Description: After his encounter with Lightning Spangles, Nightwolf returns to Southtown heading towards Raiden's temple. On the way there a certain blue haired cat-girl reminds him that not all is grim misery in Earthrealm. And that maybe there are other things he can pursue besides constantly hunting down demons.
Southtown, downtown at midnight. Not the most safest place to be likely, there are probably prostitutes, gang members or worse, women wearing short shorts, tank tops and heels with henchmen with gigantism! But there don't seem to be too many people around this particular part. Which brings us to our heroine, Felicia, trying to score some dumpster diving delights outside the back of a seafood restaurant. Kinda... eww, actually. Still, you would be surprised at just how much food any kinda restaurant throws away, high class or not--though true the higher class places tended to have a lot more in that regard. Sigh, if only she could go snooping around in the ritzier trashcans. Welp, looks like it's Long John Silvers tonight!
Well, that was a total bust.
After his ill fated encounter with Jezebel 'Lightning Spangles', Nightwolf makes his long trek back to pending business in Southtown, he can only wonder what Raiden and Azumi have gotten to while he was away. The shaman isn't sore that Jezebel managed to pull a win on him, it really was a good fight, but failing at liberating her spirit from evil truly causes him to feel bad. Although the jury is still out if he could have done anything about it even if he had won, the Sin Eater feels unprepared for the things that are to come, how is he supposed to defend Earthrealm if he can't save one measly soul from herself?
Plus his face hurts a lot from getting kicked, so he's not exactly in the best of shape right now.
Nightwolf seems so punch drunk and disoriented that not only forgets to assume his wolf form to pass unnoticed amongst humans, he also takes a wrong turn and goes through Southtown rather than around to get to Raiden's temple. By the time he realizes where he is, he's already in the seedy part of downtown and it's midnight. The cesspool of humanity indeed, it disgusts him to look at all these wretches, not to mention that his Sin Eater senses are going crazy with all the negative energy brewing here.
This has been one hell of a day..
But fate can be very whimsical. As Nightwolf walks through the streets of the city, a glimpse of a white cat tail poking out of a trash can catches his attention. Is that who he thinks it is?
Curious, Nightwolf slips towards the dark alley behind a seafood restaurant. Pulling at Felicia's tail to get her attention.
Felicia hadn't been hiding /behind/ the trashcat, moreso that it had just been what was obscuring most of her as she hunched down to fish out what looked like a white styrofoam takeout box, carefully peeling what looked like a slice of tomato off the top before she opened it--oh shit this one had half an order of fish and chips in it--then suddenly, tail yank!
"Aieee! Hey!" Felicia dropped her ill-gotten gains against the alley pavement and whipped around to face her molester, and that was a helluva lot of electric blue hair to whip around that quickly! "Oh it's... uh, indian man!" Felicia blinked a little, her memory a little hazy before she remembered, oh right, his name was Nightwolf. And definitely /not/ Squatting Dog, or some variant thereof.
"Hey uh, you okay there? you been drinkin'?" she asked, frowning with a bit of concern in her voice. He did look a little... punch drunk. Lets just hope this encounter didn't go all Chris Benoit on her!
Details, details, when you're this punch drunk it's hard to calculate the depth or if a catgirl happens to be in or behind a trashcan, can't really tell because of all that blue hair anyway. And speaking of that mass of blue hair, its what causes Nightwolf to pull back as Felicia whips it around as she turns to face him.
The shaman closes his white blank eyes and gives a long sigh of frustration when Felicia has the gall of calling him indian man to his face. This kind of slurs normally bounce off Nightwolf no problem, but after being called 'Old Joe' nearly all morning he just wishes someone would get his name right. "It's Nightwolf." He corrects Felicia as he opens his eyes again.
"I don't drink." He responds just as quickly and brushes his chin. "I was fighting someone is all." The Apache furrows his eyebrows after that to stare back at Felicia, this wasn't about him, it was about her.
"What about you? Are you really eating things from the trash?"
