[closed] Nov 11th ; look up, look down, and turn around

[movingon]

There were bad days and there were better days; today, she had been lucky and thus had all the night to waste. Or spend usefully, by finding out a bit more about this place. Her special interest, obviously, lies with the Kindred population, and she's found that they seem to be the most ...openly affluent in certain parts of downtown, so that is where she went. She's flying around, sitting down on the networks of cables and bridges above the streets, sometimes for longer, sometimes only a few minutes, and watches. Whenever she spots someone who looks like they might be undead, she follows them, a quiet shadow above, just below the strange contraptions, and then when they enter a house sits down again above, pondering the street. Waiting if more enter that house, or leave it.

There has to be an Elysium here, somewhere. Too many Kindred obeying the Masquerade not to. Not that she wants to go in, but she'd like to know the location. What she doesn't do - is too focused for - is watching out for familiar faces.

Comments

[chalicejoker]

That...isn't right. Birds don't perch on Infrastructure. Or at least, normal birds don't perch on Infrastructure. It's not worth the hassle of being run off by angels on patrol--Hajime knows, he'd done it from time to time himself as an angel--so why is the bird there?

He starts breaking out the zoom lens. It's a good way to get a better look at the bird, maybe a few pictures of it, before he goes after it head-on.

[movingon]

It's just a bird.

Long and hard observation might reveal that the bird isn't breathing, but that would be really hard to glance in this body.

Malin still doesn't notice Hajime, but she spots a new target and takes off, following the elegant woman with a bit of a distance, and sitting down on a narrow bridge when the woman stops to meet with two other people who look just as elegant. Hm. Maybe she can get lucky this time.

[chalicejoker]

Just a bird...that appears to be following people. Time to follow the bird. Hajime puts the camera away for a moment and heads in that direction. He's just going to try to get over there as casually as he possibly can.

[movingon]

She pays him no mind, focused on the group below her ...that splits up. Cursing her luck, she decides to follow one of the others to make herself a bit less obvious. Due to her target, she's never faster than walking speed, and will eventually end up at the back entrance of a tall house that the man she is pursuing now vanishes into.

Disgruntled, she perches on top of a cable of nfrastructure and considers her options.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime follows the bird rather than the people the bird is following, and so he too ends up a small distance away from that house. He's outside on the sidewalk, skulking and trying not to look too suspicious as he does so.

[movingon]

He's ...not very successful. Partly because he's now the only person on the street, and partly because Malin has seen him before, and now has time and reason to survey the street very closely.

Why is he here.

And how long has he been there? Maybe he'll go away. She'll just... try to pretend that she is a perfectly normal owl while she keep an eye on him. Owls sometimes fly around in cities, right? She has no idea.

[chalicejoker]

Perfectly normal owls do not perch on those cables like that, and so Hajime keeps staring right at her.

Maybe it's a bad move, maybe it'll just get her to flee, but he's on to you, owl.

[movingon]

Why is he staring at her like that.

Can he tell who she is? No, he really shouldn't be able to...

She'll just stare back at him. It's obvious at this point that he's not buying her being a normal owl act.

he rolled a 1 for trying to sense anything, fyi

[chalicejoker]

Why, yes, Hajime will so get into a staring contest with a strange owl.

While he's doing that, he's going to stretch out with his demon's senses to see if he can get a better read on this strange owl.

[movingon]

It seems to really just be an owl.

That sits there. And stares at him. And will continue to do so for a while.

Until she notices something in a corner of a vision and looks up. Ah. One of those annoying... things is about to come around the corner. She better get going.

So she drops down, spreading her wings and flying down the street in the opposite direction.

[chalicejoker]

Just an owl? How is it just an owl, when--

--hold that thought. Angels. Hajime wants nothing more than to get the hell out of there, to hell with watching weird birds.

He's still blending in with the crowd of humans, but he's moving as quickly as he can without being suspicious, and he obviously wants nothing to do with the thing coming around the corner.

[movingon]

She's busy getting away herself, but that is ...weird.

He did have a lot of pictures of those wheels and networks and other things that just seem out of place to her in his room. And now he seems to be moving away hectically because one of the ...maintenance creatures? is coming around the corner.

Maybe the half bug thing is connected to that. ...She aborts her flight and lands in a blind window of a building at the end of the street, to watch him and the maintenance thing that is now hovering high up at the other end of the street.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime doesn't know what that office building is, and he doesn't care. He's going inside.

He'll remain in there for some time--he doesn't pass in front of any windows, and it's impossible to gauge what he might be doing inside--but he'll come out only after the maintenance angel has passed on its rounds.

[movingon]

...So he is afraid of those things.

That might not be much, but it might be very useful one day, if she needs to lose him. Angels are easy to find in some areas of the city. Downtown, mostly.

She will stay in her spot, trying to stay in the shadow and hope that he doesn't notice her, and then follow him as stealthily as possible.

[chalicejoker]

He stops as he comes out of the building, looking in her direction like he's searching for something. He pauses, stares hard in that direction, then turns to leave.

He does, however, keep looking back over his shoulder. It's not clear if he's looking for her or just trying to make sure he's not being followed by the maintenance angel.

[movingon]

...Curses.

Well, it's not like she doesn't have options. There are just enough people around to hide a fox on the ground, but not enough to obscure his scent before it's gone. At least that one is rather distinctive.

So she drops to the ground in a hidden corner and instead of following into the air and tracks him on the ground, hoping that he won't just return to his house.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime completely fails to pick up on the fact that he's got a fox following him.

And instead of heading home, it actually looks like he's going to a coffee shop.

[movingon]

Well, that's... weird and unfortunate. She'll have to hide in a shadow outside and watch him through the windows, because the only presentable forms that she has are forms that sure won't go inside a coffee shop.

[chalicejoker]

She's in luck--the coffee shop has an outdoor seating area, and he takes a table out there. He appears to be waiting something, if the way he's checking the time on his phone while he shifts around and lets the coffee sit there is any indication.

[movingon]

Malin ducks into the shadow of some garbage bins on the other side of the street and watches him. She can afford patience tonight, as long as she doesn't have to use much more blood to power shape changes or something along those lines.

[chalicejoker]

It's not much longer before another man carrying a briefcase shows up at Haijme's table and the two men start talking...about photography. Hajime's trying to sell him some pictures, and he withdraws an envelope of them from the inside pocket of his trench coat.

[movingon]

It's really annoying. She knows that something is off with this guy. Because she's seen it. But there is just no way to figure it out because he seems to lead the most boring, average human life in existence.

Maybe he does something interesting during the day, but she has no chance of figuring that one out. ...At least not unless she gets help. Perhaps she should look into that.

[chalicejoker]

At some point, he'll slip up and have to fight an Angel. Or get involved with another demon. Or any number of other ill-advised decisions.

But for now? He gets to continue carrying out his Cover's excruciatingly dull life of a freelance photographer.