14170/Willard, 2030 edition

Willard, 2030 edition
Date of Scene:	06 March 2022
Location:	Central Park, Manhattan
Synopsis:	Watching tigers burning bright. Met a rogue in dead of night. Been around for all these years, found the names to give those fears.
Cast of Characters:	Askante, Rogue

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Askante has posed:
In the daytime, central park is alive with New Yorkers, getting thier slice of greenery in the midst of the concrete jungle. The great lawn, even in March, has a bunch of dogwalkers, kids on day trips and school parties having lunch before heading to get more obligatory culture.

At night, some portions of it are very dark indeed and some are ostensibly shut. The zoo, for instance, doesn't exactly have the general public in there after hours. The animals need their own beauty rest etcetera along with the rest.

But if you can fly, skitter over walls or otherwise, it's a quiet place to watch what comes out after dark. After all, men make wolves diurnal so that they can look at them in pens and enclosures. Most of the big cats get most of their action in the night. Rats though, they'll come out whatever the time.

WHy are we talking rats? Well, there's one sitting on a park bench in front of the tiger enclosure, being fed peanuts and trail mix from a tupperware. The figure feeding it is tall, but thin, dressed in its long, obscuring duster with its leather stetson on. It could easily be a thing of horror movies, the creepy black figure that appears on the video screen, captured by some teen with their camera phone. But that's rather chased off by "...you want a dry grape? They're good." It's talking to the rat.

Rogue has posed:
Flyuing has it's merits, but a lot of time if Rogue is spending any time in New York City, she'll fly in and then walk wherever else she wants to go. It helps her feel a part of society, in a society where she's a dangerous part of the mix all things considered. Though she does prefer to do her walking at night, seeing as how there's less people around. Even if this means the part might be more filled with vagabonds and the worse members of society - well - Rogue can handle herself fairly well.

She's dressed in her normal wear this time. Full body suit, gloves, hair pulled back in a pony tail so that silver streak is predominately showing, and she just strolls along. Slowing down some when she reaches the tall figure on the bench feeding - and talking to - a rat. A thought to just casually stroll on past it fills her mind as she continues walking.

Askante has posed:
It's probably a smart thing to do, to walk on by the entity talking to vermin. After all, such individuals often have mental health problems and engaging them should be left to the professionals. So, there's that. But as she's walking past, the figure in its old duster looks up, straight at her, tracking her path beyond. "Ok, but you have to eat the whole of it..." when it seems as if the rat was having a conversation back, that's just odd. A dehydrated apple slice is pulled from a resealable sleeve pack and fed to the rodent.

After rogue: "It isn't following you. It's always there."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue dismisses most of what the figure says as he seems to still be talking to the rat. She pays it little mind, or attention, or at least she tries to. It's the last thing that it's spoken that causes her to pause and glance back over her shoulder. Despite everything telling her not to, her curiosity is too much into it. "I'm sorry? Are you trying to tell me there is something following me?" Asking this, looking around then, perhaps trying to put point to the figure's words. Unless, of course, it wasn't talking to her and now she's just made a grand fool of herself.

Askante has posed:
"No, no. It's /not/ following you. It's always there." Askante replies, reaching for its tupperware of trail mix, holding it up in one looooooooong fingered hand. "These things are magic. Amazing. I love them. THey fart. But they keep things fresh. How amazing is that?" Yeah, sure. And it makes the tupperware do its signature 'pfffft' as it expels the excess air from inside.

Away into a pocket, it hops its legs up and BLINK you'd miss it, but now it's sitting on the back of the bench, with the rat on its knee, coat hanging down behind. "Why, I wonder?"

Rogue has posed:
"....What's always there? There's nothing..." Rogue offers and then sweeps a hand as a gesture to all things around them. Physically, there is nothing, and Rogue isn't aware that perhaps it's not meaning any physical thing. Far from it. Then, as it shifts positions in the blink of an eye, she raises a brow and takes a single step back. "Yeah. Tupperware is pretty, ah, amazing...and such..."

She regards it for another moment and then expels a breath of air. Turning, she begins to try and walk away again. Thinking maybe it just wasn't talking to her to begin with. Someone else. The rat perhaps.

