Easy as Pie [Raph/Nadezdha, JT]

[Douglas Everheart]

Douglas's eyes were shut, his fingers slowly and carefully unfolding a napkin without tearing it.  A pair of airpods were in his ears, the faint strains of rock music leaking out ever so slightly to fill the room.  Douglas grabbed a fork in one hand and a knife in the other, fingers nimbly manipulating them.  He sat in place, letting the strains of familiar electrical guitars and drums wash over him.  He had listened to this song easily a hundred times, and every time it filled him with that same level of pleasure and energy.  He began to drum them against the table and plate in front of him, movements smooth and assured.  It wasn't the first time he'd tried to go more than a minute or two without the use of his eyes, but with the music he felt the pacing increase dramatically with every passing riff.  He drummed a steady rhythm only he could hear, silverware rattling away.  It went on for about twenty seconds, before Douglas sensed a presence nearby.  He opened one eye slowly, lazily, and flipped the knife in his hand, catching it by the blade and then raising his brows.

A waitress stood right across from him, carrying a cup of coffee in one hand.  She had a bemused smile on her face, her stance a combination of wariness and amusement.  For the past hour, Douglas had been regaling the lady with magic tricks, ridiculous tales, and jokes he'd spent hours scanning the internet for.  It had been a remarkably satisfying meal, one that had put him in a good mood for the coming conversation.  "The Talk" as he put it.  It was always fun, meeting new humans who had been tossed around unceremoniously by the fickle winds of fate.  Or malice, perhaps.  Was Raphael just a lucky coincidence?  Or had he been puppeteered by someone who had something to hide?

There was no way of knowing for sure.  He did, however, know that the woman in front of him was young, and clearly worn-out from a long day.  It had been the only reason he'd bothered to be as outgoing as he was right now.  There was something oddly cathartic about being the one who raised someone else's spirits; a pleasant tingling he got when knowing that someone else was happier because of his presence, and the rather outlandish behavior he engaged in.  He pulled out one of the airpods, letting the sounds of the real world flood back in.  Inhaling slowly, he placed both hands on the table, and tilted his chin towards the table, inviting her to put down the cup of coffee.

"Talk to me about dessert, ma'am.  What's your favorite thing on the menu?"

"Well, that'd have to be the peach cobbler.  Comes with-"


Douglas rose his hand, his smile turning sinful for just a moment, eyes glinting with canny delight, as he leaned towards her.

"And your favorite thing -off- the menu?  I don't believe for one second you don't have some ingredients hiding out in that kitchen of yours.  Perhaps from a party a long way back?  Why don't you go back and ask your chef to whip up something special for a very special occasion?"

"And what's that?

Now the wariness was winning out over the delight, as she shifted ever so slightly.  Obviously she didn't relish the possibility of having to go through an arduous talk with whoever ran the kitchen about pleasing an entitled old man.  Douglas didn't pause for more than a half second, as he gestured towards the door, and then leaned back in the seat, patting his stomach.

"My grandson is coming to visit me.  First time we've ever met.  I had his son back in the war, and we just caught up on Facebook a few weeks back.  Special days call for special memories, don't you think?"

He honestly didn't care if she came back before Raphael arrived.  He'd gotten to the pre-determined meeting spot with plenty of time to spare specifically because he wanted Raphael to see him at his prime: A well-fed, well-prepared old man.  There was no point in wasting time or mincing words with the little pleasantries, once it came time to start talking about the masquerade.  Raph was beginning to doubt himself, and doubt the world they lived in.  It wasn't a pleasant experience, and there was no time to waste trying to discuss the topic scientifically or reasonably.

He'd been sending out tiny little pulses of spirit energy as he'd conducted, and every few minutes before.  It was a beacon, to every wild and crazy haunt he could find or think of.  He didn't know all the details, but he had pieced together enough to know that where he went, spookiness seemed to follow.  And today would be a very good crucible for Raphael to be tempered in.  He would settle for no less than the absolute maddest this city had to offer, as a deep end to throw the kid into.  He rested his hands over his stomach, mindful for any sound of approaching people.  He could already sense a few would-be predators nearby, confident in their invisibility.  Now he just had to make sure none of them got to the kid before he could.

In retrospect, it may not have been a -perfect- plan.  But in the end, did it matter as long as they both survived?

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael strolled through Karakura Town at a leisurely, almost carefree, pace. He was on his way to meet someone that he’d corresponded with online for a while about spirits and their effect on the world. The username still made him both chuckle and cringe at the same time: EverHard69. A hell of a pun, if Raph had ever heard one, but at the same time he couldn’t really say much better. TurtleGauntlet13, a combination of the Ninja Turtles, Gauntlet and everyone’s least favorite unlucky number, thirteen. It still made him laugh thinking about the fact that his username was something so juvenile, lotta people never believed when he said that he was actually in his twenties and not early teens. So what if the Ninja Turtles were being marketed to young kids? The comics were where it was at! Dark, gritty and badass! Of course they were a lot less…heroic back then, at least really different from how they were today.

Raphael wasn’t extremely well versed in knowing everything, though he already had several people that he could go to in case he required tutelage. Taka was one of them, and she stuck out quite clearly in his mind, her decision to help and even to give him the opportunity to learn more and have a job if he needed it…it was a pretty fair deal, he couldn’t deny. But even as these doors were opening, more doors kept opening. The woman he’d met at the ramen shop, as well as Taka and now this guy that he’d been talking with over the last few weeks… Made him think that people like himself were in short supply, but that couldn’t have been possible, people like Raphael must’ve been a dime a dozen! He shook his head, headphones in his ears; didn’t matter. He had to go and meet with this guy, whoever he was. “EverHard69…” He chuckled a bit, repeating the name to himself. “…I wonder if this guy’s a fullbringer or a quincy… Long as he isn’t one of those human hollows…”

It didn’t take long for Raphael to figure out that the man was already there, pulses of energy were being sent out every so many seconds, Raph could feel them. His eyes narrowed a bit. What the hell was this guy trying to do, draw in everything that could kill him? Maybe he just wasn’t thinking, or maybe he couldn’t control his energy? Regardless Raph wanted to at least get here to make sure everything was ok. His mind raced through thousands of possible situations that he could be walking into. A hollow crashing through the front of a restaurant locked in battle with a Shinigami, the man he’d come to meet laying dead at his table. Or a fullbring locked in dreadful battle with a hollow, scores of people lying dead, corpses strewn across upturned tables. His skin began to crawl the more that he thought. His own imagination was beginning to prove to be his worst enemy.

