Continuing The System [Open]

[Sophitia Asherei]

~Stand Close To The Edge~

Sophitia sighed, glancing around at the dazzling, flashing lights from within the buildings, and the flare of headlights as cars continually passed by. Then there was the noise, people talking as they went about their way, footsteps thudding on the sidewalk. Even at this late hour, against the night sky's black canvas, the city was very much alive. A pity she wasn't here on different terms.

Absently, she glanced down at the photo she was carrying. Her target. She sighed again. What happened to the glory days when she got to live out glory on the front-lines? She was a mercenary. Not some trashy gutter assasin. Still, beggers couldn't be choosers, she supposed. She still had some money saved up, but lately, there hadn't been any good jobs available, and her reserves were starting to dwindle. She was at the point where she had to take anything - even cheap assasinations. No glory. No adrenaline. Just a chore and some quick money.

Where to start...? She didn't even know who this person was, or why she was looking for him. Such things weren't her place to ask at this point. She figured she may as well start digging around.

Still...there was no hurry, was there? Her clinent was at the point where he had to take whatever he could get, too. Even if she took her time, it was unlikely that he'd dock her pay. A part of her wanted to get it over with, but another part of her wanted to have some fun while she was here. It'd been a while since she'd stepped foot into the human realm - the realm she'd been born in.
That was before she'd been turned into the monstrocity she was now. She'd had a home, not a good one, but a home nonetheless. Her parents hadn't counted for anything, but she'd had a younger brother and friends who'd loved her. Then they took her away. She didn't know how she was gone for, but when she came back, her younger brother was dead - killed by their own parents. They'd never admitted to it, but she knew that it was true - that's what happened when she wasn't there to protect him. It wasn't her fault, but... She still winced as an image of his face briefly appeared in her mind. Their parents were dead now, too. She'd killed them - the first time she'd discovered her power. She no longer had friends, either. They rejected her when they realized that she was no longer human. The same people she used to pass the days with ran screaming. Everything was gone.

She tried to smile in spite of herself. Revenge...she'd have revenge one day. She had to tell herself that to make herself keep going. Revenge, that purpose was the only things those people had given her in exchange for everything else. That, and her power to turn grief into energy. She snorted. A fitting ability, perhaps.

Looking up, she realized that she'd kept walking, having wandered further down the road. How long had she been zoning-out for? Feeling a slight sinking in her stomach, she realized that she no longer knew what part of the city she was in. She'd gotten herself lost. Great. Still, she didn't have any particular destination in mind yet, either. Perhaps she should just try to find an inn for now.

She just kept walking, her head down minus a few glances around for anything resembling a hotel.

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~Tags: Open
~Word Count: 572

[Makoto]

"What is this sensation in my chest? It feels like something is constricting and searing through my heart, and the only relief is to destroy something. What is it? I just feel so... tense."

One would think that Makoto would be ecstatic to find that he was able to feel something, even if it wasn't a physical sensation. It had been a few weeks since he had discovered his 'condition'. Subsequent to the consultation of not one, but three doctors, all three professionals deemed Makoto perfectly healthy. despite his vehement arguments. After the first doctor discredited his claims, Makoto sought a second opinion. When the second opinion mirrored the first, he went to a third. As he expected, it was more of the same. Nobody could help him; at least, nobody in his hometown of Akihabara could, anyway.

Even before becoming physically numb, Makoto had always been emotionally flat. He lacked a sense of humour, and many people found him boring to talk to. He wasn't a very eloquent speaker, and preferred to display his feelings through actions rather than words, and his actions were usually coloured in a shade of 'disinterested'. The closest thing to an expression that ever crossed his face was a barely noticeable scowl that occurs when he is displeased. Other than that, his face remains neutral. At times there will be a forced, but not very convincing smile on his face, but these are few and far between.

The only thing that gave him even a semblance of an elevated or depressed mood was alcohol. As if on queue, Makoto brought a bottle of whisky to his lips, savouring the burn as the caramel coloured liquid traveled down his throat, ending as a warm glow in the pit of his stomach. Still, the heat of the alcohol could not purge the roaring fire and constricting chains in his chest, and so he drank more. His face scrunched up and let go a brief "Ack!" at the strength of the alcohol, but he quickly regained his composure. Alcohol; it was his creation and his destruction.

Alcohol was the reason he was here, or so he believed. He sipped from the bottle as he stared out the window of his hotel, which oversaw the brilliance of Tokyo's extravagant nightlife: bright lights dotting the street, flashing neon signs advertising night clubs, and the continuous stream of bodies traveling among the lights made Tokyo's late night seem very much alive. The vague reflection in the window showed Makoto as his cheeks progressively reddened, directly reflecting how drunk he was.

"Maybe I should -- hic -- go down there. I could find a fight and -- hic -- relieve this tension in my chest." And so the underage drunk began his descent to the ground floor of the hotel, and into destruction. He was still clad in a black suit and tie with a white shirt from the funeral he had attended earlier in the day, but his only change of clothes were a pair of undergarments he would change into the following day before he checked out of the hotel and hopped onto a train back to Akihabara.

