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 Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:10 pm
 Kitsyn had left the HQ some days before, gritting her teeth against the discomfort and, even still, pain from her injured ribs and broken leg. She felt a bit of a pang for not saying anything to her rescuer before leaving, he'd been a genuinely nice seeming fellow, but she didn't want to try and explain why she wanted to leave while she was still badly hurt, why she didn't want the people who would come looking for her to find her.
All she remembered was that door closing in her face. She wasn't sure she wanted them to find her.
Her paw seemed to be healing well enough, considering, and her fever had finally broken the night before. Given everything in the situation, she wasn't doing too badly, even if she could do with some food. Really, really could do with some food. She'd found some squirrel's cache of nuts and devoured them earlier, but that wasn't really a lot... perhaps she'd best get looking again.
She crawled out from the hollow dug under an old fallen tree that she'd been sleeping in and headed for a small stream near a walking path someone from the little town nearby had set up. She wasn't far out into the woods, t'was true, but it was probably better that way. If she didn't turn up anything out here she could head into town... dumpster diving didn't sit well with her, but if push came to shove she wasn't feeling that picky.
It seemed better than broken hearts and faces she couldn't remember, anyway.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:07 am
 Sparda had decided a little while ago ... that it might be best to leave his sons to themselves in the Devil May Cry shop, and get a place of his own. So he had packed up what little he had so far, and gone looking. It hadn't taken him too terribly long to find a small apartment close to the shop where he could set himself up.
He'd started taking a few minor jobs himself by then... and that, plus some help from the twins, allowed him to easily keep up on his rent. Today, he'd decided to just go for a little walk around town - see if perhaps there was any sort of work posted that his sons hadn't already snapped up.
It was nice to keep in shape, after all ...
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:53 am
Kitsyn finally decided to creep into town, albeit somewhat apprehensively. She could really use a solid meal, though she wasn't sure where to get one. If all else failed she could likely find a restaurant around here somewhere and go poke through their leavings.
Certainly the thought of finding some sort of odd job had crossed her mind, but recovering from her run-in with that... thing hadn't really allowed for it. She was perhaps capable enough for some sort of work now, but she wasn't sure what there was to be had, or where to try and find it, or... Well she wasn't sure if she had it in her to really try and talk to anyone right now, either.
She was a fairly sorry sight, truth be told. She'd washed herself and her clothes, but there was no remedy for the rips they'd received from Nemesis' claws and her subsequent trip down a river at night. And her leg still hurt just a little too bad for her to disguise the limp or the occasional grimace. Add to that her scruffy, unbrushed appearance and the occasional dead leaf or twig about her person from crawling out of her current "den" and she was about a cardboard sign away from being one of the homeless begging on the sides of the road.
Not that she would ever do that. Not unless she had someone else to take care of and there was no other recourse... but she could surely get some sort of work if it came to that. Besides, she didn't have anybody. Not now...
She realized with a bit of a start that she'd found a pizza shop and had likely been standing there staring at it for some moments while her thoughts drifted. With an exasperated snort she looked the place over and then tried to be as inconspicuous as possible about heading into the alley. Having someone watch her dig through the dumpster for food didn't sound all that appealing.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:21 pm
Sparda was just approaching that same pizza shop as Kitsyn was turning toward the alley. Most of the pizza places around here knew Dante by name at this point. And several of them tended to post up demon-hunting jobs on the off-chance that the devil hunter would come by someday. This, despite the fact that Dante usually just called to get take-out.
But that was all right with Sparda - as it meant that he could sometimes come by one of these places and take the jobs that were posted outside. Today though... there didn't seem to be much of anything. With a little shrug, the older kitsu turned to go - and caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Nothing threatening, but it was odd, out of place.
Turning fully, he tilted head at the mouth of that alley and then half-ambled over there, and peered into the darkened space. "Hello?" he called, seeing another flicker of movement in the dark.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:37 pm
Kitsyn had flicked open the lid to the dumpster and just about scrambled her way up on the edge to peek inside when Sparda called out. She was too far into the motion to just stop at that point, so there she appeared over the top of the garbage. She froze, but not the typical, startled sort. She froze because when she spotted Sparda himself something in the back of her mind started churning, like images she could and couldn't see, and something registered that he wasn't supposed to be a kitsu...
