The Crystal Palace, Shattered [Blair/Mission]

The Crystal Palace, Shattered

The Aramada Clan. A clan within Sunagakure that was known for their ability to turn the sand they make into glass. Unfortunately for them, and Sho, their compound, also known as “The Crystal Palace”, had become victim to constant vandalism due to the fact that it was made entirely out of glass. A couple of hooligans, most likely teenagers, have been ‘tagging’ the place, a form of vandalism where one uses typically spray-pain to leave their unique mark. Unfortunately for the Aramada clan, the mark that this specific hooligan had decided to leave behind closely resembled a large male reproduction organ.
 
Sho stood in front of the gates of the glass compound, staring up at the large spray panted ‘thing’ and questioned why he ever decided to come back to Suna and become a shinobi in the first place. With a bucket and a sponge, Sho sighed. Near Sho was another bucket and a sponge for his mission mate Blair. It was only yesterday that Sho had met him and together they completed three easy missions in short time so mission HQ figured they would stick the duo together again today. Wanting to get a jump start on the mission, Sho soaked his sponge and got to work scrubbing the glass wall, wondering how he was going to reach the taller portions of the vandalism. Luckily for Sho, it did not require much elbow grease to get the paint out of the glass and the paint came off relatively easily. By the time Blair arrived, Sho had almost completed the majority of the cleaning, for the areas he could reach anyways.
 
Upon Blairs arrival he would notice Sho over dressed in a dark cloak with full bandaging underneath. The heat had already begun to take it’s toll on Sho and sweat was beginning to formulate on the red hair man’s brow. “Oh hey there Blair!” Sho would greet him while wiping away sweat from his forehead with  the sleeve of his cloak. “Looks like we’re working together again today!” Sho was beginning to open up and feel comfortable around Blair which was not normal for him. Something about Blair positive attitude made Sho drop his guard around him. “Not the most glorious piece of art, but it was much worse before you got here.” Sho joked, wondering if Blair would notice what the vandalism resembled.
 
WC: 395

"Aghh my head..."

Blair awoke slowly, mumbling something incomprehensible but probably offensive whilst he tried to push himself back off the floor. The world slowly came into focus as he nursed his head and he saw that he had managed to pass out in the open doorway of the house that the Kazekage had given him. He looked to the side and winced as unfiltered sunlight beamed directly into his red eyes. Had his door been open all night? He groped the doorway and pull himself up to a standing position and squinted to get a better bearing on his surroundings. It had been, he answered his own question. Thank the heavens no one had dared rob his house whilst he was asleep.

As he walked into the front hallway he almost slipped up on something. He moved his foot to get a better look at what this something was; a letter? The postman must have thrown it over his drunken comatose form last night. He placed it on his counter and got dressed into his usual floral shirt and shorts combo. He really ought to get more outfits but, well, Blair found that this combo was the most comfortable for him. He read the letter and his mood instantly improved. He wasn't fussed about the mission, but the fact that he'd get to meet Sho again! That guy was cool if a little subdued. That wouldn't last long, though. Blair would make sure of it.

He left the house and made good time walking across the village of Sunagakure. He sighed when he saw that Sho had taken to wearing the heavy dark cloak again, despite the fact that they were going to be doing some heavy labor jobs again. "Heya Sho!" He called out, in case the boy hadn't taken note of his approach, "Seems we're always working up a sweat together." He chuckled and finally looked at the phallic graffiti that Sho was working hard to remove. "I don't know, looks like a glorious piece of art to me."

He shrugged and picked up the bucket that seemed to have been left for him, and got to work sudding up the glass walls. For the parts that he couldn't quite reach, Blair would use his threads to extend his arms at the elbow joint. "Any reason why you're still in the cloak? It's not like we're doing easier work than yesterday." He asked with a slight hint of a teasing tone in his voice.

WC: 422

Sho felt relieved to see that Blair was still in good spirits. It was nice being around someone who was as out going as him, it made the time doing missions more enjoyable and it didn’t hurt to have someone to talk to once in a while considering Sho did not have any friends within the village since his long-awaited return.
 
The two got to work, scrubbing the glass walls thoroughly. Sho watched in fascination as Blair utilized his mesmerizing red threads to grip the sponge and scrub clean the areas that were out of reach for the pair and for this, Sho was thankful. As they worked, Blair would inquire once more why Sho chose to wear the dark cloak that covered the majority of his body, something that Sho had been expecting. Sho felt slightly uncomfortable at the question and his face probably showed it. Sho’s hand rose to grip his cloak and then his vice grip loosened and Sho decided to remove it entirely, casting it to the side. Now that the cloak was gone, Blair could now see Sho’s entirely bandaged torso. “My parents died in a fire when I was young, I was the only survivor…” Sho paused. “I barely made it out alive… and now every time I wake-up I am reminded of that day due to…” Sho began to unravel the bandages around his torso, starting at the end piece located near his neck. It took a few moments for Fu to undo the bandages entirely. “Due to these hideous scars.” For the first time in a long time, Sho had shared his secret with another person. The skin of Sho’s entirely exposed torso was consumed in burn scars, his skin discolored and warped. “You can see why I choose to hide it… people tend to stare like I’m some sort of Monster.” Sho paused again. “You know, sometimes I wished it had been me that died in the fire that day...” Things that gotten rather awkard for a moment, not knowing how Blair would respond to his dirty secret. Feeling uncomfortable now, Sho would begin scrubbing the wall once more as he waited for Blair to respond.  