Finally, he pushed open the door to the place and walked in, looking around like he was lost. He didn’t exactly know what the man looked like, he didn’t know what to look for or whom specifically. There was still a lot of work left to do as well, and he hoped that this meeting didn’t take…too long. With any luck there was going to be more information revealed to him, another potential ally that he could call upon, or someone who could call upon him. Having any kind of friend or ally in a world like this could only be a good thing, and as he stood there thinking… There was one gentleman sitting alone, and Raphael greatly wanted to find out why he’d been called to this restaurant, and so he took a seat across from the older man. “…are you…EverHard69?” Even just repeating the name to a stranger made Raphael shudder on the inside. God how he hoped this was the guy he was looking for…

[Nadezhda Esterházy]

The park was surprisingly quiet for a spring afternoon. It seemed only a child's unyielding spirit could summon enough enthusiasm to enjoy this dreary day. Gone was the open blue sky of the morning. There was no sky, only a rough woolen blanket of mottled gray to cover the city and block out the sun. The winter's somber majesty had given way to spring but left behind days of richly marbled grays and a number of trees that remained bare despite the warmer weather. The virescent hues of spring were temporarily dulled as the sky swelled with darkened clouds.

Nadezhda happily eyed the children as they ran in circles, participating in some game foreign to her. The children immediately took notice of Nadezhda, finding themselves distracted by the ear-catching screeches of her antique baby carriage. The rickety, partially rusted mechanisms ground together as she pushed it down the path. The eerie noises produced by the carriage seemed to punctuate an otherwise unexplainable occurrence. It was understandable for those around her to develop an internal sense of caution. A barefoot girl wheeling around an antique carriage was not a common sight, but the children were safe despite her disturbing past.

Nadezhda forcefully moved the carriage off the path and onto the thick grass. The grass was rough and shaggy like uncombed hair. It was a course blue-green grass, both long and unkempt. It seemed the early spring had not yet warranted the manicuring of the park's lawn. She didn't care. She liked the way the grass cushioned her feet and attempted to poke between her toes. The grass was cool and crunched as she walked, adding a certain melody to each footstep. She stopped for a moment and leaned over the carriage, staring into the ruffled blankets lovingly. 

It seemed the carriage wasn't merely for show. Nadezhda had somehow acquired an antique doll to go with the carriage. The dead-eyed doll stared coldly back at her. She smiled fondly despite its lifeless gaze, stroking its aging hair and face. "Oops." She said, noticing a few strands of hair had been pulled out as she stroked its head. "No worry, Clementine. Should your hair all fall out I'll be sure to get you some more. There are plenty of pretty ladies around. I can just tear it from their heads and gift it to you. It'll be okay." She joked cruelly. 

Lifting her head out of the carriage, Nadezhda couldn't help but notice two figures in the distance. She slowly approached the black, metal fence that enclosed the park. She gripped the twisted black rods and peered between them. Her eyes fixated on two men sitting comfortably inside a nearby restaurant. With ease she lifted herself and hung from the fence, her gaze intensifying. She wondered who they were and how they knew one another. Stories began running through her head like reels of film. Perhaps he was the teacher and the other a pupil. Perhaps they were grandfather and grandson. Maybe they were unlikely friends. The more she contemplated this the more she found herself intrigued.

It was kismet. Among all the windows lining this street only this one was so clearly occupied. Nadezhda lept down and pulled the carriage toward her, switching between the doll and the men in the window. "Look Clementine. We found some friends.” Nadezhda’s tone darkened as she glanced back-up at the two. “I’ve become pretty good at this, haven’t I, Koschei." You have. What do you plan to do now? “I’m unsure. These two seem different than others I've come across.” Nadezhda tilted her head and smiled innocently at the two men from the across the street. Her eyes  and toothy smile seemed to pierce the gray that washed over the city.

Nadezhda vied for their attention as she waved cutely from behind the black gate. She pressed her face between the steel bars and made a goofy grin before waving once more. She turned to face the carriage, fussing with the doll for a moment. She turned the carriage around as began wheeling it alongside the fence as she glanced over at the restaurant. She smiled sweetly and gestured for the two men to follow her as if she were their guide. It was all she could do from where she stood, but she suspected it was would work out in her favor. 

[Douglas Everheart]

Douglas's eyes opened lazily when he saw a man of about 25 enter the room, his stance not shifting in the slightest as he took in all the details.  Eyes darting around the place like he was looking for someone, the sort of outfit that almost guaranteed he was a tourist, and a palpable aura of spirit energy around him.  Tiny, but present; far stronger than Douglas had expected on a first meeting.  This child was probably going to go places, if he had the right catalyst to get himself off his ass, and started staring the spooky shit in the eye.  He was already contemplating whether he should introduce himself when Raphael began to approach him, obviously uncertain. 


He smiled inwardly when he saw the boy hesitate for a split second at the notion of saying his screenname.  It was one of the few perks that came from setting up these meetings on his terms.  His eyes and lips, however, never so much as moved as he stared at the boy, both hands balling into fists.  He pushed himself up from the table without any particular rush or malice, but without so much as a word of assurance.  About two seconds after Raphael asked the question, a man of around 170 pounds was standing in front of him, his entire body language that of a person at home with violence.  He likely wouldn't break a sweat, or lose any sleep, over removing a few of the boy's teeth.

