Secrets of Chicago (Open & Accepting!)

[cocogerber13]

Eventide, “Evan” // Dragon - Human Researcher // Location: Outside of The Crystal Core// Tags: Izzy

Eventide could only give a hum of understanding when Izzy explained her situation, connecting the dots between what she had said and the tremor he had felt through the building. “I suppose that would be a bit alarming...” the human-turned-dragon lifted a hand to scratch the back of his neck as he considered the situation. “Although I wonder if it would be possible to just make it out of a nonflammable material..?” He suggested off handedly. When the ooze had started to write on her arm, Evan tilted his head curiously to watch- up until she looked back at him. “Ah, well, unfortunately I am a sky dragon so I don’t have personal experience with that, but fire breath is one of the more common abilities for us to have. Quite a few of us have elemental ties however, so maybe something with that could work? I could try to round up a few rain clouds for you if you think they would help in some way.” He had started out a little flustered at the fire-breathing question, forgetting that he hadn’t really explained himself to a lot of people, but did his best to remember anything he might’ve picked up from a conversation with one of his distant relatives. It had been a few centuries however, so he couldn’t offer much.

“Um, I could also always use the wind to cool the area surrounding your work if that could isolate any... accidents?” As if to see if he could do it himself, the purple-haired humanoid lifted a hand to face palm-up, creating a small, swirling vortex that eventually took on a more spherical form. The only indication that it was actually there was the sound and wind flow if you were close enough to it. Evantide had used this tactic around his entire body at times, such as when he was in an uncomfortably hot or cold area or if the wind around him was far more quick than he had wanted to deal with.

“It’s pretty easy to watch what is happening through it, and I can control it pretty well. Although...” As he switched the invisible air orb into his other hand to show the potion maker even closer, he added his own conditions. “in return, I wonder if you would allow me to inquire about a potion I am looking for myself..?” Evan’s head tilted innocently, although his facial expression made it evident that he felt a little bashful for requesting something. “If... if it isn’t too much trouble, of course.” He added and cleared his throat.

[Consulting_Angel]

Ryker Garrett
28|Male|Human
Location: Supernatural Archives
Tagged: Open

Ryker noticed the writing on the envelope was silvery and elegant, as though someone of a higher status had written on it. Opening the envelope and taking the note out, the writing was the same - all silvery and elegant. But the words were... confusing.

'Protect them... they will be arriving soon. Your world will be threatened.'
And listed below the writing was a rather hefty payment that Ryker knew he couldn't pass up, as well as the name for one of the backstreets. But, he thought, who was 'them'? A single being or multiple? It wasn't entirely clear. It was a very ominous note, and it didn't help he couldn't talk to whoever had written it. It couldn't have been Lucinda, the writing wasn't her's. In fact, he didn't know anyone who wrote like that. But he had a location to go to, so he figured that would be a good start.

Standing up, Ryker gathered his things, and left the book he had been reading on the seat he'd been on. He left the Archives, to start to make his way towards the street that was on the note.

Lucinda Cora
26|Female|Gorgon
Location: Supernatural Archives
Tagged: Rhysand

As one of her snakes carefully placed the last book on the shelf, Lucinda stood there, admiring her organisation of it. It'd taken a while to list exact reference numbers for the books, and making sure that relevant books were grouped together - for ease of finding the information required.

She turned as she heard the door open - which she hadn't done when she'd noticed the hooded stranger earlier at her desk, which was odd - and raised an eyebrow as she watched Rhysand walk over and place a wrapped bundle onto her desk. The odd occurrence forgotten, Lucinda walked over with curiosity.
"Special delivery?" she asked, sounding quite skeptical, but was also unable to keep out the curiosity in her tone. Had it been anyone else she was talking to, perhaps she would have been annoyed with herself for it. "Hmm... I'd guess it was a book, perhaps? Or another artefact? Though I don't know many that would be this size. But... what for? I doubt this gift doesn't come with strings." Lucinda spoke, voicing her thoughts.

