paixaorpg | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Character(s); Tifa Lockhart, Genjyo Sanzo
Content; Tifa and Sanzo meet for the first time [completed]
Setting; Somewhere in K6.
Time; Monday - afternoon
Warnings; None as yet

Tifa couldn't help but frown at the strange looks the equally strange people sent her way. She had not been too bothered about it at first, but right now it was starting to grate on her nerves. Shutting her new electronic journal carefully, the young woman decided to simply look down at the brochure. That would beat simply staring back at them, and she could actually get something done in the process.

According to it, she had just passed Estale a Cereja, a seedy-looking shop that sold items she probably didn't really want to know about at the moment. Brushing her hair out of her eyes, she frowned down at the brochure and contemplated opening her journal to have another look at the map. Having passed The Wild Ginger in favor of heading over to Cid's shop, she resumed walking, not bothering to look up as she worked out the best route there.

It was not like anyone would bump into her anyway, considering how the pale denizens of the city seemed to avoid her like the plague.

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The damned creature wouldn't leave him alone. It ignored any threats Sanzo made at it, and it ignored the gun he'd tried flashing at it. It had seen through his bluff.

And as the morning burned off, it was getting braver. It had closed the gap between them bit by bit, following behind now with only about three feet between them.

Sanzo could feel the hairs on the back of his neck go up as it go closer.

The easiest thing to do would be to just kill it. A bullet tended to put a stop to most problems. Quick and easy.

Yet Sanzo hesitated all the same. This creature - as irritating as it was - hadn't actually made any move to attack him. He had the advantage, while it clearly didn't. Sanzo wasn't exactly a sterling example of what was the proper behavior for monks, and had never claimed to be. Didn't particularly care to be.

That kind of mentality - the one that grew from monks under the illusion that they were safe in their secluded temples, that the world and themselves were at harmony with each other - got one killed. He'd learned this early on.

Despite this, Sanzo didn't enjoy killing. He'd learned to get over his guilt about taking lives. He'd come to terms that it couldn't be avoiding on this journey. Killing was something he did when he had to, not because he got any honest pleasure out of it.

Killing this animal would be a waste of a bullet.

His fingers twitched for the gun all the sameas the animal darted around his legs.

His eyes on the animal nearly tripping up his feet, the priest didn't see the woman standing in the road before it was too late.

“Ow!” Tifa yelped as a particularly tall someone crashed into her, sending both the brochure and the journal tumbling to the ground. Famous last words, indeed; it was only by the grace of her natural sense of balance that she did not follow her new possessions in their downward trajectory.

Rubbing her arms, she frowned, focusing crimson eyes on the stranger. If she had thought that the citizens of Paixao were oddly garbed, it was nothing compared to this. He was wearing some sort of robe, as much as she could make out, and there were strange things – scribbles?- on his shoulders.

Golden blonde hair, startling purple eyes, he was definitely not from around here.

Sanzo stumbled back a foot, cursing, barely managing to avoid stepping on the creature. The thing was surprisingly agile. Far more than he would have thought. It had already moved to get out of the way almost seconds before the collision. The new arrival, unfortunately, did little to frighten it off... although it kept a more respectable distance now that the monk wasn't alone.

Sanzo - regaining his balance - straightened, staring at the woman he'd collided with.

The first thing he sensed was that she was not the same as people he'd encountered so far. Compared to the wraith-like translucence of the citizens of this place, this woman was a startling change. Black hair, red-brown eyes - warm compared to all the nearly colorless ones he'd seen so far, and not empty - and a pleasant enough face.

Not that Sanzo was the best judge of that. Gojyo would have loved running into this woman however: what she wore was certainly not from China, and he wasn't sure if she'd have gotten away with it back home. Almost skin-tight, black, and made of some strange material that stretched over a generous chest.

Thankfully, Sanzo wasn't the roach.

Regardless, this woman had no right to be standing out there in the middle of a busy street, and Sanzo wasn't about to offer any apologies for it. The most he was willing to offer right now was not having her look down the barrel of the Smith & Wesson.

"Who are you?"

Her fallen items forgotten for the moment, Tifa blinked at the unexpected, abrupt question. It was not like she was expecting an apology or anything; but this particular man was...simply put, odd. Or perhaps he had different notions of what manners were.

Or maybe he was just cranky. Who knew?

Tifa Lockhart was sure meeting stranger and stranger people by the hour.

Brushing dark strands of hair out of her face almost impatiently, silently cursing her rotten luck and hoping that her electronic journal was not damaged in any way, she crouched down and gathered them up before responding.

"I'm Tifa; thank you very much for the pleasant greeting." Her curiosity outweighed her grumpiness, however, as she studied him once again. "You don't look like you're from here...who are you?"

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If she was expecting any sign of embarrassment or guilt at his manners (or lack thereof), she wasn't going to find it.

Sanzo would have rolled his eyes if he didn't have to keep them on the creature.

Just because she was a woman didn't make him any more inclined to show her more courtesy. Sanzo never bothered with that bullshit. The gender didn't matter. The fact that she'd been in his way did.

The priest clearly didn't share the same sense of chivalry that the roach had either.

