Bus Ride [Open]

[Lucas D. Hargrave]

OOC: No killing plzkthnx. And if you could avoid fighting altogether, that'd be just perfect.

Forty-two seats on the bus. Eighteen passengers. One driver.

Lucas hummed tunelessly. For some reason, he found himself annoyed. Probably because he was surrounded by people. His surface thoughts disliked people. For any reason. Right now, it had decided upon the noises they made. For instance, when sleeping, a great number of them snored.

He continued to hum, eyebrow ticking. This was annoying. Annoying. Annoying. Anoooying-

Lucas switched to a different tune. Like changing to a different radio station. The fastest he could kill all of them without using ki enhancements or bullets was roughly three and a half seconds seconds. Making it look like an accident would require another fourteen.

Granted they were vanilla humans, of course. They might not. World was changing. And so much could be hidden under a cloak. He shifted parameters, tried to assume everyone here was an alien in disguise. The chances were about roughly three billion against but it was possible. They'd kill him in under a minute if they were all average exterrestial fighters.

Maybe he should try - just to see whether or not...

No. He shouldn't. That was bad. He was going to West City. The contract was simple. There was a trade happening. He was to kill the contact, acquire the goods and return them to the person who had hired him. Nothing to it. And it paid more than handsomely.

His thoughts turned to West City.

West City. Derisively nicknamed 'Sellout' City for reasons Lucas didn't particularly care to inquire about. It was irrelevant. What was relevant was that arms flowed from West City to the rest of the world. Galaxy too, apparently.

He wanted to speculate as to what exactly he was acquiring. Like all things, arms and technology were accompanied by other illicit artifacts.

Next to him someone let out a particularly long snore and Lucas grit his teeth. Three and a half seconds... that's all it would take...

[Bagpipe]

How unfortunate that today of all days the stupid Giras would have to initiate their stupid non-flying, non-aggressive non-whatever makes it fun for Bagpipe day. Of all days, it had to be today where they were lent money from loots - when the Namekian mutant was out for some terror.

Those darn idiots, informing him in the middle of the day like this. Now he's at West City and has no way of returning to the valley he calls home.

"Move it, darn it!!"

He shouted, entering the bus after waiting at the station for a certain amount of time. It's probably luck alone that the bus stopped there seeing the humongous dragon standing at the station like a human. It was just ridiculous, seeing that two-meter giant just standing there, awaiting some ride to fetch him off. His face - and expression - made it even harder to get him on the vehicle.

He yanked at the driver's shirt, bending his back and knees while entering this bus which was a little too small for him. A meaningless threaten, but sure, how could he just pass the day without one.

"You! What kinda driver are ya, huh!? How dare you not stop immediately when you see passengers! You do yer job or I'll see to it you won't have any other!!"

He declared, letting off of the driver's shirt with a grin and putting the coins on the dashboard. Now the annoying part was to pick a seat. Why to bother so much with public buses?

It was just like he expected: he was the center of attention to every awake person in the bus (generally). It was just what he wanted and he couldn't help grin in pride as the humans cowered in fear in his face (generally).

Eventually Bagpipe decided to take a seat behind one of those younger looking humans, basically the only empty seat. He took both and just glared at the person in-front as the bus continued.

He obviously wanted attention.

[Lucas D. Hargrave]

It had wings.

It was also green, had horns growing out of its head, took up entirely too much room to be convenient and had stopped the driver from doing his job for reasons that were no doubt utterly pedestrian but for Lucas, the important bit that eclipsed all the other facts was that it had wings.

And upon seeing them he had already made several assumptions about their fragility and their weak-points. Call it the result of the closest that Lucas ever came to obsession, a hesitant, uncertain form of bird-watching. Avian creatures were among the few things unrelated to the constant competitiveness of battle that appealed to the assassin. Of course his peculiar condition did not lend itself well to appreciating things like beauty and art but upon spotting a bird even he could go: ah, that is really exquisite.

All this to say that for Lucas, the natural aversion that he had associating with other living beings was mitigated by the presence of wings as he admired their composition. Then other factors began to come into play and his mind started to strongly toy with the idea of fighting with the alien. He had never fought one before and the experience would be... instructive.

Assumption: both of them were masking their ki.

Second assumption: both of them were vaguely aware that another was out there, masking their ki. Or, at least, the alien creature was ready for a fight. Body language screamed dominance.

Third assumption: the alien wouldn't strike first.

But if Lucas struck -

His calculations (sadly theoretical, he knew he would not permit himself to break cover just to satisfy his curiosity) were interrupted when somebody, suicidal or plain stupid walked up to the hulking green alien and tried to slap his face.

"We're not scared of you! G-go back to where you came from!"

