In the years since he had last been ‘human,’ Cosmo took up the hobby of people watching. He could reconnect with his past that way, and it was an effective—if not an oddly and perhaps uncharacteristically sentimental—form of nostalgia. There was a world of insight he could gain from watching the expressions change on a person’s face, and Cosmo wondered if normal humans could even understand them all. Too many people seemed to ignore all of the cues from another person’s body language or facial expressions. For Cosmo, who no longer used many of these expressions, he felt distinctly refreshed whenever he could see them appear on others.
And what he saw was an individual, who he had just recently met, contort his body and strain his face in a number of ways. Cosmo caught him peering through the dust, glancing at him as if questioning if Cosmo was really there. He saw a number of micro-expressions flash across the man’s face, ranging from surprise to a little disgust to brief glimmers of amusement. Cosmo knew from history that people who ran the gamut of emotions were usually near their breaking point—their bodies were not supposed to handle the stress of rapidly changing expressions.
Amidst the bewilderment though, Cosmo discovered one of the most basic and primal emotions of them all: fear. His adversary was practically dripping with fear. Cosmo could even discover—faintly and no doubt aided by his superhuman senses—a wobble as the other one struggled to stand face-to-face with the Golden Bannerite. He wanted to peer into the character’s past, to discover more about him and his background. Was he a member of the Crimson Saber? What would bring him so boldly into Queens alone? Didn’t he know that the Golden Banner had long-since seized control of the borough and it was Cosmo himself that repelled several of the Saber’s attempts to retake it?
A range of thoughts passed through him as he continued to scrutinize his adversary. He made no comment, and said nothing beyond his one word response. He felt that he had nothing more to say to his enemy. Words were useless in the moment, and Cosmo was never one for small talk.
Luckily for Cosmo—and perhaps even more fortuitous for the marauder—they were not the only attraction in the vicinity. Cosmo did not even have to turn his head to notice the walkers closing in on them. They moved with surprising speed, spurred by their appetite for raw flesh. But something was strange. Instead of reacting to them, Cosmo’s glance never came off the intruder. He continued to look at him, calm and expressionless, as the walkers closed around him. Their snarls and the pitter-patter of their frenzied steps practically enveloped them as no less than a dozen walkers burst towards them both. Many of them ran on all fours like crazed beasts, their rotting flesh and tattered clothing hanging off their sinewy bodies.
The stroke of fortune did not escape the notice of his opponent either, as he snorted in relief and muttered at his good luck. The eerily handsome face of Cosmo still did not change. There was no agitation, no relief, no annoyance at the interruption. There was no fear, no anticipation, no apprehension as the walkers closed around the two. Instead, his steely gaze continued to scrutinize the trespasser. What other secrets was he hiding?
He had good reason to be confident. The walkers neared him, mouths agape and fulminating with hunger. One of them seemed to pounce on him, but landed harmlessly to his side before moving on to attack the marauder. Another one passed Cosmo as if he wasn’t there. Then another. A fourth. A fifth. All of them zoomed past Cosmo as if he was simply a post or a tree—completely uninterested in the Bannerite. They sprang upon Evariste with shocking fervor, clawing and biting desperately as if they had not had a meal in weeks.
Yet Cosmo remained still, his expression and penetrating stare the same as it had been from the initial attack. As the walkers closed in on his adversary, however, Cosmo finally relented and released the slightest of a smirk. Maybe now he can see what this invader was capable of doing. |