Alas, Poor Gobi, None Knew Him Well [open]

[gobi]

”AAAAAAAHHH!!! I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY!” came the cries of a distressed little Cactuar…ologist.

Gobi Nydle’s natural instinct to run was second to none. Too many times had he bitten off more than he could chew. Too many times had an experiment gone wrong. Too many times had he shot the wrong buttocks. Too many times had he just been in the wrong place at the exact wrong time. Visiting the Archylte Steppe seemed to be no exception to this seemingly Gobi-specific rule. A pair of growling Silver Lobos was chasing the tiny traveler over the vastness that was the Steppe. Running at their feet was the tiny Silver Lobo cub that started it all, yowling and barking in response to its parents’ snarls. It seemed to be having a good time. At least someone seemed to be.

Mr. Nydle could not say as much. He was carrying his backpack in front of him, not having had the time to throw it over his shoulder. Its contents were rattling against his chest as he bolted across the vast area for his life. He continued to yell out apologies and whine, as if pleading with the monsters would do any good. An odd-looking stone just sort of floating and glowing about came into his left side peripheral and he bolted to that. He didn’t register that a person seemed to be what the stone was made of, he just made it his focal point.

Running past the floating, glowing stone, Gobi gave himself enough time to look back and see if he had out run his pursuers. Gulping at the fact that he had not, he finally threw his black backpack over his shoulders and proceeded to run even faster. The barking and snarling could still be heard behind him and he gave a pathetic whine. He saw a fairly large rock and decided to go for that. Entirely ungraceful and with extreme awkwardness, he had managed to climb atop the rock.

“Why… why does… why does this always… happen?” he panted, putting his hands on his knees and bending down a bit, finally able to rest somewhat. Taking in a deep gulp of air, Gobi looked behind him again, seeing that the Lobos could not climb up large rocks. “Phew, finally a little break.” Sitting down, the Cactuarologist finally started catching his breath. He noticed that the Lobos began to stalk around where he had climbed up and he couldn’t help smile.

You just stay right there; I’ll climb down the other side, he thought to himself rather confidently, which was his first mistake. Well, maybe not his first, but it was definitely not smart. He turned to go climb off of the back of his rock sanctuary. What he saw immediately made him give a squeal of fright and back up into the very middle of the top of the rock. On the other side, there was a small pond. It’s depth was immeasurable from Gobi’s vantage point, but, being terrified of bodies of water larger than himself, he wasn’t about to test it. Now, the small traveler had options, but they weren’t good ones. Eliminating all options to do with the pond, Gobi could fight off the Lobos with his needles. That wouldn’t go so well, as his needles didn’t do a lot of damage and would probably only make them even angrier before he could knock them out. He could always use his Needles as well, but those chances were stacked highly against him, in terms of the outcomes.

The saying goes “Caught between a rock and a hard place.” In this instance, Gobi was caught on top of a rock, between a watery grave (in his extremely irrational opinion) and two sets of teeth.

“Help!” he managed to squeak out.

[deshitana6]

It was a rare thing for the Dark Heart to let the Corridors chose where he ended up, but every once in a while the being would become bored with his usual research grounds and sought out new ones. In these rare instances, usually the being would wander the dark pathways until he found a place that caught his interest to explore; however, even that sort of exploring became boring after a while. He couldn’t be truly surprised since he poked the world chose a bit before entering it, so to shake things up a bit he’d occasionally shut down his senses and float, letting the Darkness take him where it wanted. It was a risky business since there was no way of knowing where one would end up, but to the being that drifted through the Darkness now it was this danger that was so intriguing. He loved the element of surprise and the more challenges he had in a new area, the happier he could be.

So, he continued to drift until a random tear opened and the Darkness began to seep out into another world. The Dark Heart rode out on this Darkness wondering what new land he would find on the other side.

**

The Corridor of Darkness opened up into the sunlit lands of Pulse releasing wisps of Darkness that slowly swirled and formed into a tall man wearing strange clothing under a plain cloak of brown cloth. The cloak hung loosely on the figure, but close enough where most of the clothing were hidden. Only a slight bit of the Heartless emblem on his chest showed from under the cloak’s material as the drawn up hood kept most of the tanned face hidden as well as it did blocking out the sun; however, the figure under the cloak did not seem mind these slight reveals of himself as he looked around the strange new area he was in. This place was a huge sprawling landscape of thriving plant life and the most unique wild life he had seen in years. The only thing this place lacked was a dash of Darkness and the Heartless wandering about. That was all that was needed. No lie. He wouldn’t dare change the natural beauty and it would be most interesting to see how these creatures and his family got along. If they could live as one with each other, this world would indeed make a nice home, but he wondered if there were any other Hearts here outside of the creatures that wandered about. Paradise or not, a good home demanded a good supply of food and that food source had to come from the best of Hearts—human Hearts. However, it would seem that there were no humans in the area at the moment, but this did not dampen the curious Heartless’s mood.