She then added, still slightly skeptical, "If it is, I can promise you that you'll feel how painful a bite from one of these babies," she gestured to her snakes, "will be."

Xanthe Chicane
"23"|Nonbinary|Mothman
Location: Street
Tagged: Open

Xanthe, entirely unaware that they were being followed, took off their sunglasses, thinking that it would be relatively safe for them to do so. And they were right - to an extent. Their eyes to any regular human were their 'human' ones and nothing was amiss. But to those that could see through the veil, their eyes would appear to shift until they were large, red and... moth-like.

They walked a couple more blocks until they'd reached the backstreet they were looking for, and casually stepped into the lane - not that they really expected anyone to be paying attention. From outside on the street, it would appear quiet and dark, but stepping into it - for those that could 'pass through' - it would become more alive with supernatural beings and buildings. One or two greeted Xanthe as they arrived, and they stood there for a few moments, just to readjust their grip on the bag they were holding.

[cocogerber13]

Celia Chase // Visiting Human - Starting a New Life // Location: Street > supernatural street // Tags: Xanthe, open

Celia was quite content following the tall landmark for a little while, taking the chance to leisurely glance around at the scenery passing them by. Not that she actually recognized any of it just yet, of course. Luckily for her, the stranger in front of her didn’t seem to pick up on her use of them as a tour guide, and she didn’t feel any need to actually approach them and risk disturbing their walk. Up until she noticed that something was... a little strange. After one of her periodic glances to the figure, she couldn’t help but notice them taking off what appeared to be a set of sunglasses, despite the sun still being fully out. It was a little odd, but surely not as odd as what was happening behind those sunglasses; a set of eyes that she could’ve sworn were normal human ones up until that moment appeared to ripple- almost like water- and then look far redder and rounder then before.

The woman sharply inhaled, almost but not quite stopping her gait, and quickly followed the mysterious person(?) towards the lane they had stepped in. After the short walk Celia had felt a personal sense of indebtedness to the figure even if the favor they had done her hadn’t even really gotten her any closer to her new home (she still doesn’t know where she is) but she also considered herself a decent person- and if someone had an eye injury or something similar, she would offer help or at least ask them if they needed it. “Ah, hey, wait a second!” Celia called out just as Xanthe stepped onto the next street, and, following after them, abruptly stopped in her step. The street she had stepped into feasibly looked... different... from the street she had seen from the other street. And... was that someone with wings? And feathers coming out of their hair? Celia quickly looked away as to not be rude with her staring, and instead turned her gaze to the rest of the scene. Store windows showed a variety of things that seemed almost like magic- tattoos that came alive on your skin, clothing that shifted to contrast whatever colors were behind it, potions, and of course a few other interesting characters such as the feathered one she saw when she first entered. Speaking of which...

Hazel eyes slowly moved to where Celia had seen her tall “friend” disappear into the street, desperately hoping that they hadn’t heard her call to them. Even if they were human as she had originally thought, it would still be quite awkward to have to explain why exactly she had been tailing them. Perhaps she could play it off as calling to someone else? But seeing as how she was startled by the change of scenery as well as staring straight at them, she didn’t think it was a viable excuse.

[the.smitty]

──────────────────── Rhysand • twenty-five • phoenix • healer • tags; lucinda, josh • location; archives

Absentmindedly twirling a pen left askew on the relatively tidy desk, Rhys’ vigilant orbs followed Lucy’s approaching figure, his lips curling in self-assumed triumph. Given how frequently he perused the archives records, he is almost accustomed to the gorgon’s intimidating aura. Almost. He’d be foolish to underestimate her regardless.

A soft, humoured hum rumbled through his chest, motioning for her to open the present with a flick of his wrist as he spoke, “You’re on the right track. I'm intimately aware that this treasure is missing from your collection…” Ah, she knew him well. His gaze lingered on those lethal snakes of hers, brows raised as he reminisced on his last bite; it was their speed that caught him off guard. However, a deadly bite would wake him up better than any coffee could, given his regenerative abilities. His late-night client kept him up until the wee hours of the morning, and his mind is still groggy from the lack of sleep he’d received. “Tsk, don’t tempt me with a good time.”

