Humans are food but sometimes friends? [Blair - Social]

[Odalis Delgado]

It was never too late for a hunt. Nor was it ever too early. A hunt arrived precisely when it had to. Today it simply happened to be early. Odalis typically preferred to stalk the human world by night, the moonlit night feeling somewhat more akin to the perpetual night sky of Hueco Mundo. But today she found herself in the twilight hours of early evening, her many legs padding softly across the hard concrete. She walked past shops about to close down for the day as well as several restaurants from which came a variety of smells once considered to be delectable. Nowadays it was more akin to background sound for her. If she took the time to appreciate them, Odalis would probably admit they smelled good. But as the source of those scents couldn't sustain her, couldn't abate the gnawing feeling in her gut, it went by largely ignored. The ones enjoying those meals were more enticing.

But the idea of barging into one of those restaurants and start a panic by killing people to release and consume their souls didn't appeal to her. She wasn't that hungry, for now. Although she had nothing to worry about from regular humans, an instinct drove her to seek out more isolated prey. Or perhaps it was some remnant of her living self perhaps? Odalis shook her head. Those were full belly kind of thoughts, to be had at the end of a hunt. Now was the time for empty belly thoughts. Like whether to compete with the three Hollows stalking a pair of souls further down the street. Or to simply eat them all. Odalis considered as she picked up speed. Her belly making its impatience known, Odalis' decision came quickly. Just eat the first thing she got her claws into and keep going until she was satisfied.

Now at a full run, Odalis left the restaurants behind as she followed the group of Hollows towards a park. As the trailing Hollow, an ape-like figure, was right the park's gate, Odalis swiped the air with a spiked tentacle. A shimmer right in the path of the Hollow then dispersed right as its right leg entered into it, slashing it open and causing the beast to tumble forward. Disoriented and howling in pain, it attempted to get back onto its feet. Another shimmer formed across its back, dispersing with another swipe of Odalis' tentacle, tearing a chunk out of its back and consuming it within Odalis' inner void. Pouncing forward, she landed on the stunned ape's back and in a flurry of shimmers, swipes and old fashioned biting, the Hollow was reduced to a handful of pieces strewn about the sidewalk. The rest of it consumed by Odalis.

The Hollow's companions, or competitors, Odalis couldn't be sure, stuck with their pursuit of the human souls, seemingly unaware of the ape's demise. Odalis hurried after them, aiming now for the spider looking one. Employing the same tactic as before, she swiped the air and a shimmer dispersed around one of the crawly's many legs. This one quickly regained its balance however, only stumbling slightly before turning about and lobbing an expanding ball of web at Odalis. Thinking quickly herself, Odalis stepped out of this world and into the between world, safely passing the immobilizing web and exited in the air right in front of the arachnid's central body. Coming out of the Ulcera with her jaws wide opened, the area around the spider shimmered and with a snap of Odalis' jaws the Hollow vanished save for its legs will fell limply to the ground.

The final Hollow had stopped, but not because of Odalis. If it had noticed her it simply didn't care. Perhaps it was too hungry. No, the overgrown tiger looking Hollow had stopped because the two souls had stumbled and now, with their pursuer right on top of them, they froze. The cat-like hollow salivated and dragged out dealing the killing blow. Odalis could empathize, aside from the meal itself, the best part of the hunt was the final blow. Where all the tension got released and one's prize was laid at one's feet. But she wouldn't allow it the pleasure. Not out of any thoughts of compassion towards the unfortunate ghosts. No, it was more a territorial instinct.

And so, Odalis got the tiger's attention the same way she'd done the other two. A shimmer in the air, this time around the Hollow's left side, and a swipe of her tentacle, dispersing the shimmer. With a frustrated growl the beast dashed to its right, earning only a flesh wound. This one seemed to have better senses than others. It tried to intimidate Odalis with a loud roar, not wanting to move too far away from its prey, no paralyzed by the frightful roar. Odalis too felt her muscles seize up by the empowered cry. It didn't stop her entirely though and she answered by forming a diagonal shimmer on either side of the tiger, dispersing it with a cross shaped swipe of her tentacles. The tiger responded by surging forward, nearly passing the shimmer before it fully dispersed, its haunches getting hit but not enough to slow it down.

