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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2017 6:06:48 GMT -5
"I'm just saying," Sabah looked up from the map in her hands, rolling it up and turning around so that she could put it into one of her saddlebags. Gale glanced back to her from the corner of his eye and raised an eyebrow. "If we hit the city, it's gonna be much bigger. We've gotta do something worthwhile, Nuri."
"And I'm just saying," he focused his gaze forwards, "that it's risky."
Beside him, Tea gently bumped his side and smiled. They didn't question Sabah - they just focused their gaze ahead and hummed absently. He sighed quietly and moved to walk closer to his lover, rested an arm absently over their back. They were taller than he was, it was how they liked to walk, sometimes. The pale bay fur on their back was thicker than the rest of the group's.
"Nah, nah," with one hand, Jacques made an see-saw motion, "Sabs has a point. If we don't hit hard and fast, we won't be able to cause a real commotion, 'n that's what the big guns want, right, Nuri?"
"It's still risky," Gale gritted his teeth. "We're not going to come out unharmed, and we sure as hell don't have a high chance of succeeding."
Sabah rolled her eyes up to the sky and sighed heavily. Jac laughed quietly - and Mori, silent as ever, shook his head. Some days, Gale felt like he was the only rational one. He didn't miss the way Sabah kicked his leg as she passed, didn't miss how she gave a pointed look towards his back. He didn't stare at her, instead looking away to the city that they were approaching. It wasn't as if they looked dangerous; a young, small herd of centaurs. Nothing big. Nothing deadly. They were armed to the teeth but...well, who wasn't armed to the teeth when they came out of the desert? It was easy to have bandits attack, and they wanted to be prepared. Naturally.
"Just go with it," she told them firmly, shooting another pointed glance to Gale, "don't f*ck up and we might survive, got it? Americans don't know how to deal with this."
"Half of my family takes offense to that," Tea chirped out cheerily, and Gale snorted quietly.
He had known, of course, that it would've gone wrong. He had called it; the others had ignored him. The sheriff's department outnumbered them by only god knew how many - it was the five Jackals against the world. Even bystanders helped the sheriffs. Centaurs stood back, humans fought against them. It was far from a fair fight.
Mori was the first to die. It was quick and brutal, got the job done. It was his blood that splattered Gale's shirt, that turned it from a pale beige to partially a ruddy crimson. It did not stop Sabah - it only fuelled her. At some point, Gale lost track of both her and Tea, lost track of Jac, too. He went down the second he was abandoned with a knife to the leg and to the arm, and his legs were kicked from underneath him. As if to secure that he wouldn't move, the sheriff shot him in the leg - made sure not to hit anything vital or hit bone, but hell if it didn't hurt. The bullet did not come out, lodged into his back leg, but it was fine, the bullet could be dug out. Gale could not escape.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Tea fall. He knew that they hadn't survived.
The fight had been lost, and Sabah was nowhere to be seen. She had probably left. He wasn't surprised, somehow. She had never struck him as the trustworthy type - and yet he'd trusted her anyway.
Jacques was in the prison cell across from his. He did not look worse for wear - he looked as if he'd given in. Miserable, and tired, but uninjured. Gale stared at him for a few moments to avoid the issue of some human digging out the bullet from his leg. It didn't take long. They did not dress it or try to stop the bleeding. Instead, they managed to get him onto a cart and took him away. Maybe he was going to be carted off to a slaughterhouse. That was what humans did with criminal centaurs, right? They were lesser than humans, always deserved the death sentence. It was not easy to accept those terms, but all he could do was stare at the blood staining the white fur on his hindquarters and hope that he could do something about it.
(He couldn't, because life was not that fair, and he was not that lucky.)
When he fell asleep, he didn't think he'd wake up. Gale did not notice when he arrived in a small town until he woke up, at which point he was confused. A human woman tended to his leg, despite his snappy protests. He didn't have the energy to fight back, could only accept that his leg was being tended to. It hurt like hell, but it would be fine. He could feel it. Torn muscle repaired quickly in centaurs; they were built to heal quickly. They wouldn't survive otherwise, though this was not a life worth living. He was dumped unceremoniously in a jail cell, and he was left to rot in this small town full of humans.
"It's to keep him away from the other one," said one of the humans quietly to the sheriff of the town. "Colt's a f*cking genius, probably coordinated the thing. Not sure if he's the leader. Saw a mare with them but she didn't stick around. If you see one that fits the description," he supposed there was a wanted poster for her, probably with details. He was just eavesdropping. "Don't try to apprehend her unless she causes trouble. She shouldn't come this way, if you're lucky. Oh - sh*t, and while I remember," the sound of rustling fabric, "his current shirt is covered in blood. I'm gonna throw this for him."
He closed his eyes before the human approached his cell, did not pay attention at the feeling of cloth hitting his side. Gale waited until the footsteps had subsided before half-opening his eyes, waited until he knew he was alone before quietly unbuttoning his shirt and throwing it towards the bars of the cell, and then pulling on the fresh one. It was something, at least. Not stained with Mori's blood. Not torn, not flecked with his blood or the blood of others. His coat was a state, but the area around the bandaged area seemed to be entirely clean - it smelled awful, like a cleaning alcohol.
Gale resigned himself to his fate, because he knew he could not escape. He was fast enough and had plenty of stamina - he could outrun a vast majority of centaurs he'd come across - but he was injured and sad. Jacques was likely on death row. No-one survived prison in the city unless they were human, and Jacques was definitely a centaur. A massive one. All brawn, no brain, but dangerous enough for them to not want to send to some tiny sh*t town in the middle of nowhere. He rested his chin against the bed (it was a human one; he had to lay his body on the ground, which wasn't new), and sighed heavily.
The next two days passed. His leg hurt, he'd bled through the bandages, and he hadn't moved. He knew he'd been given water (which he drank) and food (which he didn't touch at all), and he knew that vague attention was being paid to him - but for the most part, he was...isolated. There were only humans in this town, and it felt like more punishment than just being cooped up in a tiny cell that he couldn't even pace around in. He alternated between standing in a resting position, and laying down. It was all he could do - the tiny window only showed him a tree. Nothing else. There was nothing to look at and nothing to do, and he hadn't realised how bored he was until he found himself biting his nails and tearing at them as if that would help. It didn't help. At all.
He was abandoned and alone and no-one was going to save him.
Gale was going to die, alone and away from his country, and not on his own terms. It was a realisation he should've come to back in the city, but...well. The reality of the situation hadn't hit him until now. He was surrounded by humans, in a cramped cell with a wounded leg (that would likely get infected; the human woman was probably just to make sure he didn't complain) and no way to entertain himself. He tilted his head to look up at the ceiling, and tried not to cry.
In the end, he couldn't help it. He stood up and turned around until he could settle down with his back to the cell door and his torso half on the bed, face buried in his arms. It wasn't proper crying, but hell, it was nice to get out. No-one would see him cry. He wouldn't look at them, and he'd pretend he was asleep. He pretended that his shoulders were not trembling, pretended that he was home and that his mother was there (she was gone; killed a few years ago. This thought did not help him), pretended that his sister was laughing at him being silly. Pretended that everything was going to be okay.
He was far too aware that nothing would be okay, that nothing was going to fix itself and he was, no matter how hard he tried to think otherwise, was trapped here. He was a nobody. Sabah had abandoned him, his friends were dead and he was the last Jackal standing and f*ck, that wasn't even the truth.
Once he'd gotten it out - it had been a silent sort of cry - he made sure he could wipe away all of his tears, took a deep breath so that he could steady himself. He shifted his weight a little and blinking at the blank wall in front of him. Nothing was okay, but he felt a little better. Felt a little more like himself. He turned his head to look at the bandages on his hind leg - it would likely scar, but he had scars here and there and so it wasn't a big problem. His coat would grow to cover them. Besides, if it did show up, then both hind legs would be messed up - the other with its jackal silhouette branding, proof that he was in a gang. When he had been eighteen, it had been cool. Now that he was in his thirties, it was a heavy burden. Even when he'd been with the Jackals, it had been a problem; city centaurs didn't trust the gangs, knew how violent they could be.
Maybe fighting the humans like that hadn't been the best plan of action, but sh*t if it hadn't been satisfying revenge for all that they had done. They were nothing - they were cruel for the sake of being cruel.
And Sabah's not?
The thought didn't quite surprise him. He knew that Sabah was brutal, had experienced it firsthand. Knew how she worked, knew why she did; knew that even as she harmed him, that he trusted her. She could've slit his throat (she'd tried, once) and he would've still trusted her. Even if she was the reason he hated being touched - it was just...
It wasn't, he realised, fair. It wasn't how life was. It was wrong, but he didn't (or hadn't) cared. Why had it surprised him, as briefly as it had been, that she had ditched them when they had shown signs of losing? He didn't know. Looking back on her actions, it was easy to think that's not surprising. At the time, everything had been surprised. He remembered the day he'd gotten the scars on his back. At the time it had been wow, that's fair, and maybe I deserved that. F*ck. Even Tea had said that he'd probably done something to deserve it.
Still. It didn't change that he had loved and trusted her. Still loved and trusted her, but he doubted she was going to come back with a plan to get him out of this place.
Gale glanced through the bars of his cell from the corner of his eye, and found himself spacing out. Flicking through picture-perfect memories, recalled by photographic memory that wouldn't let him forget - not ever. Thought about his family back in Egypt, thought about the fact that humans were nothing but terrible people. They did nothing but hurt centaurs, and yet they expected to be respected. An entire town of them? At least he didn't have to interact, he supposed. Unless they forced him to do manual labour (he was, after all, part horse) - but that said, it would at least give him fresh air and something to do.
God, he was bored.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 5, 2017 19:27:54 GMT -5
It was quiet here in the small obscure town of Barrenridge. They were located in - honest to god - the middle of nowhere, and he liked it here quite a bit. As a centaur, there were few places in the old Wild West that seemed safe and offered equal rights to centaurs. Well... centaur. In the past, he had lived close to other centaurs in a herd. Nowadays, it was just him, but it was a nice kind of lonesome being away from other centaurs. They had only brought violence into his life and there was no relative peace. In Barrenridge, he had found a place to not only belong, but to forget his old ways.
It was a nice kind of life, settled down with Seraphin. The town had a small population with about 100 occupants where everyone knew everyone and crime was obsolete. The last time there had been any sort of crime was a minor infraction between him and a thief now turned deputy sheriff of the town. Trotting in the open fields outside of the small school Seraphin taught at, he enjoyed the sensation of wind flowing through his hair. Even after all this time, it was a little difficult to truly realize that here, where he became just another face among the crowd - unheard of and unknown - that he was truly free. Free of the violent past he once led and free of the persecution and discrimination against centaurs
If he were to be honest, he had gotten used to living away from other centaurs. He hadn't ever dealt with docile centaurs anyhow, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle their prying questions. The inhabitants of Barrenridge were naive as to the more central occurrences. News about violence and gangs and big events usually arrived with travelers who happened to stumble by. They weren't really on the map for travelers heading to places like Dodge City desiring to make a name for themselves, so they had limited knowledge on the working of centaurs and the gangs and their various symbols.
He suspected a different centaur would recognize his scars weren't from mistreatment at a farm handler or something of the like, but were battle scars. That and the city kind of centaurs were a different kind of docile and gentle than he was.. He had the potential to be dangerous, he simply didn't want to. City centaurs were afraid of lashing out in fear of receiving a punishment for their actions. But he liked it that way. The anonymity he held here and the positive response from the townfolk of Barrenridge was the best thing he had ever had.
At first they had been wary of him just as he had been wary of them. He had grown up knowing only of the violence in the ways of humans, but they had treated him right proper and didn't force him to do manual labor. He offered to do that himself once he realized how fragile and weak humans were. He knew they were weak, it was easy to kill their kind. But he hadn't realized upon arrival that menial tasks and heavy lifting were beyond them, but then again they were quite small creatures. It only made sense.
