Rooftop Ornaments

Rooftop Ornaments
Date of Scene:	23 September 2012
Location:	Northern Manhattan
Synopsis:	While checking out Manhattan, Daniil, an agent of the Turks, discovers that there are not just humans in this world. Of course, the girl he runs into is clearly suspicious of the 'man in black'.
Cast of Characters:	Zia, Daniil Petrov

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Daniil Petrov has posed:
Standing near the edge of the roof of a building in Manhattan, a man in a suit gazes over the people below in the streetlights' glare late at night, talking to a cellphone in a quiet voice and reaching to detatch a sword from over his shoulder with one hand. "Note to self: The area seems to be called 'Manhattan', from signs and shop names. This area has technology similar to ours, no Reactor sighted - thought it could be hidden amongst the clutter. Primary inhabitants are human, none of the more unusual races spotted, nor Heartless. Seems unlikely this world is unaffected. Needs in person investigation. End note.". With that, he sits the sword on the ground, against the corner and hidden from observation except by anyone strange enough to be climbing the rooftops at this time of night.

Zia has posed:
Normally, it would take quite a lot to get the white gargress to actually speak to some random stranger in the city. However, with all the strangers coming and going, sometimes quite obviously not belonging in this world, she's taken to being a bit more curious about the oddities that show up. Humans are not really the sort to spend much of their time on the rooftops, so she often uses those to get around, only using her wings sparingly when the need calls for it.

The gargress is just finishing one of her food runs, having scored a bag of popcorn and some day-old pretzels from the local theater's trash. She's just leaping onto the rooftop when she spots the distinct form of a human-shaped shadow. Too close! Why hadn't she noticed him before? Well, a dark suit against a dark rooftop and a sky darkened without starlight - it makes him a bit more stealthy than one might expect. She's quick to scramble behind the stairway that leads downward into the building, flattening herself back against it. Unfortunately, the sound of footsteps is clear enough, even with the roar of the wind. Oh, and let's not forget that one of those pretzels just happens to pick this moment to drop from the bag, rolling out and then spiraling around in a circle like a coin on-end, then drops face-down on the concrete.

Daniil Petrov has posed:
With a semi-instinctual reaction and sharp reflexes, the dark-suited and sunglassed man (yes, at night), whirls around and drops into a defensive crouch, snatching up the sword with one hand but only resting his hand on the sheathed hilt. His eyes scan the dimly lit skyline, looking for sources of those footsteps - what kind of person would be up here in the middle of the night, and why did the sounds appear so suddenly, so close? He rises to a low, stealthy stance and walks in the direction of the sound on his tiptoes - or at least he tries, these damned boots scuff the ground with every step, quietly creaking leather as he moves.

After a long dozen seconds or so, he has semi-quietly moved towards the sounds he heard, coming from that side of the rooftop, and he pauses, speaking out loud in mild confusion "What? A pretzel?" he crouches to reach out with a free hand, his phone pocketed as he snuck along, to pick it up. He thinks to himself 'Hard? But... I'm sure that wasn't there when I came up. Who *throws* old pretzels around?!' he is more than a little confused, and calls out in a low but audible tone "Who's there?" - staying ready in a defensive posture in case this was some kind of threat, couldn't be the Heartless though - could it?

Zia has posed:
Inwardly, Zia is cursing herself for being distracted. First there was that strange gargoyle who didn't know how to glide, then the wolf boy in that strange other-worldly town, and then the lost LARPer - she's had a lot on her mind! Of course, that doesn't excuse letting her guard down, and look just where it's gotten her. She presses her back against the wall, chest heaving as she tries desperately to quiet her own breathing.

Her ears follow the sounds of every squeeky footstep and every shuffled movement. Just at the moment when he reaches down to pluck up that pretzel, the girl moves around the corner and out of sight again. There's that scurrying sound of footsteps. The gargress can't risk the chance that he might be one of those psycho New Yorkers who always carries a gun, so she hops up onto the ledge and does what gargoyles do best - she makes herself look like a statue.

Okay, really, the effect isn't great, but the fact that it's dark does help a little. Mostly, she looks like any rooftop sculpture, unless you look close enough to realize that this one is wearing clothes, and happens to have a bag of popcorn shoved under one arm and a couple of pretzels looped through the end of her tail. Failure stealth-mode activate!

