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Vincent was many things, a thief, liar, scam artist, drug dealer, a foreign exchange student, best revenge against your dad, and a crime lord in training, but one thing he never really got around to was tagging, first time for everything, right? So, wearing jeans and a shirt that said 'I'm a Nintendo', he was currently tagging a building in Fairhill, seemed he was trying go with a rose dripping blood, edgelord he was.
"We can start and finish wars, we're what killed the dinosuars," he muttered/sang
There are a lot of things in Philly, and one of the things one sees frequently are urban animals. Usually, at night, one sees raccoons, cats, owls, bats... and foxes. They're not that common, but not that uncommon, either.
A flash of auburn fur in the dark, and then there's a fox curled up underneath one of the scrubby bushes which cling to life between rowhouses and sidewalks all over Philly, as if she were always there. Its golden eyes blink slowly, and somewhere else -- nearby, but not too close to the fox -- there's a soft, guttural cooing. Now that is a little different -- pigeons are usually diurnal.
"I worship you, I'd give my-" Vincent sang until he heard the noise, "Please Mother, don't allow your flying rats to shit om me." he muttered, is he praying to Philadelphia, yes, is he getting a little too into being a Harbinger, well, who knows, when he turned to look for birds however he blinked at the bushes, "No shit," he whispered, putting down his can and slowly moving over, taking out his phone, "Oh my god-that's so adorbs-" he beamed at the fox, "It's like I'm in Bucks." he chuckled, wanting to get a photo
There are moments when an animal looks at a person and something about the look on their face, the depth of their eyes, makes them look a little too smart. There's a snap of her jaws right after he says 'flying rats,' and the fox's triangular ears swivel towards him. Her shoulders hunch, and she scoots back into the bush; a guttering streetlight catches the tapetum lucidum at the back of her eyes, causing the fox's golden eyes to briefly glow with eyeshine.
The soft sound of wings fluttering beats gently upon the air. Once, and then again, and again. Another soft coo, and a second.
Vincent took a step back at that jaw snap, and the look in it's eyes, his beaming smile at the cute animal turned into a shit eating grin, "Ok, I'm going to take a wile guess, not a normal-" he whispered, before remembering about Ylva, "Wait, maybe they are real-" and then he recalled a certain rock broke a while back, now, anyone passing by would see the boy kneeling down and bowing to a bush, eh, it's Philly, "I welcome you to Philadelphia, Tamamo-no-Mae." he said, then laughed, "Oh god, that would be fantastic." he chuckled, getting back up then looking around, "What's with the pigeons, today, ya birds wanna tell me something?" he asked, looking at the sky, "Great, now I'm talking to animals."
It could just be a normal fox -- they don't tend to like being looked at by people, but then they usually just run away. The fox's shoulders hunch, and she creeps back into the bush as if she might at any moment dash off down the street. Her gold eyes glitter, and there's a long, silent moment where the vulpine creature just blinks its eyes at him. Once, twice, thrice.
And then the fox's head tips to one side, and... did it just... raise an eyebrow at him?
Vincent followed the movement of the foxes head, tipping it to match, "Hey their little fella, I ain't going to hurt ya," he crouched down, "Hello, I'm Vinny, now alot of things are going through my head, I could just be talking to a normal fox that can barely understand me, I could be talking to actual Kitsune, I hope Yokai are a thing, if anime taught me anything it's foxes are usually special, or this could be a scooby doo scenario and you are an intellegent normal fox, let's see."
The fox curls around itself, turning its fluffy tail around its body, and stares back at Vinny, gold eyes fixed on him. The fluttering of wings continues, as normally-diurnal pigeons gather in a loose circle around the pair. Vinny's blood-granted powers grant him the taste of ozone on the air, a hum of magic in the air of his City. Whatever the fox is, it's supernatural.
Apparently, the fox intends to continue to be mysterious, however. Very spooky.