"Genjyo Sanzo. You aren't from China or India, are you?"

He immediatly knew Tifa wasn't from either, but it was worth an attempt.

LOL It's fine like this, really! :D ]

At least he was exceedingly easy on the eyes, Tifa thought to absently to herself. It was not a habit of hers to notice such things, but he was such a striking individual that she could not quite help it.

Her fine brows creased into a confused frown. China? India? None of those words registered. Had this man arrived from there? Checking over the electronic journal and secretly relieved that it was still in one piece, she turned her gaze back to the man named Genjyo Sanzo.

"I've never heard of those places." Pausing for a moment, she continued. "I'm from Midgar...Have you heard of it?"

Chances were that he probably wouldn't considering she had no idea where the place he was from was, but it wouldn't hurt to try, would it?

"I've never heard of Midgar," he replied.

Tifa's appraisal wasn't lost on the monk. Sanzo had gotten them enough in the past - from both men and women - to know when he was being checked out.

Such a pain.

Looks were deceiving, and not just on his end. Tifa was attractive enough, but harmless looking at a first glance. Yet - and Sanzo gave her another quick look over - she was showing hints at being anything but that. The way she stood was confident, radiating strength and a kind of readiness. All of which pointed towards her being a fighter. Someone just as comfortable letting her fists do the talking when words failed.

Interesting enough.

Sanzo settled on folding his arms into his sleeves. This place only continued in producing more surprises. At the moment, this one didn't seem to be interested in attacking him.

It was a start.

Perhaps she had more of an idea of what was going on here.

"So you're not one of them."

Even though she had expected that answer from the good-looking, albeit strangely garbed man, Tifa couldn't help but feel a strange sense of disappointment.

"Oh." Forcing a smile, she nodded. "Thanks, anyway." Genjyo Sanzo might be...odd, but it was a nice change actually speaking to someone who behaved normally, rather than enduring strange stares from the people of this city.

Noting the shift in the fair-haired man's posture, her attention was once again drawn to the seemingly spacious sleeves. His...robe looked like it wasn't suited for combat, and she briefly wondered how he would actually defend himself when the time came.

But then again, he was probably the sort who glared people into submission, or something.

...Probably. For all intents and purposes, Tifa Lockhart tried not to judge individuals solely based on her first impression of them. A difficult task, but something she worked towards all the same.

Shaking her head, she shot the passing citizens a cursory glance before turning her attention back to him. "No." A short pause, and she continued, deciding to elaborate on her situation, on the off-chance that he would probably know something. "I ended up at some gate a couple of hours ago, and then I decided to come in here."

Tifa frowned, deep in thought. "There seem to be a few people I know here, although a couple don't seem to remember me." Looking back up at him inquiringly, she asked. "Do you have any idea what's going on, Genjyo-san?"

Tifa wasn't in a much different position than himself then.

"No, I don't."

There wasn't much more he could say at this point. Sanzo had wasted a day already getting to this part of the city, and right now, he wasn't even sure what he was looking for. There had only been the brief encounters with "Axel" and "Daath" over the journal network to go off of. Those in themselves had been nothing short of useless: the priest got the feeling that both were toying with him.

Meeting Tifa was starting to dip down a similar road. It only confirmed a sneaking suspicion - that there were others that had appeared here suddenly, and against their will - but did nothing more than that.

"So you wouldn't know anything about Axel or an Organization here?"

Axel? Organisation? None of it rang any bells, which served as yet another motivation to get to Cid's shop. As far as she knew, it was most probably Cid Highwind, and she hoped that at least he would remember her, or at the very most, have an inkling of just what was going on here.

"No," Garnet eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "I'm going to visit a friend of mine, and see if he would be able to provide any answers." Pausing, she added helpfully, in a bid to be nice. "You could come with me, if you want to."

Sanzo seemed to be searching for answers as well, and maybe Cid could probably help. She didn't know if he would be able to, but there was no harm in hoping, was there?

Sanzo was already shaking his head. He wasn't going anywhere with this woman: he didn't know Tifa, and despite her seemingly gentle nature, he wasn't about to follow her all over the place just based on that assessement alone. While the monk rarely trusted anyone, well...he didn't distrust his own group.

And all things considered, that was rather gracious of him.

"Some other time," Sanzo said. The maybe was unspoken. "Who is this friend of yours?"

If he wasn't able to find anything on his own, perhaps he would try this source. Perhaps.

Accepting the declination with a simple nod, Tifa responded with a tilt of her head in the general direction of her destination. "His name is Cid. His shop's on the map, so I'm going to see if he's there."

Offering a easy smile, the young woman added, "I'll have to get going then, if I want to reach his place before nightfall."

[Cid, huh?]

Another unfamiliar name, but still potentially valuable. Sanzo committed it to memory.

That was it then. The only reply that he had for Tifa was to move out of the path - out of her way - and to sit down on a bench. He had nothing else to say to her. At least for now.

The monk needed a bar. He suddenly needed alcohol, and a veritable shitload of it, because running into this woman proved that he hadn't gone insane from all the crap on this journey.

This place was real.

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