[hr][center][b][h2]Yosef Kaganavich[/h2][/b]
[sub][i][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMUNTvk9HA4] Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted....[/url][/i][/sub][/center][hr]

For a brief moment, panic filled Kaganavich's chest when the stranger raised his fists- surely he didn't intend to [i]strike[/i] Yosef?!

He hadn't the time to react before the tall man, realizing there was no danger, lowered his hands. Confusion was printed upon Yosef's face, his gaze tracing over the nervous features of his opposite. [i]'What in world..?'[/i] He wondered silently, trying his best to keep his misgivings from showing on his expression. He hadn't a clue why Victor would react so defensively. [i]Easily frightened, is he?'[/i] 

Thankfully the silence hung not long between them with the easily frightened and awkward soldier offering a grin and a hand for Yosef to shake. There was great strength in his grip, the Hebrew noted.

"Bah, no apology needed." Yosef waved it off, returning the grin with one of his own- wide and deep as the Red Sea. A mirthfulness played in his eyes and in his voice; the stranger's queer attitude gave Yosef no shortage of amusement. "I can understand it. I'm quite frightening!" He laughed, his hands falling down to rest on his hips as he continued with what he meant to say when he approached earlier. 

Victor's size was quite intimidating at a glance, but it only took him opening his mouth for all of that to fall away. He was as nervous as a deer and jumpy as a rabbit. [i]Perhaps it is the unfamiliar that frightens him.[/i] Yosef tried to pick it apart, attempting to understand it as best he could. [i]I could not blame him. All of this...if I were not so excited, I'd be terrified.[/i]

Introductions were exchanged, and he was able to hear what another of his North-born comrades thought of this exotic land they'd traveled so far to get to. [i]'Victor...'[/i] It was not an uncommon name, and it confirmed Yosef's belief that this man had the Motherland flowing through his veins. While it would be awfully hypocritical of him to treat others of odd origins poorly, Yosef could not deny that he found more comfort in the familiar. At least he knew that Victor would understand him when he spoke! In a place as strange and far from home as Asia, he believed it important to embrace what he knew. And Victor reminded him of home in more ways than one.

Yosef's smile faltered at the mention of his home. 

He was not given long to dwell on it, however, for Victor spoke up once more. Yet he did not address Yosef, as he expected; his words were pointed toward a woman wandering about not far from them. She looked awfully bored, finding conversation between her boot and the dirt rather than with any of the surrounding groups that had started to form.

Yosef was curious as to why Victor called out to her so. His words were innocent and friendly, yet it was his [i]intentions[/i] that Yosef dwelt on. Silently he observed, hearing what each had to say and guessing at the meaning weaved in between them. Interestingly, the woman- Milena- responded first not to the content of Victor's greeting, but the phrasing. She took issue with his polite use of [i]ma'am.[/i]

[i]'Too formal for her, perhaps?'[/i] He wondered to himself, his own curious smile playing at the edges of his lips. [i]'She'd rather he use her name. To be more familiar; looking for friends and not comrades, I would wager.'[/i]

In Kaganavich's experience, people were a lot like machines. On the surface they were smooth, lacking many complicated parts. Easily understood by one who's familiarity with them was only in passing. That was a radio. This, an engine. Yet inside was a whole host of new and difficult to understand parts. Even in two separate engines everything could be entirely different; it was much the same with people. Everyone was made up differently within. Yosef had always loved taking things apart and trying to understand them. It was much the same with people.

His chance to observe was cut short when Milena turned and addressed him as well. Yosef's smile widened as he snapped back into the present. "Oh, much the same as everyone else, I'd guess. Terribly hot and tired." The Hebrew chuckled. He offered a hand to her, much the same as Victor had. "I am Yosef. A pleasure." He nodded emphatically, motioning with his palm toward the giant standing to his side. "And this here is Victor." He added, noticing that Victor hadn't given his own name quite yet, despite how eager he'd seemed to speak to Milena. Yosef had a feeling that he might know why, but he'd save his teasing for when he and his new friend were alone.

Milena went on to ask the lumbering titan about his prior...accident. She wished to know if he'd managed to injure himself on the door- it turned out that she was a medic! That caught Kaganavich's attention, his brow shooting up at the sight of her going to examine Victor's very...very large head. "Ah, so [i]you're[/i] where I'll be getting my bandages from! Excellent!" Yosef didn't exactly have the steadiest hands, and working with things that could burn, electrocute and cut him if he slipped up...he tended to need a lot of bandages.

[i]She was rather quick to point that out.[/i] He noted as he took a step to the side to get a better look at what Milena might be doing to their new mutual friend. [i]Overly worried about his well-being? Or looking to prove herself?[/i] Kaganavich rarely received satisfactory answers to the unending questions he asked himself. It was more of a game to keep his mind ever occupied than any concrete analysis; Lord knows he'd proven to be wrong about many a person's supposed character before.

"We're much the same, then. Though I'm more a medic of rifles and radios." Yosef joked. "I wouldn't trust myself with fixing a person in a thousand years."

Though there was always more to say, and always more to see, time marched ever onward. They had a schedule to uphold and the officers with their obnoxious, shrill whistles knew it; the soldiers were called to return to the train so that they might continue on. "Ah. It is farewell then, at least for now. I'll see you both later- shalom, comrades!" Off Yosef went, joining the hordes in returning to their cars to prepare for the long journey that lay ahead. He had much to think on, though that was always the case. Yosef's mind was never quiet. Never satisfied.

They came upon their destination in the dead of night. Deeper into India, though the location wasn't know to Yosef as he dragged his heavy head up from the window. He'd done his best not to doze off earlier in the trip, knowing he'd have to sleep in an unfamiliar cot when they eventually arrived. Yet with the hours ticking by and no one to speak to, Kaganavich had caved, falling into a dreamless sleep.

He took his bag of meager belongings up, tossing it over his shoulder as he joined the masses. They departed the train, entering the warm night air for the first night of many more to come. Yosef looked around the crowd for Victor or Milena, hoping to speak further; yet he wasn't given time as he was pushed and pointed toward a large tent and ordered to get some rest. [i]You don't need to tell me twice.[/i] He smiled to himself drowsily, marching toward the tent until he could collapse into some bug ridden, dirty bunk. Exhaustion would quickly take him, hopefully; Yosef did not envy those that spent the train ride resting.