Posts by terroror

[size=0.7em]All of this ..

.. was such a shitting pain in the ass, he wanted to cry. He's deadly serious.

An open maniacal grin split his jaws and an errant unabashed cackle escaped him even without the presence of anyone but himself to witness, let alone hear, it, endlessly ruthlessly amused. Why don't you stop and smell the flowers sometime, y'know? Only live once and all that jazz. Hey, how about a dinner date in the middle of the woods? His treat. You just sit back and polish your little claws on a rock while he murders a couple lowlives, skewers hares on his claws and sinks in his teeth. Perfectly romantic, right? Such a gentleman. He'll even tip the waiter.

Zangetsu's got ninety-nine shits but he's not handin' out any.

'Fuckin' tedious,' he purred to himself, lunging over a rock and his wild sharp smile spreading like wildfire.

It's a wasteland out here. Barely a soul with the sun raging hell on his back, cracked surface of the ground digging up gravel into every itty bitty indent of his paws like he's a magnet and the world's a workbench. There hasn't been any sign of water for an hour (and hell if he's going to go pouncing at any random oasis like a dying kitten at a wind-up mouse because he has no fuckin' doubt that he's going to go nosediving smack into solid crusty earth - mirages and all that) and plants are a mile in a million.

That is, walk a million miles, and maybe you'd find a teeny tuft. Maybe.

His viciously teethed rictus stretched another inch. 'Damn, what a chore.'

You could crack someone like an egg and fry them in weather like this. It was that bad.

So it's a good thing that it reminds him so much of home, huh?

Heh, maybe it was a little less than good manners to not just wait at the border.

A naturally bleached bone-white (or so he says - pfft, bottle blond ringing a bell?) cougar, UV burns him like it has a grudge - finally, Zangetsu eased his gears to a careless halt, deciding probably intelligently that he's going to end up in Kansas or something at the rate he's going. Plus, if he doesn't get help, he's going to have a nice red saddle right where his nice white upper half used to be. Eh, maybe they won't mind if they find him smack dab in the middle of their territory? Sure, he'll run with it.

.. Middle of the first layer, that is.

'Yo!' he called unabashedly to anyone near enough to listen, illegally grin still very evident, yellow irises swallowed unusually by black sclera walking analytically across the area. 'Comin' in to join. It's Zangetsu.'

Not a bad place, ignoring the deadness.

It's a damn relief that this isn't all there is to this place, though. Tolerance or no tolerance from tragic isolated backstory notwithstanding, he's not in the mood to become a roasty toasty princess today.

Thank every individual malicious hair on his pelt that everywhere has an auto-acceptance policy now; he'd be kicked straight out of even the surface of Earth if there wasn't. C'est la vie, no?
[/size]

[size=0.7em]In answer to his call - or maybe just the presence of someone unfamiliar on her territory - comes up a wolf with a ready welcome and an introduction, albeit short and concise. All about the business, it seemed. One of Zangetsu's ears twitched like the flick of an eyebrow and he only hummed lowly in response, yellow eyes flitting over to her the moment she comes up and himself shifting in order to face her better. 'Nice to meetcha,' he replied languidly, smile not letting up. 'Agent Zangetsu, huh? Not too bad.'

His regular voice sounded as if it had a constant reflection, like three of him speaking at once. Resonant and fluctuating with the constant bubble of an underlying cackle.

Not bad at all. But they could do a little better.

Ms. O.

It took a while for him to realise that Friedrice was not an affectionate pet name and instead was the guy's actual name, in which case Zangetsu almost released a very telling pfft alongside a big graceful and polite snort of laughter. Almost. So, alias or unfortunate birthname? Man, that was hilarious... but can't judge by names. Someone could be named Fluffyluffinkins and still periodically kick your ass twice from Sunday. 'Noted,' he stated, grin edging wider. 'Hey, you prefer the full package or you got a nickname?'

Next up is a she-cat hanging out on a branch near them, the cougar raising his head slightly and tilting it to the side in consideration when he spots her. No rank? Not a given one, at least.

'Electra,' he repeated slyly, trying it out. Huh. Sure, he liked it. 'Likewise, then.' His gaze trailed around their surroundings and an amused cackle escaped him, discordant voice echoing. 'Great to be here!'

