This particular range happens to be closed at the moment and a couple spotlights are set up with their beams directed at one of the castle walls. A ladder is propped against it where the beams converge and there's an old, beat-up toolbox nearby. A bluetooth speaker set on the ground next to it, playing music at a reasonable volume. Something from the 90's is being issued from the compact speaker right now.
At the top of the ladder is Mavis, her hips heavy with a toolbelt. She has a cordless drill in one hand, safety goggles over her eyes, and the powertool whirRRrs over the music with a sharp squeal.
The mortal is dressed for the weather, apparently. A knitted beanie, in gradients shades of yellow and gray, is pulled over her head and matching fingerless gloves are snugged around her hands. She wears a dark hoodie with a wool-lined aviator-styled jacket zipped over it and a pair of jeans with purple leggings peeking between threadbare knees. Black, scuffed, and paint-spattered boots clad her feet, the soles balanced on two rungs of the ladder, one foot staggered higher than the other. She appears utterly focused on her task at the top of that ladder, repairing a turret that had somehow been damaged earlier that day.
Save her music and work, the night was relatively quiet and the place peaceful. Then something shifts down further below. A shadow or something moving about. Any attention given down to the shade relays nothing. A trick of the mind, or the usual eyes playing tricks. A sound echoes here, and that shadow seems much more alive than it seemed at first.
She can eventually put a face to the disurbance when a tall fellow is standing on the walls, effortlessly so. "You're strange." Says the man that showed up in the blink of an eye. "Where is the taller one? The rain-" He stops, his blue gaze looking her up and down. Despite the weather he's wearing a t-shirt and a pair of beach shorts, and, oddest of all, looks be wet and his clothes are dry. He cants his head briefly, brow quirked. "The rainbow lady."
Something far below her moves, a piece of the darkness gliding. The squeal of the powertool halts as Mavis' safety-goggled face peers down to squint at the ground beneath her. A moment later, the dusky-skinned mortal shrugs and the drill-bit is slotted back into the screw left half stuck out of the wall.
A voice drifts up to her, though, before she can pull the trigger on that drill and Mavis gives a startled jolt. Her heart sinks into her stomach and then her stomach does a little flip like she'd missed a step going down the stairs. She grabs the ladder and glares down with an annoyed expression.
"Why's that?" she wants to know, taking some offense at either being called weird or being started so. The drill whirs again before Mavis permits an answer, driving the screw into the wall, and then her heavy boots are clunking down the ladder. She huffs, although it must be from nerves rather than exertion.
There's a ruddy flush in Mavis' cheeks from the cold when she turns to Hien, pausing and seeming surprised about how very ta-----all he is. Then she notices his clothes, how he's dressed for summer and she thinks that if she reached out to touch them then her fingertips would come away wet. Nevertheless, though, Mavis peers up into his face and her free hand pulls the goggles down so they hang 'round her neck.
"You're looking for November," she tells him, shrugging her shoulders and peering around like the rainbow-hued woman might appear upon mentioning her by name. She looks back at him, unhelpfully. "If she's not in her office then I dunno. This area's supposed to be closed during maintenance, though. Legal reasons and stuff."
"Yes, that one. I keep thinking that her name is April. Or May. Yes, I think I'll call her May." He shrugs, head tilting to the left as he observes the stranger. Then his shoulders briefly sag, and he briefly flashes a teeth that look far too sharp for a human.
Hien shakes his head to remove whatever thought came to mind as all of his attention falls upon Mavis. "For someone so obvious that witch is hard to pin down." A second passes and his head tilts in the other direction. "Who are you?" he asks rather bluntly. "I expected her to hire people-" His voice trails off for a beat, and he adds, "Different. Strange. Stranger. Strange than you, I mean."
Wow, he's tall. It's hard not to be hyper-aware of this now that she's down on the ground with him. Mavis cracks a grin at him and then she looks away as if she were checking for her boss again. She peers back in time to catch Hien's smile and, for just a second, the mortal's dark eyebrows raise. Mavis tries to hide her surprise by glancing down at her paint-spattered boots.
"Is that what makes me weird then?" she asks him, looking back up again. This time, Mavis sounds less offended by his observations than she had before now that the shock of being startled up at the top of a ladder was wearing off. She was still holding that drill, though, and now she's pursing her lips at him thoughtfully.
The song issued from the bluetooth speaker ends, there's a brief silence, and the next song begins.
"I'm Mavis," she tells him, shooting up a prim smile. Then, Mavis jerks her chin at Hien, adding, "You're one of them, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am one of me," he says with a swell of pride and a thumb jabbed into his chest. He's smiling again, flashing that queer smile. "My people come from strange lands, both vast and wide." He lowers his gaze again to meet her, and the smile soon fades.
"Really, though, I'm from Arizona, and this place is still so fucking weird," he says deadpan. A shake of his head follows as his gaze flicks to the speaker and its music. "Hien Almas."
