Wednesday night, January 25th
Dockside Barony Warehouse

Dockside was never particularly quiet or peaceful, but when the sun had long set and the two moons started to hangover head it could be kind of nice. If you didn't mind the faint smell of sea-life being sold down the ways or the often murky fog hanging in the air. Crime and the workings of the underground would often spring to life when the sun went down, but shadows and devils didn't scare the teenage banshee. So she loitered outside of the barony's warehouse without much concern for those milling about. They would go about their business while Misery went about hers. Which was pretty much just standing there smoking a cheap cigarette and staring at the wall of that warehouse she was in front of where the words "Bring Back the Human Barons! Send Back the Freaks!" were tagged in dried but drippy spray paint.

He'd already been all over the Marketplace. It was one of the few things he enjoyed about these "business trips" he tagged along on. He got to travel, explore new areas. So far, Rhy'Din was the strangest they'd been to. Tonight, he'd wandered a bit further than the nights before, finding himself at the Docks. Was he lost? Hardly, he could potentially sniff out an escape. But getting lost wasn't such a bad thing in his opinion. That modern grunge greaser had taken lefts, rights, possibly even ups and downs until he found himself somewhere around the scattered warehouses. He always seemed to have a cigarette in hand, at least when he was walking. It gave his hands something to do, gave him something to fiddle with idly while his thoughts got away from him. But it was passing one in particular that he paused, squinting at the back of a girl's head who seemed to be staring at a building. Lifting his gaze to the scrawling, he scowled and made his way over without even realizing who it was. "They got this place too, huh?" said while closing the distance.

Pitch black hair was pulled tight in a pair of braids, one on each side of the back of her head. The tips swayed when she turned her head in the direction of the boy's voice. Not immediately placing the sound and initially thinking it was just someone from school, she was quick to respond with a bored and dry tone, "Yeah, who could forget to tag the Freaky teenage banshee baron's place? Just like over at the ---Oh." Cutting herself off when she realized that this wasn't a school chum, her eyes and all their bloodshot and magenta irised glory inched wider as her surprise continued to register. "I mean, yeah. Sorry. I thought you were," hand waving led to smoke wafting and ashes scattered by her boots. "Nevermin--" Again cutting herself off. She was all of the sudden full of stop and start speech. "I mean, Hey." There. Good. Hey was safe. Hey was better than her ohmygodIhavetogonowbye from last night.

Honestly, the girl reminded him of Wednesday Addams. And.. there was a plethora of irony to go along with that. His long gait had taken him maybe a couple feet away from her, a foot behind her shoulder as he eyed the wall before darting over to her when she started speaking. Oh **** it's the Drummer Girl. Misery. His eyes had gotten a bit wide, glacier irises feeding into the whites of his eyes as the surprise had the illusion covering his grotesque appearance shuddering for a moment before he collected himself. Wait. Did she say banshee? Blinking, an angled brow etched high. "Banshee baron, huh?" Clearing his throat from the shift in his tone there. Shrugging slightly, "I wouldn't say Freaky. Interesting is a different story." She seemed to recognize him and he took a drag of his cigarette as she fumbled for words. Portraying a calmer demeanor than he felt, that lopsided smirk rose. "Hey." ... Part of him might've expected a repeat of last night.

Her solid black dress with a high but white collar probably wouldn't help keep him from making the connection between the tv character and Misery neither. Wednesday didn't wear fishnets or chunky black boots with studs on the heels though. There was a subtle tilt of her head as the glamour flickered but soon held in place. She blinked in silent effort to be certain she was seeing clearly, but it did sound and look like Frankie. "Yeah it?s what they called me when I won. I mean, I don't mind or nothing," shrugging then and forcing herself to look away seconds after that smirk started up. Yeah no, it's totally Frankie. The thought crossed her mind to make a break for it, but she'd just be bolting right inside the warehouse and not away. That was no good. So she stayed rooted in place. "It's not like it was ever a secret what I am. But this," gesturing to the wall and then pausing long enough to take the last hit from her cigarette. "It's weird." Two words seemed to sum up all things as she pinched out the last bit of fire and then dropped the butt in her dress pocket.

