Stop hounding me! (Cherry and Joachim SL)

The saying. 'Waiting is the hardest part.' Was especially true when it came to Cherry. She adored moving around and exploring Paris, finding new things and meeting new people, so being forced to stay in one general area was almost hellish to her. But to be fair she was doing this for a good cause, she had to be easy to reach so that Retuo could get her without any hassle when the group was ready to move out. And she could travel around a little bit. But walking around the same small circle in the higrise over, and over again got real boring, real quick.

So Cherry made a little game for herself to pass the time. She would break off a large chunk of ice whenever she could find it, and would play with it. Seeing how far she could chuck it, breaking the blocks of ice with her large wooden hand, sometimes even ploping the smaller ice chunks into her mouth to chew on. Anything to pass the time as she waited. If only somebody where to come by, at least then she would have somebody to talk too...........

A bitter chill seeped into Jackdaw’s bones, causing him to huddle into his furred coat tightly.  Traversing through Paris was one hell of a geological nightmare; this area was a frozen wasteland of skyscrapers, which only funneled in stronger wind currents.  Aside from the whistling of the wind and his own footsteps crunching against ice and snow, a clear and distinct clattering could be heard in the distance.

Immediately his instinct kicked in, causing him to duck into one of the derelict buildings.  His fuschia eyes scanned around, his ears open to where exactly the crushing sound came from.  Then his gaze narrowed at the sight.

A young woman- or rather demon- was hucking massive chunks of ice with an equally gargantuan limb.  On closer inspection the oversized arm appeared to be… a tree.  Not new to the bizarre physiology of demons, Jackdaw simply shook his head at the almost comical view.  

This had to be a trap, right?

No demon would be throwing blocks of ice without any apparent reason.  While some were mindless and bestial, this one was clearly humanoid, which should have suggested some measure of intelligence and reasoning behind her madness.  

While normally he would have opted to stay clear of the perplexingly strange demon, he found himself drawn to her.  Making sure his presence was known, his steel toed boots heavily made their way towards the part arboreal lady.  Along the way he lit up a clove cigarette, its sweet scent calming his nerves and hopefully her own.  

Stopping a good measure of distance away, his escape routes already taken into account, one hand gripped tightly around a makeshift spear, the other cupped around his mouth he called out in a thick Northern British accent:

“...Bit cold and lonely out here, eh, Li’l Miss?”

As she was hurling the ice in random areas, trying to best her own record with each toss, she would pause as a new sound and smell hit both her ears and nose. The sound was easy enough to pin point what it was. The tell tale sign of footsteps and crushing snow right behind her, the smell however was odd. It was a very nice scent that was for sure, but Cherry wasn't really sure what the name of this odor was. The teen would drop the chunk of ice that was in her hand to look back behind her, and her eyes would narrow upon seeing a man. Her eyes quickly snapped on to the spear in his hand, but she didn't make any moves to defend or attack. It was common for people to carry weapons around Paris, now that didn't mean she wasn't going to keep a close eye on him, but she wasn't going to assume that he had ill will towards her. He was still human and he had a right to be given a chance.

"It can be yes. But these clothes help me with the cold." Using her flesh head she used her fingers to rub against the outside of her thick winter jacket. And as she was doing that she'd move her demon weapon behind her back silently, trying to hide her arm from the man. "You seem well dressed for the cold too mister, where did you get those clothes? Have you met Helanna by any chance?" Cherry asked in a thick french accent. Curious to know if the man was friends with one of her friends.

A small smile crossed her face before she said the next thing that was on her mind. "And it isn't really lonely anymore is it mister, heh." She let out a small chuckle before she look into his eyes. Her grey orbs staring right into his iris's. "My name is Cherry Clear, and your's would be..............?" She dragged out the 'e' part, while looking at him, cleary excepting a name in return.

Jackdaw immediately noticed Cherry pathetically trying to hide that arm that stuck out like… well a tree for an arm.  Either she was defensive about it, or naively thinking she could actually hide something that massive behind her reed thin frame.  Her first words spoken definitely came from a youth, which probably explained her tossing blocks of ice for no apparent reason.  However the moment she smiled is when Jackdaw put his guard up.

Real killers came at you with a smile- after all he had perfected that.

“Hela-who?  I dunno who you’re talkin’ bout, kiddo.  But if ya wanna look as good as me, well, you’re shit outta luck.”  Regardless of his instincts and self preservation, he played off a carefree tone with the youngster, even if they were a demon, and shot Cherry a wink and smile.  He blew several rings of smoke and poked a finger through each one of them.

