Christmas Party In Japan? (private Grin)

The one thing about being from a northern European country was that you just got used to the cold and the frost. While he expected many people to be shivering in the frigid temperatures and huddling together to find warmth, Grindal was for the most part comfortable. He had a nice peacoat pulled upper torso that was nicely buttoned up to trap in any residual heat his body released on its own. Underneath, however, he had a nice sweater and designer jeans covered his legs. Feet were placed snuggly within a rocking pair that lead him through the dusted pathways en route to this party he had heard from a friend’s friend’s friend. It wasn’t a direct invitation, mind you, but at least he had a chance to meet a few other members of his race. He hated to admit that he didn’t quite have any friends since his most recent transplant into this part of the world.

With his hands loosely held within his pockets, the tall male would look around the area for the first victim person to associate with. But before he even managed to chat with anyone, everyone gathered inside to eat upon the food. Was it catered? Or was it potluck? He hoped not the latter since he didn’t bring anything outside of himself. And, generally speaking, he preferred to not to be consumed as a portion of anyone’s meal. That required a couple dates first at least! He was classy like that after all.

After setting his coat in another room to be out of the way and gathering a few fixin’s for himself and grabbing a nice beverage of the adult variety, Grindal would scout out the tables and eventually took a random one where he thought was an opening. Sometimes the best way to meet others was by forcing interaction. “Hey, this seat taken?” he questioned anyone at that particular table, his eyes wandering back and forth between all upon it to find an answer. Any hesitance would make him go on to the next area while acceptance would result in his ass being taking a seat on a chair. “Hope you don’t mind my intrusion. New around these parts. I’m Grindal Horist. Pleasure to meet you all,” he said with a smile.

The older quincy formed a nice toothy grin as the other came over and offered him a shake as a greeting. It was nice to see some other Europeans at this party. He figured it would be mostly Japanese folks who didn’t speak a word of his native tongue. And, to be quite fair, his Japanese was far from worth complimenting. His taxi driver honestly had some difficulty trying to understand him when he gave the poor man the directions. Despite Ail’s kind greeting, it proved quite difficult for him to join in the laughs and jokes. A lot of these folks were obviously friends or at least familiar acquaintances. He really was the odd man out who could only awkwardly laugh whenever else chuckled in hysteria. Hopefully, that would pass with time.

Eventually, the dashing male took a seat right beside him. He could smell the alcohol on his breath: liquid courage it would seem. “Well, I came here after hearing that there was an increase in spiritual activity. Honestly, it peeked my interest. Since home wasn’t offering much anything in terms of the supernatural, I packed my things and moved. Plus, its just me now so no sense in dwelling in a place of constant bad memories. You know? Sometimes its nice to start out somewhere completely fresh,” answered Grin as his finger idly traced over the scar that swiped across his nose and cheek. He was still a tad self-conscious about it. Even a year or two of branding it wasn’t enough to get used to the marking. It was quite distinct injury after all. “How about yourself? Why Japan? Similar reasons? Or did you just want to start a family here. Couldn’t help but notice the young ones hanging around you. Daughters I am guessing? Or nieces? You seem liked you’d be that cool uncle that the kids love” chuckled the man, just trying to spark some small talk.

The other’s answer perked a brow up. To learn more about shinigami? That was an interesting reason but it was not one he felt needed further explanation. In many ways, one could view those death gods just as much of enemies as hollow. While he understood the reasons they performed such a massacre in the past, it didn’t mean he appreciated the tactics that they were forced to employ. But alas, what made the past could not be changed and time must go on. Just had to learn from the mistakes of your ancestors. “Sounds like they’d enjoy themselves. I had two daughters as well but unfortunately they didn’t abide by my warnings about playing with hollow bait. They ended up summoning more than they could handle I’m afraid,” sighed the man. Maybe Ailill could at least relate to such a statement. Would be nice to have someone who could understand a father’s loss to a certain extent.

Though, when the children ran up to hug their father, he smiled at them kindly. They were quite adorable. And playful little things! How sweet. “I never quite took to archery per say but I have to admit I enjoy my ranged fighting. I prefer revolvers myself. Lets my fight with a hand free or to use both to pepper foes with my ‘arrows.’ My father told me of a Quincy who ended up dying after he lost use of an arm. Didn’t want the same to apply to me.” Shrugging his shoulders, he would lean back against the table and stretch out the front of his chest causing the muscles found there to bulge through the confines of his sweater. “I’m guessing you’re more of an up-close kind of guy. You have that aura about you. I can see it in your posture.”

With that statement, Grindal’s eyes would flash over the male’s frame a bit before contorting his lips into a simple smirk and shaking his head. “Well, since you’re from the area, would you mind showing me around a bit sometime? I’ve only been here a couple months so I still haven’t exactly ‘seen all the sights.’ Would be nice to have a tour guide that I can actually understand and vice versa.” He couldn’t help but release a soft chuckle with that one.