The creak of leather rang in the air softly as the jacket arms stretched to allow him to cross them loosely over his chest. He noted the tilt of her head, silently cursing himself that she may have seen it but he passed it off like nothing happened. He lifted the top arm that was crossed to bring that cigarette up to his mouth, seeming to be studying her with a slightly confused expression. "No offense, but I didn't see that coming from you." That smirk was a bit softer then. When he thought of a baron, a female drummer of an all grrrl rock band wasn't it. "Impressive, though." With a shrug of his shoulder, making the leather creak again. He didn't seem fazed about her being banshee, but how could he? He looked like a damn demon-goblin. Those brows shut up briefly as one eye squinted a bit in a questionable look. ".. Just weird?" The smirk turned into a mirthful semi-smile as he nodded his head. "Weird. Alright." For some reason, her rendition of it simply being 'weird' amused him. Not 'offensive', or 'degrading'. Just... 'weird'.

"Didn't see what?" Confusion clear and it wasn't until his second comment that she was able to piece together the context clues and figure it out. "Oh, nah. It's not really that big of a deal. There's these sports here in town. Swords is one of them. Title holders are barons. I got an opportunity and had a really great teacher. Who is, well," gesturing again to the wall before them. "Human." Misery conveniently left out the part where she challenged said teacher and took her title. Chewing on the inside of her bottom lip as appeared bemused by her assessment, she inched her shoulders up in a jerking motion while coming up with a better phrase. "Well, I mean like, it's weird to suddenly be labeled a freak when it's like, you know, not a stupid chick who hates you in chem lab. Or that gross slug who is just mad that you didn't go to the spring fling with him. This is like, from adults. Not kid stuff on the playground or behind the cricket bleachers." Her frown was obvious now, but due to the overall conversation in general. "So it?s weird. Can be scary. It was scary that week they organized the big protest here, but the Squad helped fix that."

He seemed to be listening intently to her words, with that one faintly squinted eye and single perked brow. He wasn't necessarily giving her a strange look, but it was pretty clear he wasn't accustomed to the ins and out of this place. Snickering, he shook his head and dragged those icy pools back to the writing on the wall. "This place super **** different than Georgia. Sports where I come from is football and basketball," smirking then. "Not swords." But the prospect of it all seemed to intrigue him. "Remind me not to piss you off, huh?" Shooting a wink in her direction briefly before looking to the wall. But when she explained what she meant on 'weird', the corners of his mouth pulled downward a bit as he dragged his eyes back to her. Though her talking about chem lab and bleachers did put into perspective of her age a bit. It was hard to tell these days. "It's a bunch of bull****, honestly." Sighing, he tried more to focus on the wall instead of her so he could actually get his thoughts together instead of gawking like an idiot. "I mean, on Earth... we couldn't tell humans what we were. They would've freaked the hell out and started riots and **** At least what my mom and I assumed. When her boss told us about this place, we looked at her like Medusa'd come back from the dead," he snickered. "Humans and non-humans hanging out and **** Sounded crazy. But, coming here.. this wasn't what we were expecting." His tongue clicked to the roof of his mouth, shifting his weight as he looked down to watch the cherry roll from the end when he squished and rolled it, then balled the filter in his fingers.

"Georgia the.....country?" Peering over at him to see if she could spot some kind of confirmation. "City? --State? Province. Oh you could use balls as a weapon if you wanted. Swords just means any sort of armed fighting, like weapons armed. Not just...using your arms. I used a sickle before, but gave that to Michi and use a staff now. I think some people use guns or even like, tape glass to their knuckles and ****. Oh nah, I just poison bitches who piss me off." Rambling, though honestly so until his wink led to the hue of her cheeks to turn from a shade north of death to a warming pink. The shadows of night should help hide that, and it helped ease her embarrassment down too while listening to his side of things. "So basically like what we're having all of the sudden here huh?" Wry in her question as her head bobbed up and down in a nod. "Yeah my folks have told me stories about mobs and pitchforks. I just didn't think I'd ever see it living here where we're all like --- no one is hiding that kind of thing. It's just --weird times. I didn't know that people would have a problem with me or my ....kind I guess you'd say then? Until now." Falling silent then her empty hand reached up and rubbed at her jawline. Feet shifted underneath her as the awkwardness started to creep back over her. "Other than the bull****, do you like it here?"

