Crack [Theo]

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Earthland was an exciting place. At almost every stretch of the world, it was teeming with people and culture, places and natural wonders, danger and safety. This world was any photographer's dream, and Gideon was ready to taste all of the flavors Ishgar had to offer.

It hadn't even been three days since Gideon arrived in Fiore for the first time, and while his first task was to find a guild to join, he ended up getting swept away by the exciting activities in the few towns he's stopped in, but his next stop was Sakuramori.

The city was bustling with the chatter of Fiore's youth, and Gideon was strolling down the cobblestone pavement with his out and a charming smile on his face. He snapped photos of cute girls eating cute things, and merchants selling their oriental goods. He walked and walked until he stopped by an alleyway, where he heard someone rustling in its dimly lit path.

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'Oh, what a good time to be alive!' was what Gideon was chanting in his head right up until he heard the most horrific screech coming from the alleway.  

"E-Eh!?" Gideon flinched and looked into the alleyway with a look of panic on his face. After all, it was hard to stay collected when you heard some terrible scream coming from a dark alleyway. But what was even more terrifying than the sound was the event that happened afterward. Between all of the noise echoing from within, someone finally burst out of the darkness with such awesome speeds that they almost became an afterimage. But that wasn't all—he was coming straight for Gideon.

With little time to react, the color drained from Gideon's porcelain skin and his azure eyes widened to reflect the fear he was feeling. But even as he turned away to make a break for it, he wasn't quick enough to escape the bullet that was after him. His heart pounding and breaths wild, when the person latched on to him, Gideon realized what was happening. So that's what this was—a mugging! A rather bold one considering it was in broad daylight, but a mugging nonetheless.

Being the chaotic and adventurous he was, Gideon felt a little thrilled when he came to this realization. After all, it was just like that famous saying that someone probably said at some point; "What good is a trip to a new country if you don't get mugged and violated (maybe) at least once within the first three days of you stepping foot in their borders?" Whether or not someone actually said that—maybe his aunt—or if he was just trying to justify what was actually happening, Gideon was equal parts excited and terrified nonetheless, and there was one strategy he learned for situations just like this!

"HELP! RAPE! RAAAPE!" Gideon yelled with a higher-pitched, more effeminate voice than what he naturally had. It probably wasn't the most textbook strategy of dealing with muggings, but if there was anything the charming man learned from girls he had come a little too hard on in the past, it was that everyone unanimously paid attention to whoever screamed "rape" the loudest. To be fair, the silver-haired man did really think he was getting mugged. It wasn't until he heard the person speak of ghosts through his screeching that Gideon paused on his theatrics and looked at him with a look containing equal parts anger and bewilderment. "RAAAP—wait what?"

For a second, Gideon stopped squirming and violently flailing about in the person's grasp to actually get a good look at them. It was a young-looking man who was about as tall as Gideon, had icy blue eyes, and the appearance of a hobo who lived in a bush. His clothes were filthy and tattered, his eyes glossy with tears, and an overall unhinged look on his face. Yup, all of the ingredients were there—Gideon was dealing with a hobo with a crack addiction, and all of this talk about ghosts was him hallucinating. And it was obvious that it was a hallucination because when Gideon turned over to see just what "ghosts" he was on about, he saw nothing but a dark-ish alleyway.

No longer puzzled, Gideon was left with nothing but anger for being grabbed so suddenly. Visibly upset, the silver-haired man wiggled one arm free and pushed his hand into the hobo's face, trying to pry him off.

"What the.... okay, look! There's nothing there! Let go of me now!" he barked back at him, "You can't just grab people willy-nilly! Let go!"

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