[Open] People Watching

[fallensun]

With this much upheaval in the city and an election on the way, you can bet all the fringe candidates are starting to come out of the woodwork. On a wall near the barrier (that has acquired somewhat of a trellis of outrageously colored flowers due to the dispersion of the barrier), handbills are starting to be pasted up. Some are the usual political nonsense you'd expect, some are screeds against the current regime (or lack thereof), some are just plain nutty, blaming the current situation on some sort of vast platypus bear conspiracy and calling people to rally in the park in protest of it. Among all the various papers is some graffiti of an eight-petaled lotus with an eye in the center. Is it a portent of things to come, or did someone get bored and decide to leave his personal mark on the wall?

Maybe both.

Judar has parked himself at the street corner with an armful of fruit and is watching traffic go by and the occasional unlucky soul get latched onto by a spirit. He's totally not paying attention to conversations about the various postings on the wall. Not at all. Just having a snack. Listening to people talk is Lau's job anyway.

Comments

[fallensun]

"See something interesting?"

Judar didn't even turn around, just leaned backward until his head was almost hanging upside down and looked back towards the wall. He paused like that for a moment, then it occurred to him that it would probably reveal the elaborate third eye tattoo that took up his forehead, so he gathered up his snack and dragged himself to his feet.

[windfire_donuts]

Shrugging, the brown-haired boy looked over at him. "I like lotuses." An innocent enough statement, they were his favorite flower, after all (if the lotus designs embroidered on his clothes were any indication).

[fallensun]

"Even creepy ones with eyeballs in the middle?"

He took a bite of his peach and munched on it as he wandered back over to the wall and looked at the drawing. It was at a rather convenient height for him, right at his eye level. Well, for good reason, but there was no reason to announce that to the world just yet.

"You'd think those would be a little controversial these days."

[windfire_donuts]

"It's just a flower." Oh, Nezha, it's so much more than just a flower. Even if he is aware of the Red Lotus, it doesn't change his opinion on the flower itself. "Even if it means something bad, I still think it's a neat design."

"Does the eye mean something?"

[fallensun]

"Maybe. You'd have to ask the guy who drew it."

He traced the outline of the flower, then the eye. It wasn't the standard Red Lotus symbol, which was really the White Lotus symbol, only red. That would have taken far too long to draw and wanted something a little more personal, anyway. He didn't like having to lay low and keep things under wraps, but until he had a better idea of what he was going to do while he was trapped here in Republic City, this was the closest he could come to announcing his presence.

"What do you think it means?"

[windfire_donuts]

Again, the teenager shrugged, looking back to the emblem on the wall.

"Graffiti?" No one ever claimed Nezha was particularly bright.

[fallensun]

"You're kind of stupid, aren't you?"

He took another bite of his peach and stared at Nezha with renewed interest. There were two kinds of stupid and he had time enough to kill, so he might as well figure out which kind he was dealing with. It wasn't that he expected people to run screaming when they saw the picture, but he was hoping at least for some sort of recognition. If people weren't going to play along, it sucked all the fun out of the game.

[windfire_donuts]

Though the comment did irk him somewhat (and his frown showed it), Nezha nonetheless remained calm. "Should it mean something to me? For all I know, some kid might have painted it there because they thought it looked cool."

[fallensun]

"It doesn't have to mean something to you for you to be able to figure out what it could mean. Or are you one of those types who needs someone to do your thinking for you?"

There were too many of those in the world and he hated it. No wonder people clung to society and order and government. Most of them were cattle too stupid to make their own decisions and reshape the world to make it give them what they want. People like that weren't even worth a second of his time, though sometimes he deigned to give it to them.

[windfire_donuts]

"I'm not sure why my interpretation is so important to you." Nezha let out an irritated sigh, lacing his fingers behind his head as he studied the design on the wall through lazy eyes. "I don't really care what it means."

[fallensun]

Cattle, plain and simple. And not even the fun kind that might get in on some stampeding if the situation called for it. Well, if he had to spoon feed information to light a little spark of inspiration, he would. Occasionally.

"If you ask me, it means there are members of the Red Lotus trapped inside the barrier here along with everyone else. But why do you care, right? It's not really important."