He spoke after another two seconds, in a tone that sounded like it had been dragged straight out of Deliverance.  There was such thick cadences there, it was almost comical.  Perhaps, in another context, the impression would've been very impressive.  Here, it just seemed even more unsettling, to know that the man within arm's reach was this thoroughly unhinged.  There was no change in expression even now, but something in his stance relaxed as he walked past Raphael, towards the door.

"You got a purty mouth.  Didn't think Grindr was that fast, though.  Your first time too, kid?"

He was already peeling a pair of ten thousand yen bills from a roll, placing them on the counter as he walked towards the door, opening it back up for Raphael to walk through.  He could already feel a prickling on the back of his neck, the familiar goosebumps of something tracking his movements, waiting for a moment to strike.  He'd grown used to it long ago, and it was something he could rarely explain to others, but all the same.  Douglas knew his gaudy display had worked, and something was nearby.  He didn't bother to wait for Raphael to reply, simply keeping the door open as he scanned the surroundings.

About a hundred yards away, next to a goddamn baby carriage.  A -metal- baby carriage.  There was a girl that looked all of fourteen, making faces and gesticulating.  Douglas was used to that level of weirdness from the world, but he wasn't used to others being able to see it too.  It wasn't just one or two, but every person that passed by.  He couldn't make out the tones or the words, but he could see it all the same: They all looked in her direction, commented on her attire and her carriage.  This wasn't another ghost, this was something even more fucking absurd.

"Walk with me, and I'll explain what I know.  I gotta work off these carbs before they go straight to my thighs.  A lot of it's gonna be pretty speculative, but...eh, what can you do?  Private investigators like having people to tail they can actually catch on film."

He met the creepy girl's gaze dead on, and then tilted his chin, jerking it ever so slightly in the same direction she was gesturing.  He said nothing, not even -trying- to acknowledge her from this far away.  He knew all the Japanese horror stories well, and there was no good that came from replying to a ghost that tried to engage in conversation.  If, of course, this even was a ghost.  That was more dubious as every second went by.  And why, after all, should ghosts play by rules?  They hardly did when alive.  No, this child was either like them, or something that America had never run across to date.  That idea, more than terrifying him, actually made him feel somewhat excited.  Finally, a chance to get a few -answers-.

[Raphael Laurent]

The man approached Raphael, and in seconds Raphael could tell the man’s power was already much greater than his own, just standing in front of him. Without a doubt, the man reminded Raphael of someone from the Yakuza and had a look that he was so used to crushing people’s skulls that Raph worried for a moment. After all, he was just entering this nigh invisible world and now here he was about to get his head caved in, and that was the LAST thing that he wanted. But suddenly the man stepped past him heading towards the door and said something, in the most horrendous redneck accent that could’ve been mustered, spoke about Grindr. Doing his best to contain his laugh, Raphael shook his head. “I’m not from Grindr, dude. I was here looking for-!”

He followed the man, words catching in his throat almost immediately. There was the feeling that he would’ve only sworn that prey would feel right before they were being stalked. He knew the feeling well, having felt it a long time ago back when he’d been living in Chicago when he’d run from gang members. He couldn’t help but shake the feeling as his eyes fell on a girl with a metal baby carriage, of all things. Eyeing the girl warily, he kept wanting to back away, but at the same time he didn’t want to move away from this other man.

The man said to walk with him, as he gestured his chin in the direction that the girl was motioning across the road. It didn’t make any sense. Raph knew that the living couldn’t see spirits and as he watched, he couldn’t help but notice that the people walking around her…could see her and were making comments about it, and her… As he watched her, he couldn’t help but get a strong feeling of discomfort, that she was something that he couldn’t possibly begin to understand, though that was beginning to become a rather prevalent theme wherever he went lately…

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Raphael said as they crossed the street, heading over to the little girl. “I don’t exactly trust this. I’ve been seeing so much shit lately that this is feeling like a giant trap. You’ve gotta know that what’s going on is not a good thing, right? Like…you understand that. And you know that… So tell me why’re we following this girl?” He glanced forward again to the girl that had waved to them. While he didn’t fully trust the guy that had called him out here, he gave off a powerful negative feeling, he trusted this girl even less. The dark cloud that hung over her was almost more overpowering than his original host and Raphael couldn’t help but wonder what, exactly, he’d gotten himself into.

[Nadezhda Esterházy]

Nadezhda cradled the doll's head gently as the two men approached. She made certain to handle the doll with great care, giving special attention to her delicate hair. A rising breeze pressed against Nadezhda's body, filling the inside of the carriage with cool air.  It was a bleak, thin wind, searching the marrow and bringing no bloom to the cheek. It was just strong enough to mess the work Nadezhda had put into the doll's appearance, desperately seeking to tuck the hair beneath the tattered bonnet. 

Nadezhda recalled the moment she laid eyes on this creation. It spoke to her. It called out in a way perhaps only she could hear. In the corner of a badly aged room there resided a box, just a simple box with no less importance than the worn cloth laid upon it, or the rust nails plunged into its base. If only it hadn't been for the item which was placed so delicately inside. Her clothes, which in the past must have been woven with such love and care, were now tattered and tarnished. All that rot and decay now settled upon this porcelain creation.

Cracked porcelain skin, broken from lack of care, and cherry red lips which had long since run dry of their color. Nadezhda felt sad for the doll. Whatever love had seeped into the scratched porcelain had leached out in that unattended room. She doted like any good mother would before peering over her shoulder at the two men. An impish grin pulled at the sides of her mouth, just out of view of the two strangers. Nadezhda had been practicing a great deal since she re-entered this world. She had learned much about the spiritual realms surrounding this very mortal world. A great number of those experiences taught her more about her powers than she knew prior to her imprisonment. 