"Yeah, you fighting somebody? Who was it, Captain Morgan?" Felicia peers back at the Native American somewhat suspicious, one whispy brow arched in his direction. "Uhm, no... I mean, yes?" Felicia sidestepped just a little physically, partly obscuring the styrofoam box behind her where the kombatant couldn't see. Mostly.
"So when you get all tipsy you come down to alleyways to pull on catgirl's tails?!" she quickly changes the subject and suddenly looks quite... affronted by this, as if morally, bringing a hand up and clasping it over her chest. "FOR SHAME," she said in a breathy, overdramatic voice. Please don't notice the discarded takeout box I was about to eat out of, c'mon... damnit.
Nightwolf just tucks his thumbs in his belt and shakes his head, eyes closed. What is it with women always thinking he has the worst of intentions? Sure, the face tattoos and dead eyes aren't doing him any favors but whatever happened to not judging people? Has Earthrealm really descended to this level of everyone being so judgmental? Probably yes, but he still struggles to save this doomed place nevertheless.
Thing is that Nightwolf has been in the 'pleasant' company of actors all day and he's quite aware of what Felicia is trying to accomplish with her theatrics. It's quite obvious he really has been fighting due to all the bruises on his face and jaw, if Felicia wanted to accuse him of something, she could at least do it of things that are true. He'll openly take being called a savage violence monger over a drunk any day. Besides, no matter how hard Felicia tries to put on an act, the refuse she was trying to chomp on is quite obviously on display behind her.
The act is so silly that Nightwolf decides to ignore it completely.
"Come on." He waves a hand for her to come closer. "I can buy something for you if you are hungry. Would you like something for that seafood restaurant?" There is no need to play games with him.
"I dunno, my mom told me never to accept invitations from strange indians in alleyways," Felicia sounds as if it's not quite clear if she's being serious there, for a second, but then shrugs her shoulders. "I think it's closed, actually--uuhh, maybe there's a hotdog stand open somewhere?" she looked up at him, apparently giving it to him straight. She doesn't have it in her to nibble on that fish and chips /now/, not with Nightwolf watching, anyway.
"But hey, for all I knew you got lit up and fell down some stairs," she teases him a little as she walks out from around the dumpster where she'd been feeding, taking her jacket which she had folded up and placed onto a box off to the side. She doesn't seem to have those sandals she just had the other day, likely misplaced them.
"Hey that reminds me, wheres your boyfriend?" she griiins as she sidles up to Nightwolf, poking at his chest gently with a white-furred, pink nailed digit. "You know, that blonde drink of water you were cavorting with?"
"Your mother didn't tell you that." The Apache may be out of touch with the times but he's /pretty/ sure Native Americans aren't relevant enough nowadays to play the part of the boogey man for children. Parents these days probably say things like 'if you don't eat all your veggies Vega will kidnap you and take you to Shadaloo' or some such. It's like Felicia said the first time they met, Native Americans as villains is so 50's.
Nightwolf agrees to this compromise and follows Felicia out of the alleyways and into the streets. "Hot dogs it is." Not a huge fan of the things but he's certain he could find a decent stand around here somewhere, all he cared is that they actually used real meat and not that processed crap. Easy enough to tell them apart when you have a wolf's sense of smell.
Everything seemed fine until Felicia decides to slide up to Nightwolf and poke his chest to ask him a certain blond shootfighter he's been hanging out with recently. Nightwolf frowns just a little, he was hoping Felicia had forgotten about that. "His name is Benimaru and he is not my boyfriend." It felt /so/ wrong having to clarify that to someone, in fact the Apache had to go one step further and say; "I am not attracted to men."
"How do you know, did you meet her?" Felicia smirked back at him a little wise-allecky, then blinked as he replied to her. "Aww, you know it's okay, even if you were getting a little curious with him, or something like that, your secret is safe with me, deal?" she even brought her tail up to pinkyswear with him, on that. It wasn't like she was about to slice her hand and become blood brothers with him /juuust/ yet, or whatever Nighty did to make such a bond with someone. She didn't know for sure, she just read that in a book somewhere.
