Kirin resisted the urge to rub his eyes something fierce.

The guy just.. had no face.
Where there should’ve been a brow, eyes, nose and mouth–there was only a seeming chasm of infinite black.

Almost forgetting himself, Kirin glanced up to see if there was anything that could physically cast such a harsh shadow only on his face, but found nothing.
The fuck.

“F-f-fascinating!!” Vel could barely contain his itching hands, rubbing them together. “Ma-may I?”

The faceless cheetah hesitantly nodded, letting his head get angled left and right like a mannequin. Unlike the average snout of a tabaxi, his side profile was much flatter. There was still enough human-like protrusion to hint at a semblance of facial structure, but that too was shrouded in a silhouette darkness.

After Vel beamed a mini flashlight into the face (which met no reflection, as expected), he furiously jotted down notes on a clipboard, unconsciously muttering to himself.

The reluctant patient bore any physical tests just fine, up until Vel attempted to poke a finger into his face.
A hand shot up to grasp the satyr’s wrist, not crushing but tight enough.

“O-oh! My apologies Kezrah.” The hand let go, and Kirin mouthed the name.
“I’ll simply ask my questions instead, y-yes?”

Kezrah nodded, ears pinning forward a bit to show likewise apology. In a lowly echo of a voice that was half whisper,
“..It’s okay.”

Vel coughed, “Well then–how do you eat? Breathe? Do you see the visible light spectrum, or can you also detect UV and infrared light? Can you or anyone else touch the Void of your face?”

Kirin stiffened at that, feeling his pulse beat to his doe-like ears. That blackhole of a face was entirely composed of Void?
There was… there was another??

Kezrah momentarily looked to the ceiling as if to ask why am I doing this, before launching into his replies,

“I can eat and breathe. I see color like everyone else as far as I know. I can reach into my face, but for other objects to reach in, I must allow it.”

Vel’s quill could’ve erupted into flames with how rapidly he scribbled,
“How very, v-very fascinating! B-b-but HOW do you eat? If your face is physically covered, can you still breathe o-or talk? What color is my shirt right now?”

Kezrah audibly breathed in, reminding himself,
This is an easy job. Hefty sum. No stealing, just… whatever this is.

He had easily accepted the offer from his guild when first hearing the numbers, as any merc would. It’d been a good few weeks since his reserves started to run low again, so it was the perfect time to take up another mission, however unusual it may be.

Sure, he normally would’ve been concerned at the amount of information he had to divulge, but at this point? Enough years have passed for his desire in anonymity to wane.

Just get through it.

“I can eat and drink when I intend it. I can also put in a few objects for safekeeping when I intend it. Same goes for holding my breath. You would have to cover my face completely to muffle my voice, and even then, I’d still be able to speak.”
He waited a moment for the scientist to stop writing before pointing out,

“Your shirt is red, but even if I can see beyond the universal visible spectrum, we wouldn’t know. I was taught which colors had which names like everyone else, and I don't think I'm blind to any of them.”

Vel tutted, before reiterating, “So t-to clarify.. only you can ever contact your voided face??”

Kezrah stared at him for a painstaking moment, before giving a firm, “Yes. If say, a projectile was unexpectedly thrown to my face, it would bounce off, not go in.”

The scientist’s face notably twisted in disappointment, grumbling a few curses as he finished up his notes.
“And.. i-i-if the projectile had a lot of force b-behind it? Say. A bullet?”

Kirin nearly berated himself for perking at that; firearms were his language. He was far more fluent in mechanical weaponry than any magical staff.

Understandably miffed, Kezrah almost didn’t want to grace that with a response, but then he thought into it.
“...If anything that harmful were to happen, it would breach my face, yes. It wouldn’t kill me, but it would be very, very. Very. Unpleasant.”

Ignoring that caution, Vel sharply punctuated his papers, satisfied.
Tossing the clipboard and other miscellaneous equipment aside, he unlocked and rummaged through a nearby drawer, swiftly bringing a white cube into view.

Said cube was apparently a puzzle, with multiple hidden switches and buttons. Vel flew through ample layers of security with blurred fingers, till it finally opened up like a present.

Kirin couldn’t see the contents, but it emitted a sort of… black glow? Some source of light that was impossibly yet irrefutably dark.
A phenomena he was all too familiar with.

“Now.. th-this will be revolutionary. It ac–” A chorus of distant cheers interrupted Vel, coming from another double door set in the room. Kirin realized it led to the balcony stage. Must be time for the show.
“My! Time does fly when you’re learning about new arcanes, d-doesn’t it? Come.”

