[center][sub][i]Two dudes present: two dudes talking about feelings in a surprisingly healthy manner given the nature of this band of fuckups.[/i][/sub]

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[sub][color=3e4d5b]A R C H A D I A[/color] / / [color=3e4d5b]F O R E S T[color=333333]. . .[/color] I N T E R I O R.[/color][/sub][hr]
[color=slategray][indent][indent][b]K[/b]ain looked at the hand that landed on his shoulder. Corr, the one person who he didn’t have a actual problem with seemed intent of fixing that little irregularity with his comments. Yet there was no malice, no arrogance. He was not like Carmen, posturing and beating her chest with taunts and empty posturing. Not a manipulator who saw only tools. There was a sense of calm to the man, like someone that seen the world for what it is and decided it would not shackle him. 

[i][color=#FD1C03]“Like the rock that that split the wave. Like the sun bleached stone and frozen and cracked earth, he will remain even when our fire have scorched the flesh and vegetation off the world's crust.”[/color][/i] His aeon coiled inside him the fires dimming down. An act itself that was downright confusing for Kain. But Kain was not one who saw things the way of his fellow soldier. He was born and shaped not from natures elements, but from the nature of his fellow cruel man. His tone, as he spook was not unkind, but it carried a harshness to it. Tinged with bitter resentment not for Corr, but for everyone else. 

[color=#FD1C03]“And who would put the hound down, [b]The Government?[/b] I would have wasted away in a cell either way.”[/color] He said with a snarl that bared teeth, much like the proverbial hound he now apparently represented. [color=#FD1C03]“Besides, there is no such thing as a controlled fire, only a dying or a contained one.”[/color] He said before the plan was layed out by Carmen. He scoffed. Their plan was fire? Why bother with sticks when he could just light whatever tree they came upon on fire. Regardless, he nodded.

[color=#FD1C03]“Alright. I’ll go with Corr."[/color] IT was a statement of fact rather than anything else.

[color=#E6B426]“Fine by me.”[/color] Replied Corr as he made a quick gesture with his head towards a path through the surrounding foliage. He could talk to the man once they were moving and away from the group proper. In his time he had learned folks respond better to that, felt more comfortable not encircled by judging ears. But he did think on the words that Kain had said, the thread as it were still flickered and flared and that bothered him. Yet that was typical of him - there was something wrong and so he had to try his hardest to fix it.

Purposefully he did not lead but kept his gait at an even peace with the other man so that they walked side by side, shoulders almost touching. It was a strange thing as Corr was not used to somebody that was nearly his height, he could keep his head straight for once instead of keeping it perpetually cocked downward. Yet these new foreign sensations were outweighed by the feeling in the back of his head as small pockets of energy sparked as their close proximity made the auras released by their  aeons clash and bounce off of one another. Much like whenever the others draw in the Giant rumbled agitated by the other presence. 

He sighed.

[color=#E6B426]“No, the Government won’t put you down - they are too weak willed for such things but [i]I[/i] will.”[/color] He spoke simply not mincing his words, no idle threats to show dominance, only a simple promise between equals. He continued. [color=#E6B426]“A warrior controlled by his rage is but a slave to it. You speak of contempt of the idea of rotting in a cell, yet you let your anger hold a dominion over you that no prison warden could ever have, and I just don’t understand [i]why[/i] to be honest with you.”[/color]

[color=#FD1C03]“What do you feel, when you look upon the word. What did it give [i]you[/i]?”[/color] Kain said, not looking Corr's way. [color=#FD1C03]“I will tell you what I see. I do not see people, I see those that condemn me. I do not see trees, I see the fuel of my fires. Why? Because I was given nothing. I took everything I ever had but for one thing. And that one thing was taken from me. Ripped out of my grasp, because I dared to dream of more. And so I tried to make a life for myself, despite the old one doing everything to snuff me out.”[/color] He said as he picked up what he thought looked like the driest and largest sticks on their way. His eyes never looking to Corr, just staring ahead, as if he was searching for something.

[color=#FD1C03]“When the time comes.”[/color] He began, kneeling, picking up a particular large branch. [color=#FD1C03]“I rather it be someone like you, who take me down. Then someone like Carmen. Out of all of them, you are the one who does not make my insides boil with rage”[/color] He finally look the others way. [color=#FD1C03]“If you are able, that is.”[/color] He rose to his feet. 

