Bald Man's Alliance [Rude]

[Rydia]

I Lie Down, Get Up Again
And I'm Still Stunned

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”Huh? How did I end up here?” the young green haired girl questioned as the look of confusion seemed to be written all over her face. After her previous plan of trying to follow a princess in hopes of finding Cecil failed, Rydia had started her search to find her lost friends again. The White King could have ventured off on his goodwill mission to a city that wasn’t Midgar. Somehow, she would find Cecil, but for now she could continue looking for the friends he thought he had lost forever. Cecil would be so happy if when she found him again, Yang, Edge, or Edward were traveling with her.

Still, she wasn’t too sure anyone would come to a place like this. The bright lights had attracted her towards the place from a distance, but now that she was here, Rydia felt somewhat unsafe. The woman here were dressed in odd costumes, or rather something she hadn’t seen back in her own world or with the rest of Midgar. While had wasn’t in modest clothing, Rydia still wondered how they could wear such low cut dresses without anything falling out. But the girls dressed as bumblebees were just way too bizarre. Midgar was truly a unique place…

And even the warm, glowing lights were misleading. The places they were in front of did not seem inviting. The place with the heart signs might have been nice to look inside if it weren’t for the bee dressed girls; some place like that was bound to be too strange for her. There was also a place with a lot of muscle men moving heavy weights up and down for no reason. A place like that definitely wasn’t for her considering how big all the men inside where. It especially wasn’t appealing considering how little they seemed to wear as well. It was like this part of Midgar was a haven for semi-nude.

When she finally decided she had enough of exploring the neon glowing part of Midgar and tried to exit, her way seemed to be blocked by some rather scary looking men. It wasn’t that when shirtless men approached her she got scared considering Master Yang didn’t care for shirts even in very cold places; but when their bodies were scarred heavily and covered in odd discolorations like an ogre or troll, something was usually wrong. Their menacing smiles made her uneasy and when one suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist, Rydia meeped. Even through her rainbow vision she could see something was wrong with the situation.

”Hey girlie, where are you running off to?”

”O-over there,” she answered with a rather blank expression. She had no real destination in mind, but she knew this part of Midgar wasn’t for her.

”No, no, no, sweetie. You don’t want to go over there when it’s much better this way.”

The man with his arm around her waist started to lead the poor confused green haired girl back into the neon lit area towards the mansion in the back of the town. A worried frown crossed her face as she started to wonder if now was one of those times that she was in great danger and should be fighting her way away. Her bottom lip quivered since she wasn’t supposed to attack people unless they attacked first. Being bullied into going somewhere wasn’t exactly attacking. The tiny girl looked like a deer in headlights as she was pulled along, even when the men stopped because there wasn’t something exactly right up ahead. There were unconscious scary looking guys on the ground around a man adjusting his glasses. When the two men with her saw this, their focus shifted from her to the man actually wearing clothing.

Rydia blinked as she stood there still confused. Was he lost too? He definitely didn’t fit in considering he wasn’t shirtless, wearing tiny shorts, or some odd animal shaped costume. The green haired girl continued to blink repeatedly as she watched the men attack him for no reason. Maybe he was intruding and that's why the scary people were upset?

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^{Tagged :: rude
Words :: 680
Lyrics :: Late Night Alumni - Of Birds, Bees, Butterflies etc.
Notes :: ---}[/sup]

[Rude]

A day off as a Turk was a rare thing. Rude had no excuse to miss work- no family or other pressing need to deal with. He hadn't needed an excuse. He'd basically received a call, telling him he didn't need to come in today. Good enough. With everything that was happening recently, a break from a job that left him tangled up in most problems in and around Midgar could save his sanity. So, today, he was heading out to the gym, which was unfortunately on the more lively, strange side of town. He hadn't bothered to take off his uniform, having dressed before the call earlier, and was carrying some workout-appropriate clothes in the bag in his right hand. He wondered about Reno's reaction if he'd had to come in- the look on his face when someone told him that Rude wasn't around because he had the day off. Elena could describe it for him later on. He'd be looking forward to that.

As Rude moved down the sidewalk, paying no mind to the strange residents of this side of town, he pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and flicked it to silent, making sure there was nothing to bother him on his one day off. The one contact he left on vibrate was the President himself. Tucking it back away, his hidden eyes moved back up in time to see a couple members of one of the local gangs staring at him from an alleyway as he passed. They'd run these parts since Shinra's collapse, from what he'd heard. Their whispers reached his ears, but he ignored them as he approached. "Turks in this part of town........they don't run this place no more." "Nope. You'd think they'd hear 'bout us takin' over before they came walkin' in here, right?" "Yeah, yeah. Keep walkin', Turk."

