#flamecoded

hello, louis amamiya and welcome to terra!

you will be housed in twin apartments M14, where you will find a hello kitty purifier mask and a sweater shawl to replace the items taken from you upon arrival. also there are plenty of vampires in this country--ah, if you even glance over at count ivory. yep. he’s one. so blood juice boxes...blood boxes? will be provided for you. 

you will also retain your sick vamp and blood code fire storm abilities!

mercedes has grown somewhat more comfortable in her assigned quarters and the surrounding area; it’s quieter than other neighborhoods, and the people that call it home are kind enough. she feels nothing if not welcomed, and this does wonders to take the edge off her worries about affairs back home, especially with emile about. they can count on each other if the situation ever grows dire.

surprisingly, mercedes has seen little of the person she’s been roomed with, and has naught but a name to go by. perhaps he’d been active in the city, and their paths never crossed.

she has a small batch of cookies in the oven, but they aren’t made from scratch this time. certain provision stores sell pre-mixed and ready-to-bake dough, and mercedes has decided to put their recipe to the test against her notorious sweet tooth.

it’s as she settles at the dining room table with a book that she hears the apartment door open.

Hadn’t you promised to put aside your headphones and open yourself up to the world? Perhaps, perhaps once he had: it had been easier to stick to that ideal when the lessons he had came away with weren’t so openly challenged ( and perhaps in part, it is easier to go back to old ways rather than stick to new ones, in the end, in the fallout of...everything ). Still, he does not shut out the world entirely, not as readily as he once had— it is perhaps even a bit unintentional, sometimes, these days; only alerted to stranger’s presence by a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey. You. You’ve got traces of blood on your shirt.”

The lamplit streets of the Inner City were bustling under the gaze of the waning moon. Crowds of people flowed up and down the walkways, marching, laughing, chattering. It was enough to overload the senses, rendering focus on any particular point a trying task. Normally one would find nothing worth a second's notice amoungst such noise, but you'd be surprised how complacent people can be when hidden by the moving bodies and drowned out by the buzzing voices themselves.

It'd been a matter of days since Kirigiri awoke in the city. Suddenly and mysteriously separated from those who stood beside her as they opened the large vault-like door to an uncertain future, she felt the need to be cautious. Naturally, that meant the first step was gathering information of her sudden change in setting before mounting any heroic reunion scenes. But considering what she was told would be out here, she couldn’t help but to be cautiously optimistic.

Even still though, this "Project" those in charge keep yammering about... The secrecy they seem to have swore by rubs her the wrong way, to put it plainly. She wants answers to the many questions she has, and it seems she might have to do the investigating herself to get some straight answers. Not that she'd have it any other way, of course.

But back to the subject at hand. Her sharp eyes, trained at crime scene after crime scene, picked up on the aberrant patch of colour on the oncoming young man's white shirt. She moved closely to him, keeping her voice at an even keel and made direct eye contact to promote attention to herself to his perception only. She could be rubbing shoulders with the wrong person here, but a bad information is better than none. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"Sorry to stop you in your tracks like this, but that doesn't exactly seem too commonplace for a city run by those preaching about love and fateful encounters. At least, I sure hope not." The crowds flow around the two, masking their conversation until one of them decides to pull any more attention their way. 

"You're not hurt, are you? What's your deal?"