Closed RP Dead Man Walking

[Slate]

Whatever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t what actually happened. Lapis expected to just run down to the shelter for a few minutes, just to check on a complaint about seeing one of the abusive husbands hanging around. If they were, she’d make them regret it. It was her job to personally manage these locations, although she was the Executive Director of the charity itself. She liked personally working in the shelters. They were places she wished had existed when she had been a teenager, when Matthias–

No. She wasn’t thinking about that, ever. Not in a million years would she ever dredge up those memories. She looked ahead of her and instead focused on the looks she was getting from the corners of eyes and sometimes straight on. It helped her feel in control, knowing that people wanted her, but that she could actively choose who touched her. It was a power that let her move past her own trauma and continue going.

She sauntered, not walked, down the street. The northern location of the local Crystal shelters was close to the Diamond, meaning she could always just tag out at the bar with Hematite and make her way down the street a few blocks to the shelter. As her heeled boots clattered down the sidewalk, the door to the unassuming building appeared. There was a mural painted across the front, a beautiful swirl of colors in a pattern of crystals. It was subtle, with no sign, but if you knew what it was, you knew.

The places were subtle intentionally. The fewer people who found them, outside the people they meant to attract, the better. The more safe their women and children would be. Between that and the fact that they provided Stonewall security no one who wasn’t supposed to be in the shelter ever got in.

That was why she was baffled by what happened next.

She nodded to the two guards, in their secretive positions near the building, in their dressed-down clothes, and she flashed her badge as she walked past. They simply nodded at her, letting her pass. Her short skirt swayed, and she could feel both their eyes tracing her fishnet-covered legs. A deep breath let her feel finally in control again, just before she pushed the door open. Originally, she was going to go to the security office and review outside footage. Originally.

Then she saw him.

It was like seeing a ghost, but one that was wrong. His hair was only brown, without the blonde bleached underlayer. The hair was still choppy, and still fell over his thick but well-cared-for brows. His honey-colored eyes were softer than she ever remembered them being. His tattoos were missing as well as his piercings. He was dressed in a way she had never seen him dressed before. And for a moment, her heart lept as she looked at him.

Malachite.

Then, as she watched him, unable to move, as he interacted with a young teenage girl, she noticed the way he moved and spoke. It wasn’t him, Mal. It was someone wearing his face. It moved in ways she’d never seen it move before, and made expressions she didn’t know. In an instant, she felt rage coil in her chest. Rage like she hadn’t felt since Obsidian had come back from Columbus.

She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to respond to this. So she did the first thing that came to her. She ducked around the corner and waited, hoping that she would see him leave and be able to follow him. To do what… she wasn’t really sure. But she would do something.​

 

[Wendigo]

Todd might’ve gotten in a little too deep with the whole “Nick” persona.

It hadn’t just been Ivan from the Lament case – he’d actually started on it a little earlier, with somebody from the Leo case. Someone caught in the crosshairs. He looked down at her, eyes sincere. Mindy was about fourteen, brunette with blue eyes, and looked a lot like her old man. Todd would know, because he could look her old man in the eyes when he went home for the day.

Arlo had started this habit. Checking in on the families they hurt, because families got hurt when these things happened. But it wasn’t like he could wear any of their faces, or his own. He didn’t want to hurt people more. So for Pittsburgh, he’d started to use an open, friendly face, someone gentle and pleasant. Handsome, by any standard. Maybe it’d help make up for taking Jasper Torres away from the people who loved him, to put his face toward a good cause. Now every Thursday was his charity day, when he took off from the mechanic’s shop and told Sam he wouldn’t be on patrol while he checked in on people he’d affected as Cryptid.

Mindy Peters’ dad had died the same night as Malachite. He’d been a real piece of work, of course. Most of the Jackals were, as Todd tended to find out after. Mark had been a single dad who didn’t do shit for his kid. More than the daughter of a Jackal, though, Mindy tended to tell Nick about the troubles she was experiencing as a meta. She had very slight telekinesis, enough to make small objects levitate around her. When she wasn’t paying attention, there could be as many as a dozen items hovering about her.

It was happening right now, actually. She was talking about some TV show or anime that Nick had… admittedly stopped hearing about a minute ago, and she had everything from her cell phone to her airpod case to some pens and the sneakers she’d taken off hovering around her body while she payed attention to him. It was good to see her this relaxed. Nick hadn’t stopped listening because he wasn’t interested in anime romances.

He’d caught a scent that he hadn’t been expecting.