"State," he confirmed for her, nodding when she said it. "It's in America." But when she said 'use balls as a weapon', there was no way he could hold back a brief sputter of laughter before forcing his lips into a straight line and nodding. "Seems like a deadly weapon," he muttered. Because he was totally mature. Nope. Though naming off possible weapons, he blinked and looked at the wall. "... My mom beat someone with her arm after it got cut off one time. That was something." Smirking then, "poison.. sooo, don't drink anything you hand me if I piss you off. Got it." As if that was a possibility. If he caught the rise of a blush on her cheeks, he didn't draw attention to it, or seem to have really noticed it at all. He had nearly perfect vision, but even a goblin was held back by the shadows. "Pretty much," he snickered to her wry question. Nodding, he seemed to be in agreement with her words. "From what I hear... it just sorta came out of nowhere. Some.. Humanity Hoopblah." Wafting his hand around in the air almost dismissively. "Stupid. Just sounds like they took a prime opportunity to start some chaos." He worried his bottom lip with his teeth while she went silent, squinting to the wall which he seemed fixated on. Or like he was thinking. Shifting a glance over to her when she asked him, he released the abused bottom lip and shrugged a shoulder with an almost coy smirk. "It's alright. It's no Georgia, but.. I've been having fun getting into trouble here. Mostly just been getting used to the place. Just got here on Monday. Don't know my ass from a hole in the ground in this place." Scoffing softly, he shook his head.

"She wha.....That is SO COOL." In regards to his mom's choice of weapon. "Man, I don't think anybody uses their arms like that in the rings." Even if the sports could be fairly bloody. Not drinking anything Misery hands over probably isn't bad advice either. "Yeah, kinda. There was an election a few months back? And this party was running, but it was the humans getting attacked. And then this turned around. I don't know." Waving off any attempt at trying to figure out how or why it had all started. "Just be glad for it to get settled. Not look over my shoulder for something about to happen." A series of blips went off in her pocket, but she didn't make an immediate move to check her phone. "I'm biased, but I think your butt is cuter than a hole in the ground." Wait. What did she just say? Worse yet, she visibly face palmed for all to see too. Gods above and below, help her. If she moves on from it, will he pretend he didn't hear or see her? "Uh, you should check out some of the flyers at the Welcome Center. Could point you to some cool stuff." Like my future gravesite that I would like to go to now.

He laughed softly, nodding his head. "They call her Gecko. Regeneration of limbs and shiz." He didn't really say who 'they' were. Brows furrowed, it looked like he was trying to remember. "Think she got her head lopped off and she came back from that too," more muttered to himself before he shook his head and blinked. Attention turned to her telling him what had happened, he lifted his chin as if he understood a bit more clearly now. A bit. He still thought it was super stupid. "You and me both. I'd like to see what this city has to offer instead of just.. y'know, protests and no you can't go in here, Freak." Snickering, he was cut short by her calling his butt cute. Sorry, Miz! But no go, he'd caught that and gave her a raise of his brows as those glacier pools were a touch wider than they'd been a moment ago. Like a damn fish, he floundered a bit, or a guppy.. the way his mouth opened then closed when she moved on. Clearing his throat, he nodded and crossed his arms, thankful for the fact that most of his appearance was an illusion, because that drowned-victim flesh of his might've gotten a bit darker. "Wel..ahem.." More clearing of his throat, because his voice bounced between octaves. "Welcome Center huh? Yeah, that'd.. that'd be bitchin', yeah. Be shown some.. cool.. stuff.." She wouldn't happen to have an extra casket or grave, would she?