"Ok, you're kinda creeping me out little fox," he said then looked around at the birds, "Oh. . .oh their gathering. . .wait, smart fox, smart pigeons," he looked at the fox, "I for one welcome my new animal overlords, want a snack," he rummaged through his pocket, pulling out some beef jerky, "Please don't hurt me when the new world order comes, I swear fealty to my pigeon lords, Hatoful Boyfriend was a wonderful game."
The fox's eyebrows briefly rise when the words little fox come out of Vinny's mouth, and the vulpine creature twitches its tail lazily. The offering of a snack brings her slowly forward: her chest lowers, her tail swishes out behind her, and she slinks forward, little black nose working the air. Sniff. Sniff.
While Vincent knew this is a smart fox now, he still knew some basics, he put his hand out first for the fox to sniff, then slowly extended the hand with beef jerkey, "Between you and me, I keep this around to give the animals, don't need it." he smiled, "So, are ya lost little friend?"
"I know." There's a voice in the air, though the fox's mouth doesn't move. It's just... a voice, in the air, the verbal equivalent of a finger writing words on the wall of a temple. The fox creeps forward another step, sniffs the jerky again. Pigeons? Oh, they're just sort of milling around, kind of watching the proceedings but also kind of not. They don't seem afraid of the fox, which is... you know. Kind of weird. For birds around a small predator and ovivore. "You're not alive."
The fox doesn't take the food yet, though. It sits up straight and tips its head to the side a little, triangular ears swiveling. "No. I live here." And the fox blinks. Twice.
Vincent blinks and just looks around and then looks to the fox wide eyed, "Um. . .hello, nice to meet you." he whispers, "So. . .are you a Kitsune?" he asks, eyes of wonder, sure he's met mages, Lost, elders, but this was a talking fox, a weeb dream come true, "I never met a smart Fox before, your fur is lovely." he gives a smile then looks around, "Um, their's not many people around, but I don't know how open to talk, ya know, scary robot-pigs these days."
There's laughter at that. "No. I'm a fox. You must be thinking of someone else. And thank you. I am taken good care of." After all, there is a Kitsune around in Philadelphia -- it just isn't this Fox. One delicate black paw is lifted from the earth, and the voice whispers a language Vinny can't understand. If he's heard High Speech before, it might sound familiar, the way his brain wants to just sliiiide off those syllables. Her paw sketches a design on the earth.
"Nothing can hear us -- especially not the machines. We can't be recorded, we won't be found." A slow blink of her gold eyes, and one of the pigeons wanders over to put a kernel of corn down next to her before wandering away again. "What's your name, dead boy?"
he blinked, "Vincent Drake, I'm a new vampire and you're a Mage aren't you, I've heard a friend of mine spell talk like that." he grinned wildly, "I've seen Bones do alot but you guys can turn into animals and still do your stuff, ugh, I'm in the wrong outfit." he laughed, extending a palm to shake hands by doing paw, "What can I call you, Master Fox?"
"Oh, you know Bones of Magic?" The voice impresses itself on the air as the fox stretches out one paw, gently taptapping at his hand like a cat patpatting. "I am not surprised! They know many people." The fox puts her paw back on the ground and turns to look at the pigeons, checking in on them as they mill around.
"That's correct."
"Yes, I'm friend with Bones, I consider them a very good friend." he nodded, "Do you care for the Pigeons, they seem to like you." he kneeled to be on eye level with the fox, "I don't know much of your people, just that you wake up and see the world as it really is."
"Their heart is in the right place."
The fox turns its head to look at the birds. "I care for many things. Pigeons are one of them. They were pets, you know. These birds aren't wild. They're feral." She turns her head back towards him, gold eyes blinking slowly. "Most of the time, yes. One must be careful about what one sees versus what one wants to see."
he nodded, "I like pigeons, their city birds, like their the Mothers eyes-" he blinked, "Sorry, I'm doing it again, I have a. . .intimate connection with the city, some of us Vampires, our blood has ticks and changes, I can hear the city all the time, I know what it has to say," he shrugged, "So yeah, Pigeons are the best, well, maybe after Ravens."