Then things changed. Years of peace and silence and then he arrived. A small centaur that definitely wasn't native to the lands, just as he wasn't when he first came here. Alphonse wasn't going to lie, but he hadn't expect another centaur would end up in Barrenridge for an extended amount of time. But that was exactly what Gale Amari - according to local rumors - was going to be doing, and as much as he was cautious of prying questions that would expose the vile truth to the townfolk that warmed up to him was he was quite curious. The colt looked the part of trouble and he had only catch a brief glimpse of him as they wheeled him into town.
Seraphin had attended to him like she had attended to Alphonse, with gentleness and care, but he was a more damaged soul he supposed. Or perhaps he was just more spiteful with less reasons to like humans than he did. But Gale was a prideful soul from what Seraphin had told him, and the usual town would have broken him in the way they broke the spirit of stallions. Barrenridge was different, it was home to one centaur and the townfolk had pretty good impressions of centaurs so as long as the colt didn't lash out too violently, perhaps he would find himself a home here too.
It was later in the day that Seraphin finally came back from the town jail, a small building that certainly wasn't going to be spacious enough for a centaur - even one as small as the colt. Regarding her with curiosity as she headed home, exhausted, but relieved he waited for her to reach the patio before speaking. "How is he?" he asked, backtracking his steps so Seraphin could open the door to their house. Waiting for her to enter first, he ducked his head to follow in after her. Most of the town had changed their doors for him thankfully enough. As a 9'1" centaur, entering buildings were more of a hassle than he'd admit.
Had it been the city, it would have been easier. But he liked it here and the folks liked him here so it wasn't that bad. Trotting behind her as quietly as he could, he regarded her as she methodically packed away her medical supplies. It had been a long time since something like the colt happened. Usually townfolk came to her for small injuries and the like. She had a knack for patching people up, but it usually took the less extensive supplies that were easily accessible. "I think he's seen a lot, that one," her voice held a careful edge as if she'd spent too long patching up a fragile soul that speaking too loud and crass would be some sort of taboo. "I think he's hurting in more places than I can fix," Seraphin looked troubled and he could only frown in response.
He knew the feeling based on what she was saying. The colt was a broken spirit, perhaps by society, perhaps by experience. Either way, it was a long and painful journey and it hurt like hell. He didn't know what the younger centaur had been through, but he knew what it was like to be there so far from saving and so tired of existing he almost wished the humans had given him a reason to go out with a fight taking some of them as he crumbled to the dust and dirt, dying slowly with just enough time to regret his life but not enough to change it.
She sighed, pausing in her motions as she said the last hauntingly empty words. "I'm afraid for him."
It would never be normal to hear those words that people were afraid for rather than of centaurs, but from Seraphin he trusted those words. But they were worrying. He supposed tomorrow he'd go visit the colt, see what he could do for him. The colt was young, he had time to start anew. And if he didn't - if his soul was tainted black rather than just his past - then Alphonse supposed he'd do what he did best and do the townfolk a favor and put down the colt. Quick and painless, as humane as his kind knew. She was looking at him now, reaching out to rest a hand against his shoulder which was still a little taller than her modest height of 5'1". "I think you should talk to him, he doesn't trust humans but he might just trust you."
He smiled in response, glad they were in agreement. "But of course, ma reine."
They spent the rest of the day in relative peace, and in each other's company they slowly forgot the worrisome matter of the new colt in town. They ate together and when it came time to sleep, he settled beside Seraphin's bed, resting his upper half on the bed, watching her as she slept. She was peaceful when she slept and it always came easy for her - something he was rather envious of considering how hard rest came for him, but it was nice seeing her features slack and clear of worry. In the mornings, she was always so expressive - full of excitement when she taught, full of life and kindness when she spoke to the townfolk, and full of worry when others were hurting or in need.
He wished he could make her only feel happiness and make her worries disappear. For such a kind soul, she deserved much better. But he supposed kindness meant caring about others and caring meant worrying. He was trying to be just like her, kind and caring, but it was difficult. For the townfolk, it was easy. They became his new herd, they were his family. The old folk were kind, but weakening. In the past, the gang left those loose ends behind - Rene included and that had made his heart ache, but here he had a choice to help them rather than leave them behind.
If the gang knew of him nowadays, he supposed they'd think he was soft. He supposed he was. But there was a certain kind of freedom allowing himself to be soft and vulnerable in the presence of these people. A certain kind of freedom in trusting humans... Looking at Seraphin every night reminded him of it and his longing to return to the wild was quelled just by the sound of his name on her tongue and the gentleness of her touch.
Eventually, he managed to fall asleep and when morning rolled around the sun shone through the windows - mournfully bright to the point where he had to slowly open his eyes. No amount of willing the sun to disappear made the cursed thing fade back into the night and he knew it was time to get up. Standing up, he stretched out his back and his limbs, watching Seraphin's still sleeping form. The town was bound to be awake any moment now and so would she. He spent the morning getting dressed and making breakfast before Seraphin woke up.
When she finally woke up, they shared a meal and went their separate ways. She headed towards the schoolhouse, and he trotted towards the town jail. Pushing the door open he lowered his head ever so slightly to avoid the cutoff of the 8' tall door, entering the jail. He watched as Xingfu looked up while Quinn was asleep at his table which... to be quite honest wasn't much of a surprise. Nodding at the colt, he looked at Xingfu. "May I speak to him?"
"Of course!" Xingfu acted as if his request was ridiculous and he had all the right to speak to the colt without having to ask. And then the sheriff paused, peering at him before turning in his chair to smack Quinn on the shoulder. The deputy sheriff jumped from his slumbers, rubbing the location where the town newspaper had hit him. "Come on out Quinn, let's give them a little privacy."
Quinn, upon being mentioned, looked around blearily - still sleepy before seeing Alphonse in the doorway. He seemed to sober up just a bit before nodding and stumbling out of his chair as if he had been drinking - Al knew better, the young man just had a lack of coordination upon waking up which - in all honestly - was amusing. "Alrighty, I hear you, pops," the younger man grumbled. Al didn't know when Quinn had taken to calling Xingfu pops, but the two were kindred spirits and the young man took to Xingfu like a father figure. It was sweet, actually, considering neither men had a family to call their own.
Quinn plucked his hat on the way out, tapping the bars of the jail cell as he left. "Be nice to him, cowboy. He's a gentle giant, you hear?" He said the words softly and laughed after them before heading out after Xingfu, shoving his hat on his head with little grace.
Seeing the keys to the cell on the table, he regarded the space in there before shaking his head. There was hardly enough for the colt, let alone him. So he settled himself outside. Though news of the colt's identity spread like wildfire in the town, he supposed it was better to act civil. "My name's Alphonse, what's yours?" Tiling his head to a side, he regarded the food left untouched in the cell. There was second serving there now - probably for breakfast. Was the colt starving himself?
Frowning, he hoped he could make Gale speak to him by being a little more open and familiar. "My wife helped you the other day, how are you feeling? Do those dressings need to be changed because I can go get her. It's a lot harder to do well.. with my height and all. There's too little space in here."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2017 20:38:16 GMT -5
If he adjusted himself a certain way, he'd hit the bars with his his hooves. It was a pain, but Gale eventually found a semi-comfortable position and stayed relatively still, absently staring at a moth on the wall. He paid very little attention to the sheriff and the deputy, preferred to keep to himself because they were humans. Pain had started to flare up in his leg, but that was just something he'd have to deal with, if he didn't want to communicate with the humans.
Honestly, he was resigned to his fate.
Though he heard the door open, he paid little attention to it and the voices, found himself in a half-dozing state. He was hungry, but sh*t, he really didn't want to eat what he was given. He shifted his weight a little and pushed a hand through his hair, pushing it away from his face. He glanced up at the tiny window again and frowned at the leaves of the tree. He couldn't even see the sky - it was making him panic, he realised.
Be nice to him, cowboy. He's a gentle giant, you hear?
He blinked upon realising that those words were meant for him, and he turned his head to glance at the human from the corner of his eye - and then he saw the centaur. Massive even by normal centaur standards, some kind of warhorse, perhaps. He blinked and flicked his gaze over the stranger immediately, wishing he had more room so that he could stand comfortably - instead he shifted his position into a more defensive one, pushing his upper half away from the bed so he could at least show that his attention was on the older stallion.
There was something about him that told Gale that he knew hardship, that the scars weren't from just scuffles or something like that - they looked like they were inflicted by bigger circumstances. He did not linger on them for long, instead flicking his gaze to maintain eye contact. Gale had his own facial scars; partially Sabah, partially just fights with humans. The humans hadn't won until the other day, and then it was...the end of the world, really. He was tired. He just wanted to be away from here with the stars above his head and the sandy dunes of home in front of him. He would never get that again. It had been hard to get here, there would be no way to get home. Especially now that he had been caught - it was just...unheard of. He'd never heard of a centaur surviving and god, Jacques had probably already been executed. Maybe he was next. Maybe humans were semi-decent enough to have a centaur kill a centaur - or maybe they just didn't want that sort of trouble if someone ever asked. He frowned a little at the thought.
He followed the other's gaze to his food, and then glanced back up. Interesting. And then words - followed by the quiet realisation that he wasn't going to be given death. Yet, at least.
"You know my name," it wasn't a question, just a simple observation. A town this small always had news spread.
And then he continued to talk, and he frowned. Wife? The little human woman? He considered this with furrowed brows and a tilted head, studied the other - Alphonse, he'd learned - to see if this was some sort of joke. It probably wasn't. He sighed softly and instead focused on shifting his weight to look at his bandaged leg. The blood had seeped through last night, and he didn't particularly want to have to take it off. He squinted thoughtfully before looking back to Alphonse.
"If you just give me the supplies, I can do it myself," he said coolly, "why are you married to her?"
She was a human. Centaurs and humans weren't supposed to be friends, let alone get married - it was sort of...it was strange. Especially such a massive centaur and a tiny human - that was just...surreal. Alphonse certainly didn't seem to be joking, and that felt like even more of a problem. Maybe he was just being kept here and had ended up sticking around because he'd been stuck, or something.
With some difficulty (both due to the size of the cell and the pain in his leg), he stood up and grimaced faintly, though his expression quickly smoothed to a blank slate. He made sure to keep as much of his weight from his hind leg as he could. The knife cuts on his arm and other legs had been bandaged too, but only a couple had started spotting through. The worst one hadn't been stitched (it wasn't big enough), but it still hurt like a b*tch and he knew it would cause him more trouble if it healed while he was resting too much. He had to stretch, but there was no-where to stretch. He was cooped up like he was some dumb animal, and frankly, it pissed him off.
And then his mind wandered back to the humans. The deputy seemed to have taken to calling him cowboy, and the other just seemed too sweet for a sheriff. Then again, that was how humans were - too soft and delicate. They died so easily. He'd just rammed into some before and killed them, it was something to behold. He could charge full-speed into another centaur and they wouldn't be phased - stunned, but otherwise unharmed. The thought of a centaur marrying a human was weird and unnatural, something that he hadn't really heard of before. Then again, he didn't pay attention to the centaur-human bonds in cities. He was sort of focused on the killing and thieving part. It was easier to do than to pretend he gave a sh*t about humans, easier to harm and kill and leave than sit there and try to make friends.
Gale remembered when he'd first arrived in America; a gangly-legged colt with very little to lose and a passion for following the Jackals wherever they went. He'd been eighteen. He'd abandoned his family - and now, when he was caught, his mind was flicking back to it. He'd heard that Kesi had children now, but had never gone back to see her because he couldn't. His mother had died in America after visiting him. Everything, he'd decided, was godawful in this country, and he was so tired. So. F*cking tired.