Askante has posed:
"I'm not mad. Well, not /not/. It isn't easy sometimes, but you're very loud, miss." It taps its own head at the temple, looking up enough now that the light from the lamps illuminating the rest of the zoo area, shine on the scaley cheeks and oh-so-black eyes. It gestures both left hands at her, where she's backing away. "You're avoiding. Circles and steps. Backing off. Why is this strange creature that has a rat on its knee, talking to me like it sees something I can't? You don't want to see it. If you did, you'd know it. It's amazing how many don't want to see what's there. Most people don't. Then they go talk and talk and talk to try and figure out where it came from. I've read about that."

It hunkers down again, an effort made to be less creepy, but it probably has the opposite effect, given the circumstance, situation and location. And it being night, of course.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue has seen stranger things, or so she supposes, which is enough to have her pause and take another breath before turning back around to face the figure. "If you want any sort of understanding from me, you're gonna have to stop speaking in riddles. I have no idea what you're referring to, about it always being there, and me being loud. What I'm not apparently facing..." She watches as it hunkers down some, but that doesn't change the fact that she saw the scales and the black eyes. A skip of heartbeat as fear curls, but she shakes it off. Well, the perpetual manifestation of tangible fear anyway.

Askante has posed:
"Oh." It considers, opens its mouth and lets a sound like a tyre deflating out, shoulders sagging. "It is very hard to. Ugh, it was so much easier once upon a time. Now it's all nebulous. Not about sharp teeth and falling rocks." Riiiiight. It sits back again, hugging its chest, arms held up to its face to tap temple and fiddle with chin, almost a picture perfect audition for Queer Eye, if it was shot in creepvision. "Inside your head there's a thing that never leaves you. It gnaws at you, with you all the time. It's not following you, it's here. Always here. Ohh, I know the word you all picked for it, give me a moment... augh." Click click click goes the fingers. "Opthal... no. Wrong one. Aut?" it flutters lashes, cocks head, doublechecks mentally with a tap of digit. "Yes. I think ... Autophobia."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue blinks, goes to say something, then blinks again. Now she's all caught up and isn't sure what to say in the moment. "Autophobia?" She asks and then shakes her head some. "I'll have to look that one up but, phobias are fears. You're talking about a fear that's always with me. Which makes sense... cause that's what fears are for. To linger, and in some ways keep you safe. In other ways... well..." She shrugs her shoulders then before looking around. "So... what are you...some kind of empath or something?"

Askante has posed:
"Empath? Oh, that's nice. I like that. Yes. Empath. I'm an empath. Empathy, means you care, right?" It smiles, even white teeth in a black as black face. "Always with you, yes. I've been with you all for a long, long time." It tilts it chin up, oddly proud in that moment.

"My name is Askante. This is Rat." It gestures at the rat. "I thought I'd wait until she told me what her name was."

Rogue has posed:
"That's sympathy. Empathy more means...you feel what others are feeling. On like, a personal level...but it does come from the line of caring. Empathizing is showing care, but on a deeper level than just sympathy." Rogue offers and then raises a brow. "You've been with us..all...?" She has to consider that one a moment.

"Oh. Uhm. I'm Rogue." Which, isn't her actual name of course, but it's the one she goes by everywhere.

Askante has posed:
"Is that because you went there?" Askante asks, tipping its head the other way, like a dog. "Nice name anyway. RRRRRRRRRRRRRRrogue." Rolling the word off its tongue. "Well, I do. I feel." It seems to be very pleased by this, still holding on to a positive out of what is often a negative perception of reality. "Isn't sympathy feeling for? I don't feel for. I feel."

Nevertheless, it smiles again. "Yes, I've been with you all. For a very long time."

Rogue has posed:
"Well. That's...quite the interesting notion I s'pose." Says the southern belle as she looks around a bit more. "Anyway...ah...I should be going. Things to be and people to do..." Rogue says this much and then pauses. "Maybe you can help me...but...I want to know what it is you're helping me with. Which requires me figuring out this whole...phobia thing....so. See you...soon?"

Askante has posed:
"Oh, likely. I'm around. If you want, you can leave a message in the old abandoned church in Sunnydale. I have a nest there." It smiles at that, then picks up Rat. It inhales, then with a nod, hops off the back of the bench, takes a step and vanishes in a bluster of black moths, that evaporates like mist in morning sunshine.