Her body was brimming with more potency than she ever had, which made her even more dangerous to be around than before. Her lies were no longer simply a means to an end. They were an intricate tapestry woven with with the most deceptive of threads. Threads as smooth as silk and as sharp as steel blades. Nadezhda suddenly plopped onto the ground beside a nearby tree. She quickly rotated her backpack to her front and unzipped it. She slowly began rummaging through its contents. The insides of her bag could contain any number of things, from weapons to harmless toys stolen from a nearby carnival. From the darkness of her bag she pulled what seemed to be a bunch of wrinkled plastic. 

As she unraveled the plastic, the word "cotton" could be seen written in colorful letters. Beneath all the excess plastic was several clumps of pink cotton candy. She reached down into the depths of the bag and clutched a tuft of it with her tiny hand. She began shoveling it in her mouth, crunching on it wildly. The once fluffy substance liquefied and splashed around the inside of her mouth. She smiled brightly, both at the two stranger and due to the joy of this delicious treat. She grabbed another hand full and threw her hand in front of her. "Want some?" She asked earnestly of the two. Her eyes settled on Douglas' wrinkled, worn visage before shifting to Raphael's youthful exuberance. 

"You probly full, huh?" She asked with a cute naivete about her. She inhaled the cotton candy, chomping on the wet contents loudly as she inspected the two. Her lilac-colored eyes seem to vibrate with an unassuming innocence. She acted as if she didn't know what to make of the two, but made certain to welcome them warmly. "I have more stuff. Uhm, " she said while stuffing more candy in her mouth and placing the bag in her lap, "I got some cheese crackers, ya know? The cheese is nice and gooey after being inside the bag. Warm, you know? Not cold and rough." She smacked her lips, food splashing around the inside of her mouth as she talked.

"One time I was just walkin' and this lady was sayin' 'hey you want this' and then she gave it to me. It was good. Pizza. Gooey, warm cheese. Not the same as this cheese. Oh, my boo boo, I don't have any. Ohhhh..." She gazed into the bag as her eyes widened and she swallowed the sugary liquid still in her mouth. She then pulled out a bag of pixie sticks and a ham sandwich wrapped in saran wrap. She sniffed the sandwich and licked the side of it before tossing it to the right. "You dun want that!" She giggled as the bag of pixie sticks burst open and the contents fell all over the ground. "Oh noooooooooo!!! My pixie sticks!!!" She began collecting the paper sticks containing the sugary mix while giving a toothy smile to the two strangers. "You can have some. Not too many."

[Douglas Everheart]

This entire situation was going from creepy to ridiculous at a speed Douglas hadn't expected.  Raphael was walking with him, sure enough, but the girl that was leading them seemed to be going beyond unhinged into the territory of some sort of cartoony shenanigans.  Her actions were far too histrionic, the way she spoke without waiting for any reply, and her overall demeanor just felt -off-.  Douglas had met no shortage of insane people in his years, most of them with some measure of normalcy to them.  Insanity was about scale, after all; everyone was insane to some degree or another.  This girl, however, seemed to be insane to a degree that went what most people were capable of.  He watched her without much change in expression, walking with one hand in a pocket.  There were a few more seconds as Douglas's mouth moved silently, like he was trying to dislodge something, before he finally spoke, in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, it's obviously a trap.  That goes without saying.  But every good trap has bait.  And I think both you and her are forgetting something really important, in the whole 'trap' thing.  Just walk with me, and keep your eyes peeled, alright?  This'll all work out.  I didn't call you out here to get you killed."

He listened to more and more rambling, not really bothering to reply to her statements.  Most of them didn't bear responses, after all, and the few that did she brushed past without really giving him time.  He walked closer to her, slowly, watching as she rummaged in her carriage several times to pull out what seemed to be almost exclusively foodstuffs.  His hand smoothly slid out to snatch a wad of cotton candy when it was offered, popping it into his own mouth.  It had been a good few years since he'd actually bothered to eat cotton candy, and the result was...actually a little disappointing, honestly.  He chewed at it with the quiet industriousness of someone who knew they had signed up for something shitty but were now bound to see it through.  Actual confectionery was something he didn't bother going after anymore.  It was just sugar after all, and just sugar had lost a lot of appeal for him long ago.  Something about taste buds, probably.  It seemed, as he grew older, everything worth doing grew less so.

He rose a brow as she mentioned a lady offering her some pizza, already formulating an image in his head.  More accurately, some woman walking idly down the street had seen this strange girl being...well, strange, and had offered her the nearest object at hand to distract her as she hustled away.  It's what most normal people would've done after being near her for ten seconds.  Even Douglas was feeling tempted to pull out a few bills from his wad and give them to her, so he could get to the nearest shower and hang out in it until the water turned cold.  She was just weird, and for a guy who had grown up seeing spooky shit, that was an important distinction.  There was no real way to describe what exactly was going on with this girl.

She tossed aside a ham sandwich, and Douglas reached out with his hand, leaning forward.  Far, far forward.  It was a swift, instinctual motion, but it was something that would've put even the reflexes of most of the best gamers to shame.  He extended his arm, craning forward, and snatching the ham sandwich out of the air before it ever touched the ground.  He examined it for a moment or two, then took a big bite, chewing that ruminatively as well.  The smell alone when he perforated the package told him this was probably a terrible idea, but he was already sold on this course of action, and he couldn't have himself backing down in front of the kid he'd called out here.  He needed to take control of the conversation, and hold onto it, before this girl had them both feeling out of sorts.  That was a sure sign to get distracted, and when you were distracted around spooky stuff, you didn't have a high survival chance.

"Is it just me, or can you hear the extra exclamation points when she talks?  Kinda like when you hear capital letters where they shouldn't be.  Maybe it's just me, y'know.  But crazy has a tone, and this is some high-octane crazy.  Anyways, like I was saying.  This is definitely a trap, and I say that with a plethora of experience in traps.  But what you're forgetting, my young comrade, what you likely never knew in the first place because you are a mere initiate in the topic of traps is that they aren't gay."

