Three's My Lucky Number [Nelliel, Santa]

Alone.
It was always something unique in her experience. She had seen so many creatures in these blank sands that could be called alone, but were they really? And all the more she felt herself that she did not quite...... fit. There was one thing to argue the multitudes that existed within almost every other hollow, but in her case there was not quite the same debate. It was no metal cask that she felt those squirming masses inside of her trapped within, no iron grip around so many smothered screams that other arrancar so enjoyed. Hers was a cage with open bars and the voices inside were a slow and subtle symphony.

And yet it was not a mindless screaming, it was a cage open both ways. She wasn't just STUCK with this multitude she was WITH it, along SIDE it, AROUND it. And it was in these quiet, pale sands that she took the time to stare back and .... metaphorically, scream in return.

In that vast sand she found a clearing, and she focused. Something she dared not do in the world of the living or the soul society beyond. That was dangerous, a hazard in her own mind and one that tempered not just her spiritual power but her WILL. She focused, narrowed, and opened her eyes as Sola Esclava lay flat across her lap naked of it's scabbard.

And, directly across from her, with flesh slowly sewing itself shut was ..... herself. IT wasn't her and yet it was, this shaved barest fringe of what she was that she projected, purposefully for a rare occassion. It was horrible at first: No skin, no organs, not even eyes to stare back but the empty husks that almost seem to lock to her. But all of that filled itself in, and before long skin was gently wrapping the form of herself directly across from her.

Her power was a curse, one that fed off of the urges she felt and executed them with or without her consent. But that tether to her will was also a benefit, for when she PUT her mind to something she could almost always do it. And so when she WANTED to see what it was that peeled from her time and time again, it came to be. Herself, sitting naked right across from her before her mind peeled away. Quick, sharp, passing in a flicker of thought. She refused to lose control to distracting thoughts.

"Hello." She murmured, her voice echoed by the blonde monster across from her, it's voice in tandem with her own. What was it, what was she LOOKING at? More distractions in the form of questions and she felt her concentration shift before she snapped it back to focus. "What a-" She began to ask, but a sharp echo of reiatsu struck her senses. What?

She lost her concentration, and almost all at once the sands turned red all around as flesh started to grow. But her focus snapped back to her reign and the growth stopped, composing herself with a careful and tense focus. That feeling... and she felt it again, this time returning back to it's origin point. Was something nearby? She glanced back to the other across from her and she saw that the double she'd managed to grow from her garden was looking around just as intently. Santa stood up and glanced in the same direction, slowly putting up those mental walls that she shelled herself with.

She decided to wait, and see if whatever it was, decided to approach. But... she would eventually start walking in it's direction, wiping the sweat from her brow as she did. She always found it was best to sate her curiosities quickly, before the snuck up on her later.

A .... greeting.
Almost immediately she identified Neliel as not native to Hueco Mundo. Or at the very least had experience in the world of the living. The idea that she learned it from soul society was just silly. Greetings didn't exist in hueco mundo in her experience. Declarations, demands, inquiries as to the other's intentions, and some of the more ..... eccentric just broke out into a subject. But a greeting was something so completely human that it startled Santa. "Ah.....uh...." She was so caught off guard that the cool, calm, collected facad she usually wore broke immediately.

"I..... uh...Wassup?" She returned, deciding to establish that she too, was an arrancar that frequented the world of the living, though her body language was nonexistent, making the phrase a little awkward. "My name is Santa." She replied, taking a moment to look over the other arrancar. She decided to smile, curving her mouth and even showing a bit of teeth, that was normal right? "Are you from the world of the living?" she asked, leaning forward only the slightest bit as she sniffed the air. She even SMELLED like the world of the living. Or more specifically, like she had been around human souls. A very different scent from hollow.

Oh! She relaxed slightly as now the tension seemed to bleed from the conversation and things came to be a bit more relaxed. She even smiled a bit calmly as the woman seemed amicable to her response. She took just a moment to pause and consider. She .... LIVED in the human world? That was a surprise to her, after all it wasn't particularly often that arrancar were greeted favorably. "And they .... let you?" She asked softly, clearly perplexed by the information.

However the notion of 'brothers' also snared her interest, but she didn't think too much of it. She'd seen hollows fuse and split apart. So she assumed that plausibly the woman's situation was similar to the Picaro or that they were fragments she'd split from. She considered for a moment. "Other hollows rarely give me their names. I don't think I've run into them..." She murmured and relaxed slightly. The notion of finding someone specific in the endless desert was ..... bleak to say the least. while many ran into someone familiar that was mostly if they frequented the same region. But if these two brothers' wandering had brought them outside of this woman's usual region, then finding them again could prove incredibly hard.

"If they're your brothers, I'm a little surprised you can't sense them." she added. After all, such connections usually could be felt even through the veil of other worlds. It was how hollows usually hunted after all. Or well, so she'd heard. She herself hadn't really hunted back in her hollow days. "Do you have anything of theirs?" She ventured. At the very least she imagined any remnants that had their spirit energy on it might help.

The disappointment was audible, but well, Santa wasn't really keen enough to pick up on it that well. All the same, she could tell that SOMETHING was amiss, even if she couldn't figure out what. Her attention shifted sheepishly off to the side and she let out a bit of a sigh. "Even so, I'll keep my eyes out. A homegirl shouldn't be separated from her homies." She reasoned with a slow, firm nod, as if to confer with her inner self about the subject. It was a very human thing to do was it not? And she didn't even imagine to separate Nel from human behaviors, she herself had picked up a number of their practices in the short time she'd been there, so it stood to reason so would she.

That assertion, however, did cause her to pause and tilt her head. She was different from other hollows? She ... tensed just a little at that, her shoulders hunching. "Santa is different from a lot of things. But being different is not always fun." She noted, perhaps a bit pessimistically. Dramatically? Whatever it was, it was baggage and she focused on pushing it back down, putting her calm smile back on.

"I'd love to hear about the world of the living. I like the place, its wack." She added, changing the subject a little.

Santa paused, her brows raising just a little as of all things, Nel seemed to try and comfort her, at least just a little. This incited a .... gentler, warmer smile from the blonde woman. It reminded her of .... those small special trips she made. Hiding behind that thin veil between the worlds where her power could not leak out and ruin whatever she was observing. She thought back to those private little moments she'd intruded upon.

When humans were ar their most vulnerable, they had a tendency to do this to one another. Out of pity, out of affection, it was ......interesting. And for once she was on the receiving end of it. This green haired stranger, who but moments ago seemed ready to bail and avoid her entirely, was trying to make her feel better.

"Ah...." She murmured quietly, reaching up and covering her face. "You are very kind." She noted lightly, opening her eyes back up and glancing up to the woman that she was speaking with. "Africa..... like.... the song?" She asked, smiling to herself and gently doing a little wiggle. "Gonna take me a lot to drag me away from you. Nothing a hundred men or more could shoo." She sang very quietly, before coming to a stop. "What's it like? Do they sing there?" She inquired, smiling excitedly from ear to ear and bouncing on her heels!