[color=#FD1C03]“I was made the way I am. I was turned into what I am not by nature, but by people. The only person I ever truly cared for is dead, I buried him myself. Everywhere I have gone, people have tried to control me, and every time, I have bucked them off. What they cannot control, they fear. What they fear, they kill or put in a box to rot. You see me as a prisoner of my own anger. Maybe you are right. But I rather be a prisoner to that rage, then sit behind the dull bars of obedience.”[/color]

[color=#E6B426]“I suppose we are all trying to get free of something.”[/color] Corr mused pondering upon the words spoken as he tilted his head skyward. The canopy had become progressively thicker as they moved deeper into the forest proper, now there was only the darken silhouettes of branches occasionally broken up by small pockets of stars. The smell of smoke was filling the air as various fires crackled to life in the surrounding area.

[color=#E6B426]“But,”[/color] Corr looked back towards his companion, [color=#E6B426]“to answer your question. I’m not quite sure what I see the world as anymore.”[/color]

He laughed dry and morose.

[color=#E6B426]“The first thought that comes to mind is abandonment. I see a world which has forsaken me. A world where every good deed, innumerable moments of a lifetime were repaid with nothing but sorrow. They gave me praise and titles such as Commander and yet I only feel the loss for what once was and fear that I'm becoming what I once hated. I saved a woman in the slums not too far from here and in return I was repaid with self-damnation. Even if a time comes where I can leave this life behind - which I highly doubt would even come, there is nothing I can return to; to my people what I have become is nothing more than a wretched best, a weapon forged from union of flesh and sin.”[/color] Corr explained as he felt the Giant grumble and roar more loudly roused by an influx of emotions normally kept at bay. [color=#E6B426]“And I’m not a perfect man, I’m no saint despite my namesake, and sometimes all I wish to do is just crush it all, make them pay. And it would be so [b]damn[/b] easy.”[/color]

A fist snapped outward like lighting bursting across the sky, and slammed into an adjacent tree, the trunk groaned and bark splintered fragmented by spiderweb fissures and cracks. The fist crackled and roared with energy unrestrained by force of will. Kain was to see something most rare indeed, for a brief moment something began to form behind Corr like a shadow come to life but made of brilliant white - the Giant let loose. But with a breath it vanished and Corr was back in his normal composure as he drew the fist from its tiny crater and examined the now bloodied knuckles, a smile upon his face.

[color=#E6B426]“But then I remember all the little things. The shameless dreams of children, the unrestrained love of youth, the smiles on the families which let me sleep in their homes when the cold came, and the laughter. And maybe in the end if I managed to at least make [i]one[/i] more person smile, help just [i]one[/i] person it will all be worth it. Or at least that’s the hope that I desperately cling to”[/color] He shrugged.

[color=#E6B426]“I guess you could call me desperately naive. But maybe I’m a prisoner to my hope as much as you are to your anger.”[/color]

[color=#FD1C03]“I could imagine worse bars to be trapped behind. Hope”[/color] He said the word as if it was a rare spice he hadn’t tasted in a long while [color=#FD1C03]“Hope makes you do stupid things, reckless things. But unlike anger, the strength hope gives does not.. Break all reason. Or blind you to everything.”[/color] He said before pushing his palm against a crooked, wind bleached dead tree. There was a spark of fire as his arms briefly was engulfed in white hot flames. Then the tree was burning just as bright.

[color=#E6B426]“And yet it still does blind you.”[/color] Corr said more to himself as he watched tree feeling the warmth creep out towards him in the chill of the night. [color=#E6B426]“I ask a favor of you Kain - Give the others a chance. I do not ask for love or for acceptance, but only an open mind.”[/color]

Kain hesitated, but then he nodded. The fire around his arm died out and he reached it out. [color=#FD1C03]“I will.” [/color] He said finally, grabbing the others hand in his. [color=#FD1C03]“If only because you remind me of someone. Someone who asked me the same thing once.”[/color]

Corr could feel it in the vocal inflections, a familiar sense of painful nostalgia that he knew all too well. He didn’t pry upon the matter though. He liked to believe that a man was entitled to his past, and there were some things that were better left unsaid. He did though reply with a simple smile and a nod of his head. [color=#E6B426]“They sound like a person who [b]I[/b] wouldn't want to disappoint. A good person.”[/color]

He reached out unflinching towards the burning tree and ripped off a branch and tossed it with tremendous strength out towards the horizon, a trail of smoke following behind it as it deposited itself somewhere in the distance. [color=#E6B426]“And for my part I promise to keep Carmen and the others to the same standard of which I’m holding you to now. If [i]anyone[/i] tries to start anything, they are going to have to answer to me. And we will see how that turns out for them.”[/color]

He laughed again lighter this time, less weighed down. Whether he liked to admit it or not it felt good to actually be able to talk to somebody again.

[color=#E6B426]“Well we best finish lighting these fires and get back eh? World to save and whatnot.”[/color]

[color=#FD1C03]“Are we saving the world? Damn, They really need to brief us better”[/color][/indent][/indent][/color]