Skulking in the Trees [Fryst]

"You know hollow-san, I like the scenery around here could you not wreck it pretty please?"

Were he still able to frown, Cain certainly would be now; lost in thought, he'd been taken completely unawares by the approach of this... human. Though, the nature of the human was clearly suspect - here he was, a fleshless beast looming two feet over her, goring a tree effortlessly - yet for all intents and purposes she seemed to treat him as simply another squirrel, albeit a particularly annoying one. Beyond this, she had addressed him by race, something not even Cain at his most despondent would miss. In all, this was a terribly upsetting scenario - which by nature of his twisted outlook made it almost appealing - and for a long moment, Cain almost absently obeyed her request. Almost, of course, being a very key, very operative word. Another sandpaper-like finger dragged along the tree trunk, flaking away chunks of bark.

"It is in the interest of the tree to be so scarred; by exposing it to more insects, so is it exposed to more birds and other fauna. This exposes the tree to more nutrients, improving the health in the long-term." Barely speaking above a grumble, just audible over the sound of his finger caressing the tree, the Hollow lied and lied. He knew nothing of trees and less of how their ecology could either harm or improve the tree itself. What Cain did know, of course, was how unsettled a person could be when confronted regarding their perception versus what another can so easily pass off as the truth, and Cain was a master at passing baseless observation as truth.

Leaning only slightly forward, as though to loom directly over the shorter female, to paint that blonde braid grey in his shadow, the Hollow gently spoke again. "Though, I must wonder what your interest is. Hollow you name me, and yet you can barely be said to break from your routine. To so easily chide one of my ilk - I have heard recently an idiom, that one ought not judge a book by its cover. Tell me of your contents." Naturally, though he was so slightly unsettled, Cain could not quite predict precisely whom he loomed above, whom he might be perceived as threatening. Naturally he posed no threat at all, and that idea might have miffed him just a touch... but ignorance, as they say, is bliss.

"Yes but then the tree could also very well rot, and judging by the deep damage you have already done to it, it'll be lucky to survive this winter, so hollow-san I ask again not to do that please?"

This, combined with her step backward, caused Cain first to bristle, then to deflate. So a bluff, then. It wasn't even worth the Hollow's time to continue pressing the matter, his posture falling to a slight slouch as his hand slid away from the tree to simply rest at his side, his glowing blue eyes looking in the blonde woman's direction, but not seeing her so much as staring into blank space 'beyond' her, the Hollow already beginning to space out once again.

"As far as my contents.. ummm I had a pumpkin spiced latte and some yummy egg omelet this morning?"

"Captivating." The Hollow practically sighed, only failing to roll his eyes or facially wince because neither of those were features he could any longer articulate. This woman would not be a viable target, he determined; too upbeat, too unwilling to roll with his ploys. In this hunched position, it was easy for Cain's fingers to begin carving a narrow furrow into the grass, his attention slowly flagging. "So a human wanders into a forest and finds herself wagging a finger at a Hollow for performing nature's work. Under what circumstance do you find this to be the wisest course you could have taken today?"

It was difficult to tell through his monotone if Cain even sought an actual answer; indeed, he truly seemed to be lost in thought otherwise, but this was not the truth. Disinterested in the world as he was, Cain was always one to pay some manner of attention to reality, at least that reality directly before him; how else, of course, could he be expected to survive in this dog-eat-dog world?

"Eh I could have called the shinigami when I seen you, that would have been a bad course of action, but stopping and chatting with a lonely looking soul like you? Nah.. the eggs were a worse choice than that.."

It was at times like these that Cain wished he were still able to use his face to emote. Instead, the closes he came was the slight tilt of his head in response to the frozen breeze briskly dancing across his withered frame; where once there was nothing, now an overly ornate seat composed of bitterly-cold crystals yawned, holding this severely under-dressed individual with no apparent adverse effects.

"I'm Fryst by the way... Fryst Dronning hollow-san." Cain's fingers dug deeper into the grass and dirt as he considered the implications here, his left hand clenching ever so slightly.

"Cain." He muttered after a few moments, turning his head back to face generally forward and resume his noncommittal tone, albeit a few octaves higher; she would clearly be able to determine he was more 'in the world' now, his attention sharply focused on this strange woman. It was purely petulance that prevented him still staring at her. "I am Cain, and you are no human."

The accusation sounded patently lame, if anything the Hollow now sulking at how thoroughly he had been deceived; indeed, that he might still be being deceived. He almost wanted to state that her admonishment of his action against the forest might have been no great shake against what she might have done to the tree just behind her, but he then had to wonder if the winter she had indicated were simply herself. It was at this point his attempts at recalling the cunning he'd had in life would simply begin falling in on themselves.

The giggle, under normal circumstances, might have just set him off; instead, Cain simply maintained his posture, a niggling voice in the back of his mind warning him to be still. There was no plain danger, nothing to indicate he was in harm's way... but still that paranoid little voice murmured its advice, and Cain obeyed.

