Cloud AU's

Entertainment

Skull was widely renowned for being an unprofessional mafioso. Particularly when compared with the rest of the Arcobaleno, even Uni, who was the only actual child in their group, and Triad enforcer Fon who also likes to 'play around'.

He's loud. He wants attention for every little thing. He doesn't pay attention to anything else.
When directly confronted or backed into a corner he rolls over and does as told.

Evidently, he has too much energy.

Expectedly, him and long talks don't mix.

It was something their group discovered from the get-go. Even on their first gathering he was with his head in the clouds - an inside joke to be sure.

At first Viper warily checked if he was pretending but no.
He had no barriers, no mental wards in place. No training.
An open book, like an infant with barely formed thoughts.
(A comparison that'll be a bitter reality one day.)

Instead of a laid back predator analyzing them behind a display of faux indifference Viper was met with the image of him thinking over his grocery list, his job and possible crushes on everyone present.

Viper never considered him a threat after that. (He wasn't a yandere, so she'd ignore his emotions outside of profit.)

The airhead in their group was quickly singled out.

Mission briefings, drug deals, heck-- he zoned out during high-stake cover-op missions!!

Viper was opening a betting pool over when Reborn would eviscerate him.
Though, with how long they've been aquaintences, it was no wonder how that progressed.

For one, Skull still lived.
A miracle of itself.

Or, well, miracle was putting it generously when your entire team consisted of sadistic and viciously bloody predators.

Of course, they'd tried to curb his lack of attention, but that only yielded mild success after Verde deemed him to be biologically hyperactive. As it stands Reborn couldn't torture, train or manipulate it out of him. At best he could teach him some tricks with Verde to circumvent it and make living for/ with him a little easier. Fon gave up after the first month of trying meditation, tea sessions and Thai chi along with incense. The Cloud wasn't allowed anywhere near his stuff with a ten foot pole after that attempt.

Case in point, Skull was currently spinning a pencil in his hand, which he'd been doing not even 10min after the meeting started.

Progress, considering he usually drifted off around 5, unless something took all his focus and willpower like a Deathmatch.

They weren't in a deathmatch -shame, would've been more exciting- and Skull wasn't doing any stunts anytime soon.
The meeting with their contact, a no-name upstart, was expected to last around 4 hours.

Viper caught Skull pleadingly looking at Fon, who sat on his right. He stared at him for a good while, probably too long as he looked confused of his own action when Fon tilted his head slightly to meet his gaze.

"Uh..." he stocked, trailing off, unsure of what he'd originally wanted from the Storm. Fon, bless him, discreetly reached into his sash and got him a lollipop.
The moment it was in his sight Skull's eyes lit up like a child on christmas and he eagerly took the treat, fumbling a little over-eagerly with the wrapping.

Reborn briefly glanced over at the exchange with Skull sitting to his right. Focusing on the wrapper and noting that it was green -apple- instead of black -coke- he gave a subtle exhale of relief (he did not need a sugar high Skull right now) and went back to hashing out the mission details with their employers.

A boring matter in of itself, Viper only focused long enough on the conversation to filter out wether or not it was a trap and what they wanted. As it wasn't relevant information she let Reborn, their inofficial-official de-facto leader, take over. They inhaled, sifting through the basic emotions in the room.
Boredom, anxiety, fear, focus.

The boredom came solely from their group. Although it didn't target everyone. On their left was Verde, working on his datapad for something or another, completely tuning all discussions out as usual.
Leaning a little forward in their seat but not enough to be regarded as wanting to contribute to the discussion they caught sight of the Rains, lost in their own discussion with additional use of gestures, eye movements and bond manipulation. Surely holding more than one conversation about one topic.

Fon himself seemed to only halfway pay attention to the meeting by keeping track of Reborn's posture, otherwise lost in a semi-meditative trance.

And Viper had nothing to do. She'd already counted and recounted all her assets and made mental notes and charts, reviewing present information and what to get as a souvenir when heading back to the Varia.
And now they'd come up empty with stuff to do that's worth their time and effort. Everyone, including the strongest Seven alive, hated boring meetings. Thankfully, there was one thing that was sure to keep them entertained for a while and maybe bring some modicum of profit.

They reached out to Skull, meeting their-

(-friend, good, trust, fated, home, guardians, element, fondness, life, chaos lover-)

-familar bond. Honestly, him never learning or trying to shield from her was a bad thing. (What a sap, that guy, honestly). But it had it's uses, like now.

They thought back on Skull's last obsession. He'd picked up on more interests during their period as cursed infants.
They all had enough time to reinvent themselves; Skull most certainly took the time to further discover himself through various culture genres targeted at (now) 3 generations.
A reason he got along so well with their allies even from the current generation.

Briefly skimming his thoughts, they found it, bringing it to the forefront of his mind. And, sure enough, his mind latched onto the mist-infused image until it snowballed into what might as well be a commentary movie for them to tune in on, eyes closed and reaching.
He was an imaginative thinker, like her, so visualizing thoughts was common for him.

It helped plan his stunts.

Viper was met with the sound of blasters, smoke and death.
Flat ships cruising the air above them and soldiers marching against robots. A whirr from the Mist's immediate right and a human with a glow stick joined the front, cutting up what qualified as a tank.

Star Wars it echoed around her.

Well, Viper could be entertained with this for a while.

-----------------

Fon noticed the exact moment when Skull became focused.
His spinning pencil and fighting stopped as he zoned out.
Sure enough, opening a crack in his peripheral revealed the fellow ex-cursed to be a statue that barely blinked.

He stiffened as he noticed the light haze of Mist flames around his friend, tracing them back to their source with lessening prejudice as he found Viper on the other length of the table.

A show it is then.

He took a peak at Reborn, who seemed content making others squirm in his presence for now, and had his conscious slip into the mind Haze, minimally jolting when he opened his eyes to a wall collapsing on him proceeded to phase through him as a voice unfamiliar to him, belonging to a brown-haired, blue-eyed adolescent man, rang out to chide an... it was a reddish-bronze-skinned girl with white-blue... horns(?) twirling around most of her head.

His hand was grabbed and dragged down, forcing him to sit. Next to him Viper was watching the scene play out as though in a 5D theater.

For them it might as well be.

"You know the price." Viper reminded him, and he nodded.

If Skull was a private cinema, their Mist was the worker at the ticket booth.