The tiger lunged forth with a front paw, slashing at the air as Odalis ducked and dashed to the side, only to get hit as the feline beast shoulder checked her. The tiger was a fair bit larger and built more for strength than she was, so the blow sent her spawling to the ground. The tiger's other paw sprung forth and Odalis barely managed to roll away to avoid a fatal blow to her chest, the tiger instead scoring a glancing hit on her back, resulting in deep cuts. Odalis winced and her roll came to a stop as her wounded back came in contact with the ground. The tiger leapt forward, landing with paws on either side of her, its jaw open for a killing blow to her neck. Odalis' jaw opened in response, charging as much energy as she could muster, she formed a cylindrical shimmer that passed through the tiger's head and came out its back. As the tiger came down, Odalis snapped her jaw shut and the dispersal of the shimmer carved out a cylinder shape from the beast's body, which flopped to the ground lifeless.

Crawling from underneath her almost-killer, Odalis regarded the pair of ghosts, still frozen in place by fear. A moment passed before the two of them came to their senses, scrambled to their feet and ran. Odalis might still catch up to them, despite her wound. Though that wasn't an appealing thought. Of course if she used her void she could still get from here. But for now her hunger was sated and the three Hollows were enough of a hunt for today. She turned away from the fast legged morsels and began chowing down on what remained of the overgrown tiger. She could spare them for today.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Target: Ryuko Hanagawa.
Requestor: Redacted.
Quote: 100,000 ryo.
Commission: 75%.

Yeah, I'm not gonna say no to that. Staring at the bright screen of her phone, Blair hid on the roof of a fairly tall school building in Karakura Town. From here, she had a very good vantage point of the woman she was asked to take care of by her employer, which started out as a very brief call followed by a text with extremely limited information. It had a picture of Ryuko so that Blair knew who her target would be, along with her name and how much Xcution was getting paid. Unbeknownst to Blair, Ryuko was apparently running some syndicate or something that specialized in an odd drug. This drug was being injected into normal people and it enhanced their spiritual abilities, turning several into fairly weak Fullbringers.

Well, weak by Blair's standards, especially considering the woman she worked for and some other Fullbringers she knew about. Still, these details weren't shared with her. All she was told was that she had to kill Ryuko before 8pm that night. Despite the money she earned in this business, even she had to admit it brought about some odd sense of guilt. It reminded her of her childhood way too much for her to be comfortable with absolutely everything she did. Shizuka had done her best to teach Blair how to dehumanize her targets, but it didn't work. Not completely. There was something about this that just made all of the anxiety bubble to the surface.

The Fullbringer took a deep breath as the crown charm bracelet on her right wrist glowed brightly, showing a flash of deep pink color against the stale gray concrete atop the roof where she stood. The light wrapped around her arm like rope and flashed once, popping like a bubble to reveal her Fullbring. A pair of keys dangled from just in front of her wrists, and the woman felt her mind start to shift. Part of why she joined Xcution in the first place was because Shizuka said she'd help Blair control her more feral side whenever she released her Fullbring. The other part was that Blair knew this was the perfect way to ease her rage.

"Ah, easy!" Standing up straight and catching sight of Ryuko in an office just a single building away, she raised her arm and pointed it towards the sky. "Who cares if a little damage is done? I was told to go wild! That's fine with me!"

Bringing her hand back down and forming her fingers into a gun-like shape, a portal opened right in front of her body. Her thumb slapped down against the edge of her index finger as if to fire the gun she mimed, and a 1967 Chevrolet Impala fired from the portal, matching typical Cero speed. Its target was the office that Ryuko was in, and it was no surprise to see the car slam into the side of the building exactly where it was supposed to go. Blair's precision was perfect. She had excellent control over her aim and used that to her advantage. The moment the car smashed into its target, the subsequent damages took the lives of not only Ryuko, but also two others within that office and a single civilian on the floor below.

