Downtown, in front of City Hall

A large group of protesters had gathered in front of City Hall. Men and women from all over San Lorenzo were there in an attempt to convince the mayor to do something about the "monster problem". Sticking out of the crowd, signs with phrases such as "San Lorenzo is for humans!" and "No Bloodsuckers in my town!" could be seen.

Cornelia's Store

A loud, yet oddly squishy pounding could be heard at the door of the closed store. Someone obviously wanted very badly to be let in.

In the Ears of Monsters Everywhere

The news had come originally from those natural monsters with European contacts. It spread by word of mouth all over North America, to natural and transformed monsters alike. It was time for monsters to be afraid. Very afraid. The Van Helsings were coming.

edited 18th Nov '16 10:18:48 PM by PossiblyQuiteInsane

Cornelia's Store-Nearby

One block away from Cornelia's store, Marcus was walking down the street in his human disguise, carrying a book in his hand. He had arrived in San Lorenzo last week, and had originally planned to read on the roof of the city hall, but quickly bailed when the protestors beginning to congregate.

Now, Marcus was searching for another place to pass the time and read. As he walked up to the corner of the vlock, he heard an odd knocking sound coming from nearby. Is it just me, or does that sound...squishy? He thought.

Curious, he approached the source of the noise and hesitantly spoke, "Hello? Is something wrong?"

Downtown

Roisin had an excellent view of the protest. She had been wandering San Lorenzo for most of the day, trying to familiarize herself with her new home and find somewhere to play and earn, maybe catch someone's eye and schmooze her way into their house until she could get a place of her own.

Seeing the protest made her wonder if she should just run, but she decided against it. This type of thing was going on everywhere. There was nowhere to run to.

She sighed. She had come this far. There were a decent amount of people here, and she didn't look as inhuman as some monsters did. She could pass well enough, at least for the time being.

Roisin sat down and pulled out her guitar. After setting up her case in front of her to collect donations, she began to play.

Downtown - San Lorenzo

Patrick was riding. The damned horse was charging along the rode into Santa Lorenzo. Patrick cursed. "Where are you taking me this time?" He asked grumbling, trying to make sure his head stayed on his shoulders. It had been a tough task in finding a way to put his head on his shoulders. In the end, he used the whip to keep it in place. It was better then nothing, really.

The horse suddenly stopped, raising an ear. It sniffed the air, and began to change course. Patrick raised and eyebrow. "What is it, boy?" He asked. He could hear what sounded like music.

edited 19th Nov '16 2:28:25 AM by Vampireandthen

Downtown (reluctantly)

If Leith were the sort of person to rate her days from best to worst, then today would fit squarely in the latter. She was tired from traversing the city on foot. The protests outside and the paranoic mumblings about new hunters were disturbing her peace. The groceries she'd come here for were small, slippy, unwieldy, and other such descriptors that were difficult to handle with her claws- fingers- claws.

And all because her beloved computer of many years had broken down, taking its home delivery services with it. She stabbed a bag of peas with her leg and swung them over and into her cart. The other patrons were keeping their distance from the scary spider lady, which gave her the smallest bit more space to maneuvre in the store's cramped aisles. The isolation was welcomed.

Once the food was gathered up and paid for (she'd gotten tired of the cashier tripping over his words and had overpayed with two notes instead of wasting time counting out the cheaper amount) she departed from the store with bags in hand. She'd barely moved before she stopped again, requiring some rearrangement to properly handle the plastic nuisances.

Downtown

Patrick was riding his horse when he spotted a spider person struggling with groceries. He tried to pull the horse over to help, but the beast was stubborn, trying go in the opposite direction. Patrick sighed, and removed his head, putting it next to the beast's. "Stop it now, and listen to me!" He told her. The horse stared into his eye, its black orb soulless and full of malice, before it relented, and stared heading for the spider woman. Patrick out his head back on his shoulders.

"Excuse me!" He said to her, trotting forwards, horse simmering with rage. "Do you need some help?"