He would stay here a while and learn what he could of this area and the rest of the world. He was quiet sure this vast landscape was just the tip of something larger and in time, he was sure he’d find the Hearts he sought. He just had to look around a bit is all. How fortunate or perhaps unfortunate then that this piece of beauty pleased the Heartless Leader so. Stepping away from the still opened Corridor, the tear sealed itself understanding that the Dark being did not wish to leave and so its services to it were no longer needed. Without the hiss of the Corridor around, the being that called himself Ansem was able to sink fully into the sounds and smells of this wonderful place. With excitement running through him, he did what he did best in these sort of situations and began to explore this new space.

The Heartless took in the plants and the gentle breeze. He enjoyed the sunlight and paused to watch the behavior of the creatures that roamed the area and carefully traveled through herds of large turtle like creatures that moved about in search of their own food. He watched the birds fly and the insects chase each other about. Everything about the place fascinated him and would’ve kept his fascination if he had not sensed a Heart in the area. As he was on the edge of coming to a decision about attempting to approach a rather strange creature that resembled a cactus resting casually in the shades of the cliff, his attention was drawn from the shady area where the small creature lounged and back to the large field. Staying still, his senses followed the direction of the Heart sensing the pull moving at a rather quick speed away from him and the area. Odd. Was that Heart running from something or perhaps after something? The speed it was traveling certainly suggested that sort of movement, but why was it moving that fast? Hmmm…

Losing interest in the cactus creature for the time being, Ansem moved from his spot and began to track down the Heart trying to find where it was. To cut down on time and also to keep the Heart from getting too far away, Ansem opened a Corridor, entered it, and then exited it close to the spot where the presence had been the strongest. As he stepped out and the portal closed, Ansem took note of the floating stone that was there and was about to pass it off as just a magical stone, but found himself staring at it in mild surprise as his mind registered what was there.

A person made of stone or a stone made to look human? he wonder as he scanned the strange stone and was even more surprised to find that the stone was indeed once a person. As fascinating as that little discovery was and as much as he’d like to dig further into why the stone was there and how a human had come to such a end, he did have a Heart to find and standing here, pondering the odd human stone was only causing it to get further away. So leaving the rock for another day’s study, he quickly headed after the Heart.

It didn’t take him long to find the Heart. Oh no. The Heart rested up on a rather large rock that backed up against a medium size body of water. Three strange four legged creatures were pacing about as if they waiting for that Heart to come down. The Heartless tilted his head at the situation curious as to what the Heart had done to get the creatures angry. His amber colored eyes moved from the pacing creatures to the Heart on the rock. He took in the small figure and the red hair…was this a child then?

He heard the squeak of help come from the Heart’s direction and sighed inwardly. A child it was then and one that could not defend itself or at least refused to. He didn’t see why the kid didn’t just jump off the rock and use the water to get to safety, but he supposed the child could be afraid of the water or maybe not be able to swim at all. In any case, he couldn’t really judge or hate children, despite how much they tried his patience at times. No, they were the best sort students and the easiest to sink into Darkness if they were not stubborn and even when they were useless, they made the best sort of food for the Heartless. So despite how weak this one seemed, unfavorable luck had decided to side with the kid. Seeing the kid as potential usefully to his own goals and even in learning more about this place he was in, Ansem decided to play nice and test just how worthy the kid was of his patience.

The observation lasted a second and then the Heartless was in motion. To the kid watching, it would appear that a traveler in a brown cloak had happened to wander into the area and upon seeing the helpless child decided to help out, summoning a strange double bladed staff as the stranger came to the rescue.

Upon reaching the nearest of the three, Ansem planted his front foot firmly on the ground before swing his body and staff in an circular motion towards the beast, using the momentum to add power to the swing. The creature yelped as the Heartless brought the blunt end of the weapon into its side and then jumped back snarling and barking at its allies.

The smaller of the two allies attempted to bite the still moving Heartless in the stomach, but found itself biting air and shortly after the miss, the pressure and pain of the Heartless’s staff upon its back as the he moved to the side of the attack and brought his staff down upon the unguarded back. He kept moving until he had spun out of harm’s way coming to a halt with his back to the rock, firmly between the three beasts and its prey. They snarled and barked at him, telling him in their own way to back off; however, the Heartless would not obey. Shifting his weight, he lowered himself into a defensive position with his staff held in both hands and ready to lash out at the creatures that had thus far remained free of blood and serious injury. He didn’t want to kill them if he could avoid. There was no gain in doing that and this Heartless was not a fan of useless slaughter. Still, he would not be moved by mere beast. This Heart was, for the time being, his. He would not let his find go so easily.

