Burning Curiosity (Private)

Almyra had heard of this place. It was a strange one. One where magic had no effect. As she approached it, she could feel irregularities in the universe that caused this to happen, despite her relatively little skill with her magic. She left her magical things outside of the Neural Grounds, somewhere tucked away and safe, worried that the lack of magic may ruin them. She journeyed inside, heading for the center district she had seen on a map, hoping to find the cause of the lack of magic there. She walked alone for now, feeling lonely since she had left Tammy behind as well. She frowned a bit, wishing she had someone to talk to.

John had been to the 'Neutral Grounds' a few times before and he found himself visiting it from time to time, maybe to remember the days when magic was still out of his grasp and his family still alive, or just to drink some of the whiskey the grounds had in store. John looked around the street, it was soothing to find that people didn't stop and stare at him as much as they did in other places. He sighed and looked around once more before deciding to step out into the rather empty street.

What he had failed to see was a rather small girl he bumped into, throwing her off her feet and down onto the ground. He raised his brows under the bandages and looked down at the girl who had landed in front of him, he held out a bandaged hand and through the slits in the bandages that covered his head he looked at her. "Sorry."

"Oof!" Almy suddenly found herself being hit by something quite large as John bumped into her. She fell onto her rear and looked up at the man she had hit. He was quite tall, at least compared to her, then again, many people were tall compared to her. She didn't mind though. It was fun being small. It did lead to her getting bumped into a lot, but that wasn't so bad.

The man reached down to help her get up, apologizing. She smiled up at him as she took his hand. He seemed nice. "It's okay, I get bumped into a lot. Besides, you didn't hurt me or anything." Feeling the rough texture of the bandages and seeing them covering his arm and face, she tilted her head curiously. "Are you okay?" He seemed to be, other than the bandages. She did want to be sure, though, since he seemed nice and she didn't want a nice person to not be okay.

John looked down at the rather small mage and as she took his hand he pulled her up. He might be a cold person but since he had pushed her down he decided to at least be kind enough to help her up. He just hoped that she, unlike so many else he had met, wouldn't ask if he was hurt or if he was in pain.

"Are you okay?" He heard her ask and sighed, he looked down at her and let his head hang lightly as he looked at her with his almost black eyes. "Yes, I'm fine." His rough voice sounded a bit annoyed now unlike it had when he had said sorry.

Almyra smiled at him still, despite picking up the annoyance in his voice. She guessed it was probably from other people asking him a lot. "Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure. Sorry if I asked you don't like people asking." Almy looked at the man a bit more. She wondered why he wore so many bandages. She decided not to ask though, since he didn't like being asked if he was okay, he probably wouldn't like questions about his bandages. "What brings you to the Neutral Grounds?"