Back from the Brink [closed/Zettai]

It was perfect. After his first attempt at constructing a dwelling went horribly wrong, a wandering hollow reducing it to rubble for laughs while he was away, he designed a sphere with a diameter of 10 meters. Essentially a single bedroom, the hollowglass was molded carefully by using the outer layer of a natural dune as a base. Scooping out the inside, he spent a large deal of time raking his 'yard' to cover the glass completely. Camouflaged quite nicely, if you asked him personally, he was confident that his decision to slightly heat the surface of it with a palm-full of cero energy and pour sand on it to create a rugged, consistent coating around it was a good one. It would ensure it essentially looked like a permanent dune, and the winds whipping sand around constantly would see to it that his personal shelter remained inconspicuous. Sitting on the bare glass inside his shelter, staring out the tiny crawl-space he called a door out into the rest of the desert, he wondered how he was going to furnish the place. Should he build things himself, or should he gather things from abandoned places on earth? Deciding it might be better to craft them himself, at least for his own little wretched hive of scum and villainy, he got up with a slow wobble. His legs burst into a thousand tiny pins and needles as they suddenly made him aware they were asleep.

Shaking them to the side, one each at time, he scurried over to his port and climbed out into the desert. His legs still humming with dissatisfaction at having been awoken so quickly, he decided the first thing he was going to build was a chair. Raising his hands and lowering his palms to the ground, they began to glow with the classic red energy signature of a charging cero. A blast of energy would never come, as the energy would remain contained at that level until it's job was finished. Lowering himself onto his knees, he scooped up a handful of sand and began to mold it in his hands. As the heat went to work fusing it, he couldn't stand the steady wind's breaking his concentration with his moans, and decided to hum a tune from a time he couldn't quite recall. Balling the budding glass in his hands as he worked it, he added sand and modified the intensity of the heat as the glowing mass in his hands solidified and homogenized. Satisfied, he rolled it out in his fingers, the hot glass not bothering him thanks to the energy he himself was outputting. Content when his noodle was long enough, he shaped the ends so one was flat and wide and the other thin and knotted, he set it to the side and repeated the process.

As he crafted, a flare of reiatsu broke through his humming and jerked him from his focus. There was what appeared to be an elder hollow waddling through the desert toward him. Standing up, he brushed the sand from his sweat pants and flared his own energy signature back. Hello. As he was approached by the caned hollow, he took note of the cane's design. Every time Zettai met a being that needed something like that, a literal or metaphorical crutch, their soul would produce it for them after some time. Wondering if that would make his idea of tools and technology in Hueco Mundo obsolete on it's own, he pondered if hoping some couldn't and were in need of his services made him a bad person. "You will be journeying for many days if that is your goal. The denizens of our fair land are both stupid and weak, on an above average level." Approaching the man without thinking of touching the zanpakuto strapped to his back once, Zettai smiled warmly and held out his hand to shake. "My name is Zettai, and it just so happens that I am a member of said castle you seek. It would be my pleasure to show you the way." Finally. Someone else who could think. He wondered if they would be interested at all in his designs, or if it would be lost on them. The half-finished chair sat behind him, the pieces constructed but unassembled. If only he had had more time.

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Wc: 726/726

The other creature approached gregariously, hand outstretched in a symbol of welcome and greeting. Yet the information he gave made Cid less than hopeful and he couldn’t hold back a frown. Many days? It could’ve been worse; at least it was a few days, not a few weeks… Yet the spark of hope was restored as this arrancar, identifying himself as Zettai, claimed to be a member of the castle in the distance and even offered to show him the way. Cid, reached out to shake the arrancar’s hand only to see the chair behind his newest compatriot.

“You’ve no idea how grateful I am to have run into you! I would greatly appreciate any assistance in reaching this castle. Ah, but first, my name is Cidolfus.” He bowed and then stopped for a moment, unsure as to whether or not to trust this arrancar. His kind weren’t exactly known for being the most trustworthy… Still something told him that this being was far less prone to lying to kill than others and yet he knew that he had to be on his guard the whole time.

“But first… I must know something: That thing behind you, is that a chair? Are you building something? You’re a rather odd hollow, doing something like that.” He paused for a few seconds before quickly adding: “But don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad thing. It’s a testament to your imagination, ingenuity and intelligence, it’s just odd to find a hollow trying to make things instead of destroy them. It’s really rather new, I’ve not seen it before.” He approached the half-finished chair. “If I may ask, what is it that you do at the castle? Who’s in charge now?” He knelt down and picked up one of the legs, turning it over and over in his hand, inspecting it.

Cid turned to the other arrancar. “Quite fascinating construction… Did you make this?”

Words: 321
Total: 858