In a much quieter, more resigned tone, he added, "you might as well call me Gale."
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 5, 2017 23:37:16 GMT -5
As he regarded the colt - Gale, the other had finally allowed him to refer to him as - he saw a certain kind of resignation in the colt's posture and tone of voice. As if his defeat had extended into captivity and he was ready to die. It wasn't something he liked to see, but older stallions and mares left by the gang to die when they could no longer keep up shared the same response sometimes. It was a sign of broken spirit and he knew a broken spirit hurt more than any injury. It was the surrender - the acceptance of defeat - that generally sealed their fate. To die in the middle of nowhere.
And now that he looked closer, he could see that the wounds from yesterday were still bleeding badly and were not going to heal anytime soon. Honestly, he would have much preferred Seraphin to look at the injuries, but there was a certain way Gale referred to humans that left him feeling an all familiar feeling that resonated deep down in him, long forgotten. It was spite and hatred for humans, but he had long left that behind. He had learned, in time, that not all humans were cruel and vile - wishing to oppress centaurs. And in time, as he reflected on his past actions he realized perhaps some centaurs did prove the claim that they were animalistic by nature.
Violent and cruel, they made the oppression of centaurs worse. It was their kind that made city centaurs suffer humiliation in centaur shows as if they were mere show horses without the ability to rationalize and emphasize and - most importantly - communicate with humans. They treated centaurs as lesser, but nowadays he realized that conflict was a result of both parties acting out in violence. Humans in their fear of the unknown. Centaurs fought back, it was only natural, but they went too far in their efforts. Instead of rationalizing that they were civilized, they returned the humans' violence with their own.
He supposed that was what had struck Gale and the same distrust that once coursed through him was running through Gale. Sighing, he glanced at Gale before looking back outside. He didn't think Xingfu would mind if he let Gale out to stretch and to be fair, it wasn't as if Gale could do anything in his current state. Hell, Al doubted he could put weight on that leg and make a run for it without crumpling in on himself. Backing away from the jail cell, he reached down to the keys and looked at Gale dead in the eye, "I'm going to let you out, Gale, even out here it's cramped for me. I can't imagine it's any better in there." He hoped the message of not making a break for it was clear as he backed up, allowing the cell door to swing open, but also he hoped that using the colt's name would give them some level of familiarity.
He regarded the bleeding bandages with concern as he made sure to give Gale enough room to leave the cell and stretch his limbs, "And I'd run home to get the more extensive supplies, but I don't think Xingfu and Quinn would appreciate me leaving them with an outlaw," he knew it better than to say 'centaur' considering Gale's response to humans, "So you'll have to settle with their medical supplies for now. I'll see if I can convince them to let you out for some air and maybe take you back to my house. We can get you patched up there - either with Seraphin's help or mine."
He paused, thinking before adding, "Or you can do it yourself if you'd like." He could never be too sure. The fact that Gale demanded to path himself up might make him a prideful spirit. After all, he hadn't complained about the lack of space - and watching from how he had tried to respond defensively to Alphonse [and he couldn't blame him, he was quite a towering figure] but didn't have enough space spoke a lot about how cramped the cell must have been.
Bending down, he secured the first aid materials that Xingfu and Quinn had stored away and placed it down and backed off so Gale could grab it himself. Looking at the other thoughtfully as he sat down to take up less space, he tilted his head at Gale. He was obviously curious how he could have fallen for a human of all things. He smiled at the thought before chuckling softly, finally speaking on the subject. "She's a wonderful woman by all accounts. She saved my life and," he paused as matters became more personal. He generally didn't do personal well. Especially when it came to his past and the colt was a stranger.
"She treated me kindly. I think I've only known what happiness was with her. Before I met her, I thought I knew what kindness was and what happiness was, but..." He trailed off here, not wanting to mention the gang. Sighing heavily he shook his head, "But I thought wrong."
Hoping to divert the subject matter and avoid pressing questions on what happened, he glanced pointedly at the food. "What's wrong Gale? You can't eat the food or do you not like it? I can ask Xingfu or Quinn to get you something if it's a specific meal you're craving."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2017 1:30:30 GMT -5
The idea of being given some room to stretch was too good - this felt like he was being toyed with. Given a glimpse of possible freedom but not being able to reach it; but somehow, he wanted it anyway. It was better than staying cooped up with nothing to do, better to stretch his leg so that he wouldn't have a bad heal. He sighed slowly and watched as Alphonse unlocked and open the cell. He stared blankly for a moment before he watched the other centaur continue moving around and acting like this was normal and like this was fine.
His leg felt like it was on fire as he limped out of the cell and stretched a little so that he was able to loosen his muscles, but in a stubborn demand of showing that he was fine, he put most of his weight onto it. It was a mistake and he didn't miss the feel of blood that trickled until his coat took it in (god, the bloodstains around the white patches were bad and he felt disgusting), but he tried to ignore it. The bandages were soaked through anyway - what was a little more. He checked his arms absently - but they were only dotted through, nothing severe. His leg, it seemed, was the only injury that had been able to keep him still enough to be caught. It hurt like hell and he wanted to limp, but he tried to walk as normally as he could as he turned a circle to get rid of the aches that the cramped cell had given him.
"It's their job to deal with outlaws, shoved in cages or not," he stated blandly. The thought, naturally, crossed his mind after; they're used to human outlaws. Not centaur ones. He frowned a little but did not call Alphonse out on the softening of the words, instead choosing to pick up the medical kit and flick through it before he came across gauze and bandages. He set it aside as he took off the bandages from his arms. After some inspection, he decided that they could stay out in the fresh air; they weren't deep, and they only stung. They were already closing up, ready to join the rest of the knife wounds over his arms.
Already, he missed the bracelets he liked to adorn his arms with. He felt bared, and he was quick to roll down his sleeves, all but curling in on himself to make sure that Alphonse did not see. After a couple of seconds, he checked on the minor wounds on his legs - again, knife wounds. They weren't serious, but they probably didn't want air just yet, and so he bandaged them up with fresh bandages. It was the larger wound that intimidated him - he shifted his weight and frowned as he peeled the soaked-through mess away from his leg.
It wasn't a pretty sight, but he hadn't been expecting it. The black-brown and white fur was singed (unsurprisingly), the white already soaked through with blood. It was still weeping - even more now that he was up and moving. It was wider where the bullet had been dug out (that had been a nightmare and a half), but he wasn't quite sure what to do about it. After a couple of seconds, he settled for gauze and bandages and made sure they were pressed firmly down to slow the bleeding. It didn't take long for the blood to spot through, but he didn't think he'd bleed to death; he had enough blood to spare, and he had no doubts that he'd be cooped up again soon enough. Once that was done, he looked to Alphonse and raised an eyebrow slowly.
"I can bandage it myself," he said quietly, though he did not specify treat it. He didn't know how to treat wounds aside from minor cuts - and even then, it wasn't medical knowledge that Sabah had or a doctor or whatever had. It was just a way to shove some gauze and bandages over his wounds and say that it was fine.
He wondered, idly, where Sabah was and what she was doing. It was probable that she'd returned to the main gang, had been assigned a new group and was just going back to normal. Things didn't phase them - centaurs died all the time, and if it was by human hand then they had more of a reason to protest, he supposed. It was how it was, nobody was going to help and nobody gave a damn.
Gale listened to Alphonse's story with mild interest (really, anything would've caught his interest at this point), and he thought about it quietly. Humans didn't save lives. He wrinkled his nose a little and shook his head, but did not argue because he would not win. He did not chase up on the other centaur's wife, and instead accepted it because there was nothing else he could do.
His gaze trailed Alphonse's to the food, and he frowned again.
"I don't want it," he said slowly, after a few moments. "There's no point. Tell them to stop giving it to me."
There wasn't a point in feeding him. Just a waste of resources. He had no intentions of touching it and besides, it wasn't appetising enough to even be vaguely tempted. He didn't give a sh*t and frankly, he didn't want to spend his life in a town of humans, if that was what was about to happen. The other centaur - the only other one here, he supposed - was not even very...centaur-like. Nothing like those in the gang, nothing like those in the city. Whereas they were harsher and colder, he was warmer and kinder. It almost (though not quite) made Gale feel bad about being so stand-offish, but what was the point in making friends?
"Why don't you just let me die of that," he made a vague gesture to the larger wound on his leg, "or just put me down? It feels like you're playing a game, and I really don't appreciate it."
A long game. He didn't want to be put down, actually - again, his own terms were preferred - but sh*t, he also didn't want to be stuck forever. It was a fate worse than death. There was nothing here for him, and the cell wasn't something good. Besides. They'd probably put down Jacques by now - and Jac hadn't even had much of a say in the plan. Hell, neither had Gale, but he was closer to a second-in-command than Sabah had been (though, from what he'd heard, he seemed to be the mastermind. He'd play along with that if he had to).
Frankly, he was...just plain exhausted. He studied Alphonse's face for a couple of seconds before crossing his arms and looking away.
"I don't know what your goal is here," his voice was softer, quieter - he couldn't muster up the energy to be anything but quiet. "To talk to me, to patch me back up, and then what? I don't see a reason - in every scenario I can think of I'm going to die, and it seems like a waste of resources to do this," again, a gesture to the bandages, "for a dead man walking. You see? It's stupid, and you're not going to be able to save me."
Because he had...nothing, he realised. Gale was a nobody with nothing left; no mother, no family (they wouldn't take him back - not after this), and no home. The Jackals were gone and Sabah had left and he didn't know what he was supposed to do anymore.
He would not cry.
He was not going to cry.
Quietly, he turned around so that his back was to Alphonse so that he didn't have to look the other man in the eye. It stabbed his pride, but it would be more of a blow to his pride if he cried and - sh*t, why did he give a damn? Was he really that stubborn (and petty) to need to keep his pride until the end? He supposed so.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 7, 2017 1:14:25 GMT -5
It was rather sad watching Gale behave the way he did, proud and unwilling to trust him, but it only made sense. There was a certain kind of caution that developed in time in wild centaurs, especially those that took to living criminal lives. Humans were dangerous. Humans were cruel. And most importantly - there was no such thing as a good human. He had once believed that completely and not only that but there was something much more broken underneath that. There was a resignation that echoed in his words that left Alphonse uncertain about what to say as he backed up a bit, giving the colt more space as he watched the show of stubbornness.
He had no doubt that that injury hurt badly, but there was a certain level of pride in Gale's behavior as he placed weight onto it that Alphonse understood. It was foolish, but he understood the desire to prove that he was fine. The bleeding, however, proved otherwise and as the bandages were peeled away to show the injury, he grimaced and shook his head. The city sheriffs did a number on him, which meant whatever they had been doing had been bad enough that the best solution was to incapacitate. He had only ever seen such measures taken upon centaurs who had went 'wild', lashing out in attempts to escape and with criminals and outlaws. The dangerous kind, not small thieves or drunk brawlers.
It made his heart hurt. It had been a long time since he had came into contact with his kind. For as much as he had come to like humans and even love them, there was a natural empathy he felt for Gale. He wasn't sure if he hadn't met Seraphin he wouldn't have been the same, if not more violent. He feared he would have been put down on the spot, not even placed into a jail because he would have tried with all his might to break down the bars regardless of his injuries and the damage it would cause to him. He didn't know how to help, but he wished there was a way to help this colt. Swallowing thickly, he shook his head. "Barrenridge doesn't have many visitors," he explained softly. "There hasn't been an outlaw here in ages." Human or centaur.
He hoped that would at least make Gale feel less defensive. He watched idly as Gale bandaged himself up, not trying to help because the younger centaur had said he could do it himself. He had offered already, and Gale had decided to deny the offer. He knew better than to force his aid upon the colt. Sometimes help that wasn't accepted but forced upon others not only was unappreciated but would leave a bad impression. Sometimes, not helping was helping.. Respecting another's boundaries and requests was equally as important.
