Suits and Mohawks II

[Existentially Odd]

(Continued from \'Suits and Mohawks\')

Tau got off Ami\'s bike shakily, and was never so glad to have his feet pressed to solid earth in his life.  It didn\'t matter how fast she\'d gone or how easily she\'d taken it on him - he\'d been terrified most of the ride and had only loosened his grip a little when they hit a dirt trail into the woods.  He was quite prepared to be bounced off by that stage, for she was going slowly and the smell of wilderness was comforting to him - unlike the stench of the bike\'s exhaust fumes and everything else he\'d been forced to breathe in the city.

He continued to clutch the briefcase to his chest, unaware of the look of horror he was giving her through his exceptionally large blue eyes.  He blinked a fe wtimes, but really didn\'t know what to say to her - he was half afraid he\'d squeezed her and she\'d strike out at him for doing so, anyway.

[Harlequin]

Ami bit her bottom lip, and took a deep breath in order to keep herself from laughing at those big, blue saucer eyes. The poor guy really was spooked, and she\'d gone easy on him, too. No rolling stops, signaled all turns, looked both ways, all that. She\'d even gone the speed limit.

A chuckle managed to escape as she rocked the bike back onto it\'s stand and cut the engine. Dismounting, she immediately shoved her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket, "I take it you\'ll be walking home?" she joked, smiling thinly, before she looked off into the woods. The sound of the waterfall wasn\'t even audible, yet, through the whispering of the trees.

[Existentially Odd]

"Yes," he told her succinctly, forcing himself to relax in the face of her humour.  She was no doubt laughing at him and he didn\'t enjoy that, but he could accept that he was making a bit of a fool of himself, through his fear.  He needed to stop that.

He leaned down to place his briefcase against Ami\'s bike, sensing from her body language that she intended to walk and he didn\'t want to be bothered by the unnecessary appendage.  It didn\'t have anything too sensitive in it - or anything at all, for that matter.  It had been something he\'d bought and begun carrying because one or two of the other employees did, but he still hadn\'t figured out what to do with it.  He did all his paperwork at the office and never needed to take anything home.

Straightening, he removed his business shoes and socks, too, following their abandonment with tossing his jacket and tie over the seat of the bike.  Stepping up to Ami\'s side, ready to follow her lead, he fiddled with his business shirt as well, undoing the cuffs and rolling them up to his elbows before undoing the top four buttons.  He was unfazed by the fact that his shirt sagged open a little, he was just glad to have it away from his throat - it was the only way for him to relax.

"What is it I might help you with, Ami?" he prompted, ceasing the fiddling with his clothes.

[Harlequin]

Ami nodded absently, still looking off into the distance. Dragging a hand through her hair, she turned her attention back to the matter at hand; this was no time to go all starry-eyed over the wild blue yonder, there were important things to be learned!

"Mostly general shit. What to look out for. Who to avoid." She smiled humorlessly and shrugged, "How to stay the fuck alive, basically." With a jerk of her head, she began to move up the path, moving in powerful, decisive strides.

Ami burned with an ambient nervous energy, as though she were vibrating at such a high frequency she appeared to be standing still, with nothing but a plethora of nervous motions to give her away.

[Existentially Odd]

Thinking that she had somewhere in mind that she wanted to be visiting, tau kept pace with her easily, though she had him a little jumpy.  He could hear water with his feline hearing and he could sense her hyperactivity, too.  He left the acknowledgement of these things at an instinctual level though, and did his best to keep his mind on the task at hand.

"Well... how did you find out about the Oligarchy and what supernaturals do you know about, for a start?" he pressed, not able - or willing - to simply leap into telling her everything he knew.  That would not please his boss; finding out what she knew and where she\'d found it out from... that would.

[Harlequin]

Ami shrugged. She understood that Tau needed to ask this shit , and was glad that he did – if he hadn\'t, she wouldn\'t trust him. She addressed his questions in order. "Found out about it from some guy at Risk." She looked at him askance, "I\'m not a groupie, though. I fuckin\' hate those kids. There are better fuckin\' ways to die, y\'know?" She shook her head, "Anyway. Figured I\'d show. Get my shit together."

Getting hot in her jacket in the warm night air, she rummaged through the pockets, stuffing things into her jeans pockets, which slowed her walk. Nonethelss, she continued, "Vampires, I know of. Never been bit, never want to. Knew a couple shifty-ass Werewolves. Least, that\'s what they called themselves." Once everything was transferred, she paused and shrugged off her jacket, casting a quick look around to imprint the surroundings in her mind, she hung the garment on a branch.

She stretched, the muscle bunching and flexing liquidly beneath the tattooed flesh of her arms, and the bare slice of flat belly that showed under her T-shirt before she slumped her shoulders again and moved on, hands jammed into her back pockets, "Shifters, too." She nodded in his direction, showing that she\'d remembered his name, and what he did.

[Existentially Odd]

He had the grace to raise his eyebrows at the shifter reference and it momentarily deterred him from asking about she\'d found Risk in the first place.  It didn\'t surprise him she\'s had a lot to do vampires and some \'shifty-ass\' lycans there, either.