Downtown, City Hall

Great. These crazy people were protesting again. This day just kept getting better and better, didn't it?

Jack leaned against a wall a short distance away from the mass of people, watching them. He doubted that they'd be able to really change anything, honestly. No one wanted to piss of a monster, and trying to kick them all out would accomplish that.

And after all, there were plenty of monsters that could pass as human. Shapeshifters, vampires, werewolves, all of those guys could usually fly under the radar pretty easily. Good luck catching them.

The sound of music drifted over to him, and he was broken out of his train of thought. His red eyes widened as he realized that someone was actually playing music at this protest!

...She was actually pretty good, honestly. He'd have gone over and tipped her, but his presence would have undoubtedly caused a good deal of nervousness, and powder keg crowds like this usually only needed a single spark.

So instead, he just adjusted his tricorn hat to hide his eyes, and watched, and listened. Patiently.

Cornelia's Store

Sammy was honestly starting to question whether the centaur was even here. She didn't really know what to do if she wasn't; very few monsters put themselves in the public eye like this.

Then she heard a young man's voice from behind her. Crap! She wasn't exactly the most inconspicuous monster out there, what with her forest-green, oozing body of slime. (She would never get used to having to use words like "oozing" to describe herself. Such a gross word.)

She turned her head around without the rest of her body and saw what appeared to be a young man around her age. Human, as if she was expecting anything different. Crap crap crap!

"I... uhh, I'm fine, thank you... no need to come any closer... I, uhh... I guess it's closed. Dammit, I really needed that... uhh... plastic... sword! Yeah, sword!"

She hoped against hope that the man hadn't seen her yet.

San Lorenzo, Cornelia's Store, Living Area

Cornelia just came out of the shower... which in her case was to say: The bathroom - size and all. And was about to slip into some clothes and read a bit as she hard the knocking. While it was outside of normal business hours from the sounds of it it was urgent, so she opted to instead put on her armor, a bit later she went down the stairs (she still didn't have enough money to get a cargo elevator installed, but she saved for it... stairs were quite hard to take as a Centaur after all). She first looked through the door (fully glassed) to see who or what was outside.

An apartment in downtown San Lorenzo

Seawell was, as usual, sitting on his couch watching TV, looking for anything worth watching. Instead he found a news report of a demonstration going on in City Hall. Oh look, another one. When are people going to realize how pointless they are?

He didn't care. He had bigger worries; according to the monster grapevine, some European Hunters were in America. Really dangerous ones. Of course the chance of his running into one were infinitesimally small... but then that's what the chances of The Change happening were too.

He was glad he was something of a shut in right now. But, he still had needs. He needed to buy groceries and clothes. Disguising himself as best as he could (hat over his horns, baggy pants for the legs, tennis tied to his hooves) he went outside.

edited 19th Nov '16 6:04:26 AM by Sijo

Cornelia's Store

Even if Marcus hadn't noticed Sammy, he certainly noticed the trail of green goo leading up to the shop. He noticed that the other party sounded nervous and wondered if his disguise was causing that. It wouldn't be the first time.

"It's alright, I'm not human..." Marcus called out, before reverting to his normal appearence. He briefly dissolved into a small vortex of sand and wind, before reforming into his default cloaked and glowy-eyed form.

"...Not anymore, anyway. See? I'm friendly."

edited 19th Nov '16 7:05:37 AM by svenorzokarkoff

Downtown

"No." Leith didn't look up but her four spare eyes swiveled to focus on the newcomer- though one, a lazy eye, looked slightly off to the left. The black blur before her appeared to have four legs and two upper bodies; her setae picked up its equine smell, while her common sense told her it was a man on a horse rather than some form of conjoined centaur.

She hooked two bags with her legs and focused on getting the remaining one threaded through her claws. Another scent had been picked up alongside the horse's, something pungent and sickeningly sweet- the smell of decay. A dead person on a black horse? She couldn't move while rearranging herself, so she might as well sate her curiosity. "You're a Dullahan?"