Daniil Petrov has posed:
The sound of silence greets him, silence and quiet footsteps, except they don't sound quite the same as his - no heavy boots, not even heavy boots trying to be quiet. Something fast and lightfooted, and still very much nearby. He starts stepping around the stairwell, and tries a second time "I'm not looking for trouble. You know, unless you're a Heartless - in which case I'm confused because Heartless don't tend to..." he takes a quick few steps around the corner all at once, to surprise the person hiding just around the corner!

And finds nothing but more rooftop and another one of those statues, he'd seen a few before, so he mentally writes it off as scenery. "...hide?" he finishes his sentence. His eyes flick upwards, and he peers over the side of the roof - nothing, not even a hint of something. Where could his mystery pretzel-fiend have gone? He walks a little closer to the gargoyle perched on the roof ledge, and with a nimble hop, lands in a crouch beside her, leaning slightly on the creature with one hand on her shoulder, and looking to a casual glance like a rooftop ornament himself.

Zia has posed:
Stay still. Just stay still. The girl just keeps staring out at the city even as he approaches, trying not to twitch, or move, or so much as breathe deeply. Maybe he'll just go away. No such luck. Instead, she not only finds him hoping up next to her, but reaching that hand out to touch her shoulder. Rather than finding stone, it wouldn't be hard for the man to notice that what he's touching feels distinctly like cloth and flesh rather than rock. Of course, the girl is probably quicker to react.

Those wings that had looked like part of the statue move, flapping once and moving her backwards in a quick motion. She's not quite sure about what path that sword will take and if it's going to end up coming her way. The girl's ears duck down and she quickly backpeddles, her feet making that same shuffling sound he'd heard a moment before.

In the darkness, she'd still be hard to make out, but those wings, and the shadow of a tail behind her certainly do make her look demonic. In her surprise, though, the bag of popcorn ends up dropped, landing a bit in front of her. Were there heartless that look like this? Certainly there were some of the winged variety, but usually they would have attacked by now rather than playing these sort of elusive games. For now, the girl crouches low, growling faintly under her breath. There is a flash of red eyes in the darkness, but she doesn't move to attack, she just watches, unsure what to make of him.

Daniil Petrov has posed:
His reaction is fast but not very hostile, staying on the defensive at least until she gives the sign she is attacking. He takes a quick step back and brings his sheathed sword up in a diagonal cross-block across his chest with the sword's sheath retracted enough to show a little of the blade glimmering in the slight light coming up from below. He waits for a second, eyeing her as she eyes him, and the red eyes certainly don't cause a whole lot of calmness.

But still the dark red-eyed form does not attack, so he tentatively asks "Are you friendly? Mr Probably-not-a-statue", and slides the blade closed with a click into the sheath. Relaxing his stance a little to look a bit less - well, ready to jump at her. After another few seconds he says, "How about we relax a little, and see if we can't get along." and with that, he lowers the sword and then lets it clatter to the ground. It's a bit of a ruse, given he's actually still got combat materia in a device that's part of his glove, but given he's trying to act friendly and really doesn't mean to pick a fight with her, it's not a big deception.

Zia has posed:
As much as her kind might be known for being made of stone, the truth is that swords cut flesh just as easily for Gargoyles as it does for humans. While she makes no movement to attack, the girl hisses under her breath like a cat, tail lashing behind her. She's not quite over her distrust of humans, and this one is more suspicious looking than most. Still, when he sets the blade down, her eyes dim in color, switching back to their usual blue tones. The tip of her tail tucks down between her legs.

The girl remains in the shadows, though, her form still crouched, those wings drawn outwards and poised for flight as if she might just make a run for it and risk the chance that he's got a gun. How close is it to sunrise? How good of a shot is he likely to be? "Depends on who ye are, and what yer doin snoopin about on rooftops carryin tha thing around." Apparently, Mr.-Probably-Not-A-Statue is a girl. She has an accent that certainly doesn't fit in with the rest of this city, but even among the humans here, there is quite a bit of variance. "Ah dinnae recall CIA agents toatin 'round great bloody blades like tha."

She shifts again, keeping her stance low, looking more like some sort of shadow beast than anything friendly, even if her voice might at least help with some of that perception. "If yer lookin te capture the creature, then ye'll be in fer a fight."