"That's cool. Are you like your Mom or different too?" Describing her own family tree is certainly for another time but, "My parents aren't banshees." Explaining her word choice. His clearing of his throat passed on that he did not miss her words, but somehow he was just as uncomfortable with it all as she was! Someone else to commiserate in her misery was nice, but still. "Like, I don't know what you like to do, but there's some cool arcades at the space port, this funky old movie theater, some cool clubs, thrift shops...Mall...carnival with rides.... Graffiti park." Rattling off some places she at least thought were cool. "And you know, they're not owned by ignorant pricks with wards that stop you from walking in." A current plus. Hopeful that she was at least rambling some good information she settled her formerly face palming hand to her jacket pocket then and dared to look over at him. Least neither one of them had run away screaming. Yet.

'Yet' was the key word, wasn't it? Nodding slowly, he paused and shrugged. "I am, but I don't know what I can do yet. My mom's half human, half..." He paused, not sure if his mom would want him giving out the information. But the girl next to him was a banshee. She wasn't human. "I've got Rakshasa in my blood. And who knows what else. I don't know who my dad is." Shaking his head, he shrugged like it didn't matter. Which, it didn't really. Can't miss what you never had. "She can do a bunch of cool **** Regrow limbs, raise some corpses like puppets. I think we can cause leprosy too.. but.. she can't do that," scrunching up that angular nose, he blinked and shot a glance to her. "Not that I can," I don't think. Yeah, smooth. Tell a cute chick that your kind can make someone's limbs fall off, dude. Smooth. Thankful that she rambled different ideas, he glanced to her from the side. Those bright blues a stark contrast to the dark shadows of his features. The corner of his mouth pulled up into a smirk. "All that sounds pretty awesome, actually. There isn't a whole bunch of **** to do in my city. There's skate parks to go to, clubs.. watch some bands. Movies. But," shrugging. "Arcades kinda died off some. You skate?" He perked a brow at her curiously, only for his smirk to broaden into a half-smile. Probably the most he'd smiled in a while. "Lack of ignorant pricks are always a plus."

"That's uh...--Yeah **** it. I don't know what that is." Laughing it off, but the fact that there would be a race type that she didn't know wasn't uncommon, unheard of or scary to her. His explanation of abilities would help her follow along though. "Oh, man. I get grounded all the time for necromancy." Her mouth opened to respond to the leprosy part, but declaring that he couldn't (or well, not exactly) caused her to shut her mouth and keep her coo of Awesome to herself. Not everyone saw the world as Misery did. Her hand moved out and turned her palm up and down back and forth. "Not a lot? Addie likes to skate. Board and ice skate I think. My balance is questionable at times." Amused at the thought of the lanky wisp of a teen being blown over countless times. "You skate? Do tricks and ****?"

He couldn't help but laugh when she admitted she didn't know what it was. "Don't feel bad, most don't. We're like.. some.. Hindu demon-goblin. At least that's what I've understood about it. I've lived in Georgia all my life, my mom in Belgium. Never even been to India," he scoffed, though looked at her with his brows darted upward when she said she was into necromancy. "Seriously? You're into necromancy?" It really shouldn't have been surprising, considering.. well, she looked like she was into the gloomy and dark. Then one brow dove downward while one stayed up. "And you get grounded for it?" She might not think he was weird for spending a lot of time in the cemetery. The fact that he didn't know what he was capable of drove him nuts, often trying to figure out what he could do. So far, he could bring a frog back. And.. it kinda turned into slush after a few minutes, rapid degeneration. He'd tried to figure out if he could regrow a limb.. but.. Leah had taken the butcher knife away because he could test the theory. Mom! It's just a finger! She wasn't pleased. Smirking a bit, he nodded. "She seems like the type," with a nonchalant shrug before nodding to her question. "I spent a lot of time in skate parks back home. Almost daily. Just sorta became something to pass the time. Could always help with the balance if you want." The last part mumbled as he lifted his hand to rub the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Huh. Cool. You look like, a lot different from other goblins I know. I can't even see if you're secreting mucus. Cuz you don't want to accidently step in that, friend or foe." Shuddering then. She'd probably be looking this all up in the future at some point, but that felt kind of rude to mention directly. Or maybe she could just look up information to see what wouldn't be rude to ask. "Ugh, yeah. All the time. My parents are the worst with that. Misery there are rules you have to follow! Young ladies do not go around desecrating graves of strangers! Remember to ask permission twice! The freshly undead can be easily confused." Shaking her finger and imitating her father apparently since she deepened her voice. She wouldn't question the time he spent in a cemetery, particularly when her family ran one. At his offer to help her out, the toe of her shoe dragged back and forth a bit as she shifted her weight to her opposite foot. "Oh uh, yeah. That could be cool sometime."