The Heartless watched them coldly, his amber eyes meeting those of the leader of the small pack. The pair glared at each other for a bit and then understanding the battle was not in their favor any longer, the leader growled before turning away barking at the other two. Without hesitating, the other two turned and began to flee from the area. The leader lingered for a bit taking one last glance at its lost prey on the rock and then seeing the Heartless still posed to attack, the creature snorted, turned, and hurried after the other two. Smart creature. It knew better than to challenge a predator far stronger than itself, but enough of that. There was no reason to continue to be hostile now that the threat was gone.

Taking a slight breath, the Heartless relaxed as he released the staff with one hand and let it lower and hang loosely in the other. He acted like he was scanning the area for more danger before turning slightly and tilting his head up to look up at the child on the rock or at least in that general direction. From his position below, he couldn’t really see the child that well since he/she/it was in the middle of the rock, but he didn’t need to see to know exactly where the Heart was.

Regardless of this, he would remain calm and kind towards the frightened Heart.

“Those creatures are gone now, so you can come down if you wish,” he said in a loud enough voice for the child alone to hear, while make sure to keep his tones soothing and gentle. He didn’t want to scare the child anymore. He needed the child to trust him and come down. This way he could judge just where the child fell on the scales: Useful or food? Which would this one be?

[gobi]

This was it, the Cactuar concluded. This was the end of the road or at least for awhile. Still staying in the very middle of the rock, Gobi began to rummage through his backpack. He had enough supplies to camp out on the rock for a little while, and wait until the Lobos got tired of him. And Camping is always a legitimate strategy. It’s a better alternative to probably getting singed with a Fira spell.

Most people would probably just sit on the rock and question the universe as to why they had such awful luck. Well, no, because most people could probably swim. The point that really needs to be made is that Gobi is not most people. Sure he had some awful luck, but you didn’t see him moping about it. To be fair, it was all he had ever known. Still, he smiled or at least had a semi-positive look about his face. Call it child-like optimism, but he did always think that his luck could only get better in the long run.

Of course how was Gobi to know that The Seeker of Darkness had happened upon him?

While he had been starting to set up his tent, he noticed the change of growls to yelps. Looking up from his barely established new home, he bit his lip and tilted his head to the side. The Lobos were fighting something, that much was clear. Just what I need: something stronger to hide from. Hopefully it’s just a big Flan. I can out run those, Gobi thought. The more he listened, the more he knew that the Lobos were losing. Curiosity was peaked and the Cactuarologist finally peaked over the side of his Rock-home.

”Oh no, it’s a strong person…. That’s the least of the least that I needed.” Gobi muttered, in reference to the fact that he was the worst fighter ever, and he knew it. Humans may have found their way to the top of the Food chain, but Gobi had missed that memo and was thrown in with the Plants. He did good to survive the animal portion of the chain. Whoever was in the brown cloak was good, sadly. Gobi had to admit that. He wasn’t an expert in combat, but he could appreciate someone who knew what they were doing. The more he observed, the more he got the notion that maybe this guy (or gal, as Gobi didn’t want to be presumptuous) was defending something. He looked around to see if there was anything of importance. No, not really. The thought that someone might be fighting on his behalf would never cross his mind.

He continued to watch and then he started to get worried. He didn’t want the Lobos to be killed. Granted, Gobi knew that nature was nature and things happened, he knew that extremely well after having studying Cactuars for so long. But still, the Lobos had gotten into this by accident really and he bore no ill will towards them. But the combatant didn’t seem to be going for the kill, which made Gobi smile. The Cactuarologist had no doubt in his mind that the combatant could easily and permanently dispatch the Lobos, but s/he didn’t seem to be going for that.

Quite suddenly, there was a stand-off. The cloaked combatant had his/her back to the rock and its resident, standing between it and the Lobos. It was quiet, save for the growling from the monsters, before the small pack conceded to the combatant and walked off. Gobi let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and he ran a gloved finger through his bright red hair. And no one is hurt, he thought.

“Those creatures are gone now, so you can come down if you wish,”

Definitely not a she. Upon hearing a voice that was about ten million times more masculine than his own, Gobi cringed. It was a smooth, confident, yet calming voice, he had to admit, but it still reeked of testosterone that Gobi had never been blessed with himself. The “normal” boy buried deep down inside of him felt jealous of that. But that was so far down that Gobi had little ability to process it. The Cactuarologist sat up and began packing up his tent again, as camping was no longer needed.