He nodded for a few moments more, taking another bite out of the ham sandwich, chewing it in that same dead silence, before speaking over his shoulder.

"You remember those cafeteria burgers?  Cause this ham tastes exactly like sucking the sweaty jockstrap of the lunch lady who served them."

[Raphael Laurent]

The feelings that Raph was getting from both Douglas and this girl weren’t good, not that such a thing had ever REALLY bothered him. He hated the feeling that he’d gotten from his old manager, a mix of “go fuck yourself” and “Christ I hate my job” but here it was…darker, almost murdery, though that wasn’t a word. Douglas didn’t exactly say anything to assuage Raph’s fears. Sure, he hadn’t been called out here for the express purpose of dying and he could tell fairly well that the man he was walking beside was strong, but strength wasn’t everything, nor was speed or anything else. Tactics could change shit just as well as anything else.

The girl began talking, and talking, not just incessantly, but almost randomly. If she’d truly been drawn in by Douglas allowing his energy to just leak out everywhere then there was something much more to her than she was letting on. Lots of those that came around tended to be much more than they appeared, but this was… Well, this was quite different. What could he do? Nothing, to be honest. He couldn’t really do anything, just sat there and listened to this girl as she began rambling off different things that she had or things that had happened, glancing occasionally at Douglas.

In some respects, Raphael felt bad for this girl. Sure she was giving off so many “creep” vibes that other people had looked at her funny or simply outright ignored her like she was some kind of freak, but at the same time she almost seemed lonely. While it didn’t mean anything, he’d never seen her around before. If she WAS like this, then it was entirely possible that she just wandered throughout the day without her parents. With the way that he was feeling, and the others avoiding her he began to wonder whether or not she had any parents, or if they’d run off…or if she was a normal person. Though that one was answered pretty easily. He could feel that she was fairly strong, and that made him ever so slightly nervous.

He remained silent, rather uncaring honestly, as she suddenly tossed a ham sandwich off to the side. He watched as Douglas rapidly reached forward, caught the sandwich, opened it and took a bite causing Raph to frown a bit in disgust. Eating anything that this girl had wasn’t exactly something high on Raph’s list of priorities, or desires for that matter, and already Douglas had eaten the cotton candy. He would’ve voiced his protestations but given that Douglas had already done so, made the other young man shrug. He didn’t exactly understand what motivated Douglas’s actions, but whatever it was, Raph couldn’t help but think he was more than a little crazy.

“What the hell kind of trap are you talking about? he asked, the moment Douglas stopped speaking. “Are… You’re talking about the guys that dress like a chick? He sighed. “Yes she talks a little, well a lot crazy, but at the same time I don’t think she’s a trap in that nature.” He eyed Douglas, almost annoyed. Sure, he’d been stating the obvious despite knowing what Douglas meant. If they weren’t careful this entire situation could quickly spiral out of control.

[Nadezhda Esterházy]

Nadezhda pulled a small plastic tray of sushi from inside her bag and placed it on her lap. She glanced upward, her mouth pursed while slightly open and loose. Her brows had drawn together as she stared at Douglas puzzlingly. She said nothing as she popped a piece of sushi between her lips and began chewing. Her attention was nearly completely arrested by Douglas’ ranting about traps. What a peculiar old man with all his eccentricities and self-assured paranoia. She couldn’t help but find him amusing despite his mistrusting nature.

Nadezhda’s interest intensified as she fixated on their rapport. There were an unlikely pair, and she wondered exactly what the nature of their relationship was. She popped another piece of sushi in her mouth and stared at Douglas in amazement. He had a lot of opinions based on their short interaction. And while amusing, he didn’t seem at all pleasant. The more she observed the more he resembled a cantankerous caricature of an elderly person. There was nothing less desirable than a moody killjoy.

On the other hand, her experience of his type of person were they frightened easily. Sure they put on a good front, but they were cowards at their core. Maybe he was different. Maybe his face wouldn’t lose all its color at the earliest sign of trouble. She wanted to avoid frightening them too much, though Douglas seemed intent on outing her as some devious loon. Frightened souls have a unique flavor, but there is nothing quite like a calm, unsuspecting soul. Theirs didn’t smell particularly special, but they would do unless something better came along.

Nadezhda laughed. “You two are funny.” She grabbed the remaining sushi and stuffed it in her mouth before jumping to her feet, zipping up her backpack and throwing it on her back. She walked past Douglas, her eyes focused on Raphael. As she noisily chewed her sushi, her eyes scaled him while she circled. “Is this your grampa?” She said before glancing momentarily at Douglas. She gestured for Raphael to crouch to her level as if she wanted to tell him a secret. If he obliged, she would whisper in his ear, “your grampa is really cranky and needs a nap.” She giggled into her hands and skipped back to the baby carriage.

She stood on her toes and leaned over the edge the best she could, fussing more with the blankets inside the carriage. “Oh, Penelope. You’re cranky too and need a good long nap. You say such mean things when you’re tired.” She began making a shushing sound as she caressed the doll’s head with her hand. Leaning against the carriage, Nadezhda thought about what to do with these two. There was a certain immaturity about them both, though one wouldn’t expect that from such an elderly looking man. Should I eat them? Torture them? Make one eat the other?! She thought to herself.

Nadezhda smiled. Yes, that was a good idea. She still plans to force feed that one Bount hybrid her shinigami lover. That’ll be a fun day should it ever happens. “You don’t like kids, huh?” She asked of Douglas. “So why do you hang out with him?” She asked earnestly while pointing to Raphael. She blinked and refocused on Raphael. “How old are you anyway? 17? 18? You seem young. Not young like me but young. Not quite as cranky as your grampa, but not really not cranky, you know?” Nadezhda paused. “You also feel different. Not like me. Not like them. Different.”

