spira_rp | Well it's my very little wonder and it's one that I will keep

Something was going on.

Something was always going on. The world was a big and bustling place full of the small evils people committed against each other. Road enjoyed that about life. Anywhere you went you'd find people being people everywhere, and it never mattered if those people were tall or short or old or young or lizards or dogs or boring old humes. People transcended the species barrier, and people were awful. Terrible.

Fun.

Sometimes there were the larger evils people committed against each other too, and Road was part of more than one of those. They were Noah. Clandestine, dangerous, remorseless. They had their spoons in more than one pot of evil and gave them a stir occasionally to make sure the nastiness didn't just sink to the bottom and stay there.

They didn't concern themselves with the lowerworld much. Road, and Tyki, and the others, had been busily stirring another pot on Jylland, their usual playground, when the summons had come from Khamja on the lowerworld. They'd had some work from them, in the past, but their relationship with Khamja was normally distant. The Earl had maintained the connection, because connections were good, and maybe once they were done playing on Jylland it'd be fun to find a new place to play, but when the summons had come, he hadn't been able to attend himself.

He'd sent Road in his stead, and Tyki to go with her. It was easier to be underestimated when you dressed cute and sounded cute and looked cute, and had someone that definitely looked like an adult with you.

Something was going on. Khamja were playing their cards close to their chest, but they'd requested the presence of every single member, both shadow and open, for an important meeting.

Road didn't try to surmise what exactly it was that was going on. It wouldn't involve them, at any rate, at least not yet, but there was always the opportunity for new opoortunities. New people, new places, new things to learn and use.

Their directions to the Desert Palace hadn't been the best. The place was hidden, and marking it on maps would be a good way of making it no longer hidden. Not that maps were any help when you were approaching from the other side.

Road gave their transport an affectionate stroke along its bony mask. The journey from Niflheim, where they'd been, to Rabanastre, would have been a boringly long walk if they hadn't hitched a ride. Fortunately, there wasn't a Hollow in existence that would deny a Noah asking a favour.

"Do you think The Earl will be upset if we set off their alarms?" she asked, tilting back from her perch on the Hollow's head to look at Tyki upside down. Her legs dangled down, her feet brushing dangerously close to its teeth, but it wouldn't bite. It wouldn't dare.

The route had been surprisingly well trodden for something in the depths like this. Hollows came this way regularly, but if you were used to Hollows you could tell where they veered away from a spot. They gave population centres a wide berth, or the smart ones did, so you found the paths they took might open out within sight of one, but almost never in one. Not unless they were told to.

The same thing happened here. There were probably wards, or some kind of defense mechanism to keep even the Hollows out of an area that would, normally, be one of their gathering places. Some old, forgotten, sunken ruin beneath the sands, deep in the heart of the Zertinan Caverns would be teeming with Hollows if it wasn't for the fact it wasn't forgotten, or abandoned.

The Hollows stayed away. Whatever was there was too powerful for them to think it worth taking on.

They'd come out of the Garganta into the Caverns, and then pressed on, but now might be a good time to let the Hollow leave. Not that Road was against making an entrance, but it would spoil the fun if everyone knew what they were before they knew what everyone else was.

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Road giggled, kicking her ankles up into the air and waving them as she balanced on the chair on her knees, and the table on her elbows.

Since they knew who she was, there was no real need to keep her true nature hidden, and Road wanted to see what effect it had on Nel to be subjected to her like she'd been to Tyki.

She let her Noah bleed through, darkening her skin. It was a little like taking off a coat when you got inside. It was comfortable, not that she'd been uncomfortable before, but it was a more relaxed comfortable.

"Looks like we have to make ourselves at home," she said, throwing Tyki a meaningful look. They were going to be here to watch others arrive, so at least it gave them a chance to get to know the ones that were already here.

Tyki let himself out of the back door and stood on the step. It didn't take long before he realised exactly what he was seeing and he blinked, taking a few steps out, eyes trained on the sky. When he finally exhaled, his breath was smoky, and he coughed.