“The name’s Jackdaw.  But you can call me ‘Jack’ for short, Miss Clear.”

Cherry would giggle softly at his little joke. The man was quite funny, and his statement wasn't really wrong either. He was pretty well dressed. "Helanna is a friend of mine. You see the clothes I am wearing right now?" She grab the jacket and pulled on it slighty. "Helanna made this just for me! Along with plenty of other stuff, so I was wondering if you knew her too. Since your coat seems rather nice. Where did you find it if I may ask?" Letting somebody know that she had many clothes may not have been the best move on her part. But Cherry has proven time and time ago that she can deal with thieves. Plus this man seemed to be pretty okay so far, if a little bombastic. Pointing a finger at the cigarette, she'd tilt her head at it. "That thing smells really good mister, but don't those things cause cancer? My mom always told me to leave them alone because it would make people sick."

The man would earn another giggle from the teen as he called her a 'miss.' "Wow, I've never been called miss before. It's nice to meet you mister Jack." Cherry would cross her legs and rest her chin on the palm of her hand. "So what brings you here mister Jack? Most people do not come around the highrise unless they have a reason."

“Ahh, I see,” Jack nodded along to Cherry explaining her friend.  So demons liked to tailor and sew?  The quality was surprisingly well done.  As for her follow up question he said, “Got it in a trade.  Sweet deal, if I’m bein’ honest.”

He was being honest, although he excluded the details of him forcefully threatening the original owner of these clothes to trade with him.  At the very least Jack didn’t leave the poor bastard naked.  Besides, he looked better in it than the owner.

Cherry continued to pile on the questions much like an inquisitive youth would.  With a shrug of his shoulders he answered, “Yeah, it causes cancer, ruins your lungs and teeth, is a horrible fuckin’ habit.  But I’ll tell ya this: it gives me peace in this shithole of a world.  ‘Sides, we’re all gonna die someday, and I’d rather dictate it myself than to be ghosted by some shithead de-”

He stopped and considered Cherry.  It would have been rude to say anything further than that, and he didn’t want to incur the wrath of that ridiculously large tree arm.  So he took a long drag from his cigarette before touching up on the final string of her questionnaire.

“What kinda demons raised ya, kiddo?  ‘S called ‘common courtesy,’ yeah?”  With a shake of his head he was disappointed in the lack of culture with demonkind.  He then wagged a finger at Cherry.  “Also ya ever stop to think one question is too many?  There’s only so much business I can share with ya before it gets too personal, and if ya wanna know, I’m cuttin’ through here.  I ain’t stayin’ long.”

"I'd say it was yeah, you can get a whole butch of cool stuff if you're willing to trade." Cherry herself did not really trade all that often. She wasn't willing to part with much, if any of the things she collected. And while she could always use food and water, considering that we in came to trade, those two things where king. But she didn't have much of either of those, not enough for her to be trading it all the time at the very least. Due to her rather large limb she already had to take in much more energy than normal girls her age, so she always had to be careful with the little supplies she had.

Cherry would frown a little bit at that statement. He kinda reminded her of Drak. "I guess if it makes you happy, I won't judge you for it. But you should be careful. It isn't really smart to ruin your lungs when you need to run from demons, and uh, breath I guess." She added with a slight chuckle. "And you may never know. There are ways to fight demons, you don't seem to be one of those people, but who knows? Maybe ome day you will awaken to your powers and then you'll be able to kick some demons butt!" The power to defeat demons seemed to be rather rare. But maybe he was one of the lucky few who could summon those beings or wield a special weapon like Retuo?

Cherry would let out a huff and shake her head from side to side. "I was not raised by any demons! I was raised by my lovely human mother!" She put some extra focus on the word 'human' almost to the point it came off as a little sassy. Which is how she meant it actually. She was a little offended that he'd just assume that demons where her parents. But she'd look over that, for now at least. "I am sorry, bit I like to learn new things. Anyways though, I wish you good luck with that. Just make sure to stay away from the north, that is how you get to the Cradle and that place will kill you if you're not reasy for it." The cradle has killed many people who had recklessly ran into it without any plan of gear to keep themselves safe. "Now if you go west of here, you'll reach the dryrange. That place is really hot, so you'll want to lose the jacket. But it isn't posionous. And if you go to the east you'll find yourself in the bellows. It is covered in fog, but other than that it is alright."