"They're not city birds," the fox answers, a little more sharply. "They're not wild animals. Every pigeon you see around you is descended from a pet, or a livestock bird raised for meat. Humans abandoned the species when it was no longer fashionable to keep them as pets or to eat them. They just threw them out and said "oh they'll be fine." They're not fine. Most pigeons you see are functionally starving, the same way a human would be if he ate only popcorn and potato chips."
She huffs and curls her tail around herself. "The way we treat them is cruel. Inhumane. If the City tells you this is okay, she's wrong."
"Skunks, possums, raccoons, foxes, yes, we adapt for city life. Crows, too. Ravens never adapted to cities; if you think you see a raven in a city, it's probably a crow. Ravens hate cities and usually stick to rural areas."
"But pigeons? No. They're like feral cats and stray dogs. You're all just so used to it and don't see birds the same way, so you don't see the tragedy of it all."
he raised up his hands, "City didn't say anything to me on them, that was my own observation and I apologize for it, I didn't know much on Pigeons, just noticed they stick to the urban jungle," he says apologeticly, "I'm. .. dating a raven, so that's where that bias comes from." he sits down cross legged, "If I offended you in anyway, I offer my deepiest regrets and apologies, forgive my ignorance on the topic of the Pigeon."
"They stay near humans, and food sources." There's something like a full-body yawn, and the fox becomes a short, grubby woman wearing a loose black t-shirt with a ratty hem and stretched-out neckline which reads DON'T WORRY, I'M A UKRANIAN.
Watching Fox shapeshift feels different from any other sort of shifting Vinny has ever seen - it is somehow natural, as if he just watched her stretch a muscle, closer to a Werewolf shifting than magic.
The pigeons start flocking in close to the barefoot wizard now that she's not predator-shaped. One flutters up to sit on her head. "My kind have been with humanity since before the Sundering, and we've seen all the good men have done, and all the ill. Pigeons should be one of humanity's great shames."
Vinny blinked at the shape shift, of course the Fox is foxy, that's pure simple logic afterall. "By your kind do you mean mages or is their a secret order of shape shifting wizards I haven't heard of," he smiled, "No really, I'm assuming everything is real until proven otherwise," he shrugged, "Is their anything I can do to help the Pigeons?" he asked, not a joke but genuinely asking how to help the animals, "Kinda admit, after your explanation, feel kinda shitty."
Foxy? Maybe, if one's taste runs to tiny, strange and dirty women wearing a t-shirt that hangs to their knees, with gold eyes more like an actual fox than a human and a mouthful of tiny, sharp teen. "I mean the certain kind of Awakened which I am," Fox offers with a shrug. "Not all kinds of us have been around as long as the Orphans have." She sits back on her haunches, then flops back and folds her legs, pulling the t-shirt down absently so she doesn't flash him. The pigeons cluster.
"Don't feed them bread." Animals don't always respond well to vampires, but with Fox around, the pigeons seem deeply chill. "Pigeons thrive on diets of seeds and insects." She reaches a hand out to pet one of them - there's such variety in the coloration and feathers when one looks closely, and this one has fluffy feathers around its feet and is a marbled grey. "I have been setting up nesting boxes for years, proper lofts, so the populations can be monitored for size and illness and we can substitute egg blanks for viable eggs to bring the population down."
Foxy, yes, which in this use meant Vinny observes that this women looks like what a Fox would look like if it decided to be human for a day, part of him wondering if a Fox awakened and learned to look human. "Who are the Orphans, if I may ask?" he said, "Ok, seeds and insects, no bread, if I see anyone feeding them bread should I ask them to stop, These nesting boxes, what does it take to make one. . .and I'm sorry, now I'm just wondering, where you awakened as a Fox, I don't know how all this magic stuff works and honestly, if you told me you where a Fox before a human, I could totally believe that."
"The Orphans of Proteus. Whatever Bones of Magic told you, we are older than that." Fox flares her hand out, palm up, and brushes that away.
Her forehead wrinkles up. "No, no. I was born a person. But it's a little like being trans, it's not really relevant what I was born as, a lot has changed since then." She blinks her gold eyes slowly. "What does the City say when you talk to her?"