Last one's a tigress and Zangetsu nods along like a good little cougar until she gets to the bit about choosing what he is, and then the grin multiplies. 'Oh? That so? In that case, don't mind if I do. Do we have to make it official somewhere or am I just sayin' it here, loud and proud?'

These guys, at least, have avoided the Bob syndrome. Ms. O, Friedrice, Electra, Trip. He can get used to this.

[size=0.7em]Basically, why do things when somebody else does it for you?

Unless they do a piss poor job, but that's fortunately not the case here.

Point is, meet and greet - here one was, laid out and with cutlery and serviettes. Not that the lion was the meal. The meet and greet was. Power of confusing metaphors.

The pallid cougar strolled up with an ambivalent smirk stretching his teeth wide, dark eyes scanning briefly around those that had .. congregated. More than those he'd met tromping across the damned Sahara desert's little sister, though three of the four was here as well - better put his big boy boots on and make some friends, right?

'Zangetsu,' he told the lion casually with an accompanying tempered cackle, yellow irises rimmed with black sclera like that ain't no thing. You mean the whites of the eyes are normally white? Pfft, silly. His sclera will be white when the rest of him isn't. His grin widened, sharply and pleasantly. He's raining manners, here. 'Nice to meet ya!'

[size=0.7em]Zangetsu threw Ms. O's smirk right back at her with a head tilt of acknowledgement, heavy hooked tail curled loosely. Looked like there was a whole lot of freedom here. Just having the ability to step right on in and be easily if not just automatically accepted into this place's numbers, having others simply introduce themselves, even picking his own rank. Granted, there were only two paths to select from, but that was just the beauty of it; you wanted to do something, you did it. You wanted to aim for something higher, you fought tooth and nail for it.

But it all depended on the shit you decided you wanted to do and it depended on how hard you worked to get it. You pulled your own weight, dragging along your own bag of rocks that was your sad life, in the direction you wanted.

What a damn nice system.

'Ha! Sure thing. Got it, got it.' Zangetsu shifted, both rounded ears flattening in acceptance and eyes narrowing with shrewd amusement. He snickered. 'Looks like I'm joining the policin' crew.'

And he could call the guy whatever he wanted?

'If you insist,' the sheer white cougar drawled, off-handedly mirroring the shrug with a sharp grin on the side. 'Nice makin' your acquaintance.'

Too much freedom.

'Hey, there anything else to know around here?' he questioned, turning his casual wicked smile on all those that had greeted him. 'Anyone I'm gonna have to look out for?'

[size=0.7em]my longest name was darkness reincarnate
i was..... in a phase, four years ago
ahem

Now .. this was passably interesting.

Near enough to hear the sudden random announcement, an ear flicked up with curiosity and a low 'oh really?' escaped through grinning teeth.

'So - your instincts told you it felt right, huh?' Zangetsu questioned the stranger as he padded leisurely closer, generally appearing careless if it weren't for the typical watchful glint in yellow on black eyes. Not particularly one that meant anything important - it wasn't suspicion or passive aggression or any of that shit.

It was more along the lines of his eyes were always laughing at you.

Even parts of his body were veritable douches. Sue him.

The white cougar's smile widened.

'Nice,' he purred, tipping his head to the side. 'It's Zangetsu. Nice meetin' ya.'

And now they're not strangers. Awesome.

[size=0.7em]So it just happened that Zangetsu chanced across the scene right in time to see the NPC try to make a break for it, Ms. O's ruthless relentless recapture of her, and to hear Eve's following statement.

Needless to say, he cackled hard and loud.

Unabashedly.

'I'll getcha the drill,' he offered candidly with a snort of remnant amusement, yellow eyes slitting with a painful amount of entertainment and the cougar's grin stretching beyond Cheshire Cat proportions. His gaze swept across everyone else that was there, registering only the she-cat that had said that and also that .. other unfamiliar guy .. as others he hasn't met yet.

Time for an impromptu introduction yet? No?

Oh, right. And excluding the kinda-sorta conga line Ms. O has going on there behind her.

'Merry band of mammals?' Zangetsu commented lightly to the corporal, expression nothing short of deviously (and totally not maliciously; just what are you talking about?) playful. 'No big. I got your back.' He indicated the literal back with a wave of his paw and a dark chuckle, as in the end of the queue. Or, rather, the string of tussled up NPCs. There's no I in team, young agents-in-training.

