Hecatomb - (p, niko)

Goro’s expression was wide eyed and empty, a chronic exhaustion that manifested itself in a dark rim beneath his sclera. Small tufts of white were peeking through his roots- a consequence of not religiously maintaining the stain in his hair, and his clothes seemed wrinkled enough that it was entirely plausible he slept in them multiple times.

He needed to get better. He couldn’t afford to be a burden any longer. He couldn’t afford to be left behind.

The taut muscles beneath his knuckles and wrists trembled near imperceptibly. He’d stayed awake as long as possible, doing enough menial work at the lab to have a few days off that he intended to spend training. His tiredness was of little excuse. He needed- he needed-

A yawn interrupted his thoughts. The thought of just… curling up and lying down crossed his mind.

He literally slapped that one out of himself, though. He made a note at the training facility counter- that he was up for training with others, if they wanted to. He’d imagined the system was set up so sensitive jutsu experimentation wasn’t intruded on, or so that people didn’t get accidentally vaporized by startling comrades. But now, hopefully it’d provide him with another source of information.

His sandals clicked monotonously on the tile below. Goro made his way through the winding facility, finding a slightly smaller room to practice in. It was still incredibly sizable, by his standards- twenty five by twenty five meters, and there were various supporting pillars he didn’t feel like testing.

Pale, boney fingers tensed into fists. Something, anything to take his mind off of things.

Part of him wished he’d brought his scribing supplies with him. Maybe he could engineer something, or whatever. Anything to make things easier. Any advantage at the moment couldn’t afford to be ignored.

[WC: 305]
[Total WC: 305]

Niko had just gotten up this morning. This was the day he had requested off so he could train all day. It had just appeared to him that maybe he had stalled in his learnings. Bobbing and weaving throughout the busy streets of Kirigakure no Sato. Niko would head towards his destination, that, of course, being the training area. Taking his time getting there so he could enjoy himself before he arrived at the training facilities. 

Upon arriving he would notice the sign stating that he now had to sign into the area. Next to that, he would notice that someone was wishing for others to train with. Niko thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to network and get to meet new people in this wonderful village of his. He was beginning to lose hope in the leadership and their severe punishments towards civilians, civilians! After his meeting with the mizukage and his current ward. Maybe this training session would stand to enlighten him.

Entering the training area he would be met with the sight of a green-haired man, currently with his back facing him. Looking down at himself he would realize that he was in the butler costume instead of his combat suit. When in the hell had he put this on. Well as the saying goes old habits do die hard. Maybe this ninja would be a bit nicer than 319 the little punk that he was. Stepping into the facility Niko would call out.

"Hey, so your the one who wants to train with others. Name Niko, Niko Kazan assistant to the warden at your service." Niko would then give a quick bow to emphasize humility.

(TWC 281 posted 12/16/2021 for advent purposes)

The stranger’s outfit, demeanor, and introduction had solidified his identity. “Oh, I remember you!” Goro exclaimed, pointing with fervor he had previously been lacking. “You’re jail guy!”

It was possible that Niko had remembered him from his stint on Pelican a few months ago; though he hadn’t technically committed a crime, it had far reaching consequences to this day that still had most of the other lab dudes justifiably pissed at him. Niko would be able to clearly see the exhaustion weighing at his spine like a sandbag, and it probably wouldn’t be difficult to put two and two together to see that Goro was clearly stressed.

He pushed his hair back with a shaky laugh. “Yeah, this is my first day off in a while. Been falling behind in terms of, uh- well, everything else.” he swallowed, deliberately unclenching his jaw and fruitlessly shaking his shoulders to relieve tension. “Fuck.”

The swear wasn’t directed towards Niko, nor was it a dig at himself. The whole situation had him stretched thin, like a rubber band caught between too many pegs. He knew he wouldn’t snap- probably- but if he kept going, he’d burn himself out horribly, and all that’d be left behind was a faded reminder of better days.

Yowch.

“Just-" he bit out. “...I need something to work with. I don’t know. Something that isn’t mind numbingly boring- or at least something that’ll help me get a good night’s rest later.”

Whether due to busy schedule or horrible sleeping habits coming back to light, Goro mostly took intermittent naps throughout the day due to horrible insomnia when the sun set. It was likely sourced from stress and a few too many nights working late in R&D, but there wasn’t much he could do at this point. Damn it.

[WC: 300]
[Total WC: 605]

Looking towards the man who had just turned he would recognize him. This was the wild person who let all those damn monkeys out of the lab. He had seen his face every once in a while during his short stay at the prison. The man had practically handed Niko his job on a silver platter though, Niko was quite sure that he was not aware of that.

