Skyline and Starry trade death for a taste

Characters: Elara, Reese

Location: Sanctuary

Date: 28 May 2021

As the elevator at Sanctuary’s entrance begins opening, anyone nearby can hear the last few seconds of a song being blared over phone speakers, accompanied by a voice singing along. Both phone and voice stop abruptly as soon as the doors open wide enough to see through.

Reese steps out of the elevator, looking around for anyone who might be Skyline. Not seeing anyone on the immediate area, they pick a spot and wait, humming quietly as they play a mobile game with one hand and twirl a small drawstring pouch around their finger with the other.

It's a few more minutes before someone else comes by, stepping off the Path. It's pretty definitely Skyline; the ghoul doesn't seem to be in very good shape at all, though the dog at her side seems to be perfectly fine. She's distinctly Japanese in appearance, but her clothes are more Western, plain and worn. She looks thin and starved, her hands clearly clawed. One of them is on her dog's back, digging in a little to keep herself steady. There's a small pack on her back.

The dog is large golden retriever, with a greater mass than its owner, in fact; it seems like a perfectly normal dog, tongue lolling out cheerfully as it pads forward. How it tolerates an undead *touching* it is...

As the pair approaches the ghoul scans the area warily. "You Starry?" she asks, approaching them.

That is a brummy accent.

They look up from their phone, locking it and sliding it into their pocket in one quick motion. Their eyes linger on Skyline's claws for a moment when they look down at her, but they don't stare, and their face keeps its neutral tired expression.

"Yep, that's me. Skyline?"

While waiting for her response, they open the drawstring pouch and pull out a necklace. It's not very fancy, just a small, round metal token engraved with a symbol, hanging from a length of black cord. It gently swings backs and forth as they hold it, the token catching the lights of the hotel.

"Yeah, you can call me that." She pauses a bit away from them, unslinging her backpack; she sets it on the dog's back and digs inside it, coming out with a plastic bottle, about double the amount requested. The liquid inside is a smooth black, stained deeply with red. "Didn't manage to figure out how to get you pure stuff, so I got extra, just in case. Hope its still useful, I guess. Still want it?"

Reese tilts their head slightly when they see the bottle, leaning in a bit to look at it more closely.

"I can *prooobably* still work with that. Do you know what else is in it?"

"Blood and violence, I think. Fuckers I scraped it from tend to do quite a bit of sacrifice and shit." The girl's tone is bitter, and her jaw works; the hand that isn't holding the bottle clenches.

They grimace at the mention of sacrifice, but it's quickly replaced with a look of interest.

"That might be good, actually. Uh, for me, at least. If I can figure out how to separate it, I can probably use the violence for something else. I'll still take it."

They hold out their hand to accept the bottle.

The girl snorts. "Don't use it for shitty stuff," she tells them. "That'd be fucked up." She slings the pack on her back and approaches, carefully placing the bottle in hand and then turning her hand over, clearly expectant.

Freed of his burden, the dog barks cheerfully and pads over as well, tail wagging.

"Hmm, yeah, that did sound kinda bad. Just more magic glasses, if I can get it to work out. Hopefully nothing fucked up there."

They take the bottle and hand over the necklace. On closer inspected, the engraved symbol is the outline of an apple.

"I put it on a cord, but as long as you're wearing it somehow, it should work, so you can stick it on a charm bracelet or something if you want."

Idly, they hold their hand out for the dog to sniff.

The girl takes it quickly, hand closing over it as she immediately retreats. Like someone might take it. "Okay," she says.

The dog brightens, bounding right up to Reese delightedly to sniff their hand and then lick affectionately, nuzzling. Its... its a normal dog, yeah, definitely. That definitely feels like a normal affectionate dog.

The girl *sighs.* "Max, are you *really* like this with everyone?" she asks exasperatedly.

The dog ignores her, tail wagging rapidly.

Reese's attention shifts to Max almost immediately after Skyline moves away. They smile and crouch down to Max's level, petting him and scratching behind his ears. They chuckle at Skyline's comment.

"I think that's just how golden retrievers are."

After a few moments of petting, a look of realization crosses their face.

"Oh, do you want do test it out, make sure it works?"

With their non-petting hand, they reach into their jacket pocket and rifle around.

"I think I have some gum- you can chew gum, right?"

The dog is absolutely delighted with the treatment, shoving up against the affection and then licking Reese's face, tail wag wag wagging. He's a *weighty* creature, that's for sure.

"I... can, I guess. Doesn't really do much for me nowadays, but... yeah?" The girl approaches Reese again, warily, like a skittish cat. "If it'll taste like something while I've got this thing... sounds great."

They sputter slightly at the face-licking, standing back up to escape Max's reach, but the petting continues. With a small look of triumph, they pull a slightly crumpled pack of mint gum from their jacket and flick it open with their thumb, folding it out for Skyline to take a piece.

"It's sensory magic, so it *should* let you taste it, as long as the taste thing isn't, like, a powerful curse it'd be fighting against."

"Does 'being dead' count as a curse?" She skewers a piece with a claw, yanking it off and then putting it in her mouth. She winds the cord of the necklace around her wrist, holding the symbol warily, and chews.

She sits, abruptly. "Shit," she says, with feeling. She chews some more, visibly luxuriating - something about her demeanour makes Reese think that she'd probably cry, if she could - before abruptly reaching up to pull it out of her mouth. She stands, awkward, seeming embarrassed. "It, uh, yeah. It works."

The dog - which had been licking at Reese's hands for lack of the ability to reach the face - pauses, looking over at its owner with concern.

Reese mirrors Max's look of concern.

"I'm, uh. Glad it works. Everything okay?"

She glares at them. "The thing *works,* what more do you need to know?" Then she winces, looking away. "Fuck. Sorry. Just haven't tasted anything other'n raw flesh in... a while. Y'know?" She folds her arms. "If you need anything else you'll trade for another of those things you think I can get, lemme know."

They wilt slightly at the glare, a response that looks a little strange on someone just over six feet tall, but it only lasts for a moment before they nod, giving Max another scratch.

"I'll keep you in mind. If you can get any more conceptual stuff like the Death, or magic items, even weak ones, I can probably find a use for them. Or, y'know, money. The charms don't take much to make, I wouldn't charge much for them."

“Should be able to scrape up something. Trouble might be getting something that ain’t massively fucked up though. Not really a good plan for me to go after folks that ain’t shitty, unfortunately, so. Anyway.” She glances at her dog. “Lemme know when you’re done patting him. If we’re done I should be getting back ‘fore anyone notices I ain’t in the city.”

“Fucked up is okay, as long as it won’t fuck *me* up.”

Max gets a few more scratches and pats before Reese withdraws their hand.

“I’m done, I don’t wanna keep you if you have somewhere to be.”

“There’s some shit I don’t want *anyone* to have.” She says it with vicious firmness. She nods. “Bye. Have a good day or whatever.”

She whistles as she turns and walks away; Max rears up on his hind legs to get in one last lick of Reese’s face before bouncing off after her.

They sputter some more at the face licking, pushing Max away gently.

“Fair, I guess. Good luck with going after shitty people.”

They hang around for a bit as Skyline leaves, examining the bottle of Death and letting her make her way to the exit alone. They decide it’s probably best not to make the skittish ghoul girl think they’re following her.