Daniil Petrov has posed:
"I'm gathering information - I assume that someone like yourself has noticed the strange things happening around. Well, where I'm from, the same things are happening - I've been asked to find out why, and how to stop it. Simple enough? Also - what's an CIA agent?." He adds that last bit on, knowing it makes clear that he's not from 'around these parts' but she would figure that out fast enough. For starters, he's got an accent she's probably never heard before.
"Capture you? Is that something people around here do? Seems a bit ..." he pauses for effect, mostly, "rude. Or something. I've got no plans to harm you. I would appreciate any information you have to offer, though." he lowers himself down to sit on the wall that surrounds the rooftop to stop stupid and drunk people from falling off. "Specifically about the recent events, Heartless, the reason there's a whole lot more world - or worlds - to be found. That sort of thing." He says with a disarming smile. "Surely you can't see anything wrong with that?"

Zia has posed:
The words that catch the gargress' ears are: 'where I'm from...' Her head tilts ever so slightly, appraising the sight of the man standing before her. Unlike Skoll, who looks like someone's idea of an anime werewolf, or Reize and his wandering LARPer look, this man could walk the streets of New York without too much of a problem. Oh, there might be quips about Men-in-Black, or the Matrix, but otherwise, he at least /looks/ normal. "Ye arenae from this world?" She asks, and in that moment, the girl shifts from her lower, agressive stance, rising slowly onto two legs.

She certainly doesn't seem as threatening, especially when her wings fold back a little, framing the light behin her. Her form is still roughly demonic, but maybe not so fierce looking. Cautiously, Zia steps forward, letting the light catch across her a little. It shines on her pale hair and matching white skin - definitely /not/ a Heartless. "Most humans dinnae know my kind exist. Neither would ye, if ah had been payin attention." She keeps her distance from him, moving around so she can bend down and scoop up her lost bag of popcorn. It wouldn't be hard to tell that the couple of bits of food he'd found belong to her, and that she'd probably scrouged them from somewhere.

"Humans tendte be a bit scared o' creatures like me. 'Specially if they should meet them in dark places. Easy te confuse us fer demons, monsters, tha sort of nonsense." With her popcorn reclaimed, the girl's blue eyes look towards the pretzel in his hand. She's athletic, but on the lean side of it, as if she certainly could use a few more good meals these days. "Ye dinnae seem scared, though." Hopping up right to the place where she had acted as a statue, Zia curls her tail around and claims a pretzel off of it, chomping down on it while she has the chance. Food first, strange humans later. Still, one of his questions catches her ears. "Wha's a Heartless?"

Daniil Petrov has posed:
Daniil smiles, "No, not as far as I can figure out. I've seen a few places that, as far as I knew, never existed before very recently. Well, not never existed, but were never a thing we knew existed. I'm from a place called Goug - I assume you're local, Miss-?" he prompts for her name, then giving his own.

"I guess I'm the lucky one then," he says in response to her statement about being unknown, "I'm Daniil, by the way. Nice to meet you. And you're not the most 'demonic' or strange person I've met this week. Not that there's many sentient non-humans where I'm from, but I've seen some unusual things since I started exploring." He watches her snack on clearly stale food with some curiosity "You don't get to go shopping much, I guess?"

He gives a slight chuckle when she points out he's not scared of her, "I'm cautious - but I can take care of myself, and given sufficient reason, I run *real* fast." he grins at her with his slightly self-deprecating joke. "A heartless - well, I don't know a whole lot - but, it's a creature, with a kinda gothy colour scheme, I mean - black - has a strange symbol on it's chest, like a heart crossed out. Yellow eyes. Not very clever, but they attack in numbers and they're dangerous. It's thought they have something to do with the strange stuff going on, and they seem to harvest 'hearts' from people. If you see them, either kill it, or run away. Depending on how strong you are."

Zia has posed:
The girl continues to chew on her pretzel, using one hand to brace herself before hopping up onto one of the vents which exhausts warm air from the building below into the night. It's turned off, but it does give her a bit of the 'high ground', which means that she'd have en easier time taking wing if the need called for it. "This is Manhattan." Her hand extends out behind her, framing the cityscape between the two rivers. "It's an island tha's part o New York City." She pauses, looking thoughtfully towards the Hudson River bridge.