Snickering, the leather jacket creaked with another shrug. "You'd be surprised. My... cute face.. isn'tallthatcute." He muttered, words slurring together to the admittance. He crinkled his nose a bit. "Nah, no mucus secretion here. Getting a cold is just **** terrible though." Laughing softly, he moved his hand in front of his face until his palm was facing her and wiggled his fingers. "Blegh." Snickering, he dropped his hand just in time for her to talk about her parents and make that imitation of her father that had him actually cackling a laugh. That.. that might've sounded a bit goblin-like. Recovering, he nodded but had a grin on his face. "I hear ya. I tried to find out if I could regrow limbs, right? Well.. she caught me in the kitchen with a butcher knife." Raising his voice to imitate the sound of his mother, which.. was exceptionally harder for him to do than her to deepen hers. "Frankie! What are you doing?! That's not how you find out! I can't believe you'd even THINK about doing that!" Scoffing, he shook his head and shrugged. "I tried to tell her it's just a pinky. But.. she wasn't buyin' it." Miz's little awkward spell didn't stop with her, especially when she said it would be cool. "Awesome. That'd be.. awesome.." Clearing his throat, his hand dropped from the back of his neck, cramming his fingers into his jeans pockets up to the knuckles as he swayed from the heels of his shoes to the toes then back. He kept glancing to the wall, lips twisting in consideration.

A mixture of a giggled cackle in reaction to his joke about how colds go for him was released, though she tried to muffle the sound with her fingertips as she watched him. When her hands dropped and her mouth opened in a more obvious smile as she was delighted by his own impression and story, she made no effort to silence her laughter a second time. All of it subsided through as the wave of awkwardness now washed over him and he twisted with glances away from her. Calmed down now, and maybe even a little happy, she reached into her jacket pocket for her phone and pulled it out. "Hey so, do you have a phone? I could give you my number and we could, you know," awkwardly text each other back and forth and spaz at our screens instead of each other?s faces, "talk. Or meet up at the skate park sometime." Hey she was sort of getting the hang of this! Glancing down now to her screen as it lit up underneath her touch, the messages flashing across it led to the, "Huh," that escaped her lips.

Her laughter only made his grin perk up again, flash of while teeth against the shadows of the night splattered over an angular face. Pressing his lips together, his brows ticked while his head turned to look at her when she asked. He blinked for a moment, like he wasn't really expecting her to want his number. "Phone? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I have a phone." The side of his bottom lip caught between his teeth as he smiled a bit, nodding his head. "I'd be down for that." Sliding one hand out of his front pocket to reach into the back pocket of his jeans, tugging out his phone. Pressing the center 'Home' button on his phone, he swiped it to unlock it, the bright display lighting up parts of his features while cutting more shadows across others. He ticked his eyes between her and his own phone. No texts from Mother Dearest yet, at least. "Something wrong?" Brow perked to her 'huh' sound.

"Oh well uh, no?" Sounding more confused and unsure of her answer than anything else. Pinkish red eyes looked from the screen, to him and his phone and then back again as she read the through the few alerts that had come through on her phone while they had been standing there. "Not really I guess. I got challenged for..." Pointing to the Dockside warehouse in front of them. "Ironically, by a human. The Squad's kinda already started ragging on him." Ultimately, she wasn't sure she knew how she felt about it all either, but the banshee was shrugging it off and opening up the contacts tab in order to plug in his number. "Guess we'll have to throw a big party beforehand. And if I lose, he has to clean up." Too cheeky in her grin then as she looked over at him.