“Now, now, it’s yours to enjoy. All I ask is that you keep me in your thoughts if your connections find anything of interest.” He answered honestly, waiting for her to unwrap the parcel. His head cocked towards the door, flashing the newcomer a devilish grin as he eyed him up, his subconsciously straightening as he pushed off the desk, “Morning sunshine.”

[InfectedHau]

Izzy Ramirez IX||23||Female||Ooze||Street||Tagged: Evan

"That would be an option," Izzy said, not looking up from her doodles as they turned onto the main Supernatural street, "but sleeping in an asbestos bed isn't really a pleasant experience,
or so I'm told." She didn't really need beds. Or furniture. What was the point when she could make her own? She only had the lab table because she needed a chemically neutral surface. "And yeah, magical water is great for making Infused Halon, it's more of a reactive measure than what I'm looking for." Wind, though... obviously the last thing she'd want in a fire resistance potion, but perhaps there was a slightly different application. Food for thought. "What kind of potion were you interested in?"

[Foe Paw]

☘ Aʟᴇxᴀɴᴅʀᴇ ᴅᴇ Aʟᴄᴀ̂ɴᴛᴀʀᴀ
---- he/him • 26 • visiting human • location. street > alley• tags. ryker

alex and his sister wandered through the streets of chicago. sílvia rambled on and on about anything that caught her eye, as was her usual talking style, leaving alex with a comfortable pace of nodding along and interjecting with his comments when a break in the fast-paced portuguese.
"oh, also, i heard there's a clearance sale on that shop next street over. do you want to go take a look?" sílvia was telling him as they walked.
"to be honest, i think i'm ready to call it a day. i'm lazy now, don't you know, it's enough walking for me." seeing that she was hesitating between abandoning her hunt and leaving him alone, alex continued. "you should go, though! i'll just stop at this café and then go back home."

they had a bit of a back and forth, but sílvia did want to go, so after a while she let him have his way and went on ahead without him. alex, much like he'd told her he was going to do, made a beeline for the closest coffeeshop, collapsing on an outdoor table, dropping his heavy pack besides him. it was galling, being this out of shape. he thought he'd had more than enough physical therapy to compensate for how long he spent in a bed, but after a long day of walking all across town his remaining leg was screaming at him to take his weight off of it, and the prosthesis' socket was twinging painfully as well. scoffed at himself for being this tired after a bit of walking on downtown chicago, but he'd concede and take a break before limping back home.

he ordered an espresso and settled in to wait, watching people come and go through the streets. he was getting fairly bored with people-watching until something odd caught his eye; a flash of too-bright color from the crowd, a shape almost like wings. it was gone so soon that he wasn't sure he saw it at all, but sure enough, there it was, moving further up down the street, too far for him to see what it was clearly through the crowds. curiosity piqued, alex almost jumped out of his seat at spotting it again. he dug from his wallet enough money for the drink he was abandoning and the tip, grabbed his pack from under the table, and went after it, trying to follow the figure. they turned a corner, though, and when he finally managed to catch up enough to reach it, he saw nothing of the strange sight on the alley he was standing in. the only thing of note was a man in his thirties walking through the alley. normal looking guy, although from his posture and hardened looks alex got the definite impression of a soldier of some sort.

"hey, sorry to bother-" alex limped a bit closer to the guy before he could walk past him and out the streets, glancing at the empty alley ahead of them before continuing. "this might be a weird question, but did you see something... strange walk by just now? kinda big, really colorful?"