So he made no motion to help, but something about Gale's technique made him ponder if the colt was doing it right. He wasn't an expert on the medical field like Seraphin was, but something told him if his wife had been here she would have made more of a show out of it. And maybe that blood needed washing. Hell, Gale needed a bath. Perhaps he could ask Xingfu about setting one up and letting the colt attend to his own injuries and hygiene. And it honestly was cramped in here. He'd have to mention the idea of letting Gale wander about as well. A little space to roam and some fresh air could do his injuries and his spirit some good.
And maybe when Gale warmed up to him a bit he could ask if Seraphin could take a look at the wound again. Just to be safe.
Then came the more pressing matter. Gale was already small, well, not any smaller than the small centaurs he'd seen in his time and he didn't require a lot of food to survive but he still needed more food than humans ate due to their expanded stomachs. And here he was eating nothing. He wanted to press on the matter but the final few sentences Gale spared him before turned away made him reconsider.
Why don't you just let me die of that or put me down? You're not going to be able to save me. He wasn't sure what it meant. Was it that Gale didn't want to be saved or was it some misconception he held? That he was going to be executed either way? He shifted uneasily in place, unsure of how to continue. He knew, if push came to shove, Xingfu and even Quinn could kill somebody. Hell, anybody could kill anybody given the right reasons. And out in the Wild West, survival was a must.
But the important thing was that neither man seemed have the makings of violent men. Certainly not butchers. Though both of them were dangerous men, they weren't the kind to slaughter someone in cold blood. Much less someone like Gale who seemed resigned to die when the town was actually interested in the colt, in perhaps assimilating him in if he showed signs of progress the way Quinn did.
"I've been here longer than Quinn has, and I can tell you these townfolk, they're soft," he shook his head fondly at the words. Softness was weakness where he was from, but somehow it was what made these humans so endearing. "They haven't executed a single criminal here since I've been here. Sometimes I'm afraid they're not cut out for it. They wouldn't do it unless they had no choice."
He sighed deeply, both concerned for Gale and troubled. He wasn't sure he was getting through to the other centaur. He felt like he was talking to somebody who was dead inside and only waiting for it to be confirmed. It bothered him to some degree that something so terrible had happened to Gale that he was essentially empty inside. He had been there once before and that aching emptiness was agonizing - more painful than any physical injury. "I just want to help." He finally admitted, lowering his head as to look at his hooves instead of Gale.
If Gale had turned his head away, perhaps he didn't want to be under his scrutiny. "These people, they gave me a chance," his voice was soft, vulnerable even. He wasn't sure what would have became of him if it weren't for them. And he had been undeserving of such kindness, unlike Gale who had just been too young and too damaged to know better. "So what I want to ask of you is would you give yourself a chance?"
He tilted his head, scraping his hoof against the dusty floor. "Would you let me help you?"
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 1:51:21 GMT -5
Everything so far hadn't made sense - all of Alphonse's words and actions, they didn't add up at all. He'd learned the name of the town, at least. Barrenridge. He'd never heard of it but that was irrelevant, because he didn't know many town names to begin with. He knew enough to know that this little town was definitely nothing important or interesting, just...a human-based town in the middle of nowhere. It probably made its livings from ore in the mountains or gold in the rivers, one or the other. Gale didn't know, and wasn't surprised to realise that he didn't care.
Then Alphonse continued to speak about how the townsfolk were soft. Soft humans. He snorted at the thought but half-turned to glance at the other from the corner of his eye, watching him quietly.
Gale had to admit - he was a little surprised at the turn the words had been taken in. Not about killing him or letting him die, but instead about helping. Like he could be rehabilitated. He wasn't sure if he wanted that - he didn't have any point in living (sh*t, they'd even taken his spyglass; he didn't even have a lifeline at this point), and yet here some old, soft-heart centaur was talking about helping him. It was even worse that he asked, that he didn't push but rather let Gale make his own decision. He didn't know if he liked that, found himself appreciating that Alphonse wasn't pushing anything onto him.
He shifted his weight so that he could take most of it away from his injured leg, deciding that as stubborn as he was and as much as it hurt his pride, he was in too much pain to want to put on a show. If he had to limp then, f*ck, he'd just limp.
"I don't understand," he stated bluntly, because he'd never been one to lie. "I don't know if I can give myself a chance."
There was a point, he realised, where he'd lost self-esteem. Where Sabah and Tea had made up all of it, where their approval meant everything and now Tea was dead and Sabah had gone, and he had to think for himself. Had to decide for himself whether he was worth saving or not - and it was a hard decision to make. Especially considering that he was in a town of humans, after...well. Slaughtering humans. The Jackals hadn't just been an 'equal rights protest group' as they'd sold themselves as, but rather an anti-human group. He realised this, but humans had never done him any good.
He wasn't even sure if he could trust a centaur who had been around humans for so long. Alphonse had a sweet nature and seemed soft, the sort of centaur who couldn't hurt a soul. He was a gentle giant, just as the deputy sheriff had said (he knew that the human's name was Quinn, it was just easier to think of him as nameless. He'd been taught to do that). His gaze flicked over the stallion's face and he frowned quietly, brows pulled down.
"I'm less deserving of a chance than J--the other one who was with me," his tone was subdued, exhausted. "If they think I coordinated this whole sh*tfest, then I should be there and he should be here."
Jacques was a brutal, passionate centaur and would never have accepted, but hell, he was far more deserving of a second chance than Gale was. He may have been older and more socialised with humans, but they'd never done him a day of right, either. It was him who deserved to be here, getting a chance at...something more.
And yet, Gale was realising, he was selfish. The idea of something else outside of the Jackals was tempting, but...sh*t, he didn't know what he wanted to do.
"Why do you trust these humans so much?" he asked, "what makes them so good? Worth staying around?"
Curiousity, they said, killed the cat. Gale couldn't help it. He was a curious person by nature, even when resigned to his fate. Asked too many questions and always needed answers, and Sabah had never been happy with him for it. It was one thing she hadn't been able to stop in him. He was a sharp mind who needed to find all the answers he could. Gale frowned at Alphonse and narrowed his eyes some, trying to weigh his options. He...didn't want to go on, but he also wanted to be able to go out on his own terms. This, here, was the possibility of eliminating being put down or dying of infection. He supposed he could take it.
He was selfish. Definitely selfish. He'd always considered that he'd wanted to die, but faced with the actual possibility of it had, he realised, terrified him. "If you think I'm worth saving, then you can try and I won't stop you from trying," he said, his voice even quieter than it had been before. "But I don't know what you're expecting from me."
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 7, 2017 10:16:24 GMT -5
Despite the heavy weight of Gale's response, it gave him some form of relief as the younger centaur didn't outright deny him of the chance to help. And even more so, Gale seemed to have come to his senses about his stubborn pride. He was removing the weight off his injured leg, which, all things considered, was the most self-beneficial thing he had done since he had arrived in Barrenridge. Perhaps if he got Gale some hot food or made some for him, he could even get the colt to eat. That would be ideal.
But he still had to consider the actual response and what it meant about Gale. They were words that sounded far older than the colt could have been, as if he were a young mind and body weighed down by a heavy heart far too old and damaged. It didn't settle right with him. He knew trauma acted accordingly on all range of ages, sometimes the young were broken and fragile due to their experiences. And to him, Gale was young - far younger than he was when he had been given a second chance.
Certainly far too young to lose everything. Raising a hand to scratch the back of his head, he wasn't sure how to address the bluntness of Gale's words as he thought them over. Well, Gale wasn't going to make things easy, but at least he was willing to accept the help to some degree. Even though he didn't know if he was worth saving, perhaps given some time he could change his perspective on the matter. Maybe with the right approach, Gale would find that he was worth being helped.
Alphonse eyed Gale, a gentle softness in his gaze as he regarded the smaller centaur. "I'd like to think given some time, you'd change your opinion," that Gale would believe that he deserved a chance. After all, if he had been given one... if he had been given the opportunity to wash away the blood on his hands and live a peaceful life, well, he wanted to extend the offer. Though life was hardly fair and predictable, the least he could do was try.
"Besides, if you're here and not in the city, I'd say some fair deal of luck and fate was involved in that," he added, offering a small smile to Gale. The way he spoke about his crimes was relieving. It told him that all the rumors about Gale being the mastermind of the violence was a lie and that the crimes were coordinated by someone else. At the very least, it meant that Gale was not one for reckless violence. "And I wouldn't look that gift horse in the mouth." He had tried to reason that he was undeserving of Seraphin's love the townfolk's fondness before. It had been a mistake.
Their kindness didn't come at a price. Despite all he was used to, it had been genuine and honest. Looking back on it now, he regretted ever doubting them and his own worth. In the grand scheme of things, it almost seemed easier to fault kindness even though it got him nowhere. If only he could get Gale to understand that. But he wouldn't bore the colt with his life story... not that he was keen on sharing it even if Gale had been interested.
And then Gale asked about the townfolk. He had to pause there, surprised by the curiosity and interest. It was a good kind of interest though, and though he knew Gale would take his words at face value it was nice to be given the opportunity to share his opinion and maybe - just maybe - shift Gale's opinions on humans just a bit. Just a slight bit. That would be enough.
"I didn't use to trust humans," he said with a shrug, as if that was a good way to start his answer about why Gale should trust humans. "But they've been nothing but kind to me. They don't force me to do anything here, they treat me like an equal." He supposed that had been enough for him. Not to be treated like he was superior or inferior, but equal. "They like me here, the kids ask for rides and look at me in awe." Like he was worthy of their awe or something.
He chuckled at the thought. "The older folk appreciate the help, they always thank me." He paused, wondering if he was rambling before clearing his throat. "I had all the chances to leave, they never forced me to stay, but I stayed because I've never belonged anywhere like I belonged here." His eyes softened considerably, "I used to run with a herd, like you did. But now that I think about it, as much as they felt like family they truly weren't. The people here? They're my family."
Though he had always thought that ever since he had found a place for himself in Barrenridge, it was strange saying it aloud. It was kind of a matter he thought of and secretly agree with, but never outright said. But now that he said it, it didn't feel that foolish. "I don't expect you to stay like I did though."
"Just give it some time so that you can heal up. If you still want to leave then, I don't think anybody would stop you. But if you come to like it here like I did, then... you can stay. I'm certain nobody here would mind."
Seeing that they were on a much better note than they had been earlier, he continued, hoping he wasn't pressing too far. "So, are you hungry? I can get you something to eat." Gale had missed two meals, so hopefully he would take up his offer.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 11:15:49 GMT -5
Gale couldn't help it. His mind would always return to the Jackals, in the end. How they had met ends and here he was, with a second chance at life. It didn't feel fair, didn't feel like something he deserved. Even if Sabah had been the ringleader, he'd been (partially) a voice of reason, someone who admitted if a plan would work. Someone who often encouraged the behaviour in the others, but when he looked back on it, they likely wouldn't have gone on with the plans they came up with had it not been for his own voice. While Sabah had been the leader and had had the final word, he was the reason they went into it with their heart and soul. He might've been the youngest of the group, but he was one of the most respected. He hated that. He hated that he was here and they were likely burned by now.
This centuar was kind and warm in a way that he'd never seen before. Alphonse held a certain aura about him that suggested respect, but did not demand it - it was a calming one, something that reminded him of his own mother.
"I suppose I have all the time in the world, now," he wasn't quite sure if he liked that. His entire life had been built around not enough time and we have to do things fast, and now he was in one of the slowest places he could've ended up in. Things were supposed to be peaceful here. He didn't know how ready he was for that.
Luck and fate.