"A pleasure to meetcha Cain-kun, and to be fair I never claimed to be human, but we'll get to that later. I wanna play a game, though okay? It's called twenty Questions, if by the end of them you can guess exactly what I am I'll answer anything you have and might even help ya out a little bit.." There was almost a growl here, for Cain knew of children's games; he had spent a century haunting families with a tendency for twins or more. But again, behavior was key, and so the Hollow listened to what there was to be said.

"But if you guess wrong at the end of it, then you have to serve as one of my knights, and let me take good care of you okay? That means no more harming stuff that doesn't deserve it!" Yet again, Cain yearned for the ability to emote - a simple game, boiled down to either the option for a mystery prize or servitude. How charming. And yet, what was the alternative? A battle with an enemy he could scarce comprehend? An enemy with the ability to create an entire construct of ice in an instant, with no warning? This time, there was a very low growl, though not one of agitation; this was a growl of thought as the Hollow considered his options.

"Define what 'things that do not deserve it' means. Loose terms are not agreeable; our concepts of a need for the use of harm are likely grossly different." Now he was as a sulking child, both hands clenching and unclenching in tandem. "I would also know how you define 'a little help', though I imagine I will not receive that answer."

"We will use my definition of what deserves harm for this agreement, if it attacks you, myself or one of our friends, it deserves to be hurt, if it attacks innocents and does harm to something that is inherently not harming anything else.. it deserves it" Uncertain which was more grating, her cheerful tone or the broad strokes which she painted those that 'deserved' and 'did not', Cain simply grunted in response, his finger digging a thick trough through the dirt as the woman began to sing. This lead to an entirely new Hell as suddenly the Hollow was beset upon by adorable woodland creatures, precisely his anathema.

"these animals are innocent and do not deserve to be harmed.. you get my jist? As far as the help, I offer power in both practicality and knowledge, that is all I will tell you hehe" Another round of accursed giggles and woefully vague demands, Cain growled in discontent as the animals broached his personal space, then left just as rapidly. The Hollow had barely a moment to consider these implications before the female carried on with her wild demands.

"So I'll start Cain-kun, and then you can ask your own questions one at a time in turn of mine. So here goes... How old are you?" Cain re-settled in his slouched stance, weighing the question. He supposed he had little cause not to answer; it wasn't as though she was out to identify him as a win condition, only prevent him accurately guessing her information. Of course, if she were to lie at any point, this would render the game moot... but he somehow doubted this particularly childish woman would stoop to such a level. This, likely, was a failing on his end.

"One hundred twenty five years. The year was 1890 when I was born." Cain grumbled as he answered the question, plucking his right handed fingers from the furrow in the grass and dirt to move to its side, scoring a new, thinner line in the dirt. It was now his turn for a question, and he pondered the quickest way to reach his goal. She had not denied his claim of her inhumanity, had brushed it off entirely - but she had claimed she could call upon Shinigami. That seemed an odd boast, but it lead him to think she was wearing a very powerful disguise - whether some manner of Shinigami in hiding or, incredibly, some type of Hollow, she saw summoning Shinigami as a 'bad move'. With a grunt, the Hollow finally spoke up.

"Are you some manner of Shinigami?" He growled, scoring a second line in the dirt, albeit on the other side of the furrow; one mark for the each of them.

"I am not unlike a shinigami, but I am not one." Cain grunted at this response, and certainly would have been scowling if he had the ability; the idea that one could be a Shinigami-like non-Shinigami was actually foreign to the Hollow, whom had only but a few decades ago even learned of Shinigami, or just a short time before that discovered that his own kind had a proper name. He'd spent quite some time under the impression he was simply a ghost, albeit a rather monstrous one. Oni gonna oni, as the kids these days proclaimed.

"Have you ever harmed someone that was not attacking you? An innocent perchance like I described earlier?" There was a raspy chuckle in response to this question, some facsimile of mirth coloring Cain's actions as he scored a line perpendicular to the first on the left side of the trench he'd dug. Her second question, surely thrown away.

"Of course I have - for a time, I was an illogical monster striking only what was near for nourishment. With no sense of self or ability to reason, this is a common reaction to this state of being." Strictly speaking, these were not lies; Cain had spent a year or two suffering inconsolable rage, but even at his worst that rage was still directed. After all, it was in the end his own soul which had turned him to the path of the Hollow: how ignorant would it be, then, to say it was not directly his fault innocents had died? That he wanted innocents to die was only circumstantial to the question.

After this, as the woman undid then redid her braid, the Hollow mulled the earth beneath him; his own question was next, and now he had to determine the best course of action. The only way to win, naturally, was to play an aggressive game, and an aggressive game meant some deductive reasoning. As a non-Shinigami who was Shinigmai-like, and also as a creature who defied the 'human' epithet, this was clearly either a Hollow-creature as himself or, mindbogglingly, something outside the trifecta as he knew it. While possible, it seemed unlikely; wouldn't he by now have heard of such creatures? Surely! Surely?

