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[[re-doing this as solo promotion c: ]]


He had not expected the death hunter to simply say: "Well, if you think something's there, then go look, Nokoni." Horace couldn't remember her name; he hadn't written it anywhere and their noses had both been buried in reports - other words to occupy his mind. She'd been showing him how to analyze reports for possible threats while disregarding fake ones. He'd pulled those sheets of paper closer and dubiously asked for the third time if these disappearances should be investigated. The hunter had sighed, run her hands through her short hair and told him to name a couple trainees to go with him.

Dylon: because he was a moon and he'd been a competitive swimmer and that might come in handy.
Harley: because a life might be able to extrapolate data he couldn't and Horace knew she hit hard in a fight.

She'd grunted and after a little more talk, the hunter had told him to plan to head out tomorrow afternoon. If it was nothing, she reasoned, they'd only sent trainees and if it was something... Well, it was Death's job to go out scouting. And so, here Horace was: at the portal, waiting.

Smalltown, Texas. Of course, that wasn't the town's actual name, but it may as well have been. Horace turned over the map of the small town in his hands, memorizing it piece by piece. Pictures were harder for him to memorize than words (he'd wondered, sometimes, when he would forget what his grandmother's face looked like), but he could do it if he tried hard enough. The combination of words and images together on a map generally helped him - he associated the words with the streets and landmarks and then they would stick in his brain.Carefully, he folded the map up and tucked it into his bag. It was odd that such a small town had garnered a lighthouse, but (conveniently abandoned) it would be their bunk for the night. Patting his bag absently, he waited for the others to arrive. Horace had even packed a swimsuit. If it turned out to be nothing after all, maybe he could at least sneak in a swim.

"It's my two favourite people!" Dylon hollered, jogging up to the pair with a grin that could make a pack of fangirls faint. He had a small bag over his shoulder, and under his pants he was already wearing his swim suit; a professional quality pair that pro swimmers would wear. Form hugging and made for speed.

"Ready to make this mission our b***h?"

Harley gave a salute to Dylon, followed by a very dramatic, very mocking faux-swoon at the grin he turned her way, and after regaining her composure, began to grin herself.

"Yeah! We'll-" She paused, cutting herself off as Horace uttered some rather negative sounding blubberings. Her grin was still plastered on her face when she skipped the two steps close to him, and reached out to press her hands against his cheeks, making him fish lips for fun. "We will make this mission our b***h." She repeated, half threatening through an absolutely sparkling grin.

Then she let him go, and stood there while he gestured, staring at him with wide-eyed innocence as she did not move.

Sometimes Harley was intense almost to the point of scary. Horace pouted through his fishy lips. Dylon didn't save him either, that wretch. "I'm just sayin' - this is a scouting-type mission, you goof." Dylon popped through the portal first and he narrowed his eyes at Hattie. With a huff of laughter, he grabbed her hand and yanked her through at the same time as him. They emerged in an alleyway, and Horace careened into a brick wall. By the time he'd recovered, Dylon was already peering around the town outside.

Horace snorted and elbowed the moon hunter. "It's not quite tourist season yet, is what happened. Small town, but I hear it booms in the summer." He waved to a woman who'd stopped to stare curiously at them and received a polite smile in return. "So we can head straight to the lighthouse or stop at a store for snacks and stuff." He peered at the two of them and then up at the darkening sky. This had probably not been the best time to begin a mission.

"Camp out in the lighthouse!" Dylon cheered, staring at Horace along with Harley. "We need all the fuel they have so we can stay up all night. Doing important stake out stuff!"

Horace grumbled and poked each of them rather pointedly in their sides. But still, he cracked a smile. IT was almost too easy to believe they'd simply come out to the little town for a Spring Break adventure (it was their cover story, after all). But there were things to be done, investigations. Horace had an iterinery, itemized and detailed with everything they could do to uncover if it was fear-related or not. Horace liked being prepared, even if this amounted to naught. And he hoped it wouldn't. They'd expended resources (somewhat) to send him and two others here and he'd feel awfully foolish if they was nothing. It didn't help that he was supposed to functionally be their leader. It was enough to make him mentally keysmash.

"Grocery store's over here," he pointed out. It was kind of small and kind of dusty, much like the rest of the town. A bell rang as they entered and woman not much older than them shuffled over.

"Y'all here for a break?" Horace nodded and, figuring nothing bad would come out of it, moved over to chat with her a bit. He did notice, however, that the clerk's bottle-green eyes moved rather appreciatively over Dylon and he had to swallow a laugh. She twirled her brown hair around one finger as she spoke, reminding him that they shouldn't go swimming at night, asking where they were staying (an exclamation of dismay popped out of her mouth about the light house, and she suggested more blankets). Horace tried to subtly prod her about possible disappearances, but she was only unfailingly pleasant and gave away nothing. She did give him some cafe reccomendations. Humming thoughtfully, Horace immediately gravitated towards the Doritos, snagging a bottle of caffeine pills on the way.

"There's a cafe down the street that's probably good for gossip, if you guys wanna go tomorrow." He shrugged at the both of them.

Dylon, of course, basked in the attention. He made sure to send the store clerk a wink and a waggle of his brows. He followed Hattie around the store, pretending to be a bratty child now and then by requesting certain snacks.

The teasing thereafter was met with a coy act. Coy done poorly, as he was positively glowing with pride.

- - -

"We get to go swimming, right? Right?" He begged, lying on the floor and rolling around. "Hey, I wonder why that woman didn't wanna talk about those disappearances. You'd figure there would be a lot of gossip, right?"

"I think Smutbot's right. Like, small towns don't wanna ruin the tourist traps they've set." Harley mused over her super important (and rather self-imposed) task of making half sandwiches. They were being slowly stuffed into a small backpack she had brought with her, which up until their stop at the lighthouse had been folded in her duffel bag.

"It's probably a good thing our weapons stop us from getting diseases." She mused next, though made quite the effort to shuffle a couple feet to the side, carefully putting distance between herself and Casanova. Her plan was brilliant of course, right up until she realized she needed to lean over too far to reach the bread and peanut butter. Damn. "Soooo Casanova and I will flirt with the town, and you be the smart charming one everyone actually likes!" She pointed at Horace with the peanut butter laden knife, and then went back to work. "I like that plan. It's easy."

"...Okay but if I do, this one is yours." Bright blue eyes stared at the chip dubiously, her nose wrinkling as she thought this was a terrible idea. She took it anyway of course, picking the snack like it would bite her if she wasn't careful, and stuffed it in the middle, as asked. When packaged up, it was set aside from the others, just in case.

"We could always do both! Come on, choosing is dumb. Let's go for a swim, then come back and eat our little hearts out, and then go to bed and wake up to flirt with the world!" Now that a plan was in motion, Hattie began to pack up. Lids were placed, used utensils trashed, excess hidden away near the rest of her belongings...and then she stood, leaning over to fish her sharkbait bathing suit from her bag.

It didn't take her long to change and after emerging from her changing spot with the bathing suit on under a bright green bath robe, she set on being a complete thorn in Horace's side.

"Lead us to the beaches, little brother! Go go go~"