To give Mavis some credit, she takes all of Hien's strangeness in good stride. His confirmation was an answer she had been expecting, it wasn't as though the Lost was going to great lengths to hide himself. His wet clothes, impossible height, and that sharp-toothed smile.
"Nice to meet you, Hien," she tells him, sounding as though she meant it. "I moved here this year-- and yeah, this place is fucking weird."
Mavis turns away, not in an unsociable way, but to start packing up her tools. She pulls her phone out of the top tray of the toolbox and the music shuts off, leaving them with close silence and the distant sounds of customers roaming the UV night range. The phone is slipped into her pocket, powertool stored in the toolbox. The lid creaks when she flips it down and locks the latch.
"I'll tell May you came by looking for her," she tacks on, glancing over a shoulder to peer back at him with a grin. "I'm about to take my break and prob'ly shouldn't just leave you here." That legal stuff she'd mentioned. "And we can check to see if her car's here."
"Nice to meet you too and all o' that." he says when moving along. As he does so a faint chirping echoes from behind him. "And thanks. For every moment I do catch her one of us has to be lost to the wind." He shrugs. "It's always hard to tell if it's coming or going."
He smiles at the thought that brings, one of the few she's seen that likely seem genuine. "Right. 'Course she would be driving around." His eyes roll, and he lets out a chuckle. "How'd you even end up working here?"
Mavis cuts her eyes at Hien to shoot him a puzzled expression when he says that strange stuff about being lost in the wind. She just shakes her head and shrugs about it, though, heading with him towards the exit.
"I asked for a job," she tells him simply. "November hired me." The mortal scoffs out a laugh and her breath puffs in the air. She shoves her hands into her pockets to try to coax warmth back into her icy fingers and muses, "You really do seem surprised about that. "And that November drives. I guess that could seem strange." Didn't to her, but hey.
"Other people, even you? Yeah, I expect you to drive. Even drive yourselves, too." Hien shakes his head, and crosses his arms over his chest as he walks. "It's strange. Like rainbow brite, but a different kind of-" Another shake of his head comes. "You know what he means."
"I wonder if I could get a job here," he muses. The absent-minded thought is brushed aside with a laugh. "Who am I kidding. If I had my way I'd turn half of this place into some Ninja Warrior bullshit, and see how many people can faceplant." Something chirps behind him again, and he unfurls his arms to reach behind his back. "Worst case, I pay out the nose for that one nutjob that somehow breaks both their arms or something."
Mavis couldn't refute him. Yeah, she drives. So what? The mortal's layered shoulders give a rolling shrug as they step out into the parking lot. "What are you saying?" she asks while rolling onto the tips of her booted toes, hands still crammed in her jacket pockets, to peer for November's car. It would be where most employees parked their vehicles and-- surprise, surprise-- she didn't see it. "That she flies around or something?"
The mortal drops back down to her heels and tilts her head at him. She was thinking about what he said about a job. "Hmm," hums Mavis. "Rainbow runs a couple of places around town, you might want to check out Rising Sun. It's like a renaissance attraction, they do jousting and stuff." She makes a show of peering around the parking lot again, knowing that she won't see November's car. "Sorry, I think you missed 'er."
"All I'm saying is that if she has all these places in town? Yes, yes I think she flies." He shoots an askance glance Mavis' way, flashing that shark-toothed smile. "I'd be shocked if she didn't have a helicopter stashed somewhere around here. Or, maybe I just don't know all the costs for this kinda shit."
He lifts his shoulders in a slight shrug, and his shoulder sag when there's clearly no sign of November. He grumbles something that clearly isn't English, and then lets out a sigh. From his back he brings something that he clutches in his hands. Before she has a chance to get a good look at Hien again he's gone as quickly as he appeared earlier. No rustling of the wind, nor a print left on the ground. The only thing is the faint sound of howling after his @emit
"All I'm saying is that if she has all these places in town? Yes, yes I think she flies." He shoots an askance glance Mavis' way, flashing that shark-toothed smile. "I'd be shocked if she didn't have a helicopter stashed somewhere around here. Or, maybe I just don't know all the costs for this kinda shit."
He lifts his shoulders in a slight shrug, and his shoulder sag when there's clearly no sign of November. He grumbles something that clearly isn't English, and then lets out a sigh. From his back he brings something that he clutches in his hands, and departure.
"All I'm saying is that if she has all these places in town? Yes, yes I think she flies." He shoots an askance glance Mavis' way, flashing that shark-toothed smile. "I'd be shocked if she didn't have a helicopter stashed somewhere around here. Or, maybe I just don't know all the costs for this kinda shit."
He lifts his shoulders in a slight shrug, and his shoulder sag when there's clearly no sign of November. He grumbles something that clearly isn't English, and then lets out a sigh. From his back he brings something that he clutches in his hands. Before she has a chance to get a good look at Hien again he's gone as quickly as he appeared earlier. No rustling of the wind, nor a print left on the ground. The only thing is the faint sound of howling after his instantaneous departure.
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