So, padding out in her bare feet she goes along with Nighty, pulling her coat briskly around her as she notices a stand that was still open. Hopefully the old man that looked suspiciously like Captain Lou Albano still had a few weiners sizzling in his cart for her.
"Hey Mario, gimme two with the works, okay?" hey, she had to eat to survive, man.
Nightwolf recognizes wit well enough, he has to in order to actually survive being in close proximity for Benimaru for extended periods of times. He can look at it, analyze it, and then throw it away. Which is what he does when Felicia insists that her mother was telling her such lies. Nightwolf isn't in the mood to pointlessly argue with the ditzy catgirl and drops it.
Besides, he has much bigger problems right now. Felicia has somehow gotten it inside her head that he and Benimaru are an item and it seems to bother him. It's not because he feels that his masculinity is threatened, just because it's simply not true.
"There are no secrets to hide." He says as Felicia offers a pinky swear with her tail and refuses to give her his hand in return. "Benimaru is not attracted to men and neither am I. It's that simple." Cheeky catgirls getting on his nerves.
He follows Felicia to the stand and gives it a few looks and wolf like sniffs. Yeah, this will do fine. "No onions on mine." For some reason Nightwolf could never tolerate them.
"What's the matter, aren't into onions?" Felicia brushes against his side as she leans in, obviously making it apparent to the old bearded vendor just who was going to get charged as the dogs are done up and then the money is requested, Felicia knows what's up. That doesn't however she won't be rather eagerly nomming into hers once they are, she would take a great big bite of that sucker once she got ahold of it. Yummeh.
"I don't really care like I said, it's not my business," Felicia might have gotten a drink too, and is readily... wolfing it down, to pardon the pun, along with her drink. Slurrrrp. "So who beat you up tonight?" she idly asked, still leaning against his shoulder. Hey, he was buying her food! Cats knew how to reward people who gave them food and shelter and shiz like that.
Nightwolf shakes his head. "Don't like the texture." Then the vendor is giving him a glance when Felicia slides over to lean on his broad shoulder. Yeah, yeah, he knows the drill. He pulls out his wallet from one of the pockets from his vests and forks over a few bills. Nightwolf isn't rolling in the dough but he isn't poor either, one of the few benefits of being a Sin Eater is that you get a lot of freebies.
Realizing that he is actually pretty hungry after all, the Apache starts to chew on his hotdog whilst Felicia chomps noisily on her own, she really must be starving if she was eating from the trash. At least she stops poking him about his relationship with Benimaru which is always a good thing, but as she asks him who was it exactly that he fought, it causes Nightwolf to give a thoughtful pause. "An actress known as Lightning Spangles. I tried to change her ways by fighting her."
"It didn't work too well."
Munching some more, it has not escaped Nightwolf's notice that Felicia is still leaning on him. He's not pulling her towards him, but he's not pushing her away either. In fact, he looks quite comfortable right now with her next to him.
"Lightning Spangles? Sounds like a pornstar," Felicia says through mouthfuls of steaming hot sausage, washing it down with what looks like rootbear. The way to a cat's heart is truly through her stomach, as her tail actively assumes a <3 shape in response to the welcome influx of hot food. It was likely even mostly free of bacteria! Probably.
"No see, it only changes people ways when you fight them if you actually /beat/ them, and you know, beat them up good," Felicia has been around a nunnery long enough to know how this works! She is however still leaning against Nightwolf out of habit at this point as the two turn and strode off, her bare feet slapping against the sidewalk. She didn't seem to mind. Heck, Miss Fortune didn't even /have/ fur or paw pads on the bottoms of her feet like Felicia did, and she seemed to get along fine!
"Pfft!!" Nightwolf nearly spits his hot-dog there when the cat-girl called it a porn name. Looks like Felicia has finally done it and got a crack out of him. Well, after throwing so many things on of them was bound to stick. He wipes his mouth with his forearm and stifles a chuckle. "Yes, it does sound like that, does it not?"