"I," his tone was firm, "am not deserving of a second chance. I pulled irredeemable amounts of pure bullsh*t, and yet I'm the one who gets the second chance," but Alphonse was not here for his life story and frankly, Gale did not want to give it for free, and so he kept it short and blunt and vague. "I may not have coordinated it, but I sure as hell did the most damage."
He had likely killed more humans than the rest of the Jackals, save for perhaps Sabah. He was a sniper - he could take certain targets out at long range. Sometimes, he could take down entire groups of humans from a distance. It was a skill he had prided himself on, but it didn't feel like something worth boasting about. While Jacques had barreled into people and Mori had used his knives and Tea had caused fires, Gale had, in the end, shot down most of them. Some of them didn't even get killing blows - just a bullet to a vital area to die a slow, painful death. Alphonse did not need to know that (again; not for free), but hell if it wasn't weighing on Gale's mind. He didn't feel guilty about it - just guilty about the fact that he was alive and technically well, and the rest were gone. He did not count Sabah. He would not think too much about her, because in the end, her betrayal was not a surprise.
Family. The humans here were the older centaur's family. Barrenridge did not seem like much, but he'd only seen the wife of this centaur, and then the sheriff and his deputy. Nothing else, really. He wasn't sure if he wanted to; Gale had never been socialised around humans, had never had a reason. The Arabic they spoke at home was a different dialect even to those in various regions of Egypt, something only centaurs spoke in his area. They did not socialise with humans, and humans did not care for them; the desert was a centaur-based domain, with villages and towns. Where humans and centaurs bordered, centaurs were always overrun; towns were burned, crops were sabotaged. Humans were not worthy of the trust that Alphonse seemed to place into them. Gale had seen them be nothing but cruel, especially after arriving in America. He'd seen the city centaurs used as workhorses, denied work solely on their species, looked at like they were just things to use.
But, he supposed, if he was being given a chance then he would have to give them a chance. He wasn't going to like it, but he had some vague sense of self-preservation left. Just a bit.
"I'm supposed to be a prisoner," cautious and confused; that summed up his entire mood right up until this point. He didn't get what angle the other was coming from, didn't understand what he wanted from him.
Nothing made sense and everything was different - he was, and he would admit this, uncomfortable. Usually, Gale could read situations and adjust accordingly - but he was being thrown into something that was entirely different to what he was used to, something that just couldn't make any sense. He was being told the opposite to what he'd been told and had experienced his entire life, but Alphonse did not appear to be lying and Gale had always been decent at judging when someone was a liar.
He wasn't going to be able to make heads nor tails of this, and that was something he was beginning to accept. If he questioned something then it just got weirder - it was weird enough that the sheriff was fine with Alphonse being here, was probably fine with Gale being out of his cell despite circumstances. It just...didn't make sense. He frowned up at Alphonse and angled his head to the side, eyes narrowed somewhat. "I...guess so?"
Phrased more like a question than a response, because Gale didn't know if he was hungry. Hell, he didn't know when he'd last eaten. His stomach was starting to complain, so he could certainly guess that he hadn't eaten before the whole ordeal had begun - which just made Alphonse's offer more tempting. He sighed quietly and nodded his head, absently looking down at the ground.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 14, 2017 5:29:03 GMT -5
Alphonse wasn't sure what it was, but there was a certain share of caution, self preservation, and intelligence in the younger centaur that made him feel as if, given the chance, he would be a more becoming individual. He had the potential to not be good, but to be happy and perhaps lead a life of peace. And if that wasn't cut out for him, he supposed he had read the other wrong. He'd known in his time centaurs who wanted to die in a blaze of glory, too young to contemplate the consequences of their actions. Volatile and violent, never meant to settle down to experience a quiet life.
Still, the rather blunt and honest manner Gale spoke in warmed him. He had never liked liars solely because he had bad experiences with the sort. Betrayal in herds was the worst kind, and he'd known a friend who had passed as a result. It was welcomed, honestly. Though if he was to be fair, he was somewhat of a hypocrite. He was not the honest sort, but he preferred associating with those who told him the truth and though Gale hadn't answered many of his questions or told him much about himself, he liked that the colt was being honest in the information he did fess up.
Shaking his head at the blunt statement from Gale, he contemplated what to say. "Sometimes, you just want things to be over and other times, you just want things to never end," he answered with a rather helpless shrug, not sure how to respond. "You'll figure out which one this is," eventually. Perhaps Gale already was determined to leave once he healed up. And perhaps the authorities would find him later on down the road and put him down like the rest of his herd. But hell, in the end he didn't know Gale.
He had always taken himself for the kind to die fighting for what he believed in, but here he was trying to pretend like he was made for the quiet and gentle life he lived. A lot of people believed it too, hell - most of the times he did too. But sometimes, it was hard forgetting who he was and the thrill of life in those days that he looked back on with a fair share of disgust and nostalgia. And if he had been able to change his mind, stubborn and prideful as he was, perhaps Gale would be too. But then again, perhaps he was being far too hopeful. The Old West wasn't anything like the stories in books, most of the time there was no happy endings. Miners coming from afar to find drained rivers with no gold.
Crime and violence rampant, centaurs treated like animals, towns abandoned to become ghost towns in due time. Still, what was there to fear about being a little hopeful for an old centaur? Still, hearing the amount of self loathing Gale had struck a chord inside of him. Everything aside, whether or not he had been the influential factor, whether or not he hated humans or not there was a certain kind of uneasy weight his words held. The fact that he firmly believed he didn't deserve a second chance was... well, it was somewhat heartbreaking.
He couldn't say he was the sympathizing kind, but he had grown soft with the folk of Barrenridge and the way Gale spoke made him feel as if the other centaur didn't really have much self-esteem. Sighing, he eyed Gale, not pitying the other but saddened by his opinion on the value of his life. "So what?" He asked softly, diverting his gaze to the floor. It sounded crass and uncaring of the crimes Gale had done, but hell, he couldn't fault the other centaur. He knew what that walk of life was like. "What matters is that you're being given a second chance, not what you've done," he paused.
"But if you try to pull that 'bullsh*t' here, trust me," he shook his head, raising his head to fix Gale with a steely gaze, "I'm not as gentle as they say I am." It wasn't a threat, it was a fair warning. He had heard from Xingfu the city sheriffs had left Gale's possessions with them. The colt had been found with a sniper rifle. He had no doubt the damage Gale could cause with that, but that gave him a fair deal of confidence that in a close encounter Gale was not only the inferior in terms of size, but also skill. And he didn't want that to happen, but he had told the other that the people at Barrenridge was his family.
He would die first before letting anything happen to them. And he knew, if anything did, he would always despise himself for letting the wolf in sheep's clothing out with the flock.
Not wishing to dwell on the tense message he continued on, acting as if it was a normal conversational topic - and in many senses, it was - he dwelled briefly on what Gale said before chuckling, "Our last prisoner is now our deputy sheriff, if that gives you any idea of how this town deals with criminals. I wouldn't say they're the most effective, but the results haven't been too bad." He could imagine though, to some extent, Gale's confusion. His experience with sheriffs was that those in his herd were either killed or forced into manual labor. There was no in between. This was... strange. Unusual, even.
He couldn't really explain why Barrenridge was as accommodating, but he knew one thing. It was what made him come to love them.
Seeing Gale nod to his questions, he glanced at the younger centaur before heading towards the door. Opening it, he found Quinn asleep in front of the building. Impressive, if not strange. Xingfu on the other hand was alert, and hearing the creak of the door, the sheriff had turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow in inquiry. Shifting slightly out of the way, he allowed Xingfu to see past him to Gale and the sheriff didn't seem surprised at all. The man didn't even look angry or annoyed he had done what he had wanted and had released Gale on his own accordance. "He's hungry," was all Al could offer, wanting to see whether or not Xingfu wanted him to get the food and watch over Gale or vice versa.
That seemed to do the trick because Xingfu nodded, standing up from where he had been sitting. "I'll go get some food for him. Is anything okay or?"
"I think anything would be fine," he said, pausing only to add, "Thank you."
The sheriff shook his head, raising a hand to wave around in a motion that told him not to think about it. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure out this later, for now, I'd just like for him to be alive. It's great that he wants to eat, I was afraid he was going to starve himself to death," Xingfu said softly, his gaze shifting past Alphonse once again with a fair share of concern. "He's too young to want to die."
Huh. So they shared the sentiment on that thought. Nodding in understanding, he closed the door once again and backed up. Turning to Gale he spoke, "Xingfu will be back with the food soon, but he doesn't have to come in if you don't want him to."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2017 18:07:38 GMT -5
Something about Alphonse felt like he understood, like he knew what it was like to be in this situation - to feel a neverendng helplessness that refused to leave, to feel overwhelming guilt and to not want to go on. He ignored the pressing thought and looked away, instead holding his hands out to stare at, tracing over scars with his gaze to calm his mind. It was something. Everything had been taken from him and he was nothing - but he had proof that, at one point, he had been something.
He wasn't supposed to be alive. That much he knew. Sabah was thorough, knew how to make people vanish - but hey, where had that train of thought come from? Though she had left them to die, there was no proof that she had intended for it. Sure, she'd ignored the warnings and risks an had gotten out unscathed, but...well. Sh*t happened. Maybe he would've preferred for this stallion to be a heartless executioner. Instead, he was being told that he was having a second chance at life. Not just to redeem himself for his actions, but to actually live. He wasn't sure if he liked it, knew that he didn't deserve it, and yet Alphonse didn't seem to care about that.
"I don't think I'm capable anymore," his own tone was soft.
He didn't think he was. Knew that if he wanted to, he could kill - but he wasn't sure if his hands could remain steady. Even as he watched them, there was a small tremor in them that could've meant the world in missing a shot. Maybe it had started in the fight, maybe that had been why his near-perfect track record of shots had become shredded. He swallowed thickly but did not look up, instead curling his fingers inwards and half-closing his eyes.
Death was a kinder option. An easy out.
"You can't rehabilitate everyone," he said, finally dropping his hands and lifting his gaze. He did not feel at all steady, but at least reality felt a little firmer around him. "Some people can't - or shouldn't - be saved. This town ought to be more cautious. Being too forgiving is a deadly flaw to have."
Spoken like a lie, he noted. Like he didn't forgive easily - maybe it was a jab at himself. He didn't know. Gale exhaled slowly through his nose and shifted his weight, turning his head to look at his bandages again. They'd bleed through soon, and he knew it. He could already feel it. More pressure was probably needed, but he said nothing and instead watched as Alphonse opened the door, watched their interaction but could not make out their words. With only mild annoyance, he turned his head to take in his surroundings. It wasn't anything interesting; he'd seen most of it already, considering he was a prisoner. Gale tugged at the edge of his shirt and heard rather than saw Alphonse approach again.
"I don't care if he comes in," despite his words, his gaze flicked to the door in an almost anxious manner, "as long as he doesn't come near me."
It wasn't even just with humans, but he didn't voice that. Didn't care if it made him a lesser man or whatever. Personal space was all he could keep to himself, and he found himself lucky that Alphonse appeared to respect it immediately. He didn't need to mention it. With humans, however, they were...strange. Seemed to have a need to touch what they didn't need to, seemed to need to be in everybody else's personal bubbles. It was weird and irritating, and he found cities some of the most uncomfortable places (though perhaps he was being more bitter due to being gunned down). Either way, as long as the sheriff - Xingfu, he realised the name had been given - didn't come near him, he was okay. Fine. Pissed off and tired and hungry as hell, but fine.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 17, 2017 0:18:58 GMT -5
In any variation of this conversation, he had never expected the outcome that he had received. The young centaur's voice was soft, perhaps it was resignation or something else entirely. He wasn't too sure, but the impact of those words resonated inside of him. It didn't seem to matter whether or not that he was given a second chance if he was incapable of taking it. He had been told about conditions similar to what Gale had, something he sometimes felt but was not to sure if he actually possessed. They called it Soldier's heart, a centaur who had been forced into fighting in the humans' civil war had told him that he had had been diagnosed with such a hard ship. But he wasn't too sure, there weren't many terms for the more emotional aspect of life, and he wasn't educated anyhow.