”Thank you….” he said, while throwing his backpack over his shoulder once more. ”I’m lucky someone was around to get rid of them…. Or that it wasn’t a Behemo-!” Gobi never did learn to not comment on his own luck in a positive fashion, as it was almost always immediately followed by something negative. While talking he had turned around in order to climb down from his almost-home, but his foot had managed to slip and he went tumbling down, somehow not managing to scrape himself up very badly, or breaking anything. A few yelps later and he had tumbled to the feet of his cloaked savior, who, unbeknownst to the little traveler was the Seeker of Darkness himself. His headband was now pushed over his eyes and his backpack was now heavily leaning onto his right side.

”Ow….” he said to the Antagonist Heartless.

[deshitana6]

The creatures had abandoned their hunt for now and turned tail to save their own hides rather than attempt to contend with a predator far more dangerous than them. He was glad to not have to destroy the creatures. Their Hearts while nice were far less appetizing than a human’s, so there was no need to waste time on the common everyday Heart. Not when he had something much more interesting sitting up on that rock.

So he let the creature’s go, scanned the beautiful area once more before turning his attention to the rock where the kid had been watching. Over the snarls of the creature he didn’t hear any of the words the child had spoken; however, he took note of how the child reacted to his voice. The child cringed as if something made it…or rather him uncomfortable. The reaction was odd to say the least and made the Heartless wonder just what was going in the child’s head. He hadn’t said anything threatening, so he couldn’t imagine the words setting off such a reaction. Perhaps the child was perceptive and sensed his Darkness then? No, that wasn’t right either. If the child had sensed his Darkness, he didn’t think he’d peek down on the scene like he did now. Not when the wiser choice would be simply to remain hidden.

The child was of the Light after all and if hiding on that rock said anything, he wasn’t a fighter meaning he was the type to flee at the sight of danger. Not a good thing in the Heartless’s head; however, if there was even a glimmer of potential in the child then he was willing to get over the flaw and tolerate the kid until his purpose was served. And when that purpose had been fulfilled? Well, he’d just have to see how he felt by that time…provided that the child did not wear down his patience here and now.

Already the kid was making a bad impression by taking too long by the Heartless’s standards to speak or make a move showing whether or not he was going to come down or not. Sure, the Heartless had spoken and shortly afterwards saw the kid vanish, so he had assumed the kid was going back to the spot he had been hiding in before Ansem had arrived. As he listened to the movement above it almost sounded as if the child was packing up something. Packing up? Packing up what? The Heartless frowned slightly at this.

Surely, the kid hadn’t plan on staying on top of that rock until he was rescued or the creatures gave up on him ever coming down. If this was the case, then perhaps this child was more of a dead end than he was giving him credit for…that or smart. Right now, he had no answers to the questions about the kid and at the rate the kid was moving, he was really tempted to leave without the answers.

In fact, the kid took so long in whatever he was doing that Ansem actually had taken a step away planning to continue to explore and just let the kid catch up with him if the child chose to do so; however, the child decided to speak just as the Heartless had decided to wander off stopping the creature in his tracks as he turned back slightly to listen. The boy was thanking him before saying how lucky he was that someone had come to the rescue. Then he was starting to make his way down the rock, still chattering. The boy probably would’ve continued to talk too if he hadn’t so gracefully slipped and began tumbling down the rock.

Now, a normal person would’ve flinched or perhaps even felt sorry for the boy, but Ansem? No, he felt nothing of the sort as he simply watched the boy tumble about unphased by the event as he listened and watched on with an emotionless stare. As the boy tumbled across the ground and came to a rest at his feet, the Heartless looked down coldly at him glad the boy could not see the look of disappointment on his face.

This kid...he seemed like a hopeless case. Weak and ungraceful to boot. The child was going on a downward slid in the Heartless’s eyes who was begin to reconsider letting the child live. If this was all the child had to offer then sinking this one into Darkness now would be ideal, but then again…maybe he was judging too soon. They had just met so maybe with time the child would show he was more helpful than useless. He did need information and pawns to use in this games. Maybe he could turn this sad case of a human into something useful before destroying him. It would take some work, but it was worth the try.

Coming to a decision, the Heartless dismissed his staff while the child was blinded before kneeling down slightly and moving the child’s headband away from his eyes in a gentle fashion. Eye-to-eye the Heartless gave the child an amused look, a friendly smile curving his lips.