Blair blew the imaginary smoke from her fingertip and mimed putting her handgun back in a holster that didn't exist, then hopped down off the roof and stood on Air Ground to avoid being seen immediately by the gathering crowd below her on the street. Using Soul Command the way she was taught, she willed the air below her to condense in such a way that it became somewhat reflective, effectively hiding her from peering eyes. Droves and droves of random people continued to gawk as the back third of the car remained outside of the side of the building, and further inspection told Blair that there had been a male driver in the front who also perished. She shrugged.

With a light chuckle, she walked on her reflective Air Ground until she could pull her phone out and get photographic evidence of Ryuko's death. With a quick click of the phone's camera, the image taken showed a very damaged body belonging to the woman Blair had targeted. It took only a second to text that to the number that had sent her the mission information in the first place, to which the response was nothing but a simple Accepted. So she was done here. Blair couldn't help but feel disappointed by how little time it took to complete this one, and the feeling of guilt she had when she first started had completely disappeared. Or, perhaps, she'd forgotten about it ever being there.

Blair's Fullbring was interesting that way. When Unreleased, she was completely herself. Maybe a little quiet, definitely shy, certainly not going out of her way to hurt people. Once Released, though, her mindset changed. When she was young, so many things happened to her so quickly that shattered her and her powers became a bit of a defense mechanism. Her brain was shut down, somewhat, and she became more numbed. She also became a bit less stable, and that instability grew in intensity the longer she used her powers. This was her Fullbring's way of protecting her mind from further damage.

Since she had finished up and money was already wired into her account from the commission, Blair decided to get out of there as quickly as she could. Dashing away, it didn't take long before she saw something she hadn't seen for quite some time - brawling between Hollows. She chased after them on her reflective Air Ground, appreciating the fact that the sky was growing darker and darker by the minute. She watched in awe as one Hollow in particular seemed much stronger than she others, and it became clear to her that they were going after that looked like a couple of ghosts. Had Blair been in her right mind, she may have been much more reserved in her pursuit. But she wasn't. So rather than help the ghosts, she watched. And smiled.

Before long, once things had calmed down, the two souls ran away and Blair watched with entertained eyes. The one Hollow who'd had a bit of an upper hand during the whole fight crawled out from under the remains of another and continued to eat, completely ignoring the souls as they ran and surprising Blair because of it. That gave her an idea, with which caused her to descend from her perch amongst the manipulated air and draw her closer to the feeding beast. If it wasn't interested in easy prey like that, then it wouldn't be interested in the Fullbringer. Maybe. That was her hope, anyway.

"Not a bad job!" The spoken words had genuine excitement within their sound. "Ya sure saved me a job lasting until... Oh, I dunno. Maybe midnight? Ha!" Blair's Jersey accent was strong when she talked, affecting her pronunciations a bit. "So, uhh... Whatcha doing with all this?"

[Odalis Delgado]

With all six legs folded beneath her, Odalis sat comfortably. Her lower half lay against the ground and her upper half rested upon the still corpse of the unnamed, overgrown tiger Hollow. Her head leaned down to take a bite out of her kill, tearing apart skin and muscles and savoring the taste and texture as she chewed. She let out a contented sigh as the moutful slid down her throat. This moment, right after the end of a hunt where she enjoyed her prize were the best moments of relaxation. The time where her heart rate slowed from its frantic battle ready rhythm to a more mellow beat. Or at least she assumed it was her heart and not some spiritual heart-adjacent organ.

The thought occurred to Odalis that she didn't know anything about her own physiology. She hadn't given it much thought really, considering the plethora of other questions regarding the nature of existence, life and death that sprung to her mind upon coming to her senses as a nightmarish creature sustained by the souls of the living, among other things. Looking down at the corpse beneath her, Odalis considered performing an impromptu dissection. But given the state her battle had left it in and the bites she'd already taken she wasn't sure how much information could be gleamed from it. Besides, she was eating right now. She could find other subjects to poke and prod at later. She shrugged and took another bite.

A voice from behind snapped Odalis' attention back to her surroundings. She lay perfectly still, ears flicking back to better catch the bright sounding tone. It was uncomfortably close. Odalis didn't like the ease with which this creature had snuck up on her. But the cheery inquisitiveness didn't seem to indicate any danger. Strange. Odalis turned her head to regard this being and found...a human. A fairly young human woman who seemed entirely unpeturbed by the gruesome sight of Hollow cannibalism. It made Odalis uneasy. That is, until she realized how ironic that was.