"Wha--" he paused, scooted back to the door and stuck his head around the doorframe, cigarette in his hand, hand held outside. "How does that work?"

Kreeth laughed her abrasive laugh and grinned at Tyki's shock at the sky. She'd wondered the same, but she was glad to see she hadn't been as graceless about it. He was stunned, poor boy. She suspected he didn't see much magic or wonder in his life. He used a match to light a cigarette, after all.

"I'll let Nel tell you," she said, settling back into her chair. "She did a good job explaining it to me."

She tried to ignore the girl turning as grey as her... half brother? Cousin? He hadn't answered her question, so she had no idea what the man was to the girl. Distant relative maybe. It was bound to make Nel even more uncomfortable, but reacting to it wouldn't help anybody.

The ripple in Road's reiatsu sent a warning shiver down Nel's spine that she fought to suppress. She swallowed, and willed Gamuza not to freak out any more than the Hollow already was. When she had chance, she'd have to speak to the Hollow. Beasts didn't react to Beastmasters this way, but then, Hollows weren't really beasts; Gamuza, and the others, had sapient minds, or the remains of them. Was it exacerbated by the chakra opposition, or would all the Arrancar find their Hollows retreating?

She didn't want to consider what would happen if some of them were this unhappy with Arrancar hosts they didn't have decent relationships with.

For all the Noah were horrifying, however, Nel found herself re-evaluating Tyki. His chakra was terrifying, sure, but he himself was a bit sweet.

"It's a weather machine," she said. "We can pick a location and have their skies." And weather, including all the fun of the Thunder Plains on that one setting. "It's easy to forget we're underground," she said, with a smile.

Road tried very hard to resist roling her eyes. She liked Tyki, he was her favourite, but sometimes he needed to remember who he was.

She slid back down onto the chair, settling onto her heels and hugging her knees to her chest with a smile. Nel was trying very hard not to react to her letting the Noah side show, too.

"They're nice gardens," she said. They reminder her, a little bit, of the ones from back home. Someone put a lot of attention into the gardens, and the flowers, especially to be growing them underground. Especially to have got everything here. They were still underground, after all, so they couldn't have had everything dropped in through the roof.

Tyki, in his surprise at seeing a sky underground, hadn't noticed the gardens. He was barely able to drag his attention from it long enough to look out across the arrayed greenery when it was pointed out. They were okay, as far as garden's went. Not too heavy on the decorative flowers, not too sparse and populated with only grass. He liked the vines crawling over the ruins. He did not like the creepy things he could see shuffling way in the distance, near the flash of reflecting glass that suggested a Greenhouse.

"They're not so bad," he said, huffing smoke through his nostrils.

He was just glad it wasn't raining. He'd suffered too many well-placed, cigarette-killing raindrops in the past.

"Nel informs me that they're looked after by one of Khamja's newer members," Kreeth said, conversationally. "Unfortunately, he also keeps Malboros."

She'd seen them, but not got near enough to bother them. She would hate to have to murder somebody else's creepy pets.

Malboros. Road's eyes widened a fraction. Keeping Malboros was somewhere up there on the level of keeping Akuma when it came to things that would creep out most people.

Her face settled into a smile again quickly. "Don't wander too close to them, Tyki," she said, in an almost sing-song. It would be a shame if he upset someone by having to take them apart.

"Marluxia," Nel said, with a small nod. Some deep part of her would rather Marluxia didn't meet these two. She had the awful feeling he'd like their Dark, creepy auras. "You'll meet him before long."

Unfortunately. Tyki didn't seem like the sort of born manipulator that would get on with Marluxia, but she couldn't tell yet if he was someone Marluxia might view as useful, like he did Lumi.

She wasn't sure where he'd stand with Road. Lumi would probably be completely indifferent to both of them. Nel had softened towards Lumi, but he was the sort of coldly aloof type that wasn't out to make friends and allies.

Well it's my very little wonder and it's one that I will keep

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