WC: 365

The change in the mood was palpable. The pair had been working studiously on removing some amusing graffiti from the glass building when Blair had decided to teasingly ask a question to his friend. The moment Sho's face became uncomfortable, Blair knew that he had accidentally stepped on some ground that he perhaps shouldn't have. 'I knew I was too hungover to be doing missions,' he thought to himself. This was, of course, a lie. Blair was a man with many qualities but, unfortunately, foresight was not one of them. Now he'd have to try and help a friend through something whilst he really wasn't in the correct mindset to be doing so. He dropped the sponge into the cleaning bucket and turned to fully face Sho as the red-headed boy took off his cloak to reveal the bandaged torso that Blair had seen the day prior. He hadn't inquired about it then because Sho seemed uncomfortable, but it looked like Blair was about to find out what they were about whether he liked it or not.

As Sho spoke about his past, Blair's expression was blank. The only concrete thing was the complete lack of any judgment in his eyes as he looked on at his friend. At the final comment, Blair involuntarily let in a breath of air in shock. This was serious and it really wasn't the kind of thing Blair had any experience with, hungover or not. He was silent for a moment, mulling over what to say while Sho got back to work awkwardly scrubbing the glass walls. "I'm sorry," the words tumbled out of Blair's mouth, and he was surprised to find that he actually meant them. To his knowledge, Blair had never spoken to someone like this before; he was completely out of his depth.

"I don't know who my parents are." Blair began thoughtfully, turning to start cleaning again. He needed to do something with his hands whilst he spoke. "So I can't really talk about that, but..." He brought out his threads from his palm and let them lazily dance in the air, staring at them with a smile. "If anyone's the monster here, it's me. You know I don't have any bones or blood in my body? I don't even know why I'm like this."

He shrugged and let the thread return to its place in his body, turning to Sho. Blair was awful at stuff like this, but there was one thing he knew always helped lift his spirits. He was hungover, but whatever. Hair of the dog and all that. He would then attempt to put his hand on the red-headed boy's shoulder with a small grin, "Tell you what: let's hit the town tonight. Do you drink?" He let the question hang for a moment but followed up quickly, not leaving enough space in the conversation for Sho to answer, "Nevermind, we don't have to do that if you don't want. Ooh!" An idea came to Blair, "Try wearing something nice, ditch those bandages. You can borrow one of my shirts if you have to. Don't get me wrong, people will stare. Buttt, fuck 'em. If you get uncomfortable at any point, just let me know and I can go all scary tentacle monster on people to draw all the attention."

He withdrew the hand from Sho's shoulder and held it out in a handshake gesture, "What do you say?"

WC: 582
TWC: 1004

A smile broke through in response to Blair’s words. For the first time in Sho’s life, he had revealed his dark secrete to someone, and to his surprise, he was responded to with compassion. The red head’s smile turned into a laughter. “I guess we’re both monsters.”
 
Blair placed his hand on Sho’s shoulder and invited him downtown for some drinks. Sho had never been one to drink. In fact- he had never truly been inebriated before, but he had spent plenty of time around drunkards in bars when he used to be a thief. “You know what, you’re right. Fuck them.” Sho laughed, a feeling unfamiliar, but felt right. “First drink’s on you though. Let’s hurry up and finish so we can get out of here.” With that, Sho picked his sponge up off the floor and began to finish what was left of the job. A smile was retained as Sho thought about what kind of trouble he would be getting himself into tonight.
 
WC: 166
TWC: 926

[EXIT/Mission Complete]

9 Stats towards Vigor [62 New Total]

2,100 Ryo [2K + 100 Genin Bonus]
10 Mission AP = 210 New Mission AP Total

926 WC towards Beloved Presence [926/2K]

Is approved.

Phew, he hadn't managed to mess things up with his newest friend. Truth be told, Blair had a horrible tendency to just barrel through social situations or make jokes at the expense of others. This was the first time he'd actually cared enough to try and be tactful and nice. It was good to see that his signature Blair charm didn't fail him in situations like this. He smirked at Sho's language and laughed along with him, he was a nice guy and Blair was thankful to have met him.

"Of course." He snorted at Sho's request for the first round to be on Blair. The Tau had a habit of going out at nearly every opportunity, so his financial situation wasn't looking too hot. Hopefully, this mission would give enough Ryo to fund the night. With a small smile on his face, Blair returned to the work at hand wondering about what kind of wacky hijkins the pair would get into later at night.

WC: 165
TWC: 1169

Claims:
+ 11 Stats (5 to Speed, 6 to Strength)
+ 2100 Ryo
+ 10 AP
+ 1000 words into Ninjutsu Amplifier to train it from D > C > B

approved

in the future please link the thread where you previously trained the jutsu 
for example "1000 words to train Ninjutsu Amplifier up to b rank, trained to d rank here and here"