Odalis rose to her feet, slowly. She didn't want to escalate the situation unneccesarily after all. She turned to fully face the strange human, feeling a little more relaxed to not have her back to this oddity. "My thanks, glad I could be of unintended assistance." She said, her voice soft with an accompanying baritone echo. At the human's question, Odalis tilted her head, curious. A tentacle reached to where her mask met flesh and idly scraped against the edge. "I'm simply having a meal. Strangely enough the requirement for sustenance carries over into the afterlife."

The scraping tentacle flicked against the mask's edge before returning to swaying lazily just above the length of Odalis' body. "As for you, what are you doing here? It's rare enough for a human to see me. Rarer still for them to not either run away or try to kill me. You don't seem keen on running nor do you look likely to attack and I must admit to some confusion." Odalis was cautiously optimistic about the encounter. The chance for a friendly conversation with a spiritually aware human could be greatly beneficial. Both as a welcome breakup of her regular routine as well as a potential wellspring of information.

"Oh, but where are my manners. My name is Odalis Delgado, pleased to make your acquaintance miss..."

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Interestingly enough, this Hollow seemed more interested in casual conversation than actually fighting. Thus, without much of a question, Blair deactivated her Fullbring and allowed the mechanic chains to transform back into a typical charm bracelet. She immediately seemed to be less outgoing, perhaps quieter, than she had been just a moment before as she got closer to the Hollow, avoiding the smell of the dead one she'd clearly attacked as dinner. Blair couldn't help a light sneer at the carcass, immediately regretting her choice in proximity. Still, she was the one who approached first and didn't want to be rude after Odalis had introduced herself.

"Uh, I'm Blair! Blair Aldaine. I guess I just didn't feel like I had to run away from ya. Yet. Sort of."

At least she'd first met this Hollow while she was Released and a bit more confident. It wasn't every day that she met one of these creatures who was genuinely interested in getting to know her in some capacity. It helped that, even with her lack of senses, Blair could tell Odalis wouldn't be able to hurt her too much if there was a conflict. And, truthfully, Blair was only here for a job. Her role in Xcution had nothing to do with saving civilians from Hollows, and Shizuka made that clear tons of times. In fact, Blair could have sworn Shizuka didn't care much for the lives of civilians. Whether that was completely true or not was up in the air, but the question crossed the blonde's mind once or twice.

"If you're eating, that means you're full. Or, at least, I hope ya are. I wanted to thank you for the help before running away out of here, but then I didn't expect you to be so nice. I don't meet many who are nice... so that's different."

Traditionally, Hollows were viewed as destructive beasts who caused chaos everywhere they went. Any damage done by them was reported as some crazy natural disaster because normal humans couldn't see them. Blair wasn't much of a normal human in several senses of the word, but it's not like that bothered her. Not being normal was fine. She was practically a superhero, or maybe a supervillain? She didn't really know or care which side she was categorized as. All she cared about was reaching her goal. A quick break from that to strike up a conversation with Odalis wouldn't be too much trouble, though.

"Oh, and to answer you from earlier, I'm kinda used to you guys. I've been able to see you since forever. Ever heard of a Fullbringer? I wouldn't say we're super common but there's certainly plenty of us to warrant some kinda classification. I know what you are, too. Except you're not like the ones who normally go after people like me. Are ya stuffed already?"

[Odalis Delgado]

Odalis watched intently at the sudden change in Blair's arm accessory. The odd band and chain wrapped around her arm turned into a bracelet that seemed like the more typical thing a young modern girl would adorn her wrist with. Odalis tried to take it in stride and did in fact manage to contain her rising curiosity, holding herself back from unloading a flurry of questions at the girl. What she couldn't hold back, not entirely, was the tension the transforming apparel brought in her. Her tentacles and tail froze mid sway, her muslces grew taut in preparation for a fight. But Blair's non-hostile demeanor made sure that only lasted for a moment and Odalis quickly relaxed again. Though she did step over the corpse of the half eaten tiger Hollow, to put something in between herself and Blair.

