|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:13 pm
Another dreary, plodding, sluggish, dawdling, BORING day in Durem. It was slowly approaching evening, the air getting cooler with the coming night sky, and even though the sun was still up, little light filtered down to the streets because of all the skyscrapers and apartment buildings. Not that that was any different then usual.
As for Walker? Well, he was bored out of his mind. Not that that was any different then usual, either. He was sitting behind the bar on the first floor of his "business and living establishment," leaning on a stool with his feet up on the bar, a glass and rag in his hands. He was idly wiping the glass with the rag, staring up at the ceiling and drifting off into his head.
Not much had been happening recently...Sure, there were those two new tykes, but they were tykes. Babies still. Nothing really of interest yet. Though admittedly, of all the kids so far, the oldest, physically at least, was the blondie upstairs if he recalled correctly. Oldest age wise was the weird kid with the glowing blue eyes. What was his name again?
"Cloud. And Peach Toadstool. Pfft." Walker mumbled under his breath, snorting again at Peach's amusing name, and shaking his head as he came back to the "real world." What a silly phrase. But then again, his thought process could be considered silly too. Who really cared about the ages? So far the parents'll be off guard, assuming they're mostly normal kids. Once they start sprouting bigger, though, oh, that'll be fun...
Speaking of which...
"PEAAACCHH."
He shouted, craning his head back again towards the ceiling. Walker knew the girl'd hear him just fine if he got up and walked to the staircase. But that required energy. Which he wasn't really feeling in the mood for today. So, simple way to fix that?
"PEAAACCHHH."
She had been staying with him for the past couple weeks, couple months, he'd lost track, in one of the dinky little spare bedrooms upstairs. And turned it into this girly pink mass of bleecch. It almost made him want to hurl. Pink. Gross. Why was she staying with him?
He wasn't quite sure himself. He'd essentially yoinked her at one point a little while ago. Walker couldn't remember what his thought process was, but it had made sense at the time. Not so much now. But it'd be fixed soon, maybe. Someone should be coming by at some point that'd take her back.
"PEACH."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 2:08 am
In some places, shouting like that was just plain rude. Peach wasn't entirely sure exactly where those places were and were not, though. But she was pretty sure that whenever it pertained to her, at least, it was very VERY rude to shout!
There was no use in pouting about it, though. If Walker had shouted once, and shouted twice, then shouted three times, that meant he was going to be insistent. And while Peach was very tempted to scamper to a hiding place and give him a hard time - which he would have very well deserved for his poor manners, mind you! - she, too, was feeling bored enough to see what it was he wanted.
So she sighed - an exaggerated, practiced, exasperated noise - and hopped down from the foot of her bed and marched off to the door, leaving it swinging wide open behind her. Peach went right to the top of the stairs, and not a step further. Sticking her hands on her hips, she pouted her lips in that perfect little way she'd long since perfected, glared down the stairs, and demanded sharply, "What is it?"
And quite unbeknownst to her, there was someone familiar - but growing less memorable with every passing day - worming his way through the winding streets near Walker's Bar.
Azrael had been having a hell of a time since losing Peach. It wasn't Walker that had taken her, but long before his most recent meddling, the Gaian Child Protective Services. He'd taken them to court, fought them hard. The system of laws was nothing that he'd been used to on his own world, but he had friends in the right places, and they'd gotten him through it. They'd demonstrated his innocence, called the seizure a case of police overzealousness, gotten the judge to rule for them....
And then Peach had been gone by the time they went to get her from her foster parent. Just vanished in the middle of the night, like magic.
Azrael had done everything he could, and then his options were exhausted. No counsel could get him through the feeling of failure after that. His work began to suffer - it didn't matter, though, he was their dream employee. They just patted him on the back, gave him time off with pay, told him to go on vacation, take in some sights, come back when his head was clear and ready.
He'd tried. Azrael couldn't even persuade himself to go outside of Durem, though.
As it might be, though, that could be a stroke of luck. Because then there'd been the day he'd been sorting out his overcoat, digging through the dozens of pockets and cleaning it from collar to hem. And he'd found the business card. He didn't remember when he'd gotten it, or from who, but the name had stirred up a bit of a memory - Walker....
