υɴdyιɴɢ prαyer ★

It wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, however, if the flyer hadn’t gone a short distance and promptly planted itself right upon the face of an unsuspecting stranger. 

Thanks, wind. You’re a real pal.

By the time Hades had pulled the page from where it had planted itself, he had been approached by who he could only assume had lost the wayward sheet-- wait, why was this stranger apologizing?

"It's not something that can be helped," he said with a small sigh. "It's not like you intended for this to happen, so there isn't anything you need to feel sorry about... but thank you for your concern."

He paused mid-crouch at the sound of footsteps, crunching through the grass. A disturbance among the elements…

Who dares set foot in the depths of these Sacred Woods? Anghel nearly peeked out from behind a bush, but no, he mustn’t, lest his cover be blown. This outing was meant to test his skills! He could not betray that purpose. 

So he waited there, listening – wait. This bush… were these…

By the time the footsteps drew nearer, Anghel’s face was smeared with a certain red fruit juice. Spending the day training for a maxed-out stealth stat made a bird hungry. He perked up as the intrusion drew close, too close… he would have to act. The Dark Sorcerer’s minions could be approaching. Could they be seeking to harvest these Gold-Speckled Berries of the Bloody Sunset?!

Like any logical person might conclude, the only option was to leap out and aggressively tackle this stranger, face smeared red and eyes wild.

“Stay back, Fiend!”

Once he had entered one of the parks, it didn't take long for the god to find something that caught his eye. Was that a strawberry patch nestled among those bushes? Though only a small blessing, it was quite a stroke of luck in his opinion... but would such a miniscule bit of happiness in comparison to the bad luck of being thrown into this city be enough to trigger the curse's retaliation?

The answer made itself clear as he approached the plants. Everything happened so fast that it took Hades a few seconds to actually process anything. One moment, he was lost in his thoughts, considering whether attempting to take one of the plants home would be allowable.The next, he was flat on his back, pinned to the ground by a rather angry-sounding and fearsome-looking young man. Good Gaia, was that blood?

"Like this!"

In her world, there weren’t many dogs to be found- save wolves. Typically, one didn’t try to make nice with a wolf and so Oichi’s understanding of house dogs was slim, to say the least. But she figured that if some cats could be misjudged, then perhaps dogs could too. It was just hard to picture that vicious slobbery beasts could be as cute as kittens.

When she felt the soft fur push against her hand, Oichi smiled brightly. The kitten turned out to be even softer than she imagined, and she found herself stroking the little thing with more excitement than she’d felt in quite some time. “Look, the little kitten is letting Ichi pet him!” She could feel the gentle rumble of the kitten purring even as she scratched behind its ears. Honestly, there were so many little things in the city that were new and exciting that she hadn’t felt the urge to slaughter anyone since her arrival. Other than that one time, but that person was institutionalized, not dead so he didn’t count.

Seeing how the kitten had warmed up to the woman brought a small smile to the god's face. It was a relief that it seemed she hadn't been paying too much attention to his musings either.

Her eyebrows raised slightly at the man’s next words. An actual toy? She supposed that would also make sense. Where was she supposed to find a toy for a cat though? “Ichi isn’t sure why cats wouldn’t like to play tag… and dogs can be scary. They’re very loud and sometimes too hyper. Ichi likes to play with cats more beccause they don’t play as long.” She shook her head when he tacked on that last bit. “It’s alright, Ichi knows that she causes more trouble than ease.” If the army briefly under her command were to be believed, she was something of the last hope for her clan. Yet she’d chosen to go off searching for her brother instead. If that wasn’t causing trouble, Oichi wasn’t sure what was.

A small pang of jealousy crept its way through Oichi as she noticed the little kitten seemed to be rather comfortable with the man. She had considered plucking him away from the kitty with her shadow hands, but he waved her over before she had the chance. Allowing the darkness given shape around her to dissipate into the ground, she carefully crept closer; crawling, despite the stranger’s reassurance that it wasn’t necessary. She reached out slowly as if the kitten were more tiger than stray and hoped that she’d at least get to rest her hand on its soft looking back.

To most, it would be strange to think of a large, three-headed monster that happened to resemble a dog as anything close to a puppy, but when Cerberus wasn’t fulfilling his duties as the guardian of the underworld, the beast was little more than a slobbery, overgrown lapdog. He signed softly. The last time he had seen his pet had been at the sports festival in the garden, and that seemed like an eternity ago.

He wasn’t sure what to make of her comment about causing “more trouble than ease.” So she -was- cursed in some way, then? He didn’t get a chance to ask, however, before she quiet literally crawled over to where he and the kitten were. Yes, she definitely reminded him of his favourite nephew.The kitten seemed to have forgiven her for her earlier offenses, or else forgotten about the chase at all. It arched its back to meet her hand and began to purr softly. Congratulations Oichi, you have befriended a cat.