"Once, there were buildings so far as yer eye could see. Now, there's less and less beyond the river. Jus more darkness." Her wings flex slightly. The gargress had never really gone that far into the land beyond, but things had definitely changed here. "Is it the same in yer Goug?" Another bit of pretzel follows the first. She's clearly quite hungry, and this meagre bit of food is all she's managed to find. "M' kind dinnae have names." She states, ears tucking backwards. Why is it that humans insist on naming /EVERYTHING/?

When he offers his name, though, the girl sighs, sitting herself down on the edge of the vent, her legs dangling not far from where Daniil is standing. "Daniil." The name sounds strange on her tongue, and with a begrudging sort of tone to her voice, the gargress replies, "Ah suppose ye could call me Zia if ye prefer. It's the name a human gave me years ago." She shrugs indifferently, apparently having no real connection to the name. "But nae, shopping is kinda out of the question. Can ye imagine me walkin into a shop? After the screams an' the gunfire, ah suspect they'd be ready te cart me off to some lab an' see how m' insides work."

Her blue eyes watch him with the usual sort of cautiousness that comes from someone who doesn't trust easily. Where he smiles, she doesn't. Her ears are tucked back, looking like an animal who isn't quite sure if this human is going to be trouble or not. "Aye, ah know of these Heartless. They've been seen all over the city. Mos'ly, the police and Xanatos' guards keep them at bay. Yer sayin that they're in other worlds, too?"

Daniil Petrov has posed:
"The world is shrinking noticably?" he says, taken aback, "If that's happening in my world, I hadn't heard it yet. There's some rumours that things were lost during the blackout, but other things have appeared that were not there before, it's ... a bit of a mess. Hard to keep track of." he shakes his head, and finds his eyes drawn out to that river she spoke of, as if trying to watch and see if it might disappear before his eyes. There might even be a little shudder.

"They're known by someone in the places I've been so far, a place called 'Traverse Town', and where I'm from. And the people from Traverse Town seem more familiar with them, somehow. I think they've more actively dealt with them." he frowns, concerned now more than before - "Zia, then. If you don't mind - you seem ... uncomfortable with the label." he notes, wondering how a person, or even an entire culture of who knows how many of these creatures, people, could live without names. "Your people? What are your people called, or what would those who know of you call you, perhaps?"

Zia has posed:
From their vantage point, there wouldn't be much to see beyond the river. Where there had once been the lights of buildings, now there is just shadows of what remains. There are the faint outlines of structures, but they are clearly uninhabited these days. Maybe their occupants were stolen away by the Heartless, or perhaps they all fled to the island and safety when the world fell. "Ah wouldnae know bout the state o' other worlds, but tha's certainly the case here." Her wings shift, the white appendages visible where they cape over her shoulders, her large, inhuman feet swaying slightly.

"Ah've been a little afraid te wander too far away from Manhattan. Wha if I cannae find m' way back? Or worse, wha if it isnae here for me te return to?" She looks down towards Daniil, her tail moving out to pluck at his sunglasses. The long limb is obviously prehensile, as it snatches at them in a quick motion. "Why do ye were these things?" The girl holds them up to her eyes, squinting through them. "It's dark enough as it is without needin more te help it." With an odd expression, she looks at him over the rim of the glasses. "Or maybe ye be tryin te look all bad-ass like in the movies." The gargress seems more amused than anything else.

Eventually, she takes the sunglasses off after toying with them for a time, then offers them back out to him. Her fingers are different from a human's, with three taloned digits. "Ah've been te Traverse Town m'self, although it wasnae my intention. Strange place." Once the glasses are exchanged, she sits back, keeping that distance between them. "My race are called Gargoyles. And dinnae worry bout the name. It is a human's way te name things... even humans from other worlds, it seems."

Daniil Petrov has posed:
"That adds a certain urgency to my task, then. Do you have some idea of a timescale? How fast it's progressing?" he flinches a little when she suddenly flicks his sunglasses off of his nose, "Hey..." he says, stroking the bridge of his nose where they were resting. Then she asks him why he wears them, "It's...uh, kinda part of the uniform. Plus, it slightly distorts the visual profile people are designed to notice, meaning they're more likely not to notice you. Humans are biologically better at spotting the default human-shape. I wonder if that's true of Gargoyles too." he says, looking her over with new, unobstructed eyes. "Plus, you know - bad-assitude, a bonus." he smirks.

