Smile coiling onto his pale lips, the blonde laughed as the stranger spoke, as he threatened and demanded. It was like conversing with a child— temperamental, volatile, and easily guided, provided, Rufus continued to read him correctly. A simple assumption, really. But the potential for a mishap was now, visibly, catastrophic. The summoned dual-bladed sword was enough to tell Rufus that this stranger could not be ignored like a child.
“There’s no need for that.” He said in a low undertone. “Has anyone ever told you that you catch far more flies with honey than you do with vinegar?” Relaxing back into his chair, Rufus took a moment to listen to any noise over his earpiece. There were no further gunshots, but the sounds of a labored scuffle were in full throng. The hiss of something serpentine occasionally passed through. It would do no good to signal distress now. He would simply have to handle this stranger himself.
And so, he motioned for Kadaj to come to the front of him, tiring of glancing over his shoulder. “Questions, questions… you seem full of them. So unsure of what to do and where to go. And I can only answer so many to someone I don’t even know the name of.” Resting his forearms against the chair. But even in this relaxed state, he could feel his body shiver, and it had nothing to do with the cold.
Something… was happening. Something he could not entirely describe. But his infected skin itched like tar and burned about as hotly. The soft glow of the crystalline structures began to blend with everything else. Bringing a quivering hand to his face, the blonde sealed his mouth shut as a cough wracked his lungs. Oozing between the cracks of his fingers was a black sludge that stained his white clothing.
Fighting to maintain control, he removed his hand, lower jaw smeared with the same black ooze. “Surely, you would rather play nice.” He rasped out, choking down another wave of the acrid black that ate at his insides.
Moving forward at the gesture he brought a gloved hand to the others face, fingers pressing hard as they wiped the remaining ooze from the jaw. Upon contact the sludge began to rise and boil against his fingers, small tendrils and tiny spheres of it rising briefly into the air. He pulled his hand back to himself, fascinated. Flashes passed in his vision and he was filled again with a resounding thought. Blinking once, he cleared his eyes against the sudden too-brightness of the crystalline structures. “A gift.”
The black tar fell silent against his fingers once more and he wiped them against the white cloth, leaving an eerie trail of dark black against the fabric. The man, while irritating, was right. Kadaj did have questions and many of them. The difference between the two, however, was that while Kadaj seemed to know almost nothing, the other had information and answers that could guide Kadaj to what he was looking for. It was a problem.
He could kill him, he thought, but then he would be no closer to finding the man who had last been seen with Mother. He bit his tongue idly thinking. And while he could set out on a search for him, who knew how long it would take? In the time it took him to search for and find this ‘Avalanche’, he could gather the same information from the sitting man and be on his way. He could find mother sooner. His gaze landed on the mess made on the others clothes. Of course, there was the option of breaking it out of him. He knew how to do so instinctively. But that didn’t guarantee answers and though he had already threatened with physical violence, the other seemed barely swayed by it. I, Kadaj internally lamented, am not very good at this. He stared down at the man for a brief moment, hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. Play nice.
“I don’t want flies, I want mother.” Attention snapped back to the man and he conceded. “I am Kadaj. If you know I have questions then you should answer them. You only need a tongue and teeth.” He let a moment pass between them to let the implication sink in. If you don’t have answers then you don’t need either of those things. The expression on the others face changed by nary even a muscle besides when wracked by a cough and Kadaj wondered if there wasn’t a faster way he could wring the information from the man. Play nice. The key to the information he needed. Information that the other knew he needed. He smiled, body and face falling into the perfect vision of looseness. He was relaxed. So calm. So very close to answers. Stay calm. “You can use them to tell me who you are.”
