Cloud AU's

It's a whole thing

Skull has a couple things that make him stand out: his clothing, his fame, his name - a pet octupus named Oodako.

Most people focus on that, live for that subtle taste of strange that is this stuntman's show.
His exuberant personality, shrill voice, flashy grins that split his face in a sharp grin after he completes any and every single of his world-inspiring, death-daring stunts that get the audience wild. A blazing star.
Others look at him with equal parts disdain and wariness.
It's a delicate tightrope of how he's perceived by them.

Skull was never anything but daring. He's learned to thrive with all kinds of thrill long before the Mafia.

It's still the same when the world's strongest Cloud is just another reason for the gazes to turn to him, in the end.
A bomb on a cake, and he lived long enough to live with this too.

The Arcobaleno looked at him and saw an idiot, a civilian, a fool, a victim, a sacrifice, a mystery. Skull is quite certain whatever they're looking at: it's either what they recognize in themself or criticize the most. He's thrilled to find out.

"Can't you be normal?" Verde asked him after one of his usual shrieking charades.

"Can't be something I never was or could be, could I?" Skull grins lazily, gaze filled with mirthful intent and Verde's brow furrows. It's a whole forest with how Skull's responses throw him sometimes.

For people who claim him ignorant, to be found the same is utterly unpleasant. He loves messing with them. He knows why he loved doing it to him
—ah, he picked up a bad habit.

~

"I don't know my nationality, though I was once Japanese."

"Wait, the honorific to your name isn't just for show?"

Skull shrugs to his Rain. "It gets good reception, you know."

~

Reborn hums "Damn Skull, where'd you learn how to cook?"

"The place I grew up in.
My home before Home.
My adoptive father couldn't cook, never quite learned it for himself, so I taught myself and BAM!, here we are."

~

"...are we gonna ignore the creep following us?"

"You noticed?" Viper questions.

"Consider me surprised. You are capable of learning."

"Har-har."

"Since when did you know?"

"Eehm, like, three missions ago on Puerto Rico?"

"What tipped you off it's the same person?" Fon inquired.

The scent. "It's not subtle if their shadow stays the same."

They nod.

~

Skull swoops down, tackling the attacker that had pinned Viper with all the force he can muster. Which, factoring his weight with the speed he was going at, they're gonna be down for a long while yet. He turns to the one he saved; for a Mist, physical attacks were sometimes worse than mental ones. Their flames didn't impact the physical unless they made it real. And that required an unreal level of mastery.
It was debilitating.

Viper was stunned, their enemies closing in; alone.

A blue blaze, a familiar presence and screams echo.
A whisper "Don't look, don't tell. I will save you."

It's a deal, but one they can keep. If only cause they didn't know what the truth was.
Rain flames were natural.
Smoke and fire was dangerous, but something they were used to from exposure to their work.

"Sure."

A smile stretched, fangs glinted.
It was both a sign of relief, and silent threat.

Ah, now they know what he meant. "Didn't think you could've been..." a demon.

"Never tell."

"Never will." Their life was too valuable for that.

~

A mission post-curse has them encounter some exorcists who, seeing their fire, target them. Particularly after seeing Collonello's and Lal's did they screech - something something, new spawns of whatever, request for the Paladin, atomic bomb discharge and immediate order to exterminate the threat.

Skull locks in place, doesn't even blink, face ashen besides his pulsing purple veins underneath his skin. His flames echo dread.

Reborn never shot so fast;
Fon finds human life fleeting.

"I'm Rin Okumura, Son of Satan. I died when I was 15 years old- No, that's wrong. I was killed. First by my brother, then by the exorcists." A scraggly scar on his exposed nape had Verde blanch.

"It's whatever-- I came back. Demons do that in Hell, I escaped before they got their claws in me. Both sides need me, but neither want me...

You're the first to ever do."