[size=0.7em]Zangetsu came sidling up to the three, the bland very violent grin on his maw evident as always. It just didn't let up. He took a single glance at the dragon, fleetingly analytically sizing them up, before turning creepily mostly black eyes to the pert little basket that Ms. O had appropriated onto their side of the border.

Present. Right.

Generosity. Donations out of the blue. Spontaneous acts of kindness.

Right.

'Thank ya kindly,' the white cougar purred drolly with that very astute conclusion, an ear flicking as gratefully as he could get where his heavy tail didn't and grinning caustically. He cocked his head to the basket, wondering if there were any pointy things in there. Damn did he love his pointy stuff. Preferably sharp, and not like... a pool noodle shaped like a pencil. 'We free to open it?' he asked, question not only directed to Thanatos but also Ms. O and Trip.

Little steps for previous-hermit learning how to adapt to social environments, here. Baby steps.

[size=0.7em]Man, things like these .. really pissed him off.

Currently oblivious to the matter at hand, though there really couldn't be a worse adjective used to describe him, Zangetsu squinted at the mass of everyone huddled around a piece of paper. Huh.

And so, coming up with the others, the cougar cocked his head in mild curiosity and the everpresent morbid grin tugged at the sides of his jaws, listening blandly first to the things everyone else was saying (he wasn't stupid; he got the things about paradoxes, at least) before taking a look at the note himself, scanning it silently with furrowed faux eyebrows.

.. He reached over to turn it with a paw to see what was written on the other side and then, upon scrolling through it, his right eye twitched.

Of course, because he was annoyed, that meant he laughed. A lot.

'* like that's pointless,' he snorted callously, grin pulling his mouth wider and naturally distorted voice echoing. This wasn't no Portal 2 with any nice circular piece of machinery to defeat with confusion. Hold on, was it Wheatley? Or did they actually tell GLADoS that paradox? Chell and Wheatley? Chell and a potato? What?

...The hell? Now his mind was a paradox.

Zangetsu jabbed a paw toward the note and cackled hard. 'The only 'eye' that's opening here is a *in' 'i'ncinerator. That's what's damn straight amusing.'

He doesn't actually pronounce incinerator like eyencinerator - he says it normally, but the joke should be evident enough.

[fancypost borderwidth=0px][size=0.7em]-- ♔KINGetsu has logged on

♔KINGetsu: lmao
♔KINGetsu: realized could use special characters
♔KINGetsu: ☀ ☂ ☃ ☄ ☁ ★ ☆ ☉ ☊ ☋ ☌ ☍ ☎ ☏ ☐ ☑ ☒ ☓ ☖ ☗ ☚ ☛ ●
♔KINGetsu: fuck yeah. $$$
[/size][/fancypost]

[fancypost borderwidth=0px][size=0.7em]♔KINGetsu: nothing interesting?
♔KINGetsu: aw, that's cruel.
♔KINGetsu: cut us all a little slack, yeah?
[glittery winking pusheen sticker]
[unicorn pusheen with flowing rainbow hair sticker]
♔KINGetsu: ✎ ✏ ✐ ✑ ✒ ✓ ✔ ✕ ✖ ✗ ✘ ✙ ✚
♔KINGetsu: after all, if you're gonna complain about the lack of interesting shit happenin
♔KINGetsu: ain't it a bit hypocritical to just sulk abt it rather than doin anything? >)
[weight-lifting pusheen sticker]
[pusheen in a cardboard box sticker]
[happy typing pusheen on a laptop sticker]
♔KINGetsu: yo, ms o.
♔KINGetsu: that universal remote need batteries?
[/size][/fancypost]

[size=0.7em]Eh. You did use drills for lobotomies, right?

That's what he thought, at least. Something like that.

Very amused at this entire situation, the white cougar can only incline his head and snort, padding leisurely behind the line of agents-in-training - his yellow eyes trailed to Lionshield and his grin widened, barking out an echoing laugh. 'Impressive,' he commented, tail swinging like a heavy ass pendulum behind him and grinning impossibly wider. 'So, how do you figure, 'xactly? Experience?'

Following a resonating cackle, he sharply playfully snapped his jaws at the feline at the back of the line who seemed to be lagging just the tiniest bit - they jumped like a jackrabbit, because that's the typical sensible response to fearing the amputation of your tail - just for incentive to keep moving.

Ah, yeah. He's got the rear covered.