[Douglas Everheart]

This was the worst case, and it was only getting worse.  This girl, whatever the hell she was, jumped from topic to topic too quickly for him to follow any thread of reasoning.  She bounced around like a stream of consciousness, acting like she was high on some kind of drug.  It made Douglas honestly wonder if it might be for the best if he just turned around and left Raphael to fend for himself, but then he would've spent the last few hours for nothing.  There had to be some way to salvage things, something he could do to make sense of this girl's madness.  He thought all of this as he finished chewing on the ham sandwich she'd tossed aside, despite his roiling stomach.  He had so much food in there already, it likely would've protested, even if the sandwich had been delicious.  When he finished, he brushed the crumbs from his mouth, and then gestured towards Raphael.

"Yeah, he's my son's kid.  Had him back during the war, and I came back over here on business.  Can hardly see the Japanese in him, I'm told.  Genetic lottery and all that, I guess?  Doesn't resemble me much, but give it a few years.  I barely looked like me till I was in my 20s.  As for liking kids?  You're dead wrong on that one.  I love kids, but they don't really love me.  People see a guy my age hanging out with a kid his age, they start asking all sorts of weird questions.  Start talking about how I might be a drug dealer, or something like that.  So I have to be really careful about meeting people in person."

He shifted his stance ever so slightly, his right leg leading ahead of his left.  His hands were by his side, still relaxed and at ease, but he gave off a clear aura of quiet tension.  It was as if he were waiting for something, anything unexpected from the girl in front of him, so that he could spring into action.  Although to call anything she did unexpected was somewhat fruitless.  By now, Douglas would've considered anything sane or reasonable to be abnormal behavior for her.  Even so, he did his level best to exude the sort of tightly-coiled potential energy that one would expect from a spring, while watching her cavort and dance around.  He finally inhaled, and then jerked his chin at the girl.

"Kid, do me a favor?  Go through that carriage.  She can stay right here where I can see her.  You see any weapons in there, or body parts, or anything that screams 'run for the hills', let me know.  In the meanwhile, we can have a nice talk about them.  We're not like them, and neither are you.  Who is like them, then?  The people who passed by before we got here?  The guys in black bathrobes that go running all around?  We're us, and you're you, and obviously you're not them.  It'd be a little weird if I was you, so we can rule that out pretty nicely.  So if, as you say, you're not them, and -we're- not them...then who was phone?"

[Raphael Laurent]

Raphael watched as she dropped another piece of sushi into her mouth and stared at Douglas, though whether it was in awe/reverence or just in disbelief was difficult to ascertain. Raph didn’t trust her, though it wasn’t because of what Douglas had said. Yeah, she was spouting nonsense randomly to be sure, but this was something different. This wasn’t just that she was demented, this was something else. He watched her carefully, not commenting about Douglas not being his grandfather, but he did crouch down enough for her to whisper into his ear, before getting back up and watching her skip to the carriage. He didn’t trust this. His instincts were screaming to get away, that something was wrong and that this little girl was not to be trusted. Still, he’d play it cool.

Before he could say a word, however, Douglas immediately interjected; whether he sensed that something was off as well was a matter of contention. He seemed just as content to see things play out as if it was some kind of play. She made several good points, however, especially about Douglas not seeming to like kids, and asked why he was hanging out with Raph. It made the young man think for a few seconds. While Douglas didn’t exactly seem the type to really hang around kids, he WAS the type to have some kind of ulterior motive for doing so. Still made Raph a little jittery, to be honest. Plus her last comment about how Raph was cranky and that they both felt different.

Before he could say anything, however, Douglas immediately stated that Raph was his grandson, and just didn’t look Japanese. Also said that he did like kids, but that kids didn’t tend to like him, and that he didn’t usually hang around anyone Raph’s age as it made him look like a drug dealer to most people. If he’d been anywhere else, Raph would’ve chuckled at that, but not here. He stood there, staying silent and trying to give off as little of a presence as possible. Though given his lack of training that was damn near impossible. He didn’t know how to make himself not “feel” there anymore. Douglas turned his attention back to Raph and told him to check the carriage, that he’d keep an eye on her.

“No offense, grampa,” he said without missing a beat. “But dad told me that it was rude to look in someone else’s belongings.” Then he looked at the girl. “Oh, right. I’m twenty, and mostly just cautious. And as for feeling different, well, we’re all just a little different.” He smiled at her and put his hands in his pockets.

[Nadezhda Esterházy]

Nadezhda looked past Douglas, her eyes settling on Raphael. She wasn't fond of killing the young. In fact, if he had been any younger she would have completely overlooked him. 20, huh? She thought. What do you think, Koschei? You're no longer a child when you're 20, right? Koschei's voice sweetly agreed with Nadezhda. That's a fine age. They haven't had much time to mess up the body in any way.  Certainly not enough to affect the taste. Nadezhda was pleased they were in agreement, but something about Raphael made Nadezhda hesitate. She wasn't sure what it was. Maybe his attitude was dissuading her more basic instincts.

On the other hand, she could just eat Douglas. She wasn't fond of old meat unless it was aged properly, but she could make an exception. His wrinkled face and unfriendly tone wasn't exactly an argument for keeping him around. Nadezhda had been looking for someone to play with nearly all day and no one seemed up to the task. The man from earlier broke way too soon. The game had barely begun and he was already screaming for it to end. That's no fun. Maybe Raphael could be her new playmate. Maybe his slender frame would be enough to withstand a game of hide and seek. 

Nadezhda glanced over at Douglas and smiled wryly. "I wonder why they don't like you? Maybe it's because you're not very nice." She said plainly just before Douglas instructed Raphael to investigate the contents of her carriage. Nadezhda's eyes darted to Raphael, watching him closely for his response. Dad told me that it was rude to look in someone else’s belongings. Nadezhda expression flattened as her eyes took on a far different appearance than before. There was an inscrutable quality to her gaze as her once orchid-colored eyes darkened in their hue. The less adorable side of Nadezhda was starting to dissolve as her more violent nature took hold. 