“You quite graceful aren’t you? Perhaps a bit more care in the future, hmm?” he said his tones remaining playful and friendly rather than mocking and biting. Then after a second, the man got back up to his feet, took a step away before turning and offering his hand to child to help him up. “Can you still get up?” he asked as if he truly cared about the child's well being. From there, he fell silent and waited to see what the child would do. He would play the game of friendly traveler as he worked slowly to see just what he could get out of the child.

[gobi]

”You’re quite graceful aren’t you? Perhaps a bit more care in the future, hmm?”

You have no idea, Mister,[/color] Gobi thought to himself. The stranger had pulled his bandana and goggles back onto their usual sitting place on Gobi’s bright red head. He blinked his dark eyes as he looked at the almost glowing orange-yellow ones that were underneath the brown hood. Gobi hadn’t gotten the best look at his rescuer before the taller man had gotten up and turned. What the Cactuarologist had noticed was a rather dark and handsome face, and a smile. Well, he wasn’t laughing at him, or giving him that “look.” The “look” of having observed Gobi and obviously thinking, “…What?” The Cloaked man then extended his hand out to the young traveler to help him up.

”Can you still get up?”

“Yes…. Thank you….” Gobi muttered. He took the helpful hand and hoisted himself up. That was when he noticed the drastic height difference between himself and the Cloak. Another thing Gobi had never been blessed with. And at seventeen, he likely wasn’t going to achieve many more inches in his life. He sighed, a little disappointed at genetics, but overall just accepting of facts. He readjusted his backpack, its contents rattling loudly, and he looked back up to the Cloak.

“I’m a little lacking in a few departments. Grace being one, luck being another.” he admitted honestly. The grace thing he understood, but his bad luck had to be pointed out by other people before he realized just how bad it was. He had thought his luck was the norm for so long. He wanted to issue another thank you to the Cloak, but he felt it might be overkill, which was actually overly perceptive for Gobi. He wasn’t the best socializer, but a long shot. He thought back to his observations in social interactions; he tried to think of one that might be useful in this situation, as it seemed proper to do for a person who just helped you out.

But, oh, his attention was taken elsewhere suddenly. A slight breeze had picked up and the minimal, but all too familiar smells of Cactus flowers came to his nose and something in Gobi lit up. He ushered a small “Excuse me….” and he took a step past the Heartless and knelt down by a patch of grass. He leaned in close, got a decent enough scent from them and then ran his gloves softly over the ground. He carefully noticed that the grass was bent in a certain way and that there were tiny circle imprints in the ground. Just big enough to be a Cactuar’s footprint. Say what you want about Gobi, but his tracking skills were actually remarkably good. How many people could pick up on Cactuar tracks? Maybe the better question is how many people would?

Gobi did what Gobi did best and ignored his surroundings almost entirely. Including the Heartless himself. He took out his notepad and began writing things down, but also muttering them aloud too, making it all too clear that the Seeker of Darkness was not even being processed by the young traveler. Would Gobi being sucked into the Darkness be a Kindness? Probably, for a lot of bottoms’ sakes. And he might even be asking for it at this point. Granted, if he knew who was legitimately behind him right now, it would be an entirely different story. There’d be a lot more screaming and running.

“Looks fairly recent. Other tracks are obvious, seems to have been a chase. Tch, probably didn’t even have a hope of catching a Cactuar. All kinds of tracks. Paw prints, some residual liquid from a Flan probably. Oddly no human traces….” Gobi looked up from his notepad having really sunk in the last part he said. He looked across the Steppe, giving himself a panoramic view from left to right. Human or Humanoid wise, Gobi realized that this was very much so. It was odd to him, but not impossible. He had no idea how big this world was, and admittedly it looked huge. There might be some elsewhere, but overall it seemed untouched. It was beautiful and wild, but the more he looked the more he didn’t agree with himself.

“No, no. There just hasn’t been any Human activity in a while.” He concluded with himself. That was odd to him and unnerved him a bit. Maybe Humans or Humanoids, he didn’t want to be presumptuous, had been driven out or just had migrated out. But that didn’t sound right in his head when he tried to tie that in with what he was seeing. Small hints here and there were pointing out that People may have been crossed off of the list, not driven off. He probably really was too smart for his own good. He was probably about to be crossed off the list as well, having virtually ignored the Antagonist Himself, despite having relayed some rather interesting observations.

[deshitana6]

For the briefest of moments human and Heartless made eye contact as Ansem kneeled down to speak with the child; however, before the child could see him as a threat, he had risen after his words were spoken and had taken a step away before offering to help the child up. It was tempting, he had to admit, to do something about that Light within the boy’s Heart, but he had a plan in mind that required him to resist his natural urge to erase the Light. There would be time for that later, right now he had a child’s trust to gain. And what an easy task that was turning out to be.