[fancypost borderwidth=0px][size=0.7em]♔KINGetsu: pfft.
♔KINGetsu: seriously? that's for kids.
♔KINGetsu: ...
♔KINGetsu: yeah, sure.
♔KINGetsu: duck.
[/size][/fancypost]

[size=0.7em]Something - there was something ..

Something was burning.

It wasn't the all out, full blown flare of a bush fire, consuming ruthlessly and stamping down whole trees with the grasp of its flaming fingers and roaring distaste, spitting sparks and spewing gas at anyone caught within the peril of its ferocity; however, the smell was still definitely there, faint though it wafted through his nostrils, and yellow eyes encased with pitch black sclera dilate.

Well, now.

That's not fuckin' good, is it?

With the competent, misleadingly lazy roll of limbs pushing him up onto his feet, the pallid cougar bared his teeth in a grin just ready to go and greet their newest guest - filching the title of newest member from him, he sees. Not a title he cared for because of how unflattering it was, but all the same ..

It was someone whose very essence was touched by the pungency of smothering, suffocating smoke, singed even if only metaphysically. Like something cooked just a little too long, paper blackening and then folding in - petals beginning to wither.

.. Isn't he being damned poetic today? At least this place isn't actually burning up. That'd be pretty bad.

Zangetsu exited the building with a single languid swipe of his tongue over sharp teeth, already the offset of a hazing echoing cackle in his throat. Maybe it was a defect; he didn't sound like a chain smoker, exactly, but there was something else in the automatic echo of his voice, constantly like a warble - talking into a fan, like three of him talking at once. Like he wasn't creepy enough. The territory was expansive, filled with scents of those he'd never met before.

New and old, lingering remnants and long gone. So many he had yet to see.

.. But who the hell cared? Because the scent of dry inferno blazed from even at the very end.

The white cougar, with a single flick of his ear and extended snicker, began bounding in the direction of the girl on fire and his (now clanmates, huh? Man, what a stupid word; there's a reason why he was a lone wolf, it seemed) unofficial posse. He slowed before long, flicking his eyes about everyone there before ultimately trailing on the joiner.

Heh. Small fry.

The wild smirk on his maw couldn't help but expand, yellow-blackened eyes zeroing in on the cute little collar tucked around that fuzzy neck of hers.

Looked like she was the horse to whoever owned her's king.

Zangetsu cocked his head, staring down at the cream tabby, and cackled. 'Heya!' he greeted raucously, maniacal grin stretching - maliciously, but that was normal. 'It's Zangetsu. Let's be friends, yeah?'

notes !!! SPacEY HEY!

[fancypost borderwidth=0px][size=0.7em]...He hated the rain.

His head tilted up, short white hair feathering at the cusp of angular cheekbones, and a morbidly dark grin slowly split his face like the dawning of shadowy movements slipping past closed windows in the night, the creep of grazing fingers tracing over the spines of books within a dead silent library.

With a puff of breath escaped white mist curling out into frigid air.

He hated the rain.

There were tens of reasons as to why people would despise the rain; it might've been intolerance, it might have also been because they had a negative memory associated with it. Maybe it was because the rain made everything look so dreary, so dull and disconnected and unapologetically washing away any remnants of memories that may have splayed across concrete, chalk scribbles of laughing children - hearts and inscribed names as well as impromptu hopscotch squares, dust swallowing small stubby fingers and the sticks of chalk snapping clean with a little too much pressure.

Maybe some hated the rain because of the inevitability of it - you couldn't stop rain. It came down whenever it damn well felt like it - you couldn't summon the rain, either. Rain didn't listen to anyone. No one at all. Meteorologists could only do so much in terms of predicting when it came and how much; sometimes when they said it'd be thundering, the sky would be a nice pristine blue. When they informed their millions of viewers that tomorrow would be a sunny day, just perfect for grabbing your swim trunks and a surfboard and heading on out, it lashed out like a jealous lover, snaring beaches in its tempestuous grip and storming desperation, tidal fury.

Rain disappointed, rain interrupted, rain sung temptingly, consolingly but never fully acquiesced its habits.

He hated the rain... more than anything.

Except...

He hated it... because it was so damn wet.

Even throughout a scoff of disdain, dry pallid lips were spread into the wildest rictus, low deathly amused chuckle rasping from his throat. Resonant, intimidatingly echoing.

But that didn't mean he had any less of a right to hate rain, right? It wasn't as if you needed to have a deep reason for hating things, or a good reason. He hated it, quite simply. And so that was it.