She wasn't too sure about how much knowledge this man had about the way Paris worked, so she just gave some advice anyways. Even if he knew about it, it wouldn't hurt him to hear the same info again.

Cherry’s childish idealism of attaining the power to defeat demons caused Jack to smirk.  Despite having the incredible luck to survive thus far in a cruelly merciless world, the odds of him acquiring strength like that weren’t worth betting on.  The only resource a human had against a demon were their wits and ability to escape.

Which Jackdaw considered at Cherry’s snappy retort.

However if she claimed to be human and was this emotional about it, he had little choice but to believe her.  So she had to have been possessed, cursed, or somehow grafted to or by a demon, which would also explain the rest of her emaciated and wasting body.  Pity, but she seemed to be making due just fine regardless.

“My fault then, Miss Clear.  I mean, wouldja fault me for thinkin’ you’re a demon with that arm?  Anyway aside from that, I 'ppreciate ya tellin’ me ‘bout the lay of the land.  You’re a nice lass.”  It was helpful advice, although he received more or less the same information by the very person he ‘traded’ with earlier.  

For some strange reason Jack felt compelled to pat her on the head, but given the distance he had placed between them to begin with, he decided a playful wink and smile would suffice.  The cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth flared as he took another puff.

“So why is it a lovely li’l Miss like yourself is in this frozen fuckfest?”

"You saw that huh?" Cherry let out a little sigh. He was correct, she couldn't really fault him for assuming that she was a demon. Many has done it and many people will do it after this. With her arm it was a pretty reasonable thing to guess. But she still couldn't help but get annoyed by it. It made plenty of people run away from her, not to mention how insulted she always feels whenever people compare her to one of those evil creatures. She was much better than those vile beasts! Still though, he did say that he was sorry and while she hated it, she would assume the same thing if she was in his shoes. So she let it go. "Anyways no I guess I cannot blame you for thinking I was a demon, I just don't like being called one. And it is no isssue at all. I think everybody needs to stick together and help one another as much as they can."

Cherry silently debated with herself on if she should tell him. She was rather proud of her new 'job' but she had a feeling that telling a stranger about the mission would be a bad idea. After a few seconds of thinking she came to the conclusion that she could probably tell him a little bit about it.

"Frozen fuckfest? You curse quite a bit don't you?" She asked in a slighty teasing tone before she went on to actually answer the man's question. "You may not know this just by looking at me, but I am actually a demon slayer! And I am on a secret mission that needs me to stay in the Highrise for a few days." That was a pretty good balance of telling the truth while still keeping the important details to herself.

A common misconception to be sure; anybody could easily get aggravated in being called a demon despite not being one, yet wielding a monstrous limb like that would result in those circumstances. Rather nasty feedback loop. Once more that childish idealism shone through in Cherry, what with her mentioning that mankind should band together in harmony. She hadn’t seen the equally monstrous side of humanity that rivaled the demons.

Jackdaw was one of those monsters but he wouldn’t show her that side.

“Unbelievable!” Jack gasped out in shock. Playing along with Cherry he pointed at her, adding, “You? A demon slayer? But you’re so tin- wait! Don’tcha have an arm that can pulverize those demons to a pulp!?”

A proud smirk crosses her face as Jack overreacted to her statement. The fact that he was playing it up for her totally went over the teen's head, and she took it as actual shock and awe. Which she enjoyed thoroughly. "Yep! I know I don't seem like it but I have defeated tons of demons! And I do punch them, yes!" She may have a distaste for her arm, but dear gods it felt good to punch the demons! To finally be able to fight back and stop running away, it was a truely freeing and rushing thirll.

“Color me impressed!” Jackdaw’s features brightened, revealing a sharpened and fanged smile.  “Now then, seein’ as how you’ve got a super secret mission to attend to- and I don’t wanna freeze my knob off here- I’m afraid this is where we part ways, Miss Clear.”

With a flourishing bow to Cherry, Jack spun on a heel and walked away, waving a hand, leaving a scent of clove lingering in his wake.

“G’luck on your mission.  Maybe we’ll see each other again.”

It was a little sad to see her guest leave all so soon, but she could understand why. She would wave back at the man. "Thank you nister Jack, I hope you have aafe travels, and that we meet again aswell!" After that she would wait until he left, before she picked up another chunk of ice. "Now where was I.........."

[Exit]