Vel moved toward the doors, tipping the box in his palm to slip out…

There it is.

Kirin steadied himself, at last locating the precious “cargo” he was meant to steal.

It was an orb, simply put, of the darkest shade he’d ever seen in his entire life.
No light impacted it, seeming more like a punched out hole in existence rather than an actual object. And yet.. you could see some of that nothingness ripple out in a thin layer of shadowed radiation.

The scientist excitedly ushered Kezrah to hop off and follow.
Said merc was stalling, strangely angling his face in subtle “glances” between the doors and–wait.

Kirin lowered himself further; was he looking at him? Did he know he was here the whole goddamn time?? Oh...

Alrighty, fuck it.

Kicking aside a few empty boxes in the way, Kirin leapt out of his spot, startling the two. He aimed to stun Vel, knock him out, anything but to utterly miss the man entirely.

Which.. he did, fine, but Kirin had an excuse!

As soon as he stepped within a four foot radius of the cheetah, a bizarre… lurch, went through his entire body. From front to back, this numbing wave of static shortly rinsed through his guts, mind, blood–all of him.

And judging from Kezrah’s abrupt staggering, he felt it too.

Kirin sheepishly grinned up at the shocked scientist, scrambling to map out his next move, when Kezrah came up from behind Vel and abruptly jammed a bloody microscope into his head.

He crumpled down.

Kirin sighed as Kezrah immediately drew some rope out from his bag, tying the groaning satyr up securely. He wasn’t knocked out completely, but incapacitated enough to be reduced to a lumpy rug.

“..Well, thanks for taking my side.”

Frankly, they both seemed a little surprised at that.

Kezrah took pause to scrutinize the intruder–light purple, sharp teeth, with a few simple golden markings on his face. Two main horns protruded from his head, as well as thinner, matching gold horns branching around them.
An overall lanky build, made even lankier by the long trenchcoat he wore.

His eyes were black.

Straightening, “Who are you?”
Kezrah extended a hand, and Kirin took it, standing back up from where he slipped. The contact tingled for a second before immediately dissipating.

Kirin tended to either implicitly trust someone wholeheartedly from the get-go, or doubt them to the deepest circles of hell till proven innocent.
This time, he decided trust.

“Kirin. And I know your name already… uh, wait where’s-?”
He spotted it, quickly swiping up the orb from where it fell on the ground.

It emitted a brief flare of black, and Kirin grimaced at the weird sensation it sent through his palm. Weighty pinpricks, as if his blood was trying to get closer to the surface, before that too calmed and returned to a neutral buzz.

“Did you…”

Kirin looked up from his loot, “Huh?”

Kezrah seemed less confident with this next question, “Did you feel that? Earlier. That.. that strange feeling, like a bunch of needles inside you, spinning and trying to—”

“—stabilize.” Kirin nodded, “Yeah, it was freaky. Felt kinda fun though.”

Fun? It was painful.

A tsk, “It also reached out, tugging me. I felt it with the orb at first, then to you when you attacked. So, that means…”
He remained oddly still for a beat.

“I, I never thought there’d be another.”

All his life, the only other people he knew with Void in them, were his immediate family members. This was beyond a doubt, intriguing. More than anything he’d ever come across.
He thinks he should be feeling everything or feeling nothing right now. Rather, he just feels more.

“Me neither. This is..” Kirin was in just as much disbelief, if not more so. Unlike Kezrah, this was the actual first person with Void he’d ever met, period. None of his families before had it, which made sense considering…

A louder wave of restless clamor from outside jerked him out of the moment, remembering.

Grayson, orb, right right.

As Kezrah retrieved his mask from the examination table, Kirin fidgeted with the prize in his hands, torn.
He knew he was meant to take it back, but now that he knew the goods turned out to be this new Void technology (his speciality), AND that there was apparently someone with a thorough connection to the Void at all…

Before he could figure out exactly how to go about all this new new new, Kezrah cut in his train of thought, “Hold on. This orb-”

He tried to grab it, but Kirin reflexively jerked his hand back. Cogs clicking,

“You came here to steal it.”

“Well.. yeah?” Kirin warily handled the orb tighter, “Problem?”

Kezrah shook his head, “I’m a mercenary thief. I only came here on Mr. Hollister’s bequest, but...”
He nodded toward the pile on the floor. Guess he wasn’t going to be getting that hefty sum after all, pity.