Without questioning the offered hand, the boy muttered his thank you before grabbing his hand and with little effort was brought back to his feet. As they released hands and stood side by side for a moment, Ansem sensed that odd feeling he got earlier from the boy. The one where he seemed to be agitated by something that was not himself. It was that odd feeling that made him want to question the boy to figure out what the deal was. The sigh only made Heartless want to do this more as he observed the boy next to him; however, instead of prying into the reasons behind such feelings, the Heartless asked a more logical question as he moved once more, placing a respectful distance between him and the child as the boy shifted his bag in a noisy fashion.

The Heartless ignored the minor annoyance as he spoke.

“What is your name?” he asked calmly before falling silent long enough to give the boy a chance to answer his question. Then after another pause, he listened as the boy spoke about the departments he was lacking in. To the boy's words his mind responded with a sarcastic Isn’t that the truth,, but what came out of the Heartless's mouth was quite the contrary. He chuckled in a good nature fashioned at the words.

“I don’t think that is too bad. At least your luck has brought us together,” he said in reassuring voice to the boy, showing that at least outwardly he didn’t mind. It was a nice cover for the malicious thought flowing through him, but not out of him. The boy was easy prey for his hunter side that only wanted to devour him, seeing him as useless and not worth the time that he was being given; however, the researcher within overpowered the hunter by far, so the Heartless remained patient with the boy.

In any case, another brief silence passed between them before the Heartless decided to ask his next question to start rolling this ball of information gathering; however as he opened his mouth to speak he found himself not speaking at all as a slight breeze blew in the area and the boy’s aura shifted. In turn, the Heartless’s plans changed as he became curious once more of the boy. Unlike before where he could push the wandering thoughts that came up about the boy aside and refocus on his own plan, this time around the Heartless found he did not wish to push away this particular distraction.

He heard the boy mutter an “Excuse me…” before stepping passed him to kneel down by a patch of grass. At first the Heartless thought the boy had seen something in the grass; however, after glancing at the area the boy was kneeling by, the Heartless’s keen eyes did not pick up anything out of the ordinary.

“What are you doing?” Ansem asked not hiding the frown of confusion or the curiosity he had for the situation; however, the boy ignored him as he instead did another odd thing. He began sniffing the grass…

…Okay. Now, Ansem was indeed an older resident of the worlds and being the leader of some of the most bizarre creatures known to man, the Heartless had seen some very odd behavior. It was also true that humans at times did some odd things, but openly sniff the grass without reason? Now, that would be something new. Unless the boy planned to eat the— Oh!

The Heartless’s confusion melted almost instantly as all the pieces fell in place. This wasn’t random sniffing or a bizarre habit this human had. This one was tracking something, no? Ansem continued to watch the boy’s action, watching as he carefully brushed the ground and took in the details of the grass in the area he was examining...each action confirming the Heartless’s suspicions. Tracking, huh? Now that...That could be useful. Inwardly, the Heartless was filled with joy at the find, but outwardly he remained only the curious observer as he watched the boy do his work.

He didn’t ask questions at this point and he did not mind being ignored. No, he was much too curious about what the boy would find using his skills. While the Heartless did not know anything of this world, he knew that whatever trail the boy had found in the grass had to belong to something small. If this was true, then the trail had to belong to something small...and out here the only small things living were the insects and that small cactus looking thing that had been all so tempting to approach…Hmmm. Was the boy tracking that or something else?

The Heartless’s curiosity increased as he watched the boy pull out a notepad and pencil before jotting things down, talking as he went along.

Ansem listened to the boy's words, taking in each detail the boy released from his lips. He began taking mental notes on the boy.

The child could gauge time and the presence of other creatures. He could even tell from the way the tracks were displayed whether or not a chase had taken place. Also, the boy seemed to know about the land’s creatures...if the strange words he was tossing out indeed were creature’s names and not some form of food humans ate here. While Cactuar could be applied to the cactus creature he saw earlier, flan was indeed a food….although outside of this human here there was no fancy food such as that present here, so the boy had to be talking about another sort of creature, right? One made of slim according to what was being said by the boy. A hard thing to imagine, but definitely not impossible.

And what was that? He could determine if humans had been there or not?

The Heartless’s thoughts paused as he watched the boy observe the area quietly for a bit and then coming to a conclusion spoke. His words only pleased the Heartless more. Impressive. He a lot more useful than I gave him credit for, Ansem thought before he was speaking, the boy unfortunately capturing the Heartless’s attention fully now that he knew he had the ability to track. He’d have to test how good the boy was, but for now he tried asking a question instead.