Momentarily furrowed brows turned then into a look of startlement, the sensation so utterly different from any half-dreamed memory that had disappeared on her since she awoke on the river bank that her paws went slack from the shock of it. That, in turn... sent her tumbling in the dumpster.
The next thing that registered was laying flat on her back on a trash bag full of something semi-warm and slightly squishy, looking up at the square of light she'd fallen in through. "Damn it."
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:09 am
Sparda blinked as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dimness, picking out the pale form of another kitsu peering over the top of some large, square shape ... the dumpster. Before Sparda could do anything else, though, the other kitsu fell into the dumpster - this followed by a muffled curse.
Sparda winced slightly. Oh dear... that hadn't sounded good. Padding into the alley, he made his way to that same dumpster, and put front paws up on the edge so he could peer inside.
Perhaps he should have been more cautious with a strange dumpster-diving (literally) kitsu, but he didn't sense any sort of threat from this one at all. "This might seem a silly question..." he said softly. "But are you all right?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:29 pm
Kitsyn blinked and squinted for a moment as Sparda's monacle reflected light into her face for a moment before carefully shifting her weight to see if she'd be able to sit without whatever she was laying on falling further in. "...Very silly, actually." No, she hadn't answered his question, though to be honest she wasn't sure how to respond to it yet. Something in her gut told her this fellow was trustworthy, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. For the moment she focused on rolling to her paws and trying to stand.
That didn't turn out well, however. When she put weight on her injured paw something in the sack beneath her gave and her foot sank. She winced visibly and let out a hiss of pain as it finally settled, trying to support her weight at a weird angle. She jerked it back as quickly as she could, thanking whatever powers that be that were inclined to listen for the durability of trash bags. She was even less inclined to find out what that thin layer was separating from her person than she had been five minutes ago. And she had, at the very least, lost her appetite for the time being.
She tucked her paw close to her body, unwilling for the moment to try and put it down again, and glanced up at Sparda. She tried to grin, but it was halfhearted at best and most certainly looked more like a grimace. "I'd say I'm a bit down on my luck but I've probably passed that point..." Given her rather tattered, gaunt appearance and the glimpses of mostly-healed wounds that could be seen around her shoulder through the large claw induced holes in her shirt upon closer inspection, her semi-admission looked rather accurate.
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:36 pm
At that, Sparda simply blinked at her, noting silently the wince and hiss when she tried to put that paw down. It seemed that she was injured in several places, though some of the wounds were half-healed. Still ... Sparda didn't think that jumping into dumpsters was a good idea, overall.
"Indeed," he replied dryly. Then he pulled himself up over the side of that dumpster to land lightly beside her. "It may seem a bit rude of me not to ask before joining you ... ah ... in here. But from the looks of things, I believe you'll need assistance to get out." He raised a brow slightly. "Unless you'd prefer to stay?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 1:50 pm
Sparda's jumping in to join her wasn't something she'd really been expecting and she fell halfway into a defensive combat posture before she caught herself and returned to a more neutral one. "Er..." She glanced around the dumpster. "Not sure why I thought taking a peek in here was a good idea in the first place, at the moment."
Well, they probably both knew what she'd been intending to do originally, but the sentiment was true enough all the same. Now that she was in here she was pretty damn sure she couldn't have stomached anything she found...
Kitsyn shifted her weight onto her hind legs, the precarious footing making her wobble a bit. Fortunately it wasn't enough to make her topple yet again, and she placed her forepaws against the dumpster wall. Nope... couldn't quite reach, and she probably couldn't get enough of a push off of the mess in here to reach the edge without making a horrible mess of herself and whatever was in here. "I feel kinda bad you felt obligated to jump in here though. I hope you at least have a shower you can use after this? I'd feel really bad if you had to walk around smelling like garbage for the rest of the day."
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:39 am
Sparda smiled faintly at that. "Not only do I have a shower, I have a small apartment near here. If you need somewhere to stay for the night... ?" He trailed off, watching her put her forepaws up on the wall of the dumpster. Hrm. Now that he thought about it, perhaps it would have been easier to find something to shove over here and stand on it - on the outside of the dumpster - to help pull her out.