The bus stop was effectively in the middle of nowhere; on a street corner, a small sheltered area to sit as one waited for the bus to pull up and take them to wherever. Sometimes the bus was early by twenty minutes, sometimes the bus was actually on time, and sometimes it was late.

It seemed that not only was the constant bus driver lax, they were also indecisive. Either they came a whole thirty minutes before they were meant to come and so drove off leaving harried businessmen in their wake or else they came an entire hour late, picking up a whole crowd of disgruntled people just wanting to leave already.

And, sometimes, the bus didn't come at all.

He was slumped on the seat of the Handi-Hut shelter, slouching and arms ambivalently tucked in the long pocket of his white hoodie, slid down enough that his jeaned legs and feet were jutting out. If one couldn't see the rain streaming harshly down and pelting the sidewalk with flecks of dirty water, that was compensated for by the continuous splattering of droplets on the bus stop shelter's roof above them. At this point, it was almost a drone except for how frenetic it was. Never in a constant rhythm, smattering and thunking hard on the cover before sliding morosely off the sides.

Zangetsu hated rain. A lot.

The product of desolation and weather mixed in one. It was nearing nightfall fast, tipping six in the evening, and the bus had still yet to come for all that he was waiting. He didn't have anyone available to pick him up, and hell if he was going to walk the hour and a half it took to get home in weather like this without an umbrella.

'What a damn mess,' he snorted, grin not easing up on his face as his eyes flicked to the seat next to him.

He just wanted to go home. What a pain, that the bus drivers conveniently tended to forget when it ticked past lunch hour.
[/size][/fancypost]

[size=0.7em]Zangetsu tilted his head accordingly and absorbed that new knowledge with an agreeable nod of his head. With a short snicker, he hummed, 'Oh? Good to know.' In all honesty, the times he's called someone by their real name has been a total of... probably once. In his life. But still, at least now he knows not to go all "Ender? The hell's that?" next time someone says their name.

Nicknames are so much easier. They don't even have to get creative, so long as the other recognises that you're talking about them; for instance, nod in someone's direction, call them 'shorty,' and they'll probably bust a vein. But at least they'll know they're being addressed. Basic science.

...It is science, isn't it?

'I appreciate it.' Mhmm. So, the ones that called the shots around here. Better keep an eye out for them, then. Like the instant a police car enters the scene and suddenly everyone is checking their speedometers twice and then if their turning lights are on and also if they're an appropriate distance from the car in front (who cares about the one behind, that's their problem) and...

Basically, like brushing their teeth before heading over to the dentist's.

'Got faces to put to the names, then?' he requests next. How does his grin keep getting wider when it really should have been at maximum capacity at the very first post? Who knows. Maybe his teeth have secrets. Maybe he has really good face relaxing exercises. Will the world ever know?

[fancypost borderwidth=0px][size=0.7em]Maybe what could be considered as one of Zangetsu's favorite hobbies (not even things to do; it's something he actually does constantly if not outright frequently) was, quite simply, messing with people.

Call him a bully, call it Schadenfreude, he really couldn't care less.

Jacked up white hair did that - attracted looks and side glances (occasionally, sometimes, often), at least a very curious outright stare from maybe a child or so. Maybe a few children if he was strolling past the park that one day. Hey, it was only to be expected; people these days were beginning to adopt unusual hair colours much more often but that didn't mean it wasn't anything to bat an eyelid at. People were typically surprised to see white hair on someone that wasn't a single millisecond above twenty.

And not a sign of wrinkles, either.

So, obviously, what's a guy to do when he sees another woebegone hard-done-by male, a said male who seemed quite reluctant to touch him even with a seven foot pole, shuffling reluctantly over to take the seat next to him? In the middle of the pouring rain, no less?

Don't get him wrong; he doesn't especially pick on people because he hates them. It was just so damn hilarious to see them squirm .. or send him extremely uncomfortable looks out of the sides of their eyes.

That look. You know. Yeah, that one!

At the thought, though Zangetsu's gaze was now turned away from the person who'd seated themselves, he lets out another unabashed creepy snicker entirely out of place for public ears, eyes affixed straight ahead even throughout the numerous glances that are darted in his direction from his present ... bus stop company. The smile doesn't dim; instead, it widens, Zangetsu almost entirely unblinking as he fixated on the endless rain that poured down in front of them outside the shelter.