“A while? How long is a while?” the Heartless asked truly curious about the answer that would hopeful reveal more of this boy and his tracking skills. If he got lucky, maybe the boy would even follow the trail of what had caught his interest or perhaps the Heartless could experiment in another way with a different sort of test. Hmmm….this was turning out to be a delicious find indeed!

[gobi]

“A while? How long is a while?”

Gobi shrugged at the question, not really registering that someone was talking to him again. He wrote some more notes down, looked up, and did another panoramic view, this time going from right to left. Gobi wasn’t an archeologist, but humans/humanoids usually had great impacts on Cactuar environments, which is the only reason he had any sort of knowledge on the matter. If it affected Cactuars in any way, Gobi probably knew about it in some fashion, surprisingly. One would be surprised what all affects Cactuars.

“A long while. I can’t date it exactly, but it’s been a long time. There might be ruins around that could be a little more helpful.” he said, but he had no intention of looking for the ruins. Not when a trail was right in front of him. Whatever had removed the Human element from the landscape had not removed the Cactus element, which was Gobi’s priority. And as long as he could avoid the remover, then Gobi didn’t feel too worried about himself. Gobi wrote down a few more things, before adjusting his backpack again. That’s when he blinked and realized that the Cloak was, surprisingly, still there.

“Oh… Uhm, Gobi Nydle….” he replied awkwardly. The fact that the stranger had asked his name was only just dawning on him. “I mean… That’s my name… ‘Cause you asked… earlier.” Feeling the all too familiar sensation of a social ship sinking, Gobi bit his lip and looked to the ground. He was a plant person, not a people person, he at least recognized that much. He pocketed his notes and adjusted his goggles on his head. He wasn’t sure as to what he should do with the Cloak now. For Ansem’s benefit, Gobi’s etiquette was poor and he never thought to ask the Cloaked One’s name. Gobi gave another shrug, not sure if that was the correct gesture, before he leaned back down and gently parted the grass. He was looking for the direction the Cactuar had scurried off to.

But on the last look to the Cloak, Gobi finally put together what had seemed wrong, or rather, different. He immediately sprung up and turned around. Looking past Ansem, Gobi’s gaze was also looking higher. He had been so focused on the ground that he hadn’t even noticed anything higher than his own head. He was even surprised that he hadn’t noticed it on his rock. His dark eyes were round and wide and he pointed past the Seeker of Darkness.

“What…? That…?” Gobi’s eyes were fixed on a noticeably huge being, towering over the landscape. Black and orange veins covered the entire thing’s body, whatever it was. It looked like a giant walking statue. No, it was… well, huge or giant weren’t the correct terms. Gigantic, no, towering, no, colossal, maybe. There weren’t quite any appropriate adjectives for what Gobi was looking at. The Cactuarologist had never seen a fal’cie before, and had no idea that he was looking at one called Titan. The scale of the very sentient creature was unfathomable for his mind. The thing running through Gobi’s mind was, If it’s that obviously huge from this vantage point, what is it like up close and personal? Collecting himself, he shook his head and looked back to the ground, though still pointing up to Titan. Suddenly, the lack of Humanity seemed a little more understandable, with something like that stalking around. He had no idea what that thing was, but he had a sense of absolute insignificance in comparison to it. He also didn’t like the feeling he got off of it. Sighing once more in an effort to calm himself he looked back to the grass.

“Best to stick with Cactuars…." he told himself.

[deshitana6]

(Sorry for the longest wait ever. We can continue if you like.)

If Ansem had been anything else except interested in the boy’s tracking skills, he probably would’ve become easily annoyed with the boy’s focus on his work. The action would’ve tempted his more animal-like side to act upon the instinct that all Heartless had, to feed upon the Heart that was weaker than themselves. Sink it into the deepest of darkness. It would be so easy to do it, especially with this child. Unaware of his true intentions, the child would not put up much a fight. If anything perhaps the child would flee and force him to go on a hunt instead. Make him work a little for that precious Heart that he contained, but luckily for the boy he had shown a hint of something useful and so the Heartless saw no need to destroy him quite yet.

Instead he waited quietly for his answer, watching the shrug and the way the boy took in the area again and made his notes. When the child finally did answer, Ansem was a bit disappointed. The answer was not what he had wanted to hear. He couldn’t do anything with long passed things. He needed fresh Hearts if his Heartless were to thrive, but then again….if there were ruins as the boy said, then perhaps they could provide him with a little more insight on this world. Hmmm…maybe it could be a stop that might be worth it in the end, but not now. No. He wanted to see this boy’s skills in action, so instead he logged the information in the back of his brain for later not saying much else as his eyes scanned the landscape watching the movement of other creatures in the distance while the boy continued to focus on his work.