Odalis' paranoia was perhaps unwarranted. As Blair appeared even less threatening now than before her bracelet had become well, a proper bracelet. Odalis noted that the girl suddenly reacted with disgust to the tiger's corpse, even appearing more withdrawn in general. It was almost as if a different person had taken her place. One who could still carry on the conversation without pause or issue. "A common side effect of human powers perhaps? But which one is the proper one? Did she activate or deactivate something?" She thought to herself as Blair introduced herself. So many questons.

Odalis allowed the girl to speak uninterrupted. She dug the spikes of one tentacle into the flesh of the tiger and with an absent mind tore a chunk out of the corpse and began chewing on it as she mulled over Blair's words. Her neurons firing up as a new term was mentioned. Fullbringer. She repeated it several times in her head, committing it to memory. Avoiding a fight was most certainly the right call here. This was a golden opportunity to learn more about this spiritual world Odalis found herself in. Any piece of information could mean the difference between life and death. That was for certain. But even without that incentive, Odalis found the process of learning an enjoyable pursuit for its own sake.

"Well, I can tell you that you don't have to worry about me suddenly becoming ravenous and trying to eat you. Although, stuffed is not quite the correct way to put it. Hollows don't ever feel fully satiated. The best we can hope for is that the hunger is reduced to a light tingling sensation." Odalis's tongue darted out to lick up some blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. A few droplets had already ran down to her chin, which she caught with the back of her paw, licking the bloody smear off of her clawed appendage.

"I haven't been called nice before. Not since adopting this form. Didn't know I still had it in me." Odalis said in a joking manner, chuckling softly to herself. "I haven't heard the phrase before. But I've met other humans with powers. It's nice to have a name for them now. So can you also form those bows of light? Is that what your bracelet allows you to do? Are all Fullbringers made at birth? Do they all..." Odalis caught herself and took a deep breath. "My apologies for the interrogation. I guess I'm just a little excited having my first chat with an actual person and not some near-mindless beast. Most of them can't string a basic sentence together." A bold faced lie. While the experience was a novelty, it was more just the opportunity for learning about her prey and the wider spiritual world in general that excited Odalis so much.

Of course, admitting to that wouldn't be the smartest thing in the world.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

She didn't want to be rude. She really didn't. She was in a lion's den, so to speak, and she was perfectly aware of this fact. Still, Blair was completely unable to hide her horror as Odalis took more bites from her prey, lightly cleaning the blood from her face that slowly dropped down. She was like something out of a scary movie. If producers could get even the smallest glimpse into the spiritual world, they would be so incredibly surprised at what actually lurks out here. Blair wasn't quite as unique as someone might think. But Odalis? Yeah, she had a thing or two going on that could induce nightmares quite easily.

The only thing that saved her and gave Blair the chance to change her face back to something much more polite was how Odalis spoke with her. The calmness in her voice coupled with the excitement she clearly felt was amazing. It gave Blair the immediate desire to answer any and all questions she had without holding anything back, though Shizuka had taught her better. She was an assassin in profession, after all. She knew the rules. Still, revealing a bit about what she was couldn't possibly hurt. People were bound to find out one way or another, and that was honestly fine with her.

"Uh, yeah, I guess we were born with it but not all of us unlock our powers at such young ages. Sometimes traumatic stuff has to happen first, ya know?' She answered out of order. No biggie. That question just stuck in her mind more than the others, but she quickly recovered. "So, bows of light, huh? Nah, I can't make those. I guess you're talking about Quincy when you mention those, though. Also, I mean, you can ask whatever! Not like I mind."

Blair allowed her body to drop quickly to the ground, her legs crossing simultaneously in a pretzel shape. She figured she may as well get comfortable if they truly were going to be a bit social with each other, and she didn't mind that one bit. Besides, Blair had some questions of her own. Like, could all Hollows speak? Odalis made it seem like they had limits. Why was she so well-articulated? Was she not driven by hunger the way other Hollows were? All of these ran through Blair's mind as she tried to figure out which question would be the right one to ask first. Not wanted to take the conversation away from Odalis yet, though, Blair chose to remain silent. She smiled, hoping Odalis may feel more at ease. The Fullbringer certainly noticed the hesitation earlier.