Well, honestly, there's not much he does better than creeping people out.

So, timing it exactly right, the white-haired male turned his head to face the man who'd just approached, with a giant grin that was positively maniacal, the exact moment that the glasses-wearing guy was glancing toward him, definitely not the first of many such fleeting looks - plus, as the kicker, Zangetsu slid a single hand out of his hoodie pocket and, with a little wave of it, cackled, 'Yo!'

Seriously. Priceless.
[/size][/fancypost]

[size=0.7em]The leucistic white cougar doesn't even break a sweat at having to crane his neck up to gaze at the stranger fully, approaching with a stalk and the typical caustic grin splitting his face cleanly in half. Just about. He cocked his head at her and, Cheshire cat smile widening, cackled, 'Oh really? Then, welcome on in! It's your host, Zangetsu, right here and ready ta greet ya, come runnin' and wipe your shoes or somethin' like that.'

He tilted his head, yellow eyes encased with black sclera staring up at the giant tiger, and went on with that same wild grin, 'It's DarkClan. Officer or medic - take your pick, yeah?'

Heh. Well, damn, look at him; he's practically a pro at this.
[/size]

[size=0.7em]So maybe he hasn't been here long, but he'd like to think that he at least has the liberty to go about doing whatever the hell he wants here.

It's not a bad place. He didn't expect much from the world's rendition of natural selection out on the desert (seriously, you got lost like he did, and kept being lost, you could probably die from thirst, starvation and overheating alone .. though that may just be because of how ridiculously little he cared to look around much more than forwards. You can see how detrimental that would be for someone that's trying to find their way around) waiting for those living here to arrive, but after he'd settled in ..

Heh. Well. You couldn't call him civilised. He didn't do shit like eating primly let alone with cutlery on plates, or even just sitting at a damned table - he didn't exactly take to making himself nice and comfortable on beds, either. Zangetsu philosophy of life: if it looks uncomfortable as all hell, sleep there. Right there. But, still, the building was a reprieve from the sun - and it was spacious as well, which meant he didn't have to catch even a single glimpse of anyone else if he didn't wanna.

All in all ..

He guessed that it was okay here. As in, it wasn't horrible. Ha. Zangetsu mark of approval.

As a fancy (and very, very unofficial) officer and all that jazz, it was only his solemn sworn duty to go patrol the borders of his fine old... new domicile, yeah?

In other words, grin manically and not only creep but also bug the shit of anyone that came up. In a welcoming manner, of course. Find old hospitality, riiiiight here.

The leucistic bone-white cougar prowled up beside the others with that wicked Cheshire smile slapped on like sunscreen on a hot day just without the UV protection, which it ironically definitely was, and halted somewhat to the side of Ms. O - eyeing the two strangers with a decided gleam in his eyes. Hmm. A joint package, huh?

Well, ain't that cute.

'DarkClan Delivery, rain or shine, business hours ten to nine,' he purred, yellow eyes flitting between the two with an extremely amused cackle. 'How can we help ya today?'
[/size]

[size=0.7em]Intrigued yellow eyes slit narrower at the dog's proclamation, grin on his mouth stretching wide as he sidled up with an easy stroll - the white cougar cocked his head in consideration of the words, settling down in a flopped laying position at a point an approximately equal distance from everyone already there. No cooties for him - but maybe it was also a favour to the others. His black sclera only served to make his perpetual creepy smile even scarier, really. 'Hit us with your best shot,' he purred, endlessly amused.

Hah, drugs. Gotta love 'em and hate 'em.
[/size]

[size=0.7em]Oop. An old face, huh?

Zangetsu really wouldn't know. It was probably a shame he didn't; still, meet and greet, right?

The white cougar approached with a dark high chuckle (and here you may witness the paradox known as a triple negative), grin splitting his face and curling yellow-black eyes into entertained crescents. Lookie, his eyes are rainbow-shaped. He tilts his head to Blackjack like he has even a modicum of respect for anyone, but up rather than down, just for acknowledgement - he stopped a couple of feet away, surveying the serval for approximately two seconds before flicking his tail in a silent shrug and going on to lean on the other side of the rock.

'Hey,' he commented, gaze flicking over to the lounging stranger. A snicker zapped out of his mouth. 'It's Zangetsu. My pleasure.'

He's really not the type for dirty jokes, and this isn't one - just yet another example of how he finds amusement in everything. So polite.