He was admiring the details of the landscape, seeing what could and could not be used, regretting the fact that he had not been able to make a deal with the armored man that called himself Gabranth and the man called Caius. It would’ve been nice to have allies to sink this world into Darkness, but alas the deal wasn’t completed. On top of that, his plan to test the warrior Noctis had fallen short also. His only true success was getting Hollow Bastion back into Darkness’s command. A success that was not enough if he wanted to pave the way for the Darkness to come. He needed to get moving again, capture more worlds, and make a path of some sort for the true Darkness that would soon move in on the worlds. He wanted to make some form of a move, but at the moment had to wait and while he waited, make good use of his skills as a researcher. Pick up information here and there and in turn, use it to crush the Light. Small steps, very small, but steps nonetheless. The process was taking some time to get in motion, but in the end the wait was worth it.

In any case, the Heartless’s attention remained on the surroundings for just a little bit and then a sound drew him back to the present and the boy that was with him. The child had finished his observations and had now stood up looking at him as if he was shocked to still see him there. To the look, Ansem simply tilted his head at the young man not really phased by the shock and then the boy was speaking. He said something odd to the Heartless that made him frown a bit confused; however, the boy was quick to un-confuse him as he told him the strange words were his name. To this, the confusion melted away as Ansem simply nodded.

“Gobi, huh? I can remember that,” he said with a friendly smile before taking note of multiple things at once. The boy was socially awkward, but the situation was only made worse thanks to the fact that Ansem was playing his game a bit differently than usual. Instead of being on the talkative side, he had chosen silence, only giving information if the boy asked and the boy asked nothing of him. Not even his name. It mattered not to the Seeker though. He didn’t mind being nameless or not giving any information on himself. It did him no harm. After all, the Heartless already had what he wanted from the boy—his name—so now all he needed to do was keep playing nice, keep building the trust until the boy’s use expired. A job made easy for the time being thanks to how cooperative the boy was being.

In any case, after the bowed head and shrug, the boy went back to kneeling down, parting the grass now that his hands were free of the notes he had been writing. Once more, Ansem watched as the boy examined the grass, tracking whatever it was he was tracking; however, the observation ended when the boy glance at him once more before springing to his feet, wide eyed and with fear leaking off of him. Narrowing his eyes slightly, Ansem took note of the direction the boy was looking and had turned slightly to look behind him even before the boy began to point.

He heard the boy stammering, asking what the large thing in the distance was. The Seeker’s response was as calm as ever.

“I couldn’t say,” Ansem said as he eyed the giant in the distance with curiosity and also hidden hostility. He didn’t know what the giant was for he had never been to this world before. He didn’t know anything about Fal’cie or other powerful entities that roamed the lands, but he didn’t have to know all that to understand what was or wasn’t a threat to him. As much as his researcher side wanted to meet the giant up close and personal, collect data on it to be used for a later time, his Heartless side was telling him to stay back and protect his pre---uh, friend should it attack. The creature was a huge colossi made of some odd material that had orange and black veins running through it. It was also a being of power, so Ansem had to wonder if he’d be able to handle the thing should it attack. After all, the boy wasn’t a fighter and while the Heartless could fight and summon lesser Heartless to his side, he did not wish to reveal what he was to the boy if he didn’t have to. Besides, he was very certain the giant would be a pain to bring down. Alone, it would take a lot of effort to bring down. A fun challenge, but with the child there and an act to hold up, it was best if he took the safest path for the time being.

Keeping his face blank of the thoughts that had been flowing through him, Ansem’s attention turned back to the child. He seemed to be trying his best to calm down and after a sigh, did an unexpected thing. Instead of fleeing or attempting to go closer to the creature, the boy dropped back down and began to examine the grass once more!

Like a creature startled by a noise, but finding it non-threatening, the creature goes back to doing whatever it was doing as if the thing that had startled it never happened. The action was…amusing to the Heartless that was finding this child to be full of surprise that showed useful aspects of him. Useful aspects, he was glad to see after the terrible first impression the boy had given him. It made the Heartless more curious about the boy and wonder just how well this kid did under pressure. Hmmm… Another fun test, in the making? Maybe. He’d have to wait and see.

Anyway, Ansem remained quiet for a bit taking in the words the boy used before speaking, playing the part of the curious traveler all the way.

“Cactuars?” he asked tilting his head truly curious, despite having a pretty good guess at what the name referred to. He fell silent after this, keeping an eye on both the boy and the strange colossi that moved across the land. He was curious if the boy could track the creature he sought, but also if said tracking would lead them towards the giant. Whatever the case would be, he had would simply play this by ear to keep from setting off anymore alarms in this boy that was showing he was very perceptive to things and the world around him.