[Craboom-047]

Joshua Reynolds|30|the Mysterious|Accustomed human|tags/mentions: open/Rhysand|Supernatural Archives

This place was certainly something else, in Joshua's mind. This, of course, was not in a bad way at all, quite the contrary in fact. He had been around this area a few times before, although it had been a few months since then. He wondered if anything had changed since he was last around. From a first glance the place still had a familiar aura around it, which gave him both a feeling of comfort and unease. He started to realize he was just standing at the entrance and decided to let go of the door and start to make her way into the visitor's center, doing what he could to take in his surroundings as he made his way towards the slightly intimidating figure up ahead. As he moved along, the guy he saw enter moved past him and seemed to speak to him. Josh silently gulped, not sure what to do at first, before saying, "Good day to you."
As he made his way past the other guy, he directed his attention towards the person at the counter. He suspected these two were supernatural, but he could not quite know for sure. He just knew this was the area where supernaturals tended to hang around.

Metilaeno Aquithea|"Maeve"|"25"|Weapon Enchanter|Siren|tags/mentions: open|street

Meti continued on her journey over to the Crystal Core, checking her list over and over again as she made her way along. She looked up at the sky, curious about what the weather would offer over the next few days. She was hoping for rain at some point in time, hopefully sooner rather than later. That way she was actually able to sound normal, like she did when she went for a swim in the lake. In most scenarios it sounded a bit echoey, enough so to make her stand out, and that was the last thing she wanted, especially around humans. She allowed some trusted supernaturals the privilege, but that circle is quite small. That was not important to her for now. She concluded she just needed to work around her communication barrier until she was in a more secluded the area. Fortunately she trusted the owner of the potion shop. It was a place she frequented enough to be familiar enough with the owner of the shop.
Before she could even realize, she was at the familiar location once more. She slowed down her pace at the realization she had zoned out during her walk. As she got closer, she noticed some familiar figures outside the shop.

[Consulting_Angel]

Ryker Garrett
28|Male|Human
Location: Alleyway
Tagged: Alex

He'd been tempted to go back to his apartment and get a weapon or two, just in case, but Ryker decided to risk it and go without weapons... well, without anything extra than the enchanted knife he carried with him. He could hold his own in a physical fight anyway, even against a few supernatural beings, so he wasn't too concerned. Although, he wondered if he should be. After all, he'd been given the location of an alleyway, with no further instructions. Was he supposed to meet someone?

Reaching the alleway, Ryker hovered between the threshold - the one separating the supernatural street and the human one. It was a bit of a weird feeling - not quite being in one place or another - but he figured it would give him an advantage of some sort. And then, he caught sight of another human, looking as though he'd been following something... and as though he'd clearly been through some stuff, judging from the limp and the pack he was carrying. And, then... the question.

Ryker hesitated. Should he lie? Or admit that he also saw the colourful being pass by? It didn't seem like the human was lying, and... well, unless the human crossed the threshold and really could see through the veil - like he could - then it would have appeared the colourful thing just disappeared. Was... this who he was meant to be meeting?
Realising he'd been silent for a while, Ryker made a decision. "I... did. I imagine they were just getting home - not always safe to be out late, even for those guys." he replied. "Although," Ryker folded his arms, "most people can't see them. Not like that, anyway."

Lucinda Cora
26|Female|Gorgon
Location: Supernatural Archives
Tagged: Rhysand, Josh

Okay, that definitely had her interest. Something that wasn't in her collection? Practically a perfect gift for her. "Is it an old piece of literature? Something I could spend hours reading over?" she questioned, certain that she already knew the answer to that. She loved to read her new books and articles before putting them out on the shelves. If it was an especially precious piece, then she'd have it hidden away in the back, only for her to access - for the preservation, of course.

She let out a short, surprisingly pleasant, laugh. "I'm sure at least one of them would oblige whether you want them to or not... if you get too close." Lucinda replied.
Returning attention towards the book, she nodded, and carefully unwrapped it, her eyes widening at the sight of the book. Now this was something special. She'd been hoping to persuade a seller to give it to her, but had no luck. "Oh, now this is certainly something worth quite a bit from me." She thought for a moment, then seemed to have remembered something. "Ah - I think I can get a good start on that."
Opening a desk drawer, she pulled out an envelope - the same she'd given Ryker. "Some hooded figure left them. Guess they knew you'd be here - left one for that bounty hunter, Ryker, as well." she pushed the one with 'Rysand' written on it across the desk.

