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[color=red][sub][i]Location | The Ruined City
Time | February 23[sup]rd[/sup] - Evening
Interaction | Akaia [@Exit](Directly), Dallas [@Pantothenic](Indirectly)[/i][/sub][hr][/color]
As he always did, even when unprompted, Ajax kept on the lookout so the others could take the rest time. He wasn’t a fool to let his guard down just because they were now away from the Tsar Bomba. Surprises always lurked around every corner, and would only be unexpected if one weren’t prepared…Though too, this also gave him an opportunity to see if he noticed anything familiar. Anything that would click with the memories he yearned for or Poppy already had.

For those reasons, he decided to only briefly glance through the window of the music store but he didn’t stick there long. Instead, he walked around outside with his hands in his pockets and an ear to the wind. Whilst peeking through alleys full of garbage and debris, Aj didn’t find much of particular use. Though, adjacent from and across the cracked tarmac bordering the music store, he noticed something. 

A glass window, covered partially in what he could only describe as colored dirt? He looked past the window towards the inside. It was darker inside, but he cupped his hands around his eyes for them to adjust. The roof of the middle of the room had caved in, making it hard to tell what specifically this room was used for at first glance. Still, he could make out, despite how dirty and desaturated it was, that the room was once colorful, with what were likely light blue walls. He could see the remains of a familiar yet warped plastic object that surely once stood on four metal legs. 

It was the last thing that he noticed though, that made his leer linger. A stuffed animal of some sort, with a long face with a white line going down the middle of it, pointed ears at the joint of the head and neck. It had a black, cylindrical sort of body. It had three stumpy protrusions, but Ajax knew that there were supposed to be four. He recognized, despite laying on its side, that it was meant to have two bead-like eyes. That the few long bits of thread at the end were once a tail. 

Ajax knew this because [i]she[/i] had one, though not quite the same as this. Hers was light, like sand in color, with patches of copper mixed throughout. With her memory, the little thing always followed whether it be in the room or in her hand. This was not hers…but…

[color=orange]”Actually, I need a bathroom break. I’ll be right back.”[/color]

Catching that particular piece of dialogue from Dallas pulled Ajax back into the moment. Lowering his hands from his eyes, his head turned to catch the particular revenant walking off to handle his business. Although there was nothing specifically to be concerned about, the last time someone needed a bathroom break, they used it as cover to secretly investigate something. While Ajax wouldn’t hold those suspicions to everyone’s cases because of Lysandra, he decided to wordlessly tag along. At the very least as backup, should he get jumped.

Before he did though, Ajax looked back again at the glass window. He hadn’t necessarily paid it much attention before but there was a certain quality to the obscurity lining the bottom of the window…faded and dried blue paint? With it, there was a pattern of sorts…a handprint? Many small handprints next to each other, some overlapping— like a child might do. Then towards the top of the window, a larger, more obviously yellow handprint…

The sun over water…
[hr][hr]
Having traversed by rooftop again, Ajax kept a careful ear to Dallas footsteps ahead to follow without being initially intrusive. He was also quiet though too, so as not to be audible either. In his head, Ajax debated if the distance Dallas chose was necessary. A reasonable line of thinking could lead to the idea of not wanting his piss stream to be heard, but a counter thought: Did that even matter, given their current circumstances? Separating from the larger group was often how intelligent hunters picked off their prey; the ignorant, ill, and injured. 

That was when Ajax heard a second set of footsteps as Dallas seemed to be finishing up. Peering over the building’s rooftop lip like a gargoyle, the Sword watched the interaction between the two. The veteran wasn’t convinced that it was a Lost that approached Dallas, its body language wasn’t aggressive. However, the sudden flash barrier to prevent his comrade from leaving the alley prompted Ajax to loose a stake from its place in his coat. He crept along the shadows of the structure to get a better angle without letting himself be detected.

Variables rolled in his mind. Could this have been an infernal after all? It seemed a little more intelligent and deliberate than most typically were. When Dallas got boxed in, the Sword had slowly cocked back his arm to headshot the interloper with the stake. What stopped him, was the fact that it spoke in response to Dallas’ question. Not only that, it— [i]she[/i] knew his name. 

This got more interesting, the longer she spoke. So this ‘attack’ was a ploy? There was fear and sorrow in the tone that the hooded revenant spoke with, as well as a form of urgency. She spoke of others that would become suspicious of her presence here, peaceably speaking to Dallas. Ajax certainly held his own suspicions, one of which, was that she wasn’t talking about the Commune. If she wasn’t, it meant that there was another group that must’ve been lurking about, possibly monitoring them. His eyes narrowed upon the object given the burly man, small and globular. Could that have been…?

Whoever this was had some kind of personal connection to Dallas. He had only been part of the Commune for a month, but what he had been doing before then…could be dealt with later. Ajax watched on as she walked away and around a corner out of sight. For now, as far as Ajax was concerned, his squad needed to vacate the city. 

Whoever this hidden group was didn’t sound friendly, and the fact that this girl waited until Dallas was alone to ‘attack’ only cemented such. Thus, once Dallas was clear to head back, Ajax followed suit.
[hr]
Soon after Poppy’s declaration, a door forcefully opened a little ways off. From the building he had been looking into earlier, Ajax exited wiping off an object he was holding. If one caught a glimpse of it before it went into a pocket, they’d see small, black stuffed horse with a white mane.

As he was walking, he stopped by the bench where Akaia and Cerise had been resting. Wordlessly, he waved to get Kaia’s attention. Taking that same hand, he extended it to the air away from his head, yet pinching the fingers towards his face. Taking the same hand again, he kept the pinched fingers and pressed them on his masked chin then cheek.

Moving on, he caught Desmond’s words, the Sword honestly couldn’t agree more. Less so about the hike, but more so about the fact that with the van, they’d be a bit less easy to follow. 

Ajax eyed Dallas briefly as they both approached the group from opposite directions. Knowing what he did now, the Sword would bring this up to Erik before confronting Dallas straight up. With the way that he reacted in the alley, Ajax had convinced himself for now that he wasn’t directly involved with the mystery group anymore. That wasn’t to say that his presence though, was completely harmless, given that they surely knew Dallas was with the Commune now. Ajax didn’t like any of it. 

However, if the Commune had to look over its shoulder, he’d prefer them to have home-field advantage on any pursuers.