The moment is fleeting as Nightwolf soon returns to his serious business face once the two depart the food cart. His eyebrows furrow in thought as Felicia clamors for Nightwolf to commit great acts of butt whooping. "At the time I thought so too.. but after seeing how the people clamored for her, it felt that crushing her completely would do more harm than good." Again he sighs and takes another bite of his hot dog. "It is a complicated subject."
At long last, Nightwolf decides that if Felicia is adamant about leaning on his shoulder its going to feel awkward if he has his arms by his side. So he does the obvious thing and wraps one of said muscled arms around the catgirl's shoulders to pull her close snugly against him. This was.. surprisingly nice.
The pleasant feeling doesn't distract him enough this time, and he realizes that they seem to be walking in no particular direction. "Felicia, do you have a place to stay?" If she's eating things from the trash he doesn't think the cat-girl has enough to afford an apartment in Southtown.
"Woah, you okay over there, Nighty? You got a hairball or somethin'?" Felicia pats him a little on the back, just to make sure he isn't really choking. She knew that wasn't how you stop someone from choking, but she had her hands full with a drink and food, darnit! She couldn't spare more appendages for a heimlich! Well, there was her tail...
"So, you got defeated by a girl named Spangles? Sheesh, I could see how that--woah!" seems the Native American is full of surprises tonight, as suddenly he's making a move and putting an arm around her shoulder. Well, it /was/ warm, but that was beside the point! Felicia likely was feeling quite cozy too, though that was due to the built-in fur coat she had on her arms and legs, likely.
"Well, lets see--do you think I'd be out here if I did?" she looked over at him, as if this was an obvious question.
It is an obvious question, but even Nightwolf knows that calling someone a hobo to their face is still kind of rude, and he still has some modicum of manners even in the face of people that call him Indian Joe instead of his actual name. Either way, its a touchy situation no matter what way you look at it and he simply gives another chuckle to the way Felicia is looking at him. This whole day has been quite surreal.
"There is a place where I and a few others stay in the outskirts of Southtown. You are welcome to stay with us for as long as you wish if you are looking for somewhere safer where you can sleep." By this point it feels almost natural to him to have his arm around Felicia and he maintains it there for as long as the cat-girl allows him to.
"Well, I'm not lookin' for a free ride, I can try to bring in a few dollars even--but not sure about something permanent, eh... I'll see about that tonight though, okay?" Felicia's offering a compromise at least, and accepting the man's kindness. "Sides, this place is plenty safe! 'Specially for someone like me! You just gotta watch out for the crips and the bloods and the crackfiends--and you know what why don't you show me where you're staying, okay?" she waved it off, finishing her hot dog, now in the process of finishing her soda too. Thirsty kitty.
"Just easy on the material here, eh Hiawatha?" she smiled a little bit to him, peering at him with just one peeked open eye, as she noticed him leaving his arm around her like that. Uh oh--someone was crushing~ Looks like this was going to be an interesting adventure, indeed.
The Apache can't help but wiggle his eyebrows a little when Felicia offers to pay him for offering her a place to stay. Has Nightwolf really been away from the people this long that he thinks its strange that someone feels compelled to give payment for something that should be free like simple shelter? Call him old-fashioned, but it didn't even occur to Nightwolf that Felicia expected to give him some money for his offer. "No payment is necessary." He says giving her a wide eyed look, mildly surprised that she even offered, its just the humanitarian thing to do. His wide eyed look continues to get wider, and wider when Felicia goes so far as to assure him that downtown Southtown is a perfectly safe place to sleep. 'Safe for who?' He seems to ask with his eyes as the cat-girl then goes to list the many gangs that prowl the area. "Ahuh." He gives her a narrowed not amused look when she finally, and wisely, changes her mind. "I thought you might say that."
Giving a bit of a grumble when Felicia calls him Hiawatha, Nightwolf just continues leading Felicia out of downtown and towards Raiden's temple. He's grown used to those nicknames by now to even care. In fact, they might be... just a tad endearing.
Huh.. maybe he was crushing. Only time would tell.
Log created on 19:15:50 12/19/2014 by Nightwolf, and last modified on 22:09:14 12/19/2014.