Outside Cornelia's Store

Two things happened in quick succession. First, the centaur finally came to the door. In full armor for some reason. Thank God. Sammy had only been knocking for like ten minutes. And then the young guy turned into a tornado before reforming as... a cloaked guy with glowing eyes. She wasn't sure what he was, but he definitely wasn't human. Although she was a bit jealous of the ease with which he disguised himself as one. Sammy breathed a sigh of relief.

"You scared the shit out of me! I guess you can come over here, you've probably already seen me by this point."

She then addressed the centaur on the other side of the glass door. Which she had inadvertently splattered with dark green slime while she was knocking. Oops.

"Hey, can I come in? I, uhh.. I need to ask you a huge favor, miss..." Shit! What was her name, what was her name? "Cordelia"

edited 19th Nov '16 6:27:01 AM by PossiblyQuiteInsane

Downtown San Lorenzo

Patrick gasped in surprise, while the horse snorted in contempt, stamping its hoof twice against the ground. Patrick tried to keep him under control. He sighed, and reached his hand up again, removing his head, while using the other to get the whip out. He held his head out in front of him, so he faced the spider girl. "Aye," he told her, smiling, "I am. And you're some spider, right? Well, pleased to meet ya. I'm Patrick." He smiled at the spider. The smile seemed the the tiniest bit wider then normal, though.

San Lorenzo, Cornelia's Store

Cornelia saw that her window was... quite splatted with ooze now, well, nothing a good cleaning couldn't fix. She gave a nod as she heard the apparent urgency and nervosity in the voice of the slime. "Wait, let me just unlock the door." Due to her position she did not see the Jinn transforming, although she did notice that someone else had to be there going by the slime turning around. As she had unlocked the door she pointed inside "You may come in, I'm sorry, I was under the shower before, else I'd come earlier. Since you came outside of my normal business hours I assume this is urgent?"

Downtown

A vague sense of unease settled over Roisin, and she glanced around for some reason as to why.

Someone was watching her. He (well, she thought he was a he) was wearing a trenchcoat and a tricorner hat that hid the entirety of his body.

It was chilly, but not that chilly. He was like her. Sort of. Roisin felt nervous - did he resent her for being able to go out in public?

Maybe he was just looking for a friend, or a comrade, or something.

She winked at him. "Any requests, handsome?"

Cornelia's Store

Sammy gratefully walked inside. Now, how to phrase this?

"Well, you see... I uh, I can't really hide all that well" she gestured to the slimy footprints leading up to the door "and I certainly can't pass for human. And I don't really have anywhere to stay, and well, you're like the only monster that anyone knows how to get in touch with, and I'm a bit wary about trusting a human... I guess the point of all this is... do you know anywhere I could stay? As much as I'm ashamed to say it, I am physically unable to hide without help. You've gotta know someone willing to take me in!"

The long, rambling approach probably wasn't her best option, in hindsight. She was just so nervous. She was asking for an enormous favor from someone she had just met, and she felt kind of bad about it.

But if the past 6 months had taught her anything, it was that trying to hide by herself was a doomed endeavor. She was just lucky that none of the hunters she had dealt with so far had been prepared for a monster without a solid form. And Sammy knew that luck couldn't last forever.

Downtown, City Hall

Jack's eyes widened, although it would be impossible to see them under his hat. Which was for the best, of course- glowing reds orbs tended to unsettle people for some reason.

"Do you know anything sad?" He asked, sounding rather surprised. His voice was barely more than a whisper, carrying an undertone of something unnatural, yet it could easily be heard over the crowd. A paradox of sorts.

He wondered if she was a monster. She could easily be, he supposed. Certain monsters were more humanoid than others.