"Sorry if asking was rude." he nodded, "Um, well, it's less a voice and more. . .hidden meanings, ya know, omens and signs are everywhere, say a missing poster blew past me, it would lead me to where they vanished and from their other signs would lean me to where they ended up," he explained, "Other than that, it's like the background things people don't pay attention to, cars, neon lights, people, the sound of feral pigeions," he gestured to the birds, "I hear it more intuned then others, and it's calming to me."
Another dismissive little gesture of her hand. "Oh, it's fine. I'm relatively hard to actually offend. Sometimes people just think i am because my emotions all live up near the surface." She tips her head to the side. "Sounds like Fate. You throw yourself into the river of sight and sound and circumstance and let go, and then you make it to where you need to go."
"Yeah, basically, who knows maybe it is connected to your Arcana," he shrugs, "So, the Orphans of Proteus, can you explain who they are?"
"Oh, I doubt it," Fox replies. "What you can do with your blood and your Beast is an entirely different world than Supernal truth. Vampirism is a manifestation of the Lie." There's no judgement in her voice, just facts, and then she frowns mildly. "I did, I thought. What did Bones of Magic tell you about our society?"
"Well, honestly I just know you manipulate Arcana, building blocks of reality, go back to Atlantis, and the world as I know it is a deception, not sure how I feel about that to be honest, I like my world." He shrugs, "They work for a group of tomb raider type wizards and they've met gods, don't know much on the other groups, basically I know Bones, well, theirs Kenzie but she's not one to explain things." He nodded, "Oh, I was just wondering what your view on magic is as an Orphan, if your older then I assumed your outlook was different."
She leans back on one hand and listens. The pigeon on top of Fox's head coos extendedly and fussily at this change of position, and Fox sits up, reaching both hands up to pluck the bird from her head. She holds it gently in both hands and brings it down so she can coo back at it, sounding exactly like another bird, and then flings her arms upwards into the air slowly so the bird can take off and flutter away.
"Oh, no. We go back much further than Atlantis." Fox actually scoffs at that. "The Orphans have been with humanity since before the Sundering, when ghosts and spirits walked with us, before the world broke the first time. It's incredible how ... short-sighted a lot of the rest of Awakened society can be."
"Mm. Yes, they do. I used to work with that group, too, until I learned better." Her tone has a 'that's all right for some' sort of edge to it. "It is. Very different, but very much the same. The big difference between me and those like me and the rest of Awakened society is that I understand that humans never stopped being animals."
She pauses, and asks, "How long have you been a vampire, Vinny?"
"Since December, I'm a baby," he smiled, "So, how many time has the world broke then, from what I gathered Atlantis was run by assholes who broke everything, but now I'm getting the feeling from you that is. . .Atlantis-centric view, is that a word?" he mused, "But yeah, vampirism, I was at this party, hot blond, quickie that turned into my death, she didn't do the paperwork and got axed, yeah know, typical origin story." he shrugged, "So, can you tell me then how it all really began and where it went to shit, I love hearing new stories."
A little shrug and a small downturn of the corners of her mouth. "That depends on what you mean by 'broken.' That's very subjective, you know. Every time someone dies, the world breaks again -- a tiny universe that has never been before and will never be again is missing. But. At least twice. Maybe more. We can never know." Fox nods, and shrugs, "Well, it is now. You invented that word, if it didn't exist before, it does now." She flashes a small, sharp smile, a flash of those little vulpine teeth.
She tilts her head to the side. "If I tell you all of the stories today, why would you come talk to me tomorrow?" Her gold eyes glitter, and she pushes herself up from her crouch into the air. In that same breath, there is no more Fox -- there's only another pigeon among the entire flight suddenly aloft, the velvet beating of a hundred wings on the air as the soft silence around them dissipates and the city's sounds leak in once more.
And she is gone.
He blinks and looks around, "Well, guess I'll come around tomorrow night foe story time." He mused, going back to his paint and getting back to tagging, talking fox mages, he really is living a Urban Fantasy Anime these days. "Well, I'm watching Fantastic Mr.Fox when I get home." He laughs
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