Whatever it was Gale faced made him sympathize for the colt, unsure of how to continue or go back from here. He wasn't sure how to help someone who had already determined he didn't want to be helped or didn't know how to accept such an offer. He had turned his back on those who had begged for his assistance, cold and heartless as the actions had been, it had been for the sake of his own survival. When he offered assistance nowadays, people were grateful but Gale neither wanted his assistance nor was he grateful. And Alphonse didn't blame the younger centaur for it, but it made his heart ache.
He just didn't know what to do for Gale and after everything the humans had done for him he just wanted to give back for once in his life. He wasn't sure where he was going wrong as he lowered his gaze to the floor, no longer looking at Gale. "I'm sorry," his voice was barely above a whisper, unsure of how to sympathize for the other without sounding crude. He wasn't sure what the words meant, but he was sorry that Gale had been hurt so much he didn't believe he deserved a second chance. He was sorry people had been given the chance to hurt this colt to the point where even Gale believed himself to be irreparable.
He didn't know what the apology meant coming from him and how Gale would take it, but it was the only thing he could offer as Gale pushed the subject. About being unable to be rehabilitated like some kind of special case and that - that hadn't been what he was hoping for. "I didn't mean to offend you," he felt like he'd somehow offended Gale with his words. Or perhaps he'd struck a sensitive cord? He wasn't quite sure. He'd all but forgotten how to interact with younger centaurs, the criminal sort.
"But all things considered, if you still have it in you to point out that forgiveness is a deadly flaw, then I don't think you're beyond saving at all," he wasn't sure what boundaries he was crossing or the general reception they would get, but he braved it anyways. If there was backlash for his words, he would take it. He meant no offense, but Gale was a stranger. Familiar in terms of being a centaur - someone he could identify with - but unfamiliar because he was just a stranger. They had never met before and trying to press his beliefs or experiences on Gale was perhaps unwise. And perhaps calling out Gale's contradictory words were also unwise, but he wagered being a tad bit foolish and pressing on the subject wasn't that bad.
Perhaps the colt needed a nudge to come to terms that he deserved to be helped. Or perhaps he would prove himself from right and Al wrong, and show that he was beyond saving. Alphonse had never realized he had needed somebody like Gale in his life, a chance to make up for all the wrongs he had done. A chance to extend the second attempt at life he had received, to pass on the favor and make the world a kinder place as Seraphin had spoken of so many times before.
Unsure of how to continue, he was saved luckily by a the door pushing open slightly. Xingfu didn't enter, however; only his dusty boot was visible and he was clearly waiting for some sort of response. Nodding at Gale's words he walked towards the door opening it for Xingfu to enter. "He's fine with you here, he just doesn't want you too close," he said quietly and Xingfu paused briefly, considering the words before nodding.
The sheriff was a man he liked and respected and it seemed to be a shared sentiment between the two of them, he could only hope that it would hold with Gale. Watching carefully, he saw Xingfu place the food down on the table, close enough to Gale that he could move a couple of steps and reach it but far enough to give the young centaur a wide breadth. Tipping his hat at the centaur, Xingfu left Gale be without an attempt at conversation.
Xingfu stopped beside him, glancing up to sigh and speak quietly. "I'll leave you to it then," and that was that. Xingfu was gone and he found himself lifting his gaze to watch to see what Gale was going to do before realizing it would probably make the colt uncomfortable if he stared so he adverted his gaze once again. He would let Gale speak in his own terms whenever he felt like it, he felt like he had already overextended his welcome and had pushed Gale in a crude manner. The last thing he wanted was for Gale to come to dislike the only individual in the town he would probably open up to first considering he was a herd centaur, clearly unfamiliar with humans.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2017 10:38:59 GMT -5
He felt like a pitiful creature.
All he deserved was pity, but he didn't even want that. Alphonse's apology made his heart tighten and his body tense, made him shift into a more defensive position without realising it. Immediately, he felt like he was back there, like everything was bad and Sabah was apologising but she had to do this, because he'd misbehaved. He inhaled sharply, narrowed his eyes and turned his head away. Suddenly, he wasn't as hungry as he had been before.
"Don't you dare," his voice was low, would've been a growl if his throat could've managed it, but it just came out weaker than he would've liked. "Don't apologise to me. Don't pity me. I don't need it."
Though Gale logically knew that Alphonse was trying to help, he couldn't help but back up a few steps, felt one of his back legs hit the bars of the cell. He instinctively moved away from that. He felt trapped, but f*ck, he was trapped and it was scary. He was in pain (he'd mistakenly put weight on his leg in his panic; it hurt even worse, now), and he didn't know what he was supposed to do. This didn't feel real - maybe it wasn't. Maybe he was dead.
Calm. He tried to calm his mind, tried his best to clear his thoughts. It was probably too late for that. He doubted that Alphonse was a stupid man; he was clever enough to read when he needed to back off, knew (mostly) what to say, it seemed. A moment's weakness, and Gale regretted even thinking about speaking to this stallion. In an absent motion, he began scratching at his wrist, looked anywhere but the other and instead focused on trying to settle his uneven breathing. He was okay. Sabah was not here. No-one was; he knew nobody, and the Jackals were dead. He was the last one standing, and even that was a loose statement.
"I don't know what you expect from me," he stated bluntly. "You're going to be disappointed, and I don't even know what you want."
He fell silent as Xingfu returned, didn't look at the human and didn't say a word. His own fingers circled his other wrist, squeezing lightly. Gale could feel the little flutter of his heartbeat; proof that he was alive, even if he didn't want to be. To his surprise, it was a steadying thing, and he found that his heartrate began to calm - slowly, but surely. He glanced to the food but did not find it in him to go for it, and instead returned his gaze to the other centaur. It wasn't quite a glare, but it was a steady stare, blank and carefully veiled. Much to his own surprise, he found that he couldn't find it in himself to hate Alphonse. He was trying to help, and here Gale was, pushing him away because he was scared like some sort of foal.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 17, 2017 23:03:21 GMT -5
He wasn't sure what he had done to garner the response following his words almost immediately, but whatever progress they seemed to have made - whatever common ground they had shared seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye as Gale instinctively seemed to cower away from him. It was such a strange reaction, he stepped back a few steps, putting some distance between him and Gale. Swallowing hard, he spoke without thinking, before promptly clamping his mouth shut. "I'm so-" It had been the apology, apparently.
The look in Gale's eyes was vicious and though his voice weak, there was a certain edge in them that told him if he pushed the issue or made a similar trespass, it would not go easy without a more aggressive response. Nodding as he broke eye contact, following Gale's lead he closed his eyes briefly. "I won't do that again," the words were firm, a promise of sorts. His best apology without apologizing. Lifting his gaze once again, he searched the other for some sort of response. It was like he had taken one step forward and two steps back. He wasn't quite sure what to say, if pressing the matter of pitying Gale would make the younger centaur despise him completely or if it would be wise.
Sighing he shook his head, "But I don't pity you. I don't understand what happened to you, but I want to help. That's all it is. There are no expectations, nothing, alright?" He tipped his head to a side carefully watching Gale, perhaps he should have been more observant. He understood the sentiment of not wanting to be pitied, but the response had been curious and startling. He wasn't sure where had gone wrong, but it was certainly his mistake and not Gale's. Gale had been communicating with him and he had been willing to eat as well. So whatever he had done, however he had royally f*cked up by saying those words - I'm sorry - had been a matter of insensitivity. Or something. He wasn't quite sure.
But the words certainly did seem to startle Gale and make him not only defensive, but aggressive. He would make sure to tell Xingfu, Quinn, and Seraphin as well if they were going to be the ones to slowly integrate Gale into a human settlement for the time being. He just didn't want a repeat of whatever mistake he had made occurring again. And what was worse was that, despite being hungry, Gale had seemed to either lose his appetite or wanted to make a point by not touching the food Xingfu had settled down.
Unsure of what to do, he scratched the back of his neck in an uncharacteristic show of anxiety. "I, uh," his gaze traveled around the small building, aged and dusty and dull, "You can't disappoint me, alright? I don't expect anything of you nor do I want anything from you. " He smiled weakly, "So let's not talk about disappointing or expecting anything. I think it'd be best to just let things unfold and take it slow."
"I..." He trailed off, the words lingering before he decided to press the matter a little more firmly. "I haven't overstayed my welcome, have I?" He said the words quietly, finally tearing his gaze away from the decisively uninteresting wall to turn back to Gale once again. He would leave if Gale wanted him to. He wasn't sure what to do with himself anyhow.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2017 10:54:44 GMT -5
Logic told him that Alphonse didn't mean any harm. That he was a kind enough man, seemed to be wary in his ways but gentle. There had been the warning earlier that told Gale that, no, the man was not a naturally gentle man - but hell, he'd be a hypocrite to judge that. He flicked his gaze away, ignoring the tightening of his chest that told him that he felt guilty. Hell, that was a new feeling. He didn't like it. In an absent motion, the young stallion tapped a hoof lightly against the floor, frowned down at it, too.
"There are always expectations," his tone was no longer hostile, but not quite void of emotion. A steady blank, like he'd regained his posture and was trying to make himself seem stable, at the very least. Gale studied Alphonse carefully, eyes narrowed as he watched the older centaur. "Nothing is free in life. Especially not second chances."
You can't disappoint me. I don't expect anything of you and nor do I want anything from you.
The words themselves sounded plastic - fake and sugarcoated. But so far, Alphonse had proven to be a semi-decent person and hell, Gale didn't want to have to fight the world. He wasn't being forced to, either; he was being given a fair chance, and he was being a child about it. He wrinkled his nose, crossed his arms, and looked away uncomfortably. Take it slow.
Gale didn't like being here. Didn't like that he was helpless and injured, didn't like that he was being welcomed like he was allowed to belong. He didn't belong, and he wasn't sure if he liked how this town dealt with criminals. It was...it was dangerous. It only took one dangerous criminal to make it all come crashing down, to ruin the idea of second chances and take away what freedom was offered to those deserving of it. Gale, himself, was neither. He was not a dangerous criminal who'd ruin the kindness, but he was not deserving of the kindness, either. Grateful, but undeserving.
"No," he said quietly, shifting his weight uncomfortably. He'd - he'd done this. Made the atmosphere a little more tense, made Alphonse feel unwelcome.
It was some tightness of guilt and a combination of pain that made him decide that he was being a little too stubborn.
"Your wife," his voice remained quiet, audible only due to the fact that the room was small and only the two of them stood within it. "She's good with injuries?"
Giving away some ground felt weird, but all he'd done so far was refuse Alphonse's help, refuse everything - and if he was being given a second chance, he didn't think it would be a good idea to try to isolate himself. If it was just humans here, then he'd deal with that. Besides, he was by no means a medic, and he didn't know how much damage had been done to him with the entry of the bullet and with the removal of it. It had not been a kind process, and frankly, it hurt a little more than he was comfortable with.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 24, 2017 5:25:34 GMT -5
Alphonse had been ready to call it a defeat, leave the conversation be, and mull over it in his sleep but the fact that Gale had told him that his presence was not unwelcomed had him perking up slightly in interest. He had thought he had butchered his chances of making Gale feel welcomed and, well, better for that matter. Gale had seemed to him, in desperate need of all the help he could get. Not the pitiful kind, but he was hurting in all sorts of ways and drowning in himself. Even if Gale was a killer, there was still a very humane side to him.