"You\'ve met shifters?  What sort?  Did they transform for you?"

[Harlequin]

Ami nodded, "One, a kid. Could turn into a cat. Somethin\' was fucked about \'im, though." She shrugged, shook her head, "Don\'t remember that much. I think the Wolves were shifters, too, \'cause Real Werewolves only change with the moon, right?"

She looked at him, one brow raised, hoping for some kind of confirmation. She heard the thunder of the waterfall, now, over the other usual night sounds, and she quickened her pace. Almost there; New moon, tonight, and she was anxious to see it, away from the smog of the city.

[Existentially Odd]

"Correct," he agreed, "lycans are goverened by the moon and when they change... they don\'t look like wolves.  You would have to have seen wolf shifters.  The child, though - the one that turned into a cat - why do you say there was something wrong with him?  Or was it a her?" he asked, his interest very obviously piqued by the notion of another cat shifter.

"What sort of cat did they become?" he added, busy looking at Ami, impressed that she was a challenge to keep up with but fascinated moreso by the conversation.

[Harlequin]

Ami, once again, shrugged her shoulders noncommitally, "Housecat. Tiger stripes, or whatever. I think so, anyway. He was like...stuck, halfway in between," She shivered, and rubbed her arms – though she obviously wasn\'t cold, "Gave me the creeping willies. Felt sorry for the kid, though."

Finally, they came \'round a last meandering bend in the path, and trees opened up to the waterfall. The path diverged, here; you could take one fork down into the cave  behind the waterfall, hollowed out by years of spray – or you could go upwards, to where the ground plateaued into rocky outcroppings around the top of the waterfall, "Up, or down?" asked Ami, turning to her companion.

[Existentially Odd]

"Up," he said, pre-occupied with thoughts of a child stuck mid-transformation.  He could recall no such being on his lists, but it concerned him greatly.  As they began heading in the direction he named, he was compelled to ask for more information on the topic dearest to him.

"This child; he was here, in this city?  Or elsewhere?  And do you have a name or location for him?" he pressed.

[Harlequin]

Ami tilted her face up, toward the sky, and shook her head, "Naw. Different city. Place we were before. We were there for a couple weeks, got mindfucked, then booked it for the next town." Soon, they\'d reached the top of the path, where the air was heavy and cool with mist from the waterfall.

"I forget what the city was called," she said, stopping to admire the view, "Kid\'s name was...Shit I forget that, too. Somethin\' with a K. Friend of mine got close to \'im. I kept my distance, though."

[Existentially Odd]

"Oh," Tau uttered, watching her intently.  She didn\'t have any useful information for him, really, and other cities were certainly beyond his jurisdiction.  After a few moments, he looked away from her, since he\'d begun admiring her features beneath the effects of the environment and he didn\'t feel that was at all appropriate.

"The Oligarchy protects supernaturals of all forms.  Governs their actions here, too, for the betterment and protection of every species housed within this city," he told her, looking up at the sky now and sounding a little like he was repeating something he\'d been told (because he was).  "They have human liaisons but they guard their existences carefully and are unknown to the human race generally.  The Oligarchy monitors as many non-supernaturals as they possibly can - those who have knowledge of such things, anyway - but they can\'t be everywhere.  This is why everything about them is guarded so carefully; protection," he informed her.

His gaze shifted back to her face now.  "The fact that you know, that you\'re aware, is a liability for you, but since you were... educated... in another city and learned such secrets elsewhere, you shouldn\'t be in danger.  The Oligarchy cares only for those here."  He stopped talking, to let her digest this information - which likely wasn\'t anything she didn\'t already know but he didn\'t quite know how to answer her other requests without having her voice them again, or singularly.

[Harlequin]

She lowered her eyes from the moonless sky, and found his face, "So unless me and mine stir shit up, we\'ve got nothing to worry about from the Oligarchy?" She nodded. They could handle that.

Well, most of them could.

Okay, about half of them could.

"But what about the rest? The shifters and the were-whatevers and the Vampires. I don\'t know anything about any of \'em, other than they know how to hurt." She sighed, and sat down heavily, resting her back against a boulder. She sat with her knees up, slouched, masculine, and unrolled a battered pack of cigarettes from one short sleeve.

[Existentially Odd]

He turned to watch her sit, eyeing her steadily.  "Well... that\'s the most important thing," he told her flatly.

"You won\'t always know you\'re in the presence of a supernatural because you don\'t have the senses to gather that sort of information, but the fact that you\'re aware of their existence gives you an advantage most people in this city don\'t have.  Of course... the fact that you frequent a club like Risk... that\'s going to raise your chances of exposure to danger, because it\'s a known haven.  Specifically to vampires and their prey, but to supenaturals looking for somewhere to relax in general.  Are you sure it\'s a place you want to go?"

If she wanted to know how to stay safe, then he believed avoiding the nightclub was steo number one, but he wasn\'t going to state it outright.  His implication was clear enough.