Setting
There was one other light however, notably, in the square. The warm orange glow of flames danced in a lantern carried by a figure clad in a red-and-gold kimono, his long dark hair falling to his waist as he strolled peacefully through the night. Achaeos breathed in the stillness with a small smile, enjoying the quiet calm of the near empty square. The kitsune found the silence pleasant after a long day spent in that very square, surrounded by vibrant life - the hubbub and clamour of a city filled with mortal life.
Whilst such things were enjoyable in small doses, spending an entire day surrounded by such noise was a little much. But at the same time, it was revitalising. As a kitsune, Achaeos relied upon the soul-energy of mortals to sustain him. Unlike many, he did not choose to acquire this by seducing or tricking them into giving their souls up in their entirety. Instead, he would come to a busy place such as this and passively siphon the slightest trickle from each and every person present. He took little enough that it was not noticeable nor harmful to the people, but there were enough of them that it sustained him all the same.
But now he rested, his batteries recharged, so to speak. All was quiet, for now.
Her dress blended in with the colors of the night, only illuminated by the moon above. In contrast, her hair brightly reflected the light, shimmering softly. She hummed a small tuneless tune as she walked at an easy pace.
In her distraction, she sidled by what she had assumed to be a lamppost, instead narrowly missing a person who had been standing there. With a gasp, she turned to ambiguous kimono-wearing creature and rushed to bow her head. "I'm so sorry, are you alright?"
He glanced past her, and frowned. "Are you alone tonight, miss? That may not be advisable. There are many who keep to the night so as to commit immoral acts, and it would not do for a lone young lady to be caught off guard by such unpleasant characters." Achaeos lifted an eyebrow. "Unless, of course, there is more to you than meets the eye?"
She shook her head at his question, replying, "I am simply human, though I understand your asking. And indeed, I am unaccompanied. However, I am aware of the the seedier locations and this is not one of them. Unless you are one of the unpleasant characters," she said lightly, quirking an eyebrow.
The kitsune bowed politely, his lantern trailing an amber glow in the air as it descended with him. "My name is Achaeos, but you may call me Aki if you'd prefer." He said, straightening and looking up at the sky. "Yes, the stars are shining brightly tonight it seems. Perhaps it is an omen of good fortune. What brings you here at such a late hour, then, if I may ask?"
"A pleasure, Achaeos. Aki." She let the name roll off the tip of her tongue, smiling. "My name is Elizabeth." With a small curtsy, she swept her arm across the Square. "Simply a woman off work, who decided to enjoy the fresh air and a beautiful night. Yourself?"
He stepped away, lantern trailing lazily through the night air as it swung around with him. "I am enjoying the quiet, I suppose, after a day of noise and crowds. The contrast between how busy it was here earlier and how deserted it is now is remarkable."
Her eyes locked onto the moving lantern. "The experiences are interestingly different between a full crowd and an empty night. Out of curiosity, do you always carry that lantern?"
Not to mention the fact that it carried a portion of his soul, but that was a detail Achaeos seldom shared, and certainly not with strangers. To demonstrate what he had said, a spark of flame danced from the lantern and onto the kitsune's arm like a firefly, twirling about the length of the limb in a merrily erratic dance and blazing a short-lived glowing trail behind it. "I have noticed the diversity here, it is true, and so I have made less effort than I might otherwise to 'fit in'. Such things have previously been much more important, where displays of a supernatural nature or other abnormalities might bring more trouble than they were worth."
Of course there was more to the lantern that met the eye, but if Aki was indeed a supernatural creature, she did not expect him to reveal the secret to it. The lantern was important to him, and that summed up what she needed to know. An eyebrow slowly made its way up at the moving flame. "Well, we certainly get the fair share of the spooky, weird, intriguing, dangerous and unexplainable."
"But if you care to share, what are you exactly?"
He held up a hand, "I assure you, the bad reputation does not describe all of us. I am quite evidently making no efforts to conceal my nature, and your soul is safe from me. I have other means of surviving than leaving a trail of lifeless, drained husks. I cannot abide a murderer, by supposed necessity or not."
Linking her fingers, her hands pushed out to stretch her arms. She then raised a finger. "And how do I know you are not just trying to seduce me with pretty words until we reach some dark alley, hmmm?" The question was light and joking and not an accusation.
He shook his head, "But there is little need to be paranoid. It has been decades since I last encountered another of my kind, and she did not survive the meeting. An unpleasant experience, but she had left a trail of death behind her I would not like to consider the potential length of. She could not be allowed to continue."
"And thus, I will not be paranoid."
"Well, I think that makes you a prime candidate in escorting me from this dangerous, dark place. After all, something could happen to a defenseless girl like me, no?" she queried in mock fear, widening her eyes and referring back to the earlier conversation.
The kitsune held out his free arm in offering for Elizabeth to take, should she wish to. "You are a waitress, then? At what establishment?"
Elizabeth curtsied again, gracefully taking the kitsune's arm. "Well, I must accept. Walk with me then. I work at the Tauvyr Tavern. Perhaps you have heard of it?"
"But there is much here that is different to I have known it to be in the past. That is one of the more pleasant things that I have begun to grow accustomed to. There has been such change in the years I have been dormant, it is difficult to get my head around many of them. Cars, for example, baffle me entirely. I can see what they do, and indeed how to get them to do it, but ... the very concept of placing oneself in such a metallic beast is inherently alarming to me."
McLoughlan sat on a park bench with a cup of coffee. He still hadn't found his assignment. There was a nagging feeling that his assignment was in Wing City but there were so many people it was near impossible to pinpoint them. He was losing time. It would have been so much easier if this was an official case where he could call an informant. But as it was, that was not an option for McLoughlan.
The man scratched the five o'clock shadow on his jaw. His deep set eyes peered at a bush and his brows knit together in a tight knot. There were heavy worry lines etched on his forehead.
He needed to find his person. But where to start?
But then again, it wasn't hard to spot one of Them, either. Didn't matter what colour, what band on their arm, badge on their... badge... All the same underneath. Watchful eyes. Good quality shoes. Always the shoes. Mother had told her.
Cracked lips purse beneath the dirty fabric of the jacket, amusement. Momma had always been right. Well, until the point old Bobby had seen to it she wasn't right. Silly cow.
She makes her way, shuffling and stumbling, to the can beside the bench with the.. She casts a look out of the corner of her eye, before dismissing the notion. Like she cared.
"Looks like a man whose lookin'." She could have been talking to the trash for all that she moves, dark, dirty nails scratching through old cigarette ends and discarded coffee cups even as the words leave her mouth.