talking into monocles.
It was very different from
the West Side. Much quieter. More subdued. Cleaner looking. The
only sound was the gently clicking of hooves, echoing around the square. This is
the first time he’d seen the East in daylight. And he had to admit;
it was impressive. Sheikoh’d pulled a job or two over here, but
only at night and never near as mysterious as his current one.
Actually, one time he’d been hired to clean up for Interium’s
Coascendant. That’d been fun.
Then he shook the hair out of his eyes
to better see the immaculate, cobbled streets and the perfect
little shops. The stone pathways and highways were all lined with
flower speckled shrubbery and emerald grass. The stones of the
street ended in a precise, little line. Underneath the
cloud-streaked sky, the buildings clothed in greenery managed to
feel both imposing as well as tranquil to Sheikoh’s eye. A signpost
stuck out of the in the middle of a median. Sheikoh walked towards
it, squinting his eyes.
“ Okay... Myzeik Square.
Made it,” he murmured to himself under his breath. “My kind of
work.”
The well-dressed people rode their
Swifthooves around him alone or in pairs almost exclusively. They
all seemed to be trying to avoid eye contact of any kind. Many of
them chattered into various designs of monocles. They looked a
little bit crazy, as though they were talking into the thin
air.
Sheikoh met a couple of light glances.
When he locked eyes with East Siders, they all acted like he’d
caught them in some embarrassing act. It was very peculiar. West
Siders were rarely bashful like this.
None of them seemed overly
threatening, but Sheikoh visually probed anyone who wandered too
close all the same. He knew, no matter how
unthreatening something seemed there was never any such thing as
‘too careful’. Sheikoh himself, or rather Silence, was a living
lesson to the fact. He kept his hand on the hilt of his pistol as
he strode towards a nearby statue of a marble man riding a horse
into some unknown battle.
“ You get em,
Saint-of-the-Year…” Sheikoh murmured with a tiny smile.
He turned and let his body
slide down the statue, coming to rest on the soft, emerald grass.
He settled in for a wait, he flipped the hair from over his face,
and then scanned the East Siders like they were a part of a mildly
interesting play. His coal black eyes
swept the area thoroughly, at odds with his languid pose against
the statue.
The few who noticed him in the shadow
of the stone cavalryman took in his sharp features and even sharper
eyes with the detachment that came from seeing a million faces a
day. They inevitably tossed the information away though. What did
it matter to them if a child chose to spend their free time lying
against granite? All they saw in Sheikoh was a child. An
adolescent, a nothing. Sheikoh knew it and he used it. Only a
stupid person ignored their utilities, and as everyone who had
heard of Silence knew, he was anything but stupid.
The sun climbed further and further
through the sky. After a while, the statue’s shadow engulfed
Sheikoh as he waited for the prearranged meeting to take place. Was
he early? Sheikoh doubted it, but he pulled out his battered
Trinity XI to check.
The Trinity was one of the old
cellpads, basically a miniscule computer screen covered with a
retractable case one opened like a book. It was a tiny phone that
used to have internet capabilities, but nowadays they weren’t worth
the wait to load. Totally outdated, especially when compared to the
gleaming monocles over everyone else’s eyes, but what works,
works.
Sheikoh’s finger twisted
the case to the side, exposing its digital monitor and glanced at
the clock. It read 4:13. Sheikoh flipped it shut and flipped his
dark hair to the side with an irritated twitch. Apparently it
wasn't enough to drag him all around Interium, His east side ‘contact’ had to be late
too, just to show him who was boss.
He waited there for an
indistinct
It was very different from
the West Side. Much quieter. More subdued. Cleaner looking. The
only sound was the gently clicking of hooves, echoing around the square. This is
the first time he’d seen the East in daylight. And he had to admit;
it was impressive. Sheikoh’d pulled a job or two over here, but
only at night and never near as mysterious as his current one.
Actually, one time he’d been hired to clean up for Interium’s
Coascendant. That’d been fun.
Then he shook the hair out of his eyes
to better see the immaculate, cobbled streets and the perfect
little shops. The stone pathways and highways were all lined with
flower speckled shrubbery and emerald grass. The stones of the
street ended in a precise, little line. Underneath the
cloud-streaked sky, the buildings clothed in greenery managed to
feel both imposing as well as tranquil to Sheikoh’s eye. A signpost
stuck out of the in the middle of a median. Sheikoh walked towards
it, squinting his eyes.
“ Okay... Myzeik Square.
Made it,” he murmured to himself under his breath. “My kind of
work.”
The well-dressed people rode their
Swifthooves around him alone or in pairs almost exclusively. They
all seemed to be trying to avoid eye contact of any kind. Many of
them chattered into various designs of monocles. They looked a
little bit crazy, as though they were talking into the thin
air.
Sheikoh met a couple of light glances.
When he locked eyes with East Siders, they all acted like he’d
caught them in some embarrassing act. It was very peculiar. West
Siders were rarely bashful like this.
None of them seemed overly
threatening, but Sheikoh visually probed anyone who wandered too
close all the same. He knew, no matter how
unthreatening something seemed there was never any such thing as
‘too careful’. Sheikoh himself, or rather Silence, was a living
lesson to the fact. He kept his hand on the hilt of his pistol as
he strode towards a nearby statue of a marble man riding a horse
into some unknown battle.
“ You get em,
Saint-of-the-Year…” Sheikoh murmured with a tiny smile.
He turned and let his body
slide down the statue, coming to rest on the soft, emerald grass.
He settled in for a wait, he flipped the hair from over his face,
and then scanned the East Siders like they were a part of a mildly
interesting play. His coal black eyes
swept the area thoroughly, at odds with his languid pose against
the statue.
The few who noticed him in the shadow
of the stone cavalryman took in his sharp features and even sharper
eyes with the detachment that came from seeing a million faces a
day. They inevitably tossed the information away though. What did
it matter to them if a child chose to spend their free time lying
against granite? All they saw in Sheikoh was a child. An
adolescent, a nothing. Sheikoh knew it and he used it. Only a
stupid person ignored their utilities, and as everyone who had
heard of Silence knew, he was anything but stupid.
The sun climbed further and further
through the sky. After a while, the statue’s shadow engulfed
Sheikoh as he waited for the prearranged meeting to take place. Was
he early? Sheikoh doubted it, but he pulled out his battered
Trinity XI to check.
The Trinity was one of the old
cellpads, basically a miniscule computer screen covered with a
retractable case one opened like a book. It was a tiny phone that
used to have internet capabilities, but nowadays they weren’t worth
the wait to load. Totally outdated, especially when compared to the
gleaming monocles over everyone else’s eyes, but what works,
works.
Sheikoh’s finger twisted
the case to the side, exposing its digital monitor and glanced at
the clock. It read 4:13. Sheikoh flipped it shut and flipped his
dark hair to the side with an irritated twitch. Apparently it
wasn't enough to drag him all around Interium, His east side ‘contact’ had to be late
too, just to show him who was boss.
He waited there for an
indistinct
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