Anyone seen some clown clothes? [pm to join]

[Anonymous]

Pan had kept eating steadily while Vec told his story.  He nodded along with it, not sure he understood any of it... but by the time his fish was down to its bendy bones, he felt a little less confused and a little more uneasy.  That was unusual enough.  

Nothing?  Guilt?

Pan never felt guilty.  He'd heard people talk about it and thought it must be an uncomfortable sort of emotion.  Only people who couldn't control themselves had it.  Pan always meant to do what he did, so he never felt torn in two over it.  When he'd been traveling with the caravan, a jongleur had told him he was too simple to have a conscience.  Pan had laughed.

Nothing, though.  What was nothing?  He wasn't sure what to do with Shiny Vec the Husk-Person, the Egg Man with Nothing inside.  If he bit him open, what would he see, anyway?  How could someone be nothing?  He eyed Vec's arm, wondering.  

"Maybe I'll be going, sir," he said, with his best ingratiating smile.  "Seems there's nothing for to pay for my breakfast with.  But then I guess no one can regret me running out on the tab either, rightright?"  He uncoiled himself to standing faster than a blink.

[Anonymous]

Vec's plate had been completely cleaned off, save for a few bits and pieces left on it, but otherwise he had cleaned his plate and emptied his glass. He was an enigma for sure, with his strange powers and his strange mannerisms. He did know that he was a confusion for most people, they were simple here, and he was sure that in his other incarnations he was a lot more simple. People understood Blind Seers and Mystics here, but they didn't understand a man like he was now. That was alright though, in this world he didn't really want to get understood all that much. He was actually rather happy with the idea of being a bit of a mystery.

He didn't much mind this particular reinvention of himself.

Vec could feel Pan's eyes upon him, more specifically his arm. He wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but it felt like he was having a hole burned through him.

"Really?" There was a note of sadness in Vec's voice as his face lifted to stare straight at Pan. "Wrong wrong." Vec corrected him as he reached into his pocket and removed a gold coin, placing it on the table. "There are too many connotations when it comes to the power of Nothing, whether it exists or doesn't exist. Darkness exists, and yet it is simply the absence of light." Vec tried to explain to the man as he stood as well, straitening his coat and sleeves before facing the jester.

"Try to put it from your mind, the concept of nothing is a very difficult one. Do not worry about the concept...know that I am here, and I am a physical being." It really was a very hard concept to understand, and Pan didn't seem like he was a philosopher or anything along those lines. Pan seemed more like a very straight forward person, which was enjoyable and a nice change of pace. He wasn't going to just let this new object of interest escape him. "Now that we have been fed and hydrated, what are your immediate plans? As you asked about earlier, I could...try to teach you some magic if you so desire." He was honestly not sure about Pan and his abilities when it came to the magical arts, but if he had will and desire, Pan could become a very adept student.

It would actually be really interesting to see how Pan could handle it.

"But we may want to leave the town confines for...precautions." Some mages, and more so the beginners, if they had skill and talent, could be a little...wild. Their magical power could be devastating, and Vec didn't really enjoy the idea of being the cause of a fire breaking out of the town.

[Anonymous]

"Hahahahahaha."  Pan's laugh was a stutter, and oddly high-pitched.  He rocked back on his heels, so far an ordinary person would have fallen over backwards, but he flexed his feet and ankles and bobbed upright again.  

"No thank you, Vec," he said, more seriously than heretofore, though his expression remained the same under his tattoos.  He always wore a little bit of a smile, but right now it didn't seem like a smile.  "I'm curious and strange, but not stupid.  I won't go to an out-of-the-way place with a Nothing Man who tastes like power.  I am sorry."  He dug in his pocket and picked out the coins Vec had given him; he spilled them across the table, neatly, so they collected in the center.  

Then he measured the distance to the door, bowed, and vanished with a quiet thunderclap sound.  He appeared again just outside the door, crouched on all fours.  He waited for the surprised eddying among the people to die down and headed off toward the cheaper district of the town, whistling to himself.

[Anonymous]

"How disappointing. I find myself too interested however, I'd like to keep myself in your company." If the man didn't want to learn, Vec couldn't force it upon him, however there was no reason that they still couldn't talk was it? He wasn't exactly sure why Pan was nervous about the prospect of being in a private location with him. Perhaps he was a little more intimidating than he knew...but at the same time...he knew he wanted to be intimidating.

"I do not think that I have followed a person in a thousand years." Vec's fists clenched after Panzravi had disappeared with his small thunderclap. The question was, should he let the man know he was following him, or should he let it be a game? Oh, a game would be most excellent really. Vec reached down to one of the coins that had been in Pan's pocket. He carefully turned it over and over again, inspecting it somehow through his mask. It was one of those vision things again. Vec gripped it into the palm of his hand, and with it, he could see the peculiar...he wasn't even sure what to call it. There was like a disturbance of sorts that he could see from where Panzravi had been. Not to mention he could see and feel the disturbances from his strange teleportation.

However, Vec's hand unclenched as it went back into his pocket. Well, there was no reason for him to follow him, and if he hadn't done it so long, why start now? Vec smiled inwardly to himself as he thought about the whole thing. People found themselves scared of Pan, and yet, in the end Pan had been scared of him. Scared of the man with no face, the man with no eyes, the man surrounded by gold.

It was wholly a touching thought, that he was scared of Vec.

"Maybe I shall visit merchants and see if they have anything interesting." Vec mused out loud to himself as he looked around the tavern for a minute before he simply...faded from the room. What left behind were golden motes of energy and light in the air, twinkling and shining before they too disappeared.

He did appear outside, but instead of heading after Pan, he started going in a different direction. He could find the clown easily, follow the trail, and pester him, but that didn't sound as appealing to him. It would be best to let the clown be, and for him to continue on without much thought toward it.

If they met again, it would be an accident perhaps, and perhaps they could share another meal. Until then however, separate and solitary ways were no doubt in the best interest of things.