were playing but by her demeanor, as if she was debating whether to be mad with him or move on. There was something about her rough edges he grew fond of with each interaction: unafraid to be cruel with a cruel world, even if it meant being angry over the smallest of things. Like everything and nothing mattered, or nothing mattered and she became displeased for things that tried to demand her attention or caring. That one. Of course he was a little proud, especially with her admitting she noticed... well. He clearly recalled her words ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ and while he had no contemplation on it, there had been a reasoning that in her expanded lifetime Clarity had more endowed experiences. “Maybe a little,” he admitted. “I thought you weren’t impressed.”