Glancing towards the newcomer, a human that she'd seen around a few times, arrive, Lucinda nodded towards him in greeting. "Hello. Do you need any help?" she asked.

Xanthe Chicane
"23"|Nonbinary|Mothman
Location: Street
Tagged: Celia

They'd been about to wander further into the street, to get back home, when they were sure they heard the voice of someone behind them calling out. Xanthe paused, and turned around. Their eyes widened slightly as they saw a human, stood in the street, clearly seeing everything that... well, humans weren't generally meant to see. But, Xanthe thought, they'd thought the last of the humans who could see and be here had done so fifteen years ago.
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that long ago, but still. Xanthe definitely didn't recognise the human. With a yelp, Xanthe scrambled to put their sunglasses back on, dropping their bag in the process - which fortunately landed upright. Not that it would have made a difference, they realised, if the human had already seen their eyes.

Still, they leaned down to pick up their bag, and then took a hesitant step towards the human. "... Yes..?" Xanthe asked, carefully, trying not to appear too threatening.

[the.smitty]

──────────────────── Rhysand • twenty-five • phoenix • healer • tags; lucinda, josh • location; archives

A cheshire grin spread across his features. Satisfied with her surprised reaction, he liked to think the pair were growing increasingly tolerable of each others’ presence. Dare he alludes to his budding friendship with the deadly gorgon. “Days even, you might need bigger archives soon,” he humoured, discarding the pen he tinkered with. He reached up and clicked his fingers into a point aimed towards those tempting snakes. If only he didn’t have an afternoon client lined up, he’d say yes. “You know Luci, I bet those babies of yours think I’m delicious.”

Chuckling at his luck, he cocked a brow at her comment, already? How? Rhys’ hesitantly took the letter, intrigued by the silver lettering. “Them?” He repeated, rolling his eyes at the mention of Ryker. If Ryker was involved, he didn’t doubt the legitimacy of the letter. Moving to the side as the newcomer approached, he carelessly tore the envelope open, idly watching the pair – did he know him from somewhere?

Frowning, his eyes glazed across the elegant silver writing – ‘protect them… your world will be threatened...’ the ambiguity of it was tempting enough for him. Humming, he pushed off the desk; if Ryker received a similar letter, he assumed he would be heading towards the backstreet scrawled on the letter. Perhaps he knew something. “Pardon love, I have a bounty hunter to track down. I'll catch you later.”

[Foe Paw]

☘ Aʟᴇxᴀɴᴅʀᴇ ᴅᴇ Aʟᴄᴀ̂ɴᴛᴀʀᴀ
---- he/him • 26 • visiting human • location. alley• tags. open

alex stood there, trying not to fidget as the taller man paused for a long while, with an expression of concentration passing through his sharply angled face. alex noticed a scar sitting on his neck, almost hidden under the collar of the leather jacket. he thought, from the guarded look, that the man was giving him a similar once-over. probably rating the amount of trouble he'd get from alex if something happened, and the conversation with a total stranger who approached him on an empty alley turned sour. the answer being, of course, not very, not right now. although alex could probably go down swinging, or maybe brain him with his pack.

when the man replied, alex pounced on it, his curiosity well and truly stoked. "oh? wait, what does that even mean? people can't see them? also, if you said 'those guys', you must know who they were or at least what that- that-" alex spluttered, trying to come up with the vocabulary to explain a thing he only really saw for a second. he gestured vaguely with his hands, trying to give the impression of wings, before catching himself mid-rant and trying to pull back. "wait, i'm sorry, i've been bombarding you with questions, i didn't mean to. hey, my name is alex! would you mind a chat? maybe you have to get going somewhere... ? don't mean to keep you here on my account."