The male nodded his head. “Yeah, its not a common quincy weapon, but hey, they work quite well. They’re pretty versatile. Plus, you can’t look like a cowboy when you’re using a bow.” Grindal released a soft chuckle as he took an idle sip from his brewsky before noticing Ailill standing up to move towards the door. Part of him expected that their little conversation was going to be over but the motion asking him to follow made him smile slightly. It seemed the man was enjoying their conversation a bit. Looks like he was working his way to making the man his friend. As the Irishman made his way outside, the older of the two grabbed his jacket from the coatroom before tossing it on his broad shoulders. Though a few steps behind the man, he wasn’t overwhelmingly so and easily was able to catch up to him.

When he did, however, he was struck with a certain warmth. It was an aura that the man himself seemed to be producing from himself. Frankly, it was interesting: not because he could create heat but because the Quincy was basically exposing himself and everyone around them to anyone who had any remote skill with sensory perception. “You trying to bring every shinigami and hollow to our location?” chuckled the man as he stuck his hands within his pockets, his eyes flashing over the evening sky just to see if there was anyone (or thing) coming towards them. “Might want to switch over to using Reishi. That’s a bit harder to detect you know,” he winked playfully, his back finding support as he leaned back against a firm tree.

“I fight because I don’t want to be weak. Ever since I learned of my Quincy heritage, I basically have been told that I was weak in one way or another. My immediate family basically disowned me because my mother wasn’t a pure-blood, my father passed away before I could learn everything he had to offer, and I wasn’t able to save my children when they needed me the most. That’s partially one of the reasons I came here. With so much spiritual activity, I would imagine it would guide me towards a path to improve and grow stronger. And if not, at least I could die trying.”

Grindal would shrug his shoulders some. He really didn’t mind the question too much. He was just merely concerned whether or not Ail would disband whatever friendship they were starting to form when he mentioned that he was a mixed-blood. Some Echt Quincy just despised their Gemischt brethren: case and point at his family. He could only hope that time would allow such thoughts and ideals to change.

When he saw that the man was starting to shiver from the cold, he would chuckle softly. Approaching him, the man would wrap an arm around his shoulders and give his arms a slight rub with his hands to try to allow friction to heat him up. “How about we head back inside to get your jacket back on. No sense in you catching a cold over nothing.” With that, he’d give him a very slight push to guide him back towards the party, always minding the other’s thoughts of keeping his girl’s in view.

“Not much to it really. If you can form a bow and shoot arrows, you can basically use it for anything. Just takes practice.” Extending a palm upwards, he would gather some spiritual particles from the atmosphere and condense it into a small orb. He would then extend it and launch it up towards a tree small tree branch. Its power easily pierced through the bark and sent pieces of wood falling safely to the ground below. "See? Not that complicated."

Grindal smiled when the male stated he wouldn't hate him just due to his "impure" bloodline. For that, he was quite thankful. He didn't know too many Quincy so he merely assumed most of the Echt-class where hateful people who had their head up their ass. Luckily, Ailill didn't seem to show such attitudes. Maybe it was because he was a kind soul, or the fact he raised himself to a degree, but whatever the case he was someone he certainly could call friend. When the male took his winter wear from his daughter and applied it upon his body to stay warm, he merely followed him towards the park. From all the snow fall, he could see the occasional stepped trail that lead their way towards the swing. It showed him that even in these temperatures, people loved to play.

When Ail showed some skill with reishi control by stealing an apple right out of his kid's hands, the older of the two chuckled softly. While he couldn't do anything of that sort, he did greatly enjoy playing tricks on his children. It acted as a source of education as well. He assumed that he was training them in their race's arts while he worked on improving his own. "I understand that. I've had some difficulties learning some of my more unique skills. One time, I nearly died when I was trying to learn how to use Blut. My body just doesn't like reishi flowing in through it. I'm sure you have no trouble with that mister pure blood," winked the man playfully. "I may have failed in learning that, but it did let me figure out a couple of more interesting things."

With that statement, Grin would flash red with energy before literally vanishing right before the man's eyes. Before he could even figure out where he was by sensory or other degrees of perception, he was standing literally right behind him. With only inches between them, his arms would come around to playfully grab the man around his chest while his breath playfully tickled at his neck. "Boo."

The look on Ailill's face was priceless. That combination of him being flustered and embarassed was just too cute for words. Honestly, he wished he could have taken a picture of it. Maybe he'd have to set that up again and have one of his daughters snap a shot. "You're probably one of those arm clingers during scary movies, huh?" humored the man as he playfully punched the other's arm. He just wanted to give him a little hell. What was the point of having spiritual abilities if you couldn't goof off with them from time to time?

As he followed, the man knew that he was going to do something. He could just feel it in the air. That's why, when he felt chains wrap around his ankles, he was not surprised. Still, that didn't prevent him from falling face first into the cold snow. Grunting, he pushed himself up onto his knees and used a Seele Dolche he had on him to cut through the reishi chains. When questioned, he shook his head. "My father could do it. But he died before he could really train me in it. All I know is that it is based around having reishi under your feet." Shrugging, he would push himself back upright and resheated the weapon, hands patting over his clothing to rid himself of the snow.