Grunting, never one to admit to being uncertain of something, Cain chose to take the path that made sense - to assume he was dealing with a Hollow. Of course, this didn't mean he couldn't have some fun - he could verify this creature was a Hollow in the same breath he attempted to get under her skin, if only just a little. "After all, as a Hollow, could you say you have never assaulted an 'innocent', per your description?"

"If I were a hollow then I would be able to say with certainty that I have never harmed someone who met my description. In my life all that I have harmed have either attacked myself or my friends..."

Cain quite nearly chuckled, appreciated the pause and sigh she had uttered prior to her response. She had, it seemed, circumvented his ruse, but at the least he had made her think. As well, there was a clear tone of melancholy to her follow-up response that absolutely would have put a wide grin across Cain's face.

"My early years were full of violence and death, but I never instigated it I can promise you that.." Mentally, Cain's teeth were bared in a smile - this was what he enjoyed, even the briefest taste of the misery another had to offer - misery brought upon themselves, through their own suggestions, was equally as sweet. Perhaps she had wanted and predicted this path, Cain could admit that, but her willingness to give him that minor nourishment fueled his compliance with her continued games.

"Do you reside mainly here, in this world or in that yucky scary desert that your kind calls home?" This question received a response from Cain, a slight tilt of his head; he had been there, once, that desert of which she spoke. It had been an act of natural movement, one he hadn't bothered attempting to replicate - a fellow Hollow had made a threatening gesture and in a panic, he found himself away. His need to resume his haunting had brought him back before very long, of course, and so it struck him as odd to think that the desert was habitable. 

"I was not aware that desert was hospitable. I find my residence in this realm, where the meals are not so difficult to come across." The irony here was lost on Cain; he was utterly unaware that it was standard for Hollow to cannibalize one another, having thought he was simply to be the victim of natural violence from a savage. This news he simply filed away for further contemplation, marking in the dirt another score to denote her question, and then one to denote his to follow.

"You deny your humanity, you assert you are no Shinigami, and you declare Hollow to be 'my kind'. You must bear in mind, I am ignorant of these spiritual goings-on, being so young. Are there yet more races, beyond the Human/Spirit - Hollow - Shinigami?" Despite the question, he felt certain the Hollow indicator had been on the right track; Cain made his living off of the misery of others, after all, and the sentiment this woman spoke of combined with her vehement denial of the Hollow - the Shinigami she had merely written off as not-quite, and the accusation of humanity she had brushed away with a giggle - made the Hollow lean heavily in this direction. This track, he thought, would be the best way to discover the answer to this game.

The pause leading into her question here was palpable, the woman putting some definite thought into the answer before giving it. This, to Cain, was telling, though probably for the wrong reasons; where he was a suspicious and vindictive sort, she might actually not have this information cataloged and on-hand. His ability to recognize this fact was terribly crippled by his tendency to simply assume he was regularly being lied to.

"Let me think, there are hollow, shinigami, Quincy, Fullbring, Human, Bount, Modified souls, There are a few hybrids of those as well.. Vizard.. a shinigami infected with a Hollows reiatsu, A substitute shinigami, a Human shinigami hybrid. Well technically Fullbringers are a hybrid as well, of hollow power and human..." This response was met by a grunt. If the information was to be trusted, then Hollow and Shinigami were as little in the spiritual world as some type of filter to apply to the human soul, rather than static states of being. How very... well. Far be it for Cain to disparage the natural way of things.

"Do you enjoy causing pain in other things?" There was quite nearly an open laugh at this; the nail could not have been struck more directly. Fish swim, birds fly, and he made his living on the suffering of others. To deny this simple truth would be an utter denial of himself.

"If I did not enjoy inflicting pain, I rather think I would not be able to survive. It is our lot to need to cause pain." The answer felt rather smooth to him; it was a blatant agreement to his predilection, and it did not paint him as even slightly deviant from his kin and kind. He already had a perfect grasp of this woman's ideas of Hollow; playing into them was the easiest thing in the world, and only partially because she was not entirely wrong.

"And I dare say you surely are not the paragon you try to convince me, and yourself, you are." Sitting on his heels, the Hollow shifted now, scoring the emblem for her question beneath the last, again perpendicular the initial question's line. Four questions - one fifth of the game past. They were moving along rather rapidly. "If your early years were 'full' of violence and death, especially to the degree that would paint your opinions of my kind and our 'home', as it were, then clearly you won those contests of violence; I say this because you yet live. As well, you have clearly obtained more than some small amount of power, evident by your display with that little seat on which you rest. There are such things in this world as savants, and the fortunate - you are not either of those things. Your abilities stem from blood as chill as your throne, and not all that shed blood was your own. Probably not even the smallest portion."

His slender shoulders rolling, Cain did not look up from his markings in the ground; indeed, he instead marked his own fourth score, mentally grinning as he determined which direction to take his own line of questions. "How many lives have you ended for the sake of keeping your own timeline extended?"