Archivist and Alchemist

     “Nah, but it’s cool– Bradley!” Did he introduce himself as Ryan? Shit. It was s weird being called that by complete strangers… why hadn’t he introduced himself as something else? But maybe now he could gaslight his way into a better placement. Now he was Brad. “Been doin’, yanno. All ya can do… you still filin’ papers off?” he asked, noting the folders and papers. “Yer losin’ one.”

“I’m working through these. Need to find evidence for something the university bought fifty-some years ago, to avoid legal troubles.”

     “Hey!” The familiar face caused Stash’s to light up. He couldn’t remember anything bad about this face. He remembered Indian food, and he remembered– “Yer that one guy… the guy who works at a library– no, an archive! Hey, dude! It’s been a while… I fergot yer name already.” But not his face. Stash was good at remembering faces.

Cortéz was carrying a batch of folders. The paper sticking out was of a yellowish brown. 

I was hiding this forever on patreon. Now you’re going to see it too!

Leo belongs to @slgma 

      “Depends on the gloves ya wear. You can get some nice, thick gloves that’re still smaller. They even got lil designs on ‘em. Like sequins, ‘re maybe yer more fond of a solid color with like, a colored accenting.” It was meant to come across as helpful or inspiring, not critical. “I know ya don’t talk. I mean, I kinda… kinda caught onto that when ya tried signing at me that one time.” Which Stash did not understand at all… he should try learning sign language again.      “It’s good, man, it’s good,” he tried to reassure once Alois hid himself again. “I mean, I ain’t gonna judge ya, shit. I’ve met worse people who’re human. But I understand yer concern. Modern society’s fucked up and detached, but they ain’t that detached… I getcha.”

While he was writing he a black tongue out slightly to the side as if it took him some concentration to continuously getting words on the paper now.

     “… Huh. Wild.” So, now Stash had more of a reason not to trust people. They could be murderers OR shadow people out to kill him and eat him. Neither path was appreciated, thank you. “Why do ya get gloves that’re so bulky and awkward? They got smaller, longer-fingered ones. You could dye ‘em a deep color, an’ nobody’d know any different.”

I see a lot of people unwilling to rp with me because my muse is trans, and because of that I feel nobody in the rp community ever will. So, yeah, reblog if you would rp with trans muses (nonbinary muses included).

     Stash had called it, so it wasn’t like he was surprised at all. For the most part, his biggest reaction was to push his glasses up his nose. “… So do all shadowpeople got hands like that?” Who knew? Stash didn’t pay a lot of attention to hands except for their actions and placement, obviously… now he’d have to add ‘monster hands’ to his list of consideration.

     Wasn’t an alchemist supposed to work with transmuting shit into gold? Or just… transmuting in general. Did he accidentally transmutate himself into a shadowmonster? That sounded fucked up. “Yer gloves botherin’ ya?” Stash asked. “You can take ‘em off… unless yer, like… tryin’ to cover up some monster claws an’ it makes ya uncomfortable.”

     “I figured, if you were researchin’ monsters. Prolly somethin’ like a cryptozoologist, right?” Stash wasn’t a scientist either. He wasn’t even an engineer. He didn’t have those kinds of qualifications, he was just. Some asshole kid, given the opportunity.

     He was used to people being scared of him? But he looked so human. Why would anyone be scared of this skinny, blond guy? “Oh, you were human at some point.” Shadow creature still sounded like a fucking vampire, though. Stash would hold off, in the meantime. He figured if this guy researched shadow-people before being turned into one, he would’ve exhausted his resources. 

     “Oh– no, sorry. I didn’t mean to stare, shit. It’s just… I’m still wonderin’ what you might be. An’, uh… yeah.” Now Stash was blushing too, for staring at the teeth, Dammit, was he really so stupid and obvious? He should get a hold of himself.