Sometimes, on the whole, Lucas considered the possibility that humans deserved to be conquered and subjugated. Really? Really? Confront a being of ludicrously greater strength and expect it to back down on something as flimsy and imaginary as principle? Were people really so astoundingly stupid?

But another part of him was quite looking forwards to the show. If something were to hit him by accident...

Well. Then it'd just be self-defense, wouldn't it?

[Bagpipe]

For the alien, there was obviously a situation where his satisfaction would increase but at the moment it couldn't get any better. These humans were each weaker than him, the monster could easily tell by sensing out their weak energies. They were all plain, defenseless humans only cowering in fear at the face of the mutant.

Yup. Maybe this day was going to be good after all.

The Namekian gave a strong glare to the driver, arms crossed against his proudly protruded chest, wings folded for further comfort on these already half-ripped chairs and legs spread on both seats. Hopefully the driver would get the shudder as a result.

To Bagpipe, scaring humans and claiming his superior dominance over them was not a hobby but a way of life. Sure, the Giras he was siding with weren't all that evil but their superiority complex affected him quite well and suited his personality almost perfectly, resulting in the monster taking it as far as destroying a random victim a day for the fun of it, be it any logical reason. Freedom, he would call it, but the humans could just name it 'evilness', 'stupidity' or 'cruelty'. He wasn't bothered, that's all the more reason for him to assault.

And then the more entertaining part came up, with one of the passengers on the bus making an assumption Bagpipe meant to scare them. The man attempted to slap the green monster in the face with a claim to somehow encourage the rest of those lambs.

Possibly the worst idea he could have at the moment.

The reply began with first of all, defending his face by catching and gripping on the human's wrist, making sure not to break it but to allow the foolish man to get a grasp of what exactly is he dealing with.

"Ooh, I'm so sorry~! I didn't mean to scare anybody~! Will you forgive me for my evil means? Please?"

He sarcastically said, going as far as to even speak so with his body, covering his mouth with his free hand and cowering a little. The act was short lived as the monster suddenly stood up, spreading its wings widely and drawing his hand back in an aggressive manner. He was certainly enraged.

"Well, forgive me for trying to get some service here! I'm just like you lot, a man in need of a ride. The difference between me and you is that I'm no idiot scum to think the first guy to get so pissed at people's decisions automatically means he tries to scare you away!! So either you shut up now, or you shut up for eternity!! Understand!!?"

The green dragon almost seemingly enraged himself as he spoke further, aggressively letting go of the human's hand and returning to his seat in a slam, almost ripping the padding which was already in a bad shape.

"Now, if ya'll just stay put, nobody's gonna get hurt and we'll all have a peaceful ride. So don't fuck with me.."

He claimed, treating his last message as a 'fatality', the end of a discussion. Attempt at feeling superior, success. Grunting, his face seeming even angrier than before, the monster returned to his position but this time apparently face-palmed. He stopped after a second though and returned to glaring at the driver for no clear reason.

There was someone in this darn chunk of metal that disturbed his dominance over them. Who was it? Ah, yes, the one who hasn't flinched in the while Bagpipe himself was in the bus. Just, who exactly?

[Lucas D. Hargrave]

He was probably watching the bus ride's complementary spectacle with a bit more interest than was strictly necessary. Or advisable. Human faces were arranged to as that of a predator, most creatures instinctively considered the simple act of a human staring at them as one of threat.

No doubt it was one reason why extraterrestrials had such similar body proportions. Parallel lines of evolution. Or something. Lucas had no idea how likely it was, in fact as far as he understood it it was unlikely. But evolution with its constant back and forth warfare was one of the few concepts he could intuitively grasp and it was as good an explanation as any.

The tirade was nearing its end, the man being shouted at was growing paler and paler. Blood being rerouted to serve in a futile escape plan that the body was trying to put in motion but the mind could not countenance. Half the people here were watching the scene with the sort of quiet desperation that betrayed how much they wanted the brave gentleman to both win and and sit his ass down before he got them all killed for kami's sake.

Lucas wasn't one of them but he would try.It wasn't an easy look to replicate. Desperation required a certain level of weariness that he simply didn't have. Easier to just look down, look away.

He didn't though. Kept on watching even as a lazy smirk threatened to plaster itself onto his face and his head told him he wasn't good enough yet at mimicking social cues to be seen as anything other than an interested observer.

Interpretations and calculations of that sort cycled constantly through Lucas' brain, it was up to him whether or not he felt like listening. And in this particular instance he didn't. Social cues were one of a multitude of variables and he'd always been a little less competent at translating in terms of strategy and threat. Too many variables to consider; for all intents and purposes he had an intuition that explained itself to him.

But it was hardly infallible. In fact, it was only right about half the time.

It was getting better though. Collating, collecting data. The more it saw the more it could predict. Part of why Lucas continued watching. The other part was a little more irrational.

This was fun.