Something about the younger centaur told Alphonse that Gale was capable of doing terrible things, but he was also possible of doing great things if he was given the opportunity. And he had been scared for the briefest of moments that his own mistake had been enough to revoke that right from Gale's hands. Smiling slightly as he mused over Gale's words, he backed up even further just in case Gale needed more space to feel comfortable. It was the very least he could do after everything.
"Perhaps you've paid enough already to warrant a second chance," it was a strange thing to say and though the concept had never struck him as something that was true, it was also something that felt strangely right. When it came to matters such as this, it always seemed easier to excuse the actions of others in order to make them feel better. Besides, Gale was young and he was hurting. There was no saying he wasn't manipulated by certain principles or desires. But there was also no saying he didn't believe those principles reverently.
It was a dangerous double edged blade. He knew how outlaws functioned. He had been one before and it was a violent life that they chose or they were pushed into. Either way, there was countless opportunities to leave, but it was not always an easy choice. Sometimes they felt like family. He wondered which of those cases Gale happened to be, but he didn't press the matter. He didn't speak about his past for many reasons and he wouldn't force it on Gale to reveal his past for free either.
Settling down against Xingfu's wooden desk, he propped his elbow up on the table after sitting down. There was discomfort in Gale still, but the hostility was gone and Gale telling that he was still welcomed here was honestly as much as he was hoping for. Perhaps he had even given Alphonse more than he had needed, to be quite honest. He smiled but didn't press the matter, only beaming once again when Seraphin was mentioned. It was interesting that Gale had brought her into the discussion, but it was a welcomed change of topic that he liked very much. He couldn't help but grin.
"Yes, she's studied medicine before for some time," he answered honestly, proud of Seraphin's achievements. He had never had any formal schooling so it made him beam to speak of Seraphin's own intellect and achievements. Following the pride however, was a fair amount of concern as he glanced back down to Gale's injury. "Why? Do you want me to ask her to look over your injuries?" Furrowing his brows, he squinted at Gale almost suspiciously. "Are you okay? It doesn't hurt, does it?"
That would be terribly crude of him to force a conversation with Gale for who knew how long while the younger centaur was in pain. He felt almost shameful at only thinking to mention it now, but it had completely left his mind after having mentioned the more serious matters and the obvious implications that Gale wanted to die.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2017 0:12:07 GMT -5
Sometimes, Gale didn't know what he was supposed to do with himself. Didn't know how to thank people properly, how to speak - at some point during the day, he'd fallen entirely silent and had ended up responding with little nods and absentminded body language. He hadn't had the energy to speak. Not really.
After Alphonse's wife tended to his wound, they felt better. They didn't burn as much, didn't feel like they were killing him. Hell, they didn't even bleed through the bandages overnight - a little bit of spotting, but otherwise they seemed to be fine. Gale leaned over to poke his leg lightly, tensed his muscles. He didn't feel as much pain as he usually did, which was certainly a good sign. In fact, he was rather sure that the wound had started knitting itself together with the higher healing of a centaur as opposed to when it had been sitting there, much like a human wound. It was a relief, and he was glad for it.
This morning, he'd been given back his spyglass. It wasn't much to look at, a neat little black thing with silver trimming, but it was his everything. It was all he had left of...well, of anything. He turned it over in his hands absently, stared down at it with something akin to peace on his face. His thumb ran gently over the edge of it. It was, he realised, his lifeline - he had lost a lot of his will to live when he'd realised it was gone, but now? Now, he held it gently in his hands and hoped to never lose it again.
It was just a shame that his legs were cramping up in the tiny cell. He shifted his weight and pushed himself up onto his hooves, shook himself out and put one hand against the wall. This wasn't any good but hell, he had put himself into this situation. Getting caught meant punishment, and even if Alphonse had said something about second chances, he didn't quite trust the older centaur's words. Not yet, at least. He seemed like a decent enough stallion, but. Well. Life had a thing for making Gale as miserable as possible.
He was bored, he realised. He glanced out of the bars and narrowed his eyes, before looking down at the ground. Though he was reunited with his spyglass, there was little for him to do. Little for him to entertain himself with. He took a moment to look around his cell before he looked through the bars at the desk. The younger one - Quinn. He'd been talkative before. He seemed nice.
"Ahlan," he began uncertainly. He hadn't started conversation with any of these people before - it was...strange.
What if Quinn didn't reply? What if he was just deluding himself into thinking they were friendly? He probably was. Alphonse, a centaur, had said that they were good, so obviously they were good. His logic was flawless, obviously.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 26, 2017 7:20:28 GMT -5
It had been a damn weird day yesterday. After getting the centaur dropped off in Barrenridge, he'd been trying to get the damn guy to talk to him but it had been a fruitless way to spend his time. Nothing he said seemed to get Gale's attention and the curiosity that filled him when it came to the centaur wasn't being answered whatsoever. And then Alphonse Fournier of all people came waltzing in like he owed the place - and Al was welcomed here, don't get him wrong - and Gale decided to talk to him of all people.
Quinn couldn't help but pout all morning long after dropping the steaming hot meal off for Gale. Settling down, he allowed pops to handle all the big fuss regarding Gale and his belongings. Of course they didn't give him back the damn sniper rifle, but his small possessions like the spy glass and sh*t? That was free game, and he couldn't quite blame Xingfu for giving it back to Gale. When the sheriff had done the same for him, he'd felt a little blessed. Just... a little.
Leaning heavily against his right hand he was fuming moodily. He was definitely not jealous. Absolutely not. Just a little peeved he was ignored was all. What made Al so much better anyways? Was it a centaur thing? Maybe if it was a centaur thing he could stomach that. Musing in silence he kept his gaze on his desk, not looking back towards Gale's cell. He hadn't even thought about the centaur all day until he had seen the guy, and now all he could do was f*cking fume.
Xingfu had told him before making his daily rounds to talk about the limitations of Gale's "freedom" or whatever, but that sh*t could wait when he got over himself. He had just wanted to try talk to Gale, to let him know that hey, he'd been in contact with centaurs before when he ran pickpocket jobs in the cities. And he respected that they were people in their own right. They weren't half bad and Al proved even a vicious looking centaur could be a nice guy whereas Gale was quite the opposite intriguingly enough. Gale looked unassuming, young and even innocent but he was a dangerous criminal anyhow.
It was interesting to Quinn. Here everybody carried guns, it was hard to tell what their purpose so people were unassuming, but it was that unsuspecting factor that made them so unique. And Gale was exactly that. Hearing noise, he lifted his head up just to see Gale stretching out weirdly. Oh. Right. Sh*t. That was mean of him. Hearing the unfamiliar words, he raised an eyebrow. "Ahlan?" He repeated with an uncertain lift at the end of his voice, waving a hand awkwardly. Was that hello or something? Probably? Or was it an insult?
God damn, he wished he knew. But it was a start and, after realizing that Gale had talked to him for the first time, he brightened up considerably. Almost beaming, he turned around. "Hey cowboy," he answered quietly, hoping that that had indeed been a greeting. "What's up? Something on your mind?"
He glanced down at the spyglass in Gale's hands. Huh, was he ever going to put that down or was he content with holding it like that forever? Ah well, Quinn wasn't going to be the judge of that. Standing up and stretching out, he reached for the keys at his belt. "Nearly forgot like the idiot I am," he said, starting off as he leaned forward, shoving the key into the lock, "but you can come on out and stretch about. Xingfu - uh, the Sheriff - and I talked over it."
Removing the padlock, he pushed open the cell door. "You're a big guy and you need a lot of room to move around. You're still healing up, so you can't really make a run for it without tearing something or whatever. So like, uh, you can walk around inside the place. A bit outside, but nothing too far. And if you wanna go outside, you have to tell me or the sheriff." Stepping back, he gave Gale a fair amount of space to work with. "That's about it. Simple, right? Smart guy like you should have no problem following the rules."
Chuckling quietly, he raised a hand to adjust the hat on his head, tilting it so he could take a better look at Gale. "I'm not much of a stickler for rules, but trust me. They're not so bad once you get used to them, and honestly I want to like you so it'd be great if you didn't cause too much trouble."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2017 23:58:42 GMT -5
When Quinn repeated the greeting, Gale couldn't help but snort with something like amusement. Even though the pronunciation had been right there, somehow the human managed to mess it up. It was almost endearing.
"Ahlan," he repeated firmly, "it means 'hello', or something."
He knew it meant hello. He was pretty sure he was messing with the Deputy Sheriff, but hey. He was bored and he ached and he wanted something to do. He watched the man's movements with some interest, ran a thumb over his spyglass in an absentminded motion. The presence of it was a comforting anchor, something that kept him rooted to the here and now.
"Nothing's on my mind, I just wanted to...talk," he frowned a little. Wow. He wanted to socialise. Look at him go. "Why do you keep calling me cowboy?"
He continued to listen as Quinn went through...a lot of words. He was allowed to walk around? That seemed extremely lenient. He watched, however, as his cell was unlocked, and frowned a little. It seemed real enough; Alphonse had let him out before, and Quinn was right. He couldn't make a run for it, because if he did, then he'd undo Seraphin's hard work.
Wow, he thought, I'm actually considering being nice for a human.
"I'm not big," his tone was somewhere between genuinely confused and amused. "I'm actually very small. I've met twelve year olds bigger than me," he supposed by human standards he was big, but he was very small for a centaur. It was a pain to be this tiny, but he could make it work. He was faster and lighter and he could climb and that part had scared any people chasing him and the Jackals. They'd always thought that rocky mountains were a dead end but nope, Gale could climb. It was a fun party trick. "I don't mind the rules, and I'm not going to cause trouble. But it's unwise of you to trust my word," he frowned a little, "I was sort of a part of an extremist group that wanted to overrule the humans. Y'know. As you do."
In hindsight, it was stupid. He was stupid. Gale was supposed to be a smart person, was supposed to be good at thinking about this sort of thing - but he'd sorely mistaken the extremist group. They hadn't been just fighting for centaur rights, they had been thinking about total dominance - and honestly, it was easily done. Humans were so soft and often lost fights.
It took the centaur a few moments to actually move, and when he did, everything hurt. He winced briefly and sharply, stopping in his tracks. Centaurs were not built for cramped spaces, were not supposed to be tucked up in a jail cell. He carefully half-limped out of the cell and stretched his legs out a little, and stretched his arms over his head. Almost instantly, every muscle in his body complained. He felt like he'd been exercising for hours on end - but really, he'd been doing...nothing.
"Gotcha," he said, "I can remember rules. Easy," he flicked his gaze away and frowned. "Your town really isn't used to centaurs, is it? Everything's so little. Except the doors," he flicked his gaze to the door pointedly. "Is that because of Alphonse?"
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 27, 2017 18:34:32 GMT -5
It was kind of nice to finally get to talk to Gale. Something about the centaur had just interested him from the start, so despite the amused snort Gale gave him, he couldn't help but grin sheepishly in return. The word - Ahlan - sounded better coming from Gale. There was something about the way he had said it that made it seem so wrong in comparison that he felt a slight redness in his cheeks from his own inadequacy. "Well, that's a fine how do ya do," he responded in return before trying once again - just one more time - to say it. "Ahlan, right?"
He was eager to prove himself capable of saying the word, but it still didn't feel right, with the way it rolled off his tongue. And then of course, he couldn't help but grin even more as it turned out Gale hadn't wanted anything. He didn't need more food. Didn't want to ask for more room to stretch. He just wanted to talk to Quinn, and that was rare. Few people ever came here asking for Quinn, always Xingfu. Xingfu was the actual sheriff anyhow, he was just the deputy sheriff. "Well, I don't have anything to do, so we can talk about whatever you want to," he answered cheerily before chuckling at Gale's question.