While Mindy talked, he heard Sherry around the corner. He heard her light footsteps and her breathing, though she didn’t approach. Her scent was what had caught his attention, though, cheap perfume and ozone, bitter and false. There was no mistaking it at all. What the heck was she doing here? Sure, he didn’t know her very well, but her attitude didn’t exactly scream charity work. Then again, neither did his. If she’d just been here for the charity, though, she wouldn’t be hiding behind a wall, which meant she’d recognized him, or something else was going on.


He thought about things he could do – excuse himself, get up and approach her, call her name. The last one was a flat out no, because it was a dumb idea to tell Sherry he could turn into her dead brother. Instead, he waited out the rest of Mindy’s little rant before he got up and ruffled her hair. She had her objections, of course, and he gave her a soft but still winning smile to be back with more time next week.

Then he headed toward the front doors, nerves on edge for Lapis Lazuli to follow him.

 

[Slate]

When Not-Mal started to move, Lapis tucked herself neatly behind one of the bigger guards. He passed right by and out the doors. She gave him ten seconds, then started out the doors after him, following him. Her brain was still racing as she tried to figure out exactly how to approach him. It wasn’t like she could just walk up to him on a crowded street and say, ‘hey, you, you ate my brother!’ It wasn’t like she could just do that in broad daylight.

She didn’t approach him. Instead, she waited to see what he would do. And she was almost glad she had. She watched as he stopped at two separate places– both times with clear intent to help the people he was seeing. A young woman, with two kids around her ankles, who he helped carry groceries back for. And then an older man who he helped fix an old model car that had refused to start in his driveway off the main road. A frown stretched across her face as she watched.

What was he doing? Why was he wearing Malachite to do these things? Who was he, really? Every passing minute made it ever more confusing. The biggest thing she couldn’t fathom, that was itching something in the back of her brain, was the fact he wasn’t just doing this all as himself. Why use Malachite’s face to run what basically amounted to in home visits and errands?

But the answer to that was simple, wasn’t it? His actual face was known for something, and he didn’t want it attached to this. But what was it attached to? Was he actually someone important in the city? Or was he someone that they would recognize outside if they saw him hanging around the Crystals building?

Did it even matter?

Probably not. Lapis was still going to kill him. Whoever he was, he took Malachite from them. Even though she and Malachite had a bit of a hate relationship going on, it didn’t mean she didn’t love him, same as everyone else. And even if it wasn’t for her, it was for Obsidian, it was for Sulphur, it was for Rhodonite, and it was for Hematite. With that in mind, Lapis waited for him to finish dusting himself off after working on the old car, and for him to head back toward the city center. Then, she took off after him again, this time closing the gap.

“Hey there, big guy. Where you headed?”​

 

[Wendigo]

Didn’t… didn’t Lapis know he could smell her? Hear her? The same questions he’d asked himself when Sulphur found him with Coldcall flashed through Nick’s mind as she followed him on his route. Maybe she assumed he wasn’t paying attention, as kids ran around his feet while he carried a dozen bags in one trip up the stairs. Maybe she just thought he wouldn’t notice as he got elbow-deep in Luke Harrison’s engine – again, since the old man refused to buy new parts for the even older car and just waited for Nick to come around and help. Still, she didn’t even put that much thought into staying downwind from him.

Then again… did Sherry even know what ‘upwind’ meant?

He was brushing dirt off the t-shirt as he started towards the next part of his day – which was usually lunch with Sammy, even as he tried to figure out how to tell her he’d be late or worse, followed. At least the Slate stuff was on the table, so warning her wouldn’t be as weird as it was a week ago, but still. Lapis Lazuli tailing him right to Sam was not high on his priority list. If he could find some way to shake her –

He looked up from his thoughts as he heard her steps getting closer. Light, almost inaudible, but he’d gotten used to the sounds Sammy made when she paced around the apartment. She probably wouldn’t be surprised to see him looking her way before she even opened her mouth, but her scent was thick with her emotions, even as she put on one of her best smiles.

He returned the smile, though with way more ‘friendly stranger’ than friendly stranger, and slowed his steps so she could catch up. “Hey! On my way to lunch with a friend. How about you?”

That was the best phrasing he had for someone is expecting me, so don’t try anything smart. His face stayed open, his eyes earnest, and he kept the smile up even as he watched her. It wasn’t exactly suspicion that he let her see in return. He did do a pretty good impression of polite curiosity, though. After all, she was a stranger that just decided to walk next to him and ask where he was heading. Anyone with a brain cell would be weirded out by that. Probably.