He reaches out to take the shades from her, and pauses just an inch away, curious about her taloned hands, and reaches just that slight bit further to gently brush the back of one of the fingers holding the sunglasses, "Of course it is, how can you be curious about things without naming them? And that is definitely a strong human-" his words are cut off by a buzz from his pocket, he blinks in surprise and reaches inside, taking out the phone from earlier and fiddling with it. "Huh." he says, while looking at the screen, it's light reflecting off his brown eyes and illuminating his uncovered face more than the street lamps from below had been. "It works now. That's useful."

Then he looks up, and says with one eyebrow raised in question, "Is there a good food place nearby? I'm enjoying getting to talk to you, but one: I've been doing a fair bit of travelling and haven't eaten in a while, and two: I'm sure I can get something nice for us both."

Zia has posed:
"I'twas all at once. Jus looked up at the stars one night and there were less of them, and no lights out beyond the river." The girl replies, a few strands of white hair hanging into her eyes as she returns the sunglasses to him. "Ah wish ah could help ye more, but ah dinnae know much bout all this. Although ah do intend te find out." The brush of his fingers does seem to catch her a little off-guard, and the gargress pulls her hand back. There is no alarm, just the motions of someone unused to touch, human or otherwise.

"Uniform. Then ye are a member of some sort o special group. Yer world's equivalent of the men in black. All suits and mystery." She waggles her fingers at the word 'mystery', as if the idea amused her. This girl watches too much television, but that's what happens when you don't have many people to talk to. "Ah suppose bad-assitude works, too. Though ye'd look a bit silly in some places walkin 'round with those."

When he starts asking her about places to eat, the girl just raises an eyebrow. "Do ah look like the sorta lass that goes walkin inte restaurants an orderin off o the late night menu?" She smirks, showing a hint of those fanged teeth. "Unless yer lookin te dine on dumpster take out, yer askin the wrong person." She pushes herself up then, tieing off the bag of popcorn which will clearly be coming with her. "Ah willnae be goin anywhere near humans. This is as far as ah go, and even this is a stretch. Ye may be from another world, but yer still a human. Humans cannae be trusted."

Her wings flex from her back, showing clear signs that she's ready to take flight now, especially since he doesn't seem likely to shoot her from the sky.

Daniil Petrov has posed:
Daniil nods, "Well, can I offer you something - so you can contact me if you do find out something interesting?" he reaches into his pocket and offers out a cheap looking cellphone. "Apparently these work across some worlds now - no idea how the tech-guys managed that - but if all the good guys work together, we have a much better chance of beating the heartless and stopping, or even reversing, the damage that's been done." he tosses it in her direction, in a slow arc that's easy to catch.

He eyes her a little strangely at her 'trust no humans' rule, "Not sure that applies to all of us, but caution is probably best. Some are definitely not to be trusted. I'd like to think I might earn a little, though, in time."

He hops down from his seat on the wall and bends down to where he left his sword, picking up by the scabbard, and stepping up the edge of the fire escape a little ways away, he calls to her "If you ever want to take me up on that offer - I deliver to rooftops, and it's fast or it's free." he finishes with a smirk.

Then, although he does not understand the reasons for her fear and mistrust of humans, he gives her the space she clearly would like to go her own way, disappearing down the fire escape so that she does not have to turn her back on him. Some animal instincts are universal, and relatively well understood.

Zia has posed:
The gargress just tilts her head, watching him with her wings poised. Having the small object tossed at her has the quick reaction of delaying her exit. Zia leans forward to catch it, blinking down at the little phone which looks not too dissimilar from the ones that already exist in this world. In the end, she just looks from the phone, to Daniil, and then back again, and then he's gone. She opens her mouth to say something, but he's already down the fire escape.

"Who say ah want te be one o the 'good guys'?" She replies in a quiet voice, ears tucking backwards. Turning the phone in her hands, the girl frowns at it, "An' how in the name o' Merlin am ah supposed te charge this thing?" If it does run out of power, she might just have to go scrounging about to find out if any shops in Traverse Town sell truly universal power adapters. Still, Zia tucks the phone into the pouch at her waist, taking her bag of popcorn, and then continuing on her rooftop run back towards the abandoned building she calls home - wondering at the strange human.