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The line is moving slowly. Vance is explaining about how this works, why they’re waiting in line, and Lu Feng is listening - but the rose is looking, too, peering up the line to see this Arbiter, to see this judge of human lives.
He does not… like the feeling that he may be caught here, may be exposed, even if he is certain he can survive it. It will just make things more difficult. Lu Feng touches the bullet hung around his neck, eyes narrowing. All he needs is to find his fruit.
From here, as they creep closer, Lu Feng can see the Arbiter. The human is not what he expected.
He is small, delicate-seeming, a slight smile in place and gentle, soft eyes. Not the eyes of a killer. Not the eyes of one whose role it is to keep an eye out for xenogenics such as himself. The Arbiter greets each person as they approach, asks for their name, and writes it down - he scans the person, eyes flitting here and there, and then he lets them in.
It is a slow process, and there is… it is not fear, on the human’s faces, that Lu Feng sees. He is not sure what the emotion is - something similar, but not quite the same.
“Creepy bastard,” mutters Vance, glancing at the Arbiter and then looking away, and Lu Feng can place it.
They look… unnerved. No smile will erase the gun on his belt. No gentle word will change what he is meant to do here.
Vance is up shortly, and the Arbiter smiles softly at him. Vance gives his name - the Arbiter writes it down, checks the spelling with Vance, and then looks him over.
It is just a moment. A breath in, a breath out. “I’m sorry,” says the Arbiter, and he shoots.
Vance falls, and the whole line shrieks and then freezes, or simply freezes without a sound. Vance is dead on the ground, a bullet through his head, and the Arbiter kneels by him. He looks at Vance for a moment, and then looks up at Lu Feng. “Were you with him?” he asks. Lu Feng nods. “Did he follow any religion, do you know?”
Lu Feng, who doesn’t know what a religion is, shakes his head. The Arbiter nods slightly, looking down at Vance once more. He speaks.
“And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
There is a solemn quiet in the air for a moment, and then the Arbiter nods at one of the other humans and they step forward, reaching to take the body away. “How did you know?” Lu Feng asks, before they do so.
The Arbiter looks at him, eyes soft and sad, before he reaches for one of Vance’s hands and turns it over. It is just the smallest pinprick on one finger, but it is a pinprick. It is something.
Lu Feng nods, and watches as they take Vance away.
Now it is Lu Feng’s turn, and he has resigned himself to being found out. It is alright. He will be shot, play dead, and then as soon as there are no humans around he will slip out and figure out a different way into the city to find his fruit. Unfortunate, but he can be patient.
The Arbiter looks at him when Vance is gone. “Hello,” he says, as if he is completely unchanged, unaffected by shooting another human. “What is your name?”
“Lu Feng,” he says, and the Arbiter writes it down and checks it. He looks Lu Feng over, and the rose prepares to be found out… before the tiniest little frown shows up on his face. The Arbiter looks Lu Feng over once more, and then one last time.
“I see…” he murmurs. “I don’t know. I’m not sure.” The Arbiter waves over another human. “Can you put him in the room, please?”
The human looks surprised. “In the room?”
“Yes.”
The human hesitates, before beckoning Lu Feng to follow him. The Arbiter waves him on as well, and Lu Feng follows after a moment. “Where are you taking me?” he asks the human.
“He didn’t know,” the human says. “That… doesn’t often happen, but he has a room set aside. You’ll wait there while he finishes up the line. If you change before he finishes, you’ll be isolated. If you don’t, then he will take you to get tested.” It’s more information than Lu Feng expected when he asked, but humans are proving themselves to like to explain things. He is much quieter in comparison, and he wonders if that makes him seem more like a rose.
Lu Feng doesn’t try to be something he is not, though, and simply nods at the explanation.
The human leads him into a small building, still outside the settlement. Lu Feng sits. Lu Feng waits.
He is close enough still that he can hear the shots ring out when they happen. He hears one shot, then a long period of silence, then another shot, and a long period of silence that is only broken by the door opening.
It’s the Arbiter, and he smiles slightly upon seeing Lu Feng. Lu Feng saw that smile before, and sees that smile now - he thinks it might be fake, the way his eyes still look sad despite his expression, but he doesn’t know what that means. “You’re still human,” says the Arbiter. “Come with me, then, let’s get you tested.”
“Tested?” Lu Feng asks. He stands and goes to follow, but the Arbiter wraps one hand around Lu Feng’s wrist and that almost makes him jerk to a stop. He manages, barely, to keep going.
“I’m not certain,” says the Arbiter. “So we’ll have you tested. If you test as fully human, I’ll allow you inside.” He doesn’t say what will happen if he doesn’t test human, and Lu Feng does not ask him. They both know.
The hand around his wrist is warm as they walk, and Lu Feng looks at it, and then looks at the Arbiter. “What is your name?” he asks.
The Arbiter glances back and smiles. “An Zhe,” he says.
“An Zhe,” he repeats. “Don’t smile if it’s not real.”
For a moment, An Zhe’s smile does disappear as he blinks at Lu Feng a few times, coming to a halt. He looks him over once more - is he checking again if he’s a xenogenic - and then he says, “Okay.”
But he smiles anyway as he starts walking, and Lu Feng follows. This time, An Zhe’s eyes are bright.