Rude was too disciplined to care about their boasting, and only stopped right in front of them to stare from behind his shades a few seconds- enough to get them to shut up for the moment. He could see a few more rummaging through some trash further down the alley. When he moved on, he stepped down the next alleyway to cross over towards the gym. A few long steps later, and he exited the other side. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two more of the gang members moving away from him, in some kind of a hurry. Maybe they were smarter than those he'd passed a few seconds before. Not paying them much mind at first, Rude craned his head in their direction as he started to cross the street, hearing an odd little sound.

So much for the idea about those gang members. They stood in the path of a small, green-haired girl, one of them already with his arms around her. Rude stopped in his tracks, watching them for a moment until they started towards the other street. Rude tried to look away and not worry about this. This was his day off, after all. But, as he looked between the gym and the departing gang members with the girl in tow, he grunted and took off at a fast pace back down the alley, dropping his bag there. In moments, he was back over to the alley where the two gang members were still standing. He'd probably regret this later. "You back, Turk? What, did the guy holdin' your leash tell you to come?" Saying nothing, Rude pulled his gloves from his coat pocket and began sliding them on, staring down the two.

A small grin appeared on their faces, and they turned to the others. "Boys, I think this Turkey wants to dance. Let's strike up the band." As the others approached, Rude kept no emotion on his face, keeping his arms as his side, looking everything like a statue. "Get him!" They rushed, all wanting a piece of a Turk. Rude waited until the first was nearly on him before he moved, driving a hard right hook into his face. He was out instantly, dropping onto his back suddenly enough to trip up two behind him. The next one up received a knee to the stomach and elbow to the back of his neck when he bent over from the impact. Two more drove their fists into Rude's stomach, only to get shoved backwards- one then had his head bashed into a wall, and the other just tripped over the first man as he stumbled backwards.

The last three, not bright enough to see what happened to the others, scrambled to their feet and drew out small knives. Rude calmly slid the nightstick from his sleeve and extended it as they slowly moved towards him. Ignoring their patience, Rude moved quickly towards the first one, driving a foot into his chest and taking his head under his arm. He let himself fall backwards, driving the man's head into the ground. The other two rushed Rude while he was on his back. A kick to their knees sent them to the ground again, and before they could recover, Rude shoved himself to his feet and moved to them, grabbing and knocking their heads together as they sat up, leaving them sprawled out on the ground. Sliding his nightstick away, he turned at footsteps behind him.

The others had arrived with the girl. Looking at their unconscious friends, they seemed to forget about their newfound toy. Rude brought a hand up to adjust his shades, motioning his head for them to come at him if they wished. They obeyed. An uppercut, piledriver, and elbow later, they were lying limp beside their friends. Seemed that the Turks still ran these parts, after all. Giving out a small "Hmm" at his success, Rude pulled a bit at his tie, surveying his work, before he turned to the girl, who was standing and watching. He figured she would have run during the fight. "You should run home." Hoping that was the last distraction for the day, Rude stepped towards her and past, noticing something about her that was slightly familiar as he did. Didn't matter. Time for his workout, if he hadn't already had one.

[Rydia]

I Lie Down, Get Up Again
And I'm Still Stunned

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There seemed to be a lot of people ordering her around today. Maybe it would have been best to stick around the Princess then venturing alone. At least the Princess had kept her save from the lurking danger she claimed Midgar was overflowing with. Rydia had been fortunate to avoid any run-ins with zombified denizens, though she would call her current situation lucky either. The two men who decided to escort her to somewhere she wasn’t too sure about didn’t last long. Scary men usually lasted longer in a fight, but the man in tons of clothing seemed to quickly suppress them before they could show that they were a threat. It made her wonder if he just went around subduing scary individuals as his job in Midgar. If the city was as hostile and the Princess tried to express, Rydia could see a need for a man like that.

Though his outfit was not really fight as fighting attire. The flower girl/boy she met wore clothing closer to something she approved as battle attire. It seemed a bit feminine, however, she could see it as lightweight armor. The man in front of her looked more like a butler to the Princess or some type of serving class. His outfit matched the colors of the clothing female maids wore back in Baron. Though, he was really, really far from the Princess to be a proper maid…

”Ah…okay?” she retorted. The option sounded fairly nice since she would have loved to return to Feymarch, but alas it wasn’t something possible. Returning to Baron might have been a good idea in its place since she still needed to find her dear Cecil. It was just finding Baron that was the problem. Even finding a way out of Midgar wasn’t exactly the easiest thing. Though in all honesty, it didn’t sound like he really cared. He was just ordering her about like some kind of adult! She was an adult too…somewhat. He had no right!