"Ah, I see I've heard rumors about you and your monkey business. It's nice to meet you, Goro was it?" 

Noticing that the man was frustrated he would notice somewhat why. From the bags under his eyes and his comment about his only day off the man was probably working himself half to death. That would most definitely impact his training. If he lacked the energy needed to learn then he would fall behind.

"Have you given any thought to it? Well, I don't know sleeping. No, really that may help with your over-arching problem" Niko would then sigh maybe some people were too far gone to be able to help them along with their learnings.

"Well I guess we should be getting on to why we are here now, shouldn't we. You said your learnings are getting stale. I could teach you some things if you would like?"
 
Niko would propose the idea of him teaching him. Maybe if he taught him how to read minds or go invisible that may be helpful and reinvigorate the youth. This could perhaps do wonders for the village if all the people would train with each other more.
(TWC 445 Posted 12/17/2021 for advent purposes. Sorry for the bad post totally rushed it)

Goro flushed hotly, looking away from Niko. The monkey thing was NOT his fault! He’d totally been cleared and stuff. He couldn’t prove anything! He coughed into his elbow.

“Well, I’d love to sleep, but, well. I can’t right now. Just, you know. Keep buzzing. And using genjutsu or medicine for that kinda thing leads to not healthy stuff.” he responded, scratching his nose.

Bright green eyes met Niko’s own. “I- yeah! Sure. Let’s, uh. Fuck stuff up. I know a few taijutsu, as well as some simpler utility jutsu. Sealing and the like. Uh. Yep.” he spoke up. “I can sense chakra to some degree, which is also fun, I think. It’s hard to filter out noise, though- hard to distinguish people from far away.” a pause. “I’m also trying to learn how to make Shadow Clones, but-” he twitched as he remembered the abstract, shambling mound of chakra that had been his initial attempts at the jutsu. “...Let’s keep that on the backburner for a bit.”

He looked up at the familiar warden once more. Inhale, hold. Exhale. “Have anything in mind?” he asked, curiosity piqued. “Or are we playing this by ear?”

[WC: 195]
[Total WC: 800]

Watching as the man would flush his face Niko would be filled with confusion had the man not truly meant for the lab experiments to exist and flee into the wild. Was it truly an accident. The thought was confusing but not unlikely the man in front of him seemed much more different and contradictory to the person that they had talked about in the prison.

"So you truly did not wish for the monkeys to escape quite the predicament those foul beasts put you in." Niko would then glance around the room trying to find more subjects for conversation before falling short. Listening to Goto continue to speak he would note the abilities that he stated he had truly weird how diverse the skills sets they had were. But of course, not everybody could be a puppeteer like himself. Maybe he could teach the man a bit about sensory that could be quite useful. 

"How does everyone know the secrets to the shadow clone technique but for me. It seems like everyone around me knows how to do it or at least where to start. Though now that I think of it I could teach you a bit about the sensory specialty and what comes with it that could be quite useful. Let's start with this." Niko would then go through the seals for his hiding with camouflage technique turning invisible.

"Neat isn't it. Any questions?" Niko would glance towards the green-haired ninja. Eagerly awaiting a response. Maybe someone would be able to appreciate his skill for once.
(WC 251 for post 259 Posted 12/20/2021 for advent purposes)

Goro carefully did not respond to any mention of suspicious simians.

Should Niko permit, he would poke and prod at his invisible form, mumbling to himself near incoherently.

“I do have a few questions, actually. When using that technique, are you rendered blind? Is it a genjutsu, or an active distortion of the light around you? Are you still detectable by means of heat or smell?” Goro would subtly take a quick sniff of Niko as he said this, though his olfactory capabilities left much to be desired. “If I dumped water on you, would the water be visible? If so, wouldn’t the technique be neutered by rain?” Another poke, this one aimed at Niko’s cheek.

“Do you leave footprints?” a pause. There were techniques to prevent that, but could they be used simultaneously? Food for thought.

“If it does distort light, I have a few more inquiries. Is this derived from the Akari clan’s light release? If your eyes are rendered invisible, how do you see at all? There’d be no light absorbed by photoreceptors in the retina. Maybe it’s distorted afterwards…?”

After a moment, he’d step back, allowing Niko his space. “Thank you for sharing that with me. I’ll have to take some notes on it later…” always more to do, after all. This sounded pretty fun, though.

Could you do the reverse? Distort the light harshly enough to make it difficult to look at something? Make things seem further or closer than they were? “Does that technique have a name?”

[WC: 253]
[Total WC: 1,053]