Ah well. Tilting head a bit, he nosed at her shoulder. "If you'll move for a moment, I will get underneath you and lift you up." He should have no problem getting himself out, after all.
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:44 pm
The offer of a place to stay, even if only for a night, and a place with a shower at that... was very nearly enough to bring her to tears. It didn't quite, but she found herself blinking far too rapidly for comfort. It was startling how heavily a few kind words brought home precisely how miserable she was living alone in a hole in the woods.
Her ears drooped involuntarily even as she tried to keep a brave face on and carefully backed up so Sparda could get where he needed to. It took several moments before she trusted herself to say anything, and still she wasn't sure what to say. "That... er... might be nice. If I wouldn't be imposing, I mean." Oh, but did she ever sound like a hopeful child, and she knew it. It was enough to make her grimace again.
And here I thought I wanted to try and do things on my own so I could say 'up yours' to that closing door in my dreams... Why couldn't life be simple for more than five minutes?
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 9:10 pm
Despite her attempts to hide it, Sparda noticed her blinking, as he glanced back toward her. Once he'd gotten as close to the wall of the dumpster as he could, he flattened himself against the garbage - not even seeming concerned about it getting on his clothes.
"Come on now... get onto my back," he murmured. "And I made the offer... so it's not imposing. Don't worry." She definitely looked like she could use some help ... that was for sure. At the least, he could let her stay for a few days and bandage her wounds. Give her a safe place to rest.
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:11 pm
"Kinda funny how people worry about being a burden when someone's actually willing to help them, huh?" He was offering and truth be told she really... needed something like that, if only for a while. She just nodded and stepped up onto his back, being careful to try and distribute her weight in a manner that wouldn't be uncomfortable. Like, standing on his kidneys. That would be bad.
With his help she managed to pull herself up onto the edge of the dumpster and made her way back down the pile of boxes next to it. She didn't want to risk hopping down on her injured paw, especially after twisting it like she had.
"A shower might be nice, anyway. Stream water's kinda cold this time of year. Heh." An awkward sort of thing to find amusement in, perhaps, but she was beyond feeling awkward at the moment.
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Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:36 pm
Once she was off his back, Sparda shook himself slightly and then crouched a bit, bunching up muscles. And then he jumped straight up into the air and landed lightly beside her on the ground. The greater strength that he had could definitely be a help sometimes. Cocking an ear toward her, he nodded and winced faintly. "Indeed..."
Turning, he got his bearings and stared off toward home. "It's just this way. And please, if your ankle hurts too much, don't be afraid to lean on me." A pause, and he blinked. "Ah ... forgive my rudeness. I am Sparda. A pleasure to meet you, though the circumstances are a bit unusual." He offered her a small bow accompanied by a faint smile.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:11 am
Kitsyn realized his acrobatics should probably have surprised her but they just... didn't. It probably had to tie in with that weird feeling she'd had when she first saw him, but she had no idea what that had been and it had passed rather rapidly. As it stood she just blinked when he landed and then followed as he started walking.
"I hope you won't mind too much if I'm a stubborn a** and try not to lean on you anyway. Though I do appreciate the offer." She winced and limped a bit every time she took a step on it, but it was starting to hurt a bit less with the constant motion and being on more or less level ground. "It's not too bad now, it just didn't appreciate getting twisted because of that stupid trash bag before it finished healing..."
And then he stopped and offered his name. Well crap. She'd forgotten about introductions... the only person she'd really talked to since she came to after the river was that guy Roy that had tried to help her, and considering the state she'd been in he hadn't seemed too surprised when she didn't know what to tell him to call her. This was a bit more awkward, however, without explaining pretty much the entire situation. She didn't really want to do that yet. Not out in the street, feeling tired and tattered and smelling faintly of garbage. So what to say?...
"Only a bit unusual?" She mused while trying to think. Finally she shrugged and sighed, deciding the truth was the only real way to deal with this. Short of turning and bolting back toward the woods, but that would be a stupid thing to do even if it was tempting. "I suppose I'll have to apologize... I don't exactly remember what name to offer back..." She trailed off uncomfortably and waited for Sparda to proceed again. The thought of actually having somewhere to go was starting to make her a bit antsy.
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