[open] What a way to start...

[heir_to_ruin]

[Well... okay. Dead. That kinda sucks, sure, but he's been down here long enough to kinda know how things go. Some cute little girl thinks she can just wrap everyone around her finger because they don't know any better. Just using everyone around her. It's disgusting. He's absolutely horrified that he's spent who knows how long practically worshipping this girl.

But that's okay. The man is nothing if not confident.

Which is why anyone that's been keeping an eye on the rooftop stage may find an unfamiliar redhead chatting up the specter guards, all bright smiles and casual charm. Insisting, of course, that he knows a guy.

After getting insistently removed from the area enough times the mask drops a little, amber eyes going hard as he stares at the nearest screen. What the hell makes her so special, anyway? Like she's entitled to everyone's adoration. All he needed was one chance and he could ruin her. All this desperate need to be seen and adored at all times meant one little slip was all he needed.

A moment later the smile is firmly back in place and he's strolling out of the mall proper, heading for the housing district. If she's not at work... then she's gotta be at home, right?]

Comments

[heir_to_ruin]

Oh who says it's only girls I make blush?

[It's just girls that he actively uses that's all.]

And you're not that much older than me! And neither one of us are old. Is everyone Rei's age or something?

[schardynfreude]

Oh ho, I can't wait to set you loose on Phoenix and see if you can't get him to lighten up or redden up a bit. Gods know I've tried.

...But, er, yes, I would say that...many of our number are somewhere around her age. Not everyone, of course! I suppose I've just gotten used to the girls commenting on how old I seem to them. Adulthood would seem old, but they hardly seem to make comments of the sort to Beast or Phoenix or Lion...

[heir_to_ruin]

Phoenix? Oh? You must have quite a thing for this Phoenix if you're going to talk about him when you have me on your arm~

[A sly grin. Come now Chiron, he's draping himself all over you and you're going to bring up another man? Rude. The "old" comment has Ruin shifting, though, releasing Chiron's arm to move in front of him, stopping him for a moment. One hand comes up to brush the back of his fingers along the taller man's jaw, cocking a brow.]

Do Beast or your darling Phoenix have nearly so much scruff? Because I'm pretty sure kids would take that as a sign of age.

[schardynfreude]

Ah-? [First the insistence that he has a Thing for Phoenix, and then stopping him in his tracks and...touching him. Goodness, but Ruin is straightforward and at times baffling.]

Well. No. [He pouts.] But surely that doesn't make me look old. [He reaches up to gently take Ruin by the wrist, pull the hand away.] And certainly you've jumped to some conclusions about myself and Phoenix. I only mean to make him less dour. Honestly, I couldn't tell you if that confounding man likes me or hates me.

[Made more complicated by them apparently knowing each other, before, but...he sighs.]

You know, sometimes I think youth is wasted on the young.

[heir_to_ruin]

[There's a mix of protesting too much to be convincing and seeming to be rather concerned with what, exactly, this Phoenix thinks of him. All in all it only makes Ruin more sure there's something there but also...

Well it's very much not what he was going for and there's a flash of something dark in those hazel eyes again. Whether it was just having the upper hand in the conversation by flirting or actually having someone's attention all for himself didn't matter. The point was, neither of those were happening and he felt rather put out by it.]

Ah, well. It's a saying for a reason isn't it? [And if he's not going to be permitted to touch or tempt or distract himself then he's just going to take his hand back, stepping aside, gesturing dramatically.]

Sorry about that, you're meant to be in the lead.

[schardynfreude]

...Ah. [He has offended, in some manner. Chiron is much more awkward now, if only because he's trying to suss out just what happened in the past few seconds, before nodding and moving on ahead.]

Don't get me wrong, your attentions are downright flattering. And we are dead, so perhaps I'm being...terribly old school about this. But of the few memories I do possess, one involves a woman I very deeply love. I see nothing so amiss with a little flirting, of course. It seems to me only a natural manner of humanity. But...

[He doesn't Know For Sure, but. He's taken? Kind of? Sort of. He thinks. He hopes.]

[heir_to_ruin]

[Oh. Well then. It's far worse than he thought. A thing he won't admit about this Phoenix person and he's fallen victim to some greedy woman's scheming. Disgusting.]

Mmm no it makes sense. I mean you don't know what the situation is so why would you... [An awkward shrug, hand twisting in his curls for a moment as thought there's any chance of taming them.] I figure nothing else makes sense so-

[So fall back on what's familiar. Flirting and tempting and yeah, sure, maybe it's a little manipulative but it gives him some sense of purpose, some feeling like he's accomplishing something. Like maybe he's important.

What a joke.]