His brows lifted at that, glancing back to the warehouse when she pointed to it. Looking back to her, he shook his head and snickered. "Over your dead body, right?" A matching cheeky grin was lit up by his screen as he tapped at it to pull up his own contacts, "serves him right.." Smirking, lopsided as could be, he held his phone out to her. "Type it in, yeah?" Because who really wants to deal with verbally relaying number and possibly screwing that up? .. He might have had bad experiences with that.

"Exactly. Yeah well the squad takes no prisoners." #SQUADUP. "Oh yeah, sure sure." A few quick taps to the screen and she had her number plugged in. Pressing call right off the bat saved her from mishearing his number as her phone started ringing to the tune of **** the Watch. By TRASH of course. Really she just was often amused at the sudden blare of curse words that would go off when someone called. "All set," she decided after ending the call and passing his phone back. Clutching her phone tightly now because she's pretty sure that she brushed her hand against his and she's trying to not freak out about it while they're still standing there.

That retort had him smirking, "now we're talkin'." With an added laugh to the mix. Nodding, he retrieved his pack of cigarettes from his pocket while she plugged her number into his phone and called herself, mostly because he didn't know what the hell else to do with his hands. It was either that or fidget. The smirk grew into a broad grin to the song that rang through the air until it shut off. "Sick song. I like it." Before taking his phone back with one hand and striking the cigarette to life with the lighter in his palm with the other, a flash of red flickering and dousing icy pools with reds and oranges. A hint of what they actually looked like. Taking a drag, he tucked his phone away and pulled the filter from his lips. Exhaling through his nose, he gave a look around. "... Want me to.. walk you home?.." He asked in the most awkward way. Nodding his head to the graffiti. "Y'know.." Because he was too 'cool' to admit that her walking by herself worried him a little bit.

"Oh uh," laughing again then as he offered to walk her home and gestured to the building. "Yeah, you can walk me to the door." Pointing it out a few feet away from where they were standing. "Perks of the title. I stay here sometimes." Sure it was a massive warehouse for the most part, but there was an apartment slash office in the far corner of the building too. One of the previous barons had even remodeled it all fancy and the Squad hadn't destroyed it yet either! "Thanks..." Even though it was pretty much only a few steps to the left. Frankie walking her home here also would save him from any chance of coming face to face with her parents.

He couldn't help but get that awkward I'm an idiot look on his face then. "Oh, right." Laughing nervously. "Well," that lopsided smirk that.. was so smirk-ey as it was awkward before he was waving his hand in that direction. "Perks are perks, might as well abuse it, right?" Moving those few steps to the left.. where the door was. And, he wouldn't verbally admit the appreciation of not meeting the parents tonight. He had bad history with the 'meeting the parents' thing. They tended to not like him.

"Uh huh. Right." Parroting his word right back at him as she agreed and tried to not just stand there at the door bobbing her head up and down. In her brain she was scrambling hard to think of something, anything to say before bolting, and at the same time silently reminding herself to not just bolt like she did last night. "Oh so I'll uh let you know about that party when I talk to the Squad and we know more." Flashing her phone at him to suggest that she'd text him and simply because it was still being clutched tighter than a security blanket. "It was cool seeing you again," without the help of her horrible wing woman. "Goodnight." Now time to try and open the door and head inside as coolly as possible, i.e.; without any awkward ****ups.

He was sort of expecting that okaygottagobye and the door slammed in his face a little bit. Not gonna lie. But when instead she stood there in front of the door, he took a drag of his cigarette, turning his head the blow the smoke away from her though he kept his eyes on her. Smirking a bit, he nodded. "That'd be great, I'll be waiting. Well, not waiting waiting. YouknowwhatImean." Muttered. She might not have been awkward, but the whole 'simply say goodbye and go' was somehow so much more complicated than it needed to be. "Yeah, I'm glad I got to catch up with you again. Goodnight." All the while, he was walking backwards with that little smirk on his face as he tried to be the 'cool and tough' guy. Lifting his chin, it at least wasn't until she was inside and the door was close that spun around.. to smack into a nearby ware house wall. Grunting, he took a step back and rubbed his nose, "****." A glance around, he hoped nobody saw that and he'd be walking it off like a champ.

( Big thank you to Frankie Dixon for their part in this scene! )