“Point is, I recall he mentioned his creation would act.. as an arcanic loom.”  To straighten entangled silk, ready to be woven, “And it’s obviously meant for Void, seeing as how he sought me out.”

“So?”

“So.” Kezrah pushed up Kirin’s elbow instead, bringing the orb closer to his face. His messy, tangled Void.

“Whoa whoa, are you saying you want me to chuck this thing into your face hole??”

“Please just say face, and basically, yeah.” Kezrah withdrew,
“I’m curious. And for someone who inherited Void, I never learned very much about it. Have you?”

Inherited?!!
Kirin could say that he’s done so nearly all his life, tinkering and pushing his limits into the realm. He could also say that he was a defect, not being able to access any inherent Void abilities without his own inventions acting as a link. He could honestly say a whole lot of stuff--as well as ask a million questions as to how the fuck anyone could inherit Void--but really, that’d be way too much effort for the time being.
And thus,

“Take it from another mad man of science who’s had a lot of things blow up in his face; be careful.”
Kirin slowly brought the orb closer to Kezrah’s face. He figured a good five minutes couldn’t hurt, and he’d be lying if he wasn’t also deathly curious as to what would happen if the orb came in contact with an actual opening to pure Void.

Bit by bit, Kezrah could definitely feel an inner reaction again. At first, his face simply rippled and squirmed, akin to when Vel first brought it out. Nothing too terribly foreign or new, it's done that under other circumstances before.

Once it neared to the point of being a mere inch away however, Kezrah startled at the sudden black border creeping on his vision.

It felt… no, he was zooming out, free falling backwards into his voided face.
Weightless, he just kept going further, the window of light and Kirin’s hand and the orb shrinking and shrinking till it became a warped marble of color midst the vastness of nothing stretching around him eternally. Is this what's behind his face? He knew he could fit in a good amount of gold coins and other such items, but it was always at his fingers' ready when he summoned it out. This, took his figurative black hole of a face and made it literal. 

“Dude!”
Kezrah stumbled a step as he lurched back forwards, and back to reality. “Oh thank Sarius, I’ve been shaking you for like two minutes now.”

Kirin huffed; he'd be damned if he just broke the one other person he’d ever learned to have voided properties like him.

Shaking his head, Kezrah felt a new pain of brightness, wishing he could turn off his vision on command and return to darkness, “I-god, that was.. so weird.”
Trippy as hell. “Let’s, let's avoid doing that again for now.”

“Yeah no kidding, and uh–ok look I think we need to get moving now.” Kirin lightly bounced on his feet, antsy, “Crowd outside’s getting more confused, guards will probably rush up any second now.”

Kezrah nodded, then hissed when that only brought more vertigo. He deftly clasped his mask back on, “After you.”

The two hurried out the chamber, and in the nick of time too, hiding behind some pillars as several guards rushed past.
Sneaking down the halls wasn’t a problem, but the main stairway was resolutely blocked by more guards.

Thankfully, the windows were still open.

Soon enough, they found themselves landing in a row of soft bushes, Kirin instantly spotting where Grayson was irritably tapping his foot by the trees.

He slipped the orb into his knapsack, dusting himself off. Helping Kezrah up, “We, are going to chat later. But for now, just er.. let me do the talking, alright?”

Kezrah didn't respond, following Kirin as he headed toward Grayson. He was mildly irked that Kirin was decidedly holding onto the orb (lord knows how many times Vel emphasized its importance), but then again, he figured so long as he’d be able to ask him some questions later on–it didn’t really matter.

“Finally! What took you so long.” Grayson crossed his arms, “And who the feck is this guy?”

“Hey, don’t worry he’s with me. His name is Kezrah and he uhm.. he helped save me.” It was technically true.
With a microscope.

Gruff, “And the cargo?”

“It…” Kirin hesitated, before affirming,
“It’s gone. Damn scientist destroyed it soon as I tried to take it.”

“What!” Grayson pinched the bridge of his nose, “Ohh well that’s just great.”

Kezrah regarded him curiously, but Kirin ignored it, “I know, but we better get outta here and rendezvous with the rest to figure out where to next.”

“You mean to figure out how we’re gonna break the news to Boss.” Grayson grumbled.

“Right, that.” Before Kirin could brainstorm again, Kezrah shook his arm urgently. “Wh..”

In a differently colored and sleeker uniform than the university guards; the capital’s police had arrived. Vel must’ve recovered by now, currently blabbing his mouth away.

“Let’s go.”

Grayson led the way into the thicket, the group hurriedly disappearing from public sight before anyone could notice.

Or, at least that’s what they thought.