She stood there with a bit of a miserable expression with her feeling hurt until she noticed something. As he proceeded back towards the glowing lights of the neon sector of Midgar, a pink sign perfectly reflected on the back of his head. It was around then she noticed at the strange clean up man had no hair. Most maids and butlers had hair. Actually in her experiences, only monks seemed to think that baldness was best. Monks were fairly weird fellows; they were mighty effective in a fight with their fists, but they usually talked weird. They weren’t [o]social

[/i] people, but they seemed to have their own little society. It was the way of the fist that they all seemed to understand which was extremely beyond her. Her brow burrowed as she puckered her lips. When she was traveling, every monk they encountered seemed to know Master Yang. The monks seemed to have some super close knit society at that since she wouldn’t have considered Master Yang to be famous.

”Oh, oh, oh!” she moaned suddenly excited.

If she followed this man, she might be able to find Master Yang. As long he didn’t do odd things like transform into a frog or dress up like a girl , Rydia could follow him without problems. (There had been encounters where monks were crossdressing and even disguised as frogs. Ninjas also did weird things like that, but ninja were weird in general since someone like Edge was ruler of them.) The girl giggled happily as she skipped off behind the man. Since concealing herself didn’t seem necessary, she followed a few feet behind him with a cheery smile on her face. Hopefully he would lead her to Master Yang quickly. The last thing she wanted was for him to stick around a place like this.
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^{Tagged :: rude
Words :: 640
Lyrics :: Late Night Alumni - Of Birds, Bees, Butterflies etc.
Notes :: ---}[/sup]

[Rude]

Five steps later and Rude had generally forgotten about the girl, aside from the thought that if Reno was here, this would string out longer than it needed to. Rude easily managed to avoid those same distractions when he was on his own. His only worry was that the unconscious gangsters would wake up and find some friends to help them hunt Rude down, but that would be no issue in the gym. Rude knew several regulars there, and they would be happy to assist him if the gangsters would show up. All situations were accounted for. Crossing back through the same alleyway for the third time, Rude checked his phone for the time and picked up his bag again, stalking towards the entrance to the gym.

Very light footsteps a few feet behind him fought for his attention a moment, but to avoid more distractions, he didn't give in. They followed him as he crossed the street, walked down the sidewalk, and only stopped at the exact moment Rude did the same, opening the gym door to let a young lady exit. As he stepped around the door and moved to head inside, he finally stopped and craned his head to face whoever was following him, letting out an audible sound of frustration. The level of his gaze spotted no one immediately, but as Rude's eyes descended, they fell on green hair. Standing behind him, like some loyal puppy, was the girl that he'd just bothered to wrest from the gangsters.

Damn.

Rude stared at her a moment from behind his shades, hoping she'd get the hint and go away. Nothing. Two more people exited the building while Rude held the door open. A few more seconds. Nothing. As Rude let the door close, he turned to face the girl full-on. He wasn't trying to be imposing, but it might have turned out that way. "Can I help you?" He asked with no emotion. He still couldn't ignore the fact that she reminded him of someone, but he didn't care enough to think on it. Even if she didn't run off now, she might once he went inside, with all those men (and likely some women) staring her way. Still, there was something precocious about her, so that was no guarantee, either. Hopefully she'd had enough of shirtless men for one day.

OC: Sorry it's bleh-y. D:

[Rydia]

I Lie Down, Get Up Again
And I'm Still Stunned

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He stood there and she stood there with an innocent smile on her face. He held the door open, looking at her but not directly, and she stood there still with that innocent smile on her face. People seemed to ignore their awkward situation. Rydia had no clue why he stopped or why he was going to some place Rydia didn’t enjoy the first time she walked into it, but it didn’t matter. Soon enough she’d see Master Yang and they could catch up. She could tell him all about what she had seen in Baron. He would be happy to know Mr. Stork came to visit Cecil, even though it didn’t end with a new baby in the castle. And Rosa seemed to think her name was Celes, but other than that everything was completely fine back in familiar lands.

The door closed and the smiling girl tilted her head. He was such a Good Samaritan for coming to this place to hold open doors for people. Then again, it was something a butler did. He turned to her with a very neutral expression as he questioned if she needed help. The girl shook her head with her happy expression. She didn’t need the butler monk to go off and get her any types of drinks or something of that nature. She was feeling quite content. This time her lead in finding one of her friends seemed completely fail-proof! There was another long silence between the two before she looked up at him curiously. He had been standing here for quite a moment without holding the door open. ”Uh…” she moaned. Maybe he wanted her to prove she too was a Good Samaritan before he showed her the secret world of the monks. Rydia nodded, she wouldn’t fail him or Master Yang!