She eyed the park, taking notice of the absent playground. She could only hear the quiet whisper of the wind. It seemed the impending storm had encouraged the remaining children to return home. As the clouds continued to darken, a gray haze seemed to settle over the area. The ripened colors of spring felt duller and the air thicker. It was as though this developing grayscale was encouraging Nadezhda in some way. Her playful demeanor faded as her tone, while still possessing a child-like voice, developed a darker quality. "It's a good thing you didn't." She said while glancing at Raphael momentarily before her attention shifted.

"You'd think old age would have made you less rude, but it proves even the oldest among us have something to learn." Nadezhda smiled roguishly and fixated again on Raphael. "If you had followed the old man's instructions you would have likely lost a hand. It's a good you heeded your father's advice. He doesn't seem like someone worth losing a hand over." She said while gesturing to Douglas. Nadezhda approached Raphael as she took in a couple deep breathes. "Your soul smells different than regular humans. It definitely smells fresh. Yours," she said while glancing at Douglas, "smells exactly the way you look. Old." 

Nadezhda grinned as she placed her hand over her mouth cutely. She slowly backed away as if to examine them more fully at a distance. "I can't say I'm one to turn down a soul. You have to take what you can get. But I think we should play a game." Her grin widened as she spoke, carving into her rosy cheeks. "Yes," she nodded, "let's play a game of Hide and Seek. The rules are simple. I'll count to 30 while you hide. If you can stay hidden for an hour you win! You can probably guess what happens if I find you before then."

Nadezhda giggled and reached into her backpack. She then pulled out a timer and began pressing buttons frantically. "I still haven't figured out how to work this thing that well." Beep. Beep. Beep. "Oh, dang this stupid thing." She then slapped it and pressed another button. "There we go! One hour." She displayed the timer by extending her hand. "Oh, and no leaving the park. That is a violation of the rules and rule breakers don't last long when playing hide and seek." Nadezhda took a breath and gave a sinister grin. "Ukaž se."

Koschei appeared beside Nadezhda, but was completely imperceptible to Douglas or Raphael. They would continue to see, feel, and experience only Nadezhda standing before them. "Nenechte je odejít. Pokud ano, odřízněte jim ruku." She said to Koschei while staring at Douglas and Raphael. "Okay. Get those feet warmed up and ready for running. You have 30 seconds to find some place to hide. The park is pretty big and you can find different places to hide if I haven't found you yet. This is already so much fun!" She said excitedly as she covered her eyes. "Ready? Go. One. Two. Three. Four...you better get going. Five. Six. Seven. Don't dawdle. Eight. Nine. Ten."

[Douglas Everheart]

Douglas met the young girl's gaze with his own insouciant smile, eyebrows lifting as if to convey his lack of concern for her statements.  He knew that her assessments were at least somewhat on the nose; he wasn't a man who easily made friends in person, and not for lack of trying.  The humans his age were simply too slow, always going about life as if they'd -already- experienced it.  They went to bed early, complained about the way things changed, and always expressed shock when he reminded them how long ago it had been since Desert Eagle, or the days when one could freely wear blackface in a yearbook picture.  What was it about the internet and its endless capacity for stimulation that kept him going back, instead of really -trying- with the people he met in his everyday life?  Why did the 0s and 1s, the colorful avatars and ridiculous usernames, appeal to him far more than some impressive pedigree?

"Old age is more existential than objective.  I've met people in their twenties who carry more stress than a witch doctor in the Savannah.  We're all only as old as we feel, you know?  And the whole 'smelling old' thing?  Yeah, that's crap.  I smell like I'm thirty, tops.  Smell like Old Spice and whiskey.  Maybe tobacco if I've had a slow day."

And then the conversation took an immediate turn for the fucking insane as she started talking about -eating- souls, and games.  Of fucking course she wanted to play some stupid game, one she made up herself on the spot, with rules she could change as she saw fit!  It must have been some particular neurosis of the supernatural, that they could never do something the normal way.  She could've just leaped right over and started hissing and spitting, and if Douglas was any judge of power then even he could've done precious little besides manage a single sucker punch that would buy about two seconds.  Still, good time for a kid of Raphael's age to start hauling ass, and get to a better position.  Possibly find someone who was better suited to protecting him.  He shook his hands, keeping them relaxed at approximately hip-level.  It was his typical go-to street fighting stance, one that had served him quite well in the past.

He then gestured towards Raphael, his eyes and chin doing all the talking he needed to.  There wasn't any real urgency there, just a faint sense of resignation.  However things went today, they were going to fucking -suck-.  He found it extremely unlikely this would actually last an hour: even ten minutes of a creature like this going full bore would lead to someone else coming to investigate, particularly when she had already pegged herself as a visible threat.  People would start calling the police about the strange old man who was in close proximity to the strange little girl with the strange carriage, and all around everything strange.  The police weren't well known for handling spooky things, but that didn't mean there wasn't someone in town with a police radio that could hear what was going down here.  Thirty minutes, that was a safer bet.  All he had to do was figure out -some way- to make thirty minutes disappear in the blink of an eye.

"That's three times in ten seconds you said hand, and one of them in Czech!  What are you, fucking Yoshikage Kira's protege?  Y'know what?  I doubt the answer would make me any less confused.  That's how it goes with you spooky types.  You ask questions, you get more wrapped up and dragged around.  You play by their games, they make you into their bitch.  You're gonna cheat, and you're gonna kill us, whether or not we play your game.  You haven't even said whether we're playing hide-and-seek or tag, so why should I give a shit what you say?  You went on about five tangents in the last five minutes, so who's to say in three minutes you won't get bored and spontaneously say 'I'm going to kill a random passerby if one of you doesn't come out of hiding'?  Nah, your word is worth about as much as a /biz/ regular's crypto advice."

He hadn't moved from his spot in front of her, but his words had come out quite quickly, before she'd even really started counting.  He didn't expect her to bother replying, or actually acknowledge anything he said.  But interrupting the person counting during a game like this was one of the simplest ways to keep a game like this going far longer than it needed to.