"I don't know, cowboy. It just suites you," he grinned, giving Gale an answer without ever even answering him. It felt a little rude, but in the end, he quite enjoyed it. He felt kind of bad teasing Gale the way he did with the useless answer, but it was funny to him and he didn't want to go through explaining himself. Nor did he have a very good explanation as to why. So the easy and low road benefited him and he liked it that way. Less thought and less problems.
Chuckling at Gale's response about his size, he shook his head. "Yeah, I know you're not the biggest centaur around, I mean have you seen Al?" Alright, he was going to have to admit the joke fell kind of flat. "But you are a damn lot taller than me, so that makes you a pretty damn big guy." He was grinning even as he looked at Gale. The centaur had yet to move. But he knew with the space Gale occupied, when he stood up, he'd be towering over him. And the only logical connection was anybody that was taller than him was big. Al was gigantic by those standards.
Raising an eyebrow in inquiry, he didn't push Gale's statement about being in an extremist group. Huffing, he backed up and plopped himself down on his desk. It was empty anyhow. Not enough crimes in these parts. Hell, it was more like there was nothing going on and he was going to die of boredom in his youth. The worst things that he and Xingfu had dealt with was a large hole in the elderly's couple house. Barrenridge hadn't seen a firefight in quite a while. It was, though nice and mellow, also damn boring.
"You know, usually when somebody gives you an easy pass, it's easier to just take it," he murmured softly, amused at Gale's response. It was kind of like the centaur was trying to put on a brave face regarding accepting any help. It was kind of... relatable, but also ridiculous and he couldn't help but shake his head at Gale. "Well I'm glad you can follow the rules at the very least. Otherwise, I'd have to find a lasso or some stupid sh*t to wring you back if you run. And trust me, I'm not the best shot, but my lassoing skills are pretty damn awesome." How else was he supposed to steal horses?
Having the doors mentioned, he followed Gale's gaze to the doors. Frowning thoughtfully, he tipped his head to a side. Huh, he never actually thought about Barrenridge as small. Certainly not big, but not small. Then again, he wasn't really that big himself. "Yeah, Al's the only centaur settled down here," he answered, deciding to be honest. "We've had the odd centaur stop by now and then, but none of them settle down. We only got the doors fixed because of how stupidly tall Al is." Well, that was that. Still staring at the door, he contemplated letting Gale go outside for some fresh air too.
Glancing back at the centaur, he nodded to him. "You want to go outside for some fresh air? It's killing me in here. I like it outside more. I can stay in here if you'd rather though."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2017 23:18:22 GMT -5
To be honest, Gale was a little amused. Though Quinn wasn't far from the right pronunciation, it was something about the accent that seemed to butcher the word, to a degree. After a couple of seconds, he shrugged lightly and shook his head. "Close enough," he said, "it's understandable. Very good, all things considered."
It was hard not to tell Quinn that, no, that wasn't the correct pronunciation - but not all people could learn languages like he did, and besides, it was the first time this man had heard the word. He shifted his weight between his legs idly, flicked his gaze around the room. He hadn't really taken in the details before, hadn't really cared about his surroundings. Of course, just yesterday, he'd thought that he was going to be killed. Today, he...wasn't being punished? Had been given back his spyglass? Barrenridge was a surreal place. It didn't make sense.
Now that he had the opportunity to talk, he didn't know what to say. It wasn't often that Gale couldn't think of much to say - but then again, he hadn't been the most talkative of people with the Jackals. That wasn't going to magically change.
"Okay," he said quietly, seemingly accepting the name 'cowboy'. He didn't really care for it, didn't understand it, but whatever. "Yes, I've seen Alphonse. He's huge," he flicked his gaze away, "even by our standards. You have two extremes, here. A runt and a giant," it wasn't quite amusement in his tone, but he wasn't put out about it. He shook his head a little - it was only natural that he was taller than humans. After all, he was half-horse. Horses were pretty big. He tilted his head and looked away from Quinn. The centaur didn't know what humans liked to talk to. This was...the most he'd really actively interacted with them. Usually it had been passing nods (to give the illusion of a 'domestic centaur'), or when he'd been patched up. Talking to a human and actively taking part in the conversation? That was...surreal.
The comment about the easy pass made him prickle a little, but he had no argument for it, so he looked away. The lassoing comment, too, went ignored.
Instead, he thought about Barrenridge. It only housed Alphonse as a centaur - that sounded...lonely? Humans didn't understand centaur problems, treated them like animals - and yet, then again...Quinn seemed to be treating him like a human, or at least an equal. That was something. Maybe they were different because of Alphonse. That would be interesting. But humans were humans, and that meant that they had the opportunity to be cruel for the sake of it.
Hypocrite.
"Hmm," he hummed lightly, focusing his attention back on the deputy. "I suppose so. I don't mind going out," he'd have to eventually anyway. Besides - it was too cramped in here. Even outside of his cell, he felt like the walls were too close. He'd never suffered from claustrophobia before - but hell if this wasn't an experience to give it to him. Maybe the outside would help relax him a little more, help his body loosen up rather than remain as tense as it did.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Aug 28, 2017 7:45:16 GMT -5
It was nice to be complimented, even by a stranger like Gale. Actually, if he thought about it, it was best by somebody like Gale who didn't feel compelled to give a false compliment to him. Beaming with pride, he smiled widely despite knowing something was still quite off about the way he had said it. There was just something different about how it fell from Gale's lips and how it sounded when he said it. "I'm glad," he said honestly, a rather goofy grin settling across his face as he waited for Gale's response to the entire list full of sh*t he had told the centaur. It was the right thing to do.
It was nice for his statement to be taken at it's face value and accepted simply as it was. It felt nice and he liked it a lot. He wasn't going to lie, but after conversing with Gale, he was already finding that this centaur was somebody he didn't mind talking to. Sure, he bothered Al a lot, but it was just something entirely different. Al was a fatherly figure, not the same as Xingfu was to him, but Al listened to him. Al talked to him. Al was somebody who he could respect. Gale was also somebody he could respect, but there was something entirely different in their dynamic. He could feel it.
Perhaps it was because the centaur was decisively younger than him that he felt more comfortable being himself without worry of being overly respectful. Something about viewing pops as a father figure meant that some things were completely off limits. Like endless teasing. He knew Xingfu wouldn't appreciate that kind of behavior. That was for sure. Being told Alphonse was huge by centaur standards only made him brighten up even more. He couldn't help his soft giggles, as he covered his mouth with a hand.
"So I guess we're doing quite well by wringing in two extremes," he said, clearly amused. It was kind of funny if he thought about it. Al was just absolutely towering to the point where it was a little... well, fearsome. Then Gale was tall, but not obnoxiously so. "But yeah," he shrugged helplessly, "Using him as an example was probably stupid on my end." It was just the only thing that came to his mind. Al was the only centaur in Barrenridge afterall. Until Gale had waltzed along, at least.
Now there was two. And there was no saying if Gale would stay. Well, at the very least, he and Gale could go for a walk. Maybe he'd get to know the centaur, learn a little more about what centaurs were like. Al didn't spare a lot of details. For a kind fellow, he was a little on the quiet side about centaurs. About their culture, their beliefs, and their customs. It sometimes felt a little strange, but he didn't seem to miss the other centaurs despite centaurs living and travelling in herds.
Perhaps it settled into the belief he was from the working farms or something. It still made him feel bad to think about Al being forced into manual labor. That was no way to treat a sentient man-horse. Hopping off the table, he headed over to the doors, pleased that Gale took him up on his offer. "Come on," he gestured to the door with his head, "After you." He knew there was nothing but a helluva lot of dirt outside, but whatever. He wanted to stretch his limbs and he suspected Gale agreed with his mindset.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2017 22:57:04 GMT -5
Even as Quinn smiled, Gale found himself becoming distant. His mind wandered away to what he could've been doing, what he could've done better to help his family. The things he could've changed, the words he could've said. It was far too little, far too late. He hadn't done enough, he hadn't been there enough, he hadn't gotten in the way and he hadn't done what he should've. Hadn't taken responsibility - and when he'd finally tried, it was too late.
He was the least deserving person of a second chance, and yet he was taking it because he was selfish. That was the only explanation.
Gale still felt distant as he zoned back in onto Quinn's giggle, managed a vague hint of a smile, but nothing more. He looked down at his hands and half-closed his eyes, tilted his head to the side to watch the human from his peripheral vision but otherwise did not pay too much attention. Instead, he managed to lose himself in his thoughts. There were too many and yet everything was irreversible, and nothing could be fixed. Whatever he could've done didn't matter, because there was nothing he could do, now. He was here and Jacques was there and Sabah was who knew where, and the other two were dead. He would never get closure, but he didn't think he deserved it.
"Yeah," his tone was softer than it had been before. "You're just not used to centaurs. Most are between my height and his, depends on breed, I guess."
Speaking felt like a chore, he realised. He inhaled softly and reached up his free hand to brush his hair back. It was a little overgrown, now, a little longer than he usually kept it. He could ignore it, decided not to complain. Hell, he was in no situation where he could complain. He'd just have to sit down and take whatever he was given. Alphonse likely wouldn't appreciate it if he did otherwise, and so he'd remain passive. He didn't want to be a disappointment, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to take his second chance and take advantage of it. That felt wrong, felt like something a lesser man would do.
The centaur lifted his gaze to watch Quinn move towards the door, before moving himself. Outside wasn't much of a relief, but it was fresh air and more room to stretch. His tail flicked to smack away a fly, and still he kept a firm hold of his spyglass with one hand. It felt like a weak lifeline, at this point - something trying feebly to keep him grounded to reality.
"Barrenridge lives up to its name," he mused idly, just something to fill a silence that he didn't want to become awkward.
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Post by L’Éᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ on Sept 7, 2017 19:08:46 GMT -5
He could see something in Gale that he couldn't quite read, but it almost seemed to him that Gale was really sad. It made him frown slightly as he turned his head away from Gale. Al wouldn't spare any of the details of the talk, just informed them to never apologize to Gale. The words set him off or something like that. He couldn't quite fathom why Gale was acting the way he was. He knew when he was given a second chance he had been frustrated and annoyed he'd been caught in the first place, but that wasn't the same with Gale.
The centaur honestly felt down to him. It felt kind of bad, but he hoped maybe going outside would lift up Gale's mood slightly. Maybe that was naive of him, but it was what he hoped for. After all, he was worried about the centaur if he was to be honest. In the same way Xingfu had watched Gale quietly, he had been trying to get the other to interact. He didn't miss how Gale didn't start eating until the conversation with Al.
He didn't know much about recovery from what kind of pain Gale was going through. He knew physical wounds were a b*tch and it took awhile to heal, maybe that was Gale's thing? He didn't f*cking know, and he sure wished he did. Sighing, he pulled his hat lower to hide the sad look in his eyes. He didn't want Gale to think he pitied him. He didn't, it just made him sad to see the centaur like this. He had heard lots of stories in his youth about centaurs. They were free spirited, unable to be tied down to any one place.
Of course, growing up had proved to be an entirely different thing when he arrived in the Wild West, he found them slaves of labor. It was... well, it f*cking sucked if he was to be honest. "That's pretty cool then!" He said the words, lightening up his tone of voice in hopes that it would make Gale feel better. "It's not bad to know both extremes, I mean, how many people can say they've seen that?"
The smile he wore fell flat when Gale turned away as he headed outside, idly noting the spyglass Gale took with him. Huh. That must've been more important to the centaur than he and Xingfu had first thought. The guy was close to near inseparable with the thing. He wondered what the story behind that was.
Brightening up at Gale's attempt to interact as he headed outside, he looked around at the barren fields. Yep. Barrenridge. "You're right," he chuckled, "But there are a few things that give the place its charm. Come on, let's walk around, maybe introduce you to the locals if they see you."
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