The girl moved from his side and opened the door in the same manner he did, smiling her innocent childish smile again. She looked overjoyed just to be doing something so simple, and instead of standing two feet away, she was standing next to the bald man since he had never moved out of the way. Hopefully he would see her simple act of kindness as the correct rite of passage. Her emerald eyes gazed off towards the side where the sweat, extremely underdressed people were still doing odd repetitive moments. Maybe the secret monk society entrance was somewhere within. It didn’t seem completely impossible since monks seemed to train doing the same punching movements. Of course, these people had hair, so they weren’t monks. Perhaps this was potential monk training grounds? Her shining eyes looked back at the bald butler happily. She couldn’t way till he showed her to Master Yang.

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^{Tagged :: rude
Words :: 455
Lyrics :: Late Night Alumni - Of Birds, Bees, Butterflies etc.
Notes :: ---}[/sup]

[Rude]

Awkward. Nothing else could describe this properly. Rude couldn't understand why this girl was standing and staring at him, an unsettling smile on her face, and he didn't think she knew, either. Her motion about needing his assistance had disproved that notion. Rude could only continue standing and wondering if she would get to the point. If she'd been going to the gym, she could have stepped by him five different times seconds before. If she wanted to tell him something, she was having speech issues- she couldn't think he wasn't listening. The look on her face almost made him think that she wished to do something for him in return for him dealing with the thugs. The way she just stood there, though, had him doubting. Had he accidentally taken something that belonged to her? If so, then why didn't she just say something?

Finally, her mouth opened, but only to say "Uh". Rude continued watching her as she stepped by him and grabbed the door, opening it....for him, apparently. Was that all she'd wanted to do? Keeping slightly disturbed eyes on her (hidden, of course), Rude let out a slight grunt and stepped into the newly opened door, hoping he wouldn't hear light footsteps against the floor directly behind him. In fact, to avoid such a sound, Rude made a plodding beeline towards the changing room, assuming she wouldn't follow him in there. A few inside nodded at him as he passed, and some just stared at his uniform, knowing him to be a Turk. Rude had to take a deep breath as he stepped into the hallway to the men's changing room, worried to look behind him before he was inside.

There was the possibility she was just following him in fascination, but there was one problem with that- he wasn't used to anyone following him around. Rude thrived on doing his job and getting little fanfare. Didn't bother him to have some appreciation, but.....this was a day off. A quiet workout would be great. Pushing through the door of the changing room, Rude moved to an open bench, unbuttoning his coat. A few inside watched him uncomfortably as he sat down, but Rude payed them no mind. None of them were interested enough in having their day interrupted to bother a Turk. While he zipped open his bag, he hoped that the door squeaking behind him was just another man preparing to workout.....

[Rydia]

I Lie Down, Get Up Again
And I'm Still Stunned

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He approved!

The girl would have squealed for joy if it weren’t for the fact she was saving all her joyous yelps for her reunion with Master Yang. After one person exited, the bald butler monk walked into the monk training grounds. The place assaulted her senses as she watched him walk by. The smell was horrifying. It was a deep, foul musk like putrid smells staining the air of a swamp. It was oddly warmer inside but there were fans going to spread the heat and musk. It was so gross, but the bald butler monk went inside with stumbling or faltering. If she was going to prove herself worth of following him to Master Yang then she would have to enter this malodorous haven.

The green haired girl took a long and deep breath before heading inside herself. For a moment she was amazing by the oddness of the place. Monks looked odd with hair and little, tight clothing. She much preferred the way the butler monk dresses, or the monks of Fabul. There was something very unappealing about this place. But it probably straightening the body and mind by training in something so humiliating.

Her attentions quickly focused as her savior was heading off some place without her. The odd picture sign above the door meant nothing to her, but it did look like a bald man. This must have been the place where Master Yang was hiding out! She quickly entered with high hopes only to be exposed in men with towels. Confusion and bewilderment graced her innocent face as she silently followed the bald dark skinned monk through an area where people seemed to wear even less clothing. Why did the road to becoming a monk require so much nudity? The girl stood silent in her disoriented state as he set down some bag. Her eyes looked at the bag before a silent prayer escaped. She hoped he wouldn’t suddenly become an unclothed monk like all the others. Surely he had to have passed their level considering his hairless stature. Still, she couldn’t help herself. “Uh…” she moaned lowly as she held a hand out but quickly pulled back as cuffed both her hands to her chest. While she didn’t mind having to prove herself, there was a limit to her abilities. She wasn’t a monk; she was a black mage summoner! He couldn’t expect her to walk around in such embarrassing attire.

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^{Tagged :: rude
Words :: 400
Lyrics :: Late Night Alumni - Of Birds, Bees, Butterflies etc.
Notes :: It's rather funny to think gym clothes are more embarrassing than her summoner outfit. It's a freaking swimsuit with boots and sleeves.}[/sup]