"Four.  Eight.  Sixteen.  Seventeen.  Twenty-three.  Fourty-two.  Three point one four one five nine two. Nine oh two one oh. Eight six seven five three oh nine."

[Raphael Laurent]

Suddenly the sky, no, the very atmosphere seemed to darken and the girl with it. Internally, Raphael sighed. He’d seen shit like this before, and he never liked where it was going, more people dying, souls absorbed or devoured or whatever it was this time. He was just glad that Mike wasn’t here, he didn’t want his friend to get sucked up into shit like this. Watching the girl, his face fell a bit into a frown. She was such a nice girl, despite this seemingly darker nature. There was something else to her. Something long since broken, though Raphael would never say such things. It wasn’t a nice thing to do.

Her voice sent a small chill down his spine, but otherwise unaffected him. He continued watching her with a mostly neutral, though slightly sadly, as he could see something more beneath her, something less murder and something kinder. When she said that he would’ve lost a hand if he’d tried, he continued watching her. He already knew that something bad would’ve happened if he had. It wasn’t exactly very difficult to determine from her original demeanor. This girl was a trap, of a different kind. She was, regrettably, a monster that devoured souls from what he understood. He wanted to speak, to try and say something that might change her mind, but he didn’t think he’d have much success and merely watched her with a bit of a frown. He knew that his soul was different, quite different. Then she said to count to thirty while they hide for an hour and if she finds them, then she would kill and eat them, at least so he thought.

His eyebrows raised when she mentioned a game, while her smile widened to a point that would rival the Joker from Batman. She pulled out a timer and began to press several different buttons before finally bringing it up to an hour. That seemed a bit extreme for a game of hide and seek, which rarely lasted more than ten minutes. She said not to leave the park, and suddenly said something in a different language that he didn’t fully understand and then started counting. He was a bit surprised that she was deciding to go with this.

Suddenly he heard Douglas start losing it, in his own way. He begins going on about people in their twenties being even more stressed than some witch doctors on the Savannah. What, exactly, this had to do with their current situation, Raphael had absolutely no idea. His comments were almost as nonsensical as the girl’s own. There was a moment where Raph simply watched Douglas as he started to get into a combat stance. With a slow turn, Raph slowly went away behind a tree, placed his hand on it and tried to make it bend, or break, or something. He concentrated hard, trying to replicate the same thing that Shizuka had done once to the pillar that she'd raised. Unfortunately he still had no idea how she'd done what she had and, in case things went south, he needed to be able to escape. This felt like Douglas’s doing and was definitely a bad idea. VERY bad idea. Still…he felt bad for the little girl. While she radiated darkness, Raphael could feel that there was something else to her, behind this murderous veil.

[Nadezhda Esterházy]

"...25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Ready or not here I come!" Nadezhda's eyes slowly opened as an insidious, cheshire smile stretched into her cheeks. Her deep periwinkle gaze focused on Douglas' glaring obstinance and posturing. He had successfully convinced her of this and his unfriendly nature in the first few moments of their interaction. Embracing a life as a stubborn, aloof old man was one thing but such bold stupidity was far worse than a little moodiness. It looked as though she'd need to accept these circumstances and subsequent disappointment. She preferred when her prey ran off in a panic but he didn't seem willing enough to participate.

Nadezhda stood in silence with only a smile on her face. She knew she had the upper-hand and he was as clueless as the boy. "Odřízněte levou." She said without breaking her smile. Koschei's arm formed into a long, thick blade just before she dashed at Douglas. Nadezhda knew Douglas didn't possess the energy sensory or senses needed to perceive Koschei on any level. To him she may as well not exist. With a single, swift strike Koschei would cleave through Douglas' right arm just above the elbow. The moment her blade touched his skin she would become visible for a brief moment. Koschei's soft chuckle mocked Douglas before again fading from his awareness.

"At least he knew well-enough to run." She said as her smile loosened and transitioned to a faint smirk. She reached out and slid her finger across Koschei's blade, causing that hollow-eyed face to appear for a moment. She unrolled her tongue and let a drop of Douglas' blood fall on her tongue. "Hm. Not the tastiest blood I've had, but in a pinch I suppose it'll do." She licked her finger before adopting a contemplative expression. "So... Where'd the boy go, I wonder? He followed the rules, but I've been distracted by this cranky spoiled sport. Should I go find him or allow him to benefit from the distraction you offered him?"

"What do you think, Koschei?" She said while glancing at a bleeding Douglas. "I can handle him if you wish to pursue the young one." She said in her honeyed voice. "I suppose." She said as she calmly approached Douglas, only to reach down and grab his severed arm. She then addressed him pointblank with the most breezy disposition. "Wouldn't want this to go to waste." She casually returned to where she stood, still undecided about what to do. "On one hand it'd be fun to cut this one up piece-by-piece, but I bet he's probably out there wondering 'where is she' as I stand her dawdling with him." She said as she used his own severed arm to point at him.

"Okay. You stay here and i'll go." She then dashed off with his arm. Her tiny feet swiftly scurried along the ground as she caused the bushes to rustle.
She then put Douglas' severed arm in her mouth and bit down to secure it before leaping onto a tree. She proceeded to climb the tree like a monkey until she was satisfied with he height. She exhaled and closed her eyes in attempt to locate Raphael. "Geesh. I can barely sense him. I can't tell whether I still suck at this or he's weak. Oh, who cares!" She said before leaping from tree to tree with her hands.

She crawled across a large branch, her eyes peering down at an unaware Raphael. As she slowly crept down the tree she lost grip of the severed arm and dropped it. The bloodied arm fell a few feet before landing directly beside Raphael. If he looked up Nadezhda would be sporting a dopey smile. She knew she had messed up, but he was so close despite that. "The rules of the game insist that I not just find you, but make contact with you. Only until I touch you are you really found." She said with a giggle. "Oh, and the arm...Yeah... Your grandpa had a little accident, I'm afraid."