The place couldn't be far now, he thought. Just another block or two. If anyone had answers about what had happened to his daughter- yes, his daughter, damn anyone that wanted to pick nuances over blood or intention in his having found the only bit of a family he could call his own!- then it would have to be the sneaky b*****d that stuck him with her in the first place. And Azrael wasn't above breaking a few heads if that's what it took to get him talking, that was sure enough.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:52 pm
Walker glanced towards the stairs as he heard the light patter of footsteps upstairs, and then the girl's irritated voice calling from the top of the stairs. He could just see her feet at the top, below the door frame. Raising an eyebrow, a crooked grin pulled across his face. So, he'd rubbed off on her enough to lose some of the politeness, at least enough to shout in reply. "Come down here, we'll have a visitor soon. Someone you'll probably remember. Or maybe not. Damned princess..." He mumbled the last part under his breath, thinking briefly on the ungratefulness of children, at the same time sending a wispy tendril urging her to come down the stairs already. Yoinked her from those damned foster parents and everything, too. The lack of gratitude was simply appalling.Oh yes, he remembered. Or maybe it was drifting back to mind since her real guardian was getting closer. No, no, no, and no. Wasn't about to leave one of his amusements in the hands of retarded people who would have no chance in hell of understanding what they were dealing with. No, he wanted the kids with people he could potentially manipulate. And those were his hand picked guardians. Not some stupid government picked foster parents. Walker glanced back over at the staircase as the girl walked down them, rolling his eyes slightly in irritation. "Honestly, couldn't you have at least cleaned up or something since you went out earlier? You look dreadful. At least wash your hands or something, put some perfume on. You have that, right? Since you're a girl and all. You certainly couldn't use cologne without our visitor taking my head off. Which he probably will try to anyways." He muttered, putting the glass and rag on the shelf behind him and sitting up on the stool. "Hurry up, already. If my guess is right, he'll probably be here sometime in the next twenty minutes or so." He glanced at the little watch on his wrist, zoning out for a brief moment to pin the direction that the "angry guardian approaching" was coming from. This'd hopefully be amusing, at least. If not for solving the issue, then just making his face look like a gaping fish. If only people would friggin' hurry up...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 9:29 pm
A visitor? Someone she probably knew? Compelled down the stairs (though of course, she decided that she'd merely gotten tired of shouting down at Walker), Peach wondered who it might be. There were little flitters of memory somewhere of places she'd been once, but they got tangled so easily with the dreams, it was easy to lose track. Whoever it was, Walker seemed awfully anxious that she impress them.
"You really think I'm going to be the one to scare visitors away?" Peach scoffed. Her arms crossed in front of her, and she gave the impatient man a pointed look. Peach was young and darling and cute, and standing next to him, well... it just wasn't any contest, really!
But Peach was a good girl, and she did as she was told and went to the bathroom to wash up - though not without making a cute little "hmph!" of protest first. It wasn't her fault that she refused to be kept from playing just because the world was so dirty, and she didn't appreciate being judged like it was!
"Now, beloved." The voice came soft by Azrael's ear as he waited impatiently at the crosswalk. Emiree sounded nervous. "I know that you are very adamant right now, and I have no intention of asking you to set this matter aside-"
"That is wise, Emi," Azrael growled softly under his breath. The spirit hesitated at the rancor with which her gentle interjection had been received, but pressed on.
"But please remember your reason. That man is dangerous, love. Remember how easily he silenced me? You will be without protection once you're through those doors."
"I remember. And I know what you're thinking." Oh yes, Azrael remembered too well. There was no love lost between him and Walker, but he wasn't here to pick at a silly little grudge. "I won't step out of line, love. I'm here about Peach, not him."
"Good, love, good." The spirit breathed easier, but not yet relaxed. "But I know as well as you do, heart, that you can get a bit overzealous in the moment, and I just wish that you will think carefully before you do anything you might regret."
To this, though, Azrael had no answer, and made no promise. He'd spoken truly enough the first time around, that he had set his priorities straight - but at his heart, he was an opportunist. And Walker rubbed him in just the wrong way so that he knew, if the chance came, he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to bruise up that pretty face of his.
If it didn't interfere with his first priority, that was.
There wouldn't be time for Emiree to try and strong-arm any commitments out of him, though. The bar was within sight, and without a moment's hesitation, Azrael sped up his walking pace. The street wasn't so densely packed here - just a few people to slid past, his footfalls sure and silent as he wove around them, then it was a turn to the entryway, through the door, and....
Peach, humming, was still scrubbing under her nails in the bathroom. Walker wanted her to be clean? Fine. She was going to be meticulously clean, without a spot of dirt for him to fault anywhere. And if she missed his visitor because she was so dedicated to getting clean, well, that wasn't her fault, either!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:09 am
Walker watched her go back up the stairs, ignoring her complaints with a raised eyebrow. Tsk. Kids. Whatever. The old guardian should be arriving soon, judging by the sense that kept "poking" him. And his senses were never off. Well, almost never.
He tried thinking back to when he first dropped the little Princess on the parent, recalling the meeting vaguely. Some white haired guy, short temper or something, and there was some sort of ghost or spirit thing that was hanging onto him, haunting maybe?
Oh yeah, that's right, he'd made her be quiet and the man had gotten angry. Very angry.
An amused smile came to his face, and he leaned forward on the stool, his elbows resting on the counter with his chin held up by a hand. His other hand was tracing random pattens on the wood surface.
Almost there, alllmoosst, aannnnd....
Slam.
The door opened, and voila! There dear old whatshisname, looking perhaps a little sour. Maybe he just ate a lemon or something. Or was his face always like that? Walker couldn't remember.
"Why hello, good sir, how can I be of service?" Walker asked in a bland tone, sitting up to a position that implied that he was, perhaps, paying more attention now. He couldn't resist a little bit of baiting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