Before stepping out into the sidewalk, Makoto took a deep breath, intending on composing himself so he didn't appear too drunk as he went through the crowd in search of trouble. He went against traffic, roughly brushing shoulders with everyone he came into contact with in hopes one of them would react. Unfortunately for him, it was rare for someone to want trouble, especially if someone was trying to give it to them. Makoto, however, was drunk enough to believe he could force the situation.

When he saw an alley, he decided to use this as an opportunity, violently shoving an innocent bystander into it and cutting off the exit into the street, effectively isolating the two. "Hey, watch where you're going fu--" his speech paused, a look of drunken disbelief reaching his face as he saw who he had just brought into the alley. It was some pale young woman with dark hair and a bunch of make-up on her face, not an uncommon sight in Tokyo at night. "... bitch." he finished his sentence, eloquent as ever, and brought a hand up to brush his hair out of his face, even if it was only temporary.

"Why'd it have to be a girl?" he said under his breath, "they can't fight, and I don't hit girls anyway. Ugh, just my luck." He hoped she didn't hear any of that; his intoxicated state impaired his judgment, so he may have spoken louder than intended. He also hoped that she couldn't see his face in the dark alley. It would be trouble for him if she realized he was drunk. If she couldn't smell it on his breath, his flushed cheeks and glazed eyes were telltale signs. Reporting him to the authorities would get him kicked out of the hotel, who agreed to serve him alcohol should he remain within the hotel doors.

What a mess he had gotten himself into. He was looking for trouble, and he had found it. Just not the type of trouble he was expecting to find.

---

tags: sophitia, open
attire: black dress shoes, black slacks, black suit jacket, black tie, and white dress shirt
notes: uh, i hope this is something you could work with? oh, and if you want to plot with me, drop me a pm with your MSN and we could work some things out for this thread and future threads. c:

[Sophitia Asherei]

Finding herself beginning to zone out again, Sophitia kept walking, remembering only every so often to look up in search of a place to stay. Eventually, her gaze fell almost completely back down to her feet, the woman absently watching her shadow outstetch and then disappear again rymatically each time she walked in front of a lit building. She kept forgetting to look up to see what the buildings were, or perhaps kept neglecting enough to care to do so.

She wasn't sure how long she continued moving like that, but her empty wandering all at once came to an abrupt stop as she felt someone roughly bump into her. Hard. "Agh!" She gave a surprised, startled gasp in spite of herself. From the strengh of it, it didn't feel like it'd been an accident. Stumbling into a nearby alley from the hit, she felt her heartbeat suddenly pick up speed. She'd been being careless - what if the person she was searching for had gotten wind of it and was after her themself? Instictively reaching for her belt, she was just about to pull out the gun obscured there before she heard an angry sounding voice yell out to her to watch where she was going before abrupty cutting off.

Maybe it had been an accident, but she passed a hard glare back at the person as she spun around. She momentarily blinked in surprise, though felt a bit relieved. It was some kid. He was just staring at her now, as if having expected to see someone else. He was standing directly between her and the exit of the alley, muttering a curse as he finally finished his accusation. The kid had some nerve. She didn't move her stare.

It was hard to tell, but if she wasn't mistaken, she could just make barely make out the smell of alcohol on his breath from where she stood, even though he obviously wasn't of legal age. She sighed inwardly. She wouldn't be surprised if he had bumped into her on purpose, after all. She couldn't blame or judge him for drinking. After all, it wasn't long ago that'd she'd finally reached legal drinking age, but she'd been having alcohol for years herself, nonetheless. It was his disapointed, disapproving stare that was irritating.

Her slight frown turned itself into a grimace as he spoke again. He spoke relatively quietly - perhaps still louder than he'd meant to - but she still managed to catch most of his mumblings. After all, in her line of work, catching everything you could hear was vital. There were occasions were such skills came in handly in everyday life as well, apparently.

All at once, she gave him an angry slap across the face. She regretted that pretty quickly, sparing a brief glance around. No one had seen that, had they? Still, she just hadn't been able to let that go with nothing. Besides, it was apprarently along the lines of what he'd been looking for to begin with.

"Watch it, kid. If you go out looking for a fight, you might find one someday that you can't get out of. Not everyone who walks these streets are what they appear to be." She knew that with certainty. Even though it'd been a while since her last visit, this wasn't the first time she'd been sent to hunt someone day here. And aside from that, there was also a portal in this country that led to the other realms. Who knew what sort of creatures roamed around here, blending in with everyone else in the see of people moving along the sidewalks. Even her...she was a monster herself. The boy could easily end up finding more trouble than he was asking for with what he was doing.

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~Tags: Makoto, Open
~Word Count: 622
~Notes: Hopefully you don't mind my character slapping yours XD. Umm...I don't have an MSN^^;; but I'll PM you or post on your plot page if I come up with anything, if that's alright. Feel free to drop me a PM too if you have any ideas. : )