"After all, today is one of those days. People are more... unhappy... than ever." He gestured towards the crowd with a gloved hand.

edited 19th Nov '16 7:13:57 AM by Cwest5538

San Lorenzo, Cornelia's Store

Cornelia looked at the slime... certainly what they said was true. "Hm.. I see. I'd have to ask around if somebody would be willing... but for as long as this takes I could take you in in my guest room, its not the best room but I know how humans can be." Man... it still felt weird saying things like that, but Cornelia by now had accepted that while she very well could coexist with humans, she just was none anymore. "You could be helping with the store a bit or helping me with some housework if you want to."

Cornelia's store

Marcus leaned on the doorframe of the building as he listened to Sammy's story.

"Um... maybe you could try a full-body suit of some sort for a disguise?" He quietly suggested. "It won't look the best, but it would at least prevent the slime trail...and maybe you could pass it off as cosplay?"

Downtown

With a smile, Roisin began to pluck her strings, slowly and deliberately, not breaking eye contact with the newcomer.

Will you take me across the channel?

London Bridge is falling down

Strange a woman tries to save

What a man will try to drown

It's the rain that they predicted

It's the forecast every time

The rose has died because you picked it

I believe that brandy's mine

Her voice was clear and loud, like a bell, like glass. The puckish smile on her face had an odd, almost wistful quality to it, only compounded by the melancholy in her voice.

And all over the world

Strangers talk only about the weather

All over the world

It's the same, it's the same

Cornelia's Store

"Thank you thank you thank you! You won't regret it, I swear! You don't even have to feed me, I can literally digest anything!"

Sammy was gleeful. In the past six months, she hadn't been able to stay in the same place for over a week. Then Gloweyes McFacewrap, who had apparently decided it was okay to eavesdrop on her private conversations, butted in with his "full-body suit" idea.

"That could actually work. But it would have to be tightly sealed. I'm a liquid, if it's not sealed tight enough, parts of me could leak through the cracks. More importantly, where would I even get something like that?"

Huh. That was a weird thought. The trail she was leaving wasn't just slime, it was part of her body she was leaving behind. That... was actually kind of gross, and she decided to ignore that thought.

edited 19th Nov '16 8:20:02 AM by PossiblyQuiteInsane

Downtown

Some animal instinct warned Leith against standing so close to the vexed horse. Would its hoof be strong enough to break her carapace? She didn't wish to entertain the thought.

The man, Patrick, did something that she presumed was removing his head. To her it all appeared as a blur. She had to squint behind her goggles just to decipher that the shape now in front of her was a cranium, and even then she couldn't make out its details beyond dark hair and green eyes. "A spider-human hybrid. One who can't see well."

That was about as much as she was willing to interact with a stranger. Granted, it was partly her fault for engaging in conversation in the first place. She got her bags more or less in order, one in one claw and two in the other, and then turned in the direction that was away from the sounds of the protesting crowd. "Good-bye."

City Hall, Downtown

Jack smiled, although once again it wasn't visible. "Beautiful. I haven't heard anything like that in a long, long time." He walked over to her, and dropped a couple of crumpled up twenties in her case. He didn't really need the money for much, after all- just his small apartment. He didn't need heat or air conditioning, he didn't need lighting, and he didn't really need food or water.

And she was a fellow monster (that he was pretty sure of at this point). It was his duty to help others; she wouldn't be playing guitar at a monster protest if she didn't need the cash, obviously.

As he had walked up to her, the temperature around them had dropped a few degrees, and the protestors around them tensed, giving him nervous looks. Something just felt... wrong about him. He wasn't natural; hell, he wasn't even alive.

Downtown San Lorenzo

Patrick blinked. She couldn't see very well. That....suits him quite fine actually. As she left, he decided to ask her name, to at least be polite. As he put his head and other spine back in place, he prodded his horse after her. "Can I at least get your name, lass?" He asked. His Irish accent had become stronger since he had changed. So, it was definitely notable. He cleared his throat a bit. He sometimes had trouble speaking after putting his head back on. "And maybe come with you? I'd rather avoid the monster haters back there. I mean, how would they react to a spirit of death showing up to ruin their lil' get together."