vatheon | o3 | Did someone order a cat burglar?

Who: Grimmjow and the rest of Vatheon
Where: Lower district of the city
When: Afternoon/early evening, first day of the curse!
Style: Starting in prose, but I'll match!
Status: Open. Oh, so open.

Grimmjow would have been lying if he said he knew where he was going. The minute he arrived in the plaza cold and wet, he didn't even think twice before he shifted into the form of a great panther and took off running before the locals even had the chance to approach him, let alone see him. Of course even in this form it was... difficult, to say the least when it came to sneaking around Vatheon. It wasn't as accessible as Tokyo, and even after scouring the city not once, not twice, but three times he still couldn't find any sign of his gang. Shawlong, Di Roy, Yylfordt, Nakeem, Edras... They weren't here.

It pissed him off more than he liked to admit.

'Fuck 'em. I don't need 'em.'

It wasn't long before he scrambled up a fire escape and into an open window much to the displeasure of the young woman residing within, but he didn't stick around long. Since he was here, he may as well get something to pawn off--something told him in his gut that Yen would be worthless. From there, it was easy enough to take to the rooftops and down to an alleyway a few blocks away with a rather nice-looking purse in his jaws. Once he had all four feet back on the ground he shifted back into his human form--much like the Grimmjow people once knew before, though a bit more...

Normal. The hole in his abdomen was gone, as were the mask fragments on the right side of his face.

Once he redresses, he doesn't waste any time in rummaging through the purse, searching for something, anything that would be worth money.

"Che, fuckin' woman probably just has makeup 'n shit in here..."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Grimmjow wasn't the only one who had no idea where he was, but Anya had an entirely different way of dealing with it. Being cold and wet was highly unpleasant, and with a few precisely-worded questions she discovered that a simple application of her feminine wiles (or more accurately, the tattoo between her boobs) could get her everything she needed not to be cold and wet.

It was only after she was dried off and dressed comfortably in a leather skirt and boots that she considered searching the place for allies. It still wasn't first instinct even after life had fallen out from under her back home and she'd wound up needing someone else's help. Or maybe she'd just come to expect it to be there when she looked for it.

Well, much more of a him than an it.

The locals might not have known what to make of the panther they thought they saw disappearing around corners, but she knew, and she followed. Sure enough, it was him she found at the end of the alley.

"You always get dressed so rapidly," she observed with some disappointment.

He'd be lying again if he was expecting to find Anya here. Well, expecting her to find him. Honestly, it was almost a relief to see a familiar face.

Almost.

"Anya," he frowned faintly as he studied the woman standing at the mouth of the alley. Why was she here? If she was here, why weren't the others? It just didn't make any sense and that only served to piss him off further, but still... She was here, wasn't she? At least he could protect one of the people he counted as his. Instead of continuing to dwell on it though, Grimmjow shrugged a shoulder and flashed a grin.

"You really wanna give other people the chance to check me out?"

"I don't see any other people."

She walked closer to join him, but despite the devious look on her face, the next thing out of her mouth had nothing to do with sex.

"Are any of your gang here?" She didn't particularly care about the rest of them, but they were important to Grimmjow for some reason, so the sensitive thing to do was to ask. She could be sensitive sometimes.

"You never know when someone'll show up. Look how long it took you t'find me."

He's half teasing, really. Part of him was bothered that Anya was able to track him down so easily, but the other part was relieved he could still have a bit of fun with a game of tag or hide-and-seek.

The question immediately wipes the grin off his face and replaced it with a somber expression.

He's never been a liar. He took pride in being honest, even brutally so in some cases but this time it was actually difficult to admit what was plaguing his mind.

It takes the now former leader to find his voice, but when he does it's low. Dangerous. He doesn't like showing weakness, but it's the truth.

"I've been running around for three and a half fucking hours looking for 'em. The hell do you think?" He'd apologize in his own way later for the attitude. Maybe with the tacky as fuck purse, but not now.

If anyone appreciated brutal honesty, it was Anya, but that didn't mean it had to come with attitude. She folded her arms beneath her breasts and gave him a flat look.

"How am I supposed to know how long you've been slinking about looking for them? I only just found you."

The precise tone of his voice and the look in his eye sunk in after the words, and she gave a sigh, relenting just a bit. "Well, don't I count for anything?"

"Yeah," he murmurs. "You do." Even though he wasn't very good at showing it, he was glad to have her around.

Still, it left him with a hollow ache in the pit of his stomach. Normally he'd have been out causing a ruckus with the others, but he could work solo. He worked alone before he met Shawlong, and he worked alone when he was beginning to get a grasp on his, at the time, abilities. It's probably a good thing there was no apparent way out, because he wasn't looking forward to the scolding he'd surely get from Aizen and his lackeys for losing his subordinates like this.

Aizen was too polite and that unnerved him more than anything else. "S'just fuckin' weird, yanno?"

The quiet admission was enough. He never was the obviously affectionate type.

"It is very strange. Almost like a drug-induced group hallucination." Admittedly without the entire group. She glanced upwards at the shapes of fish swimming overhead. If some of the people she had run across so far had burst into song, it wouldn't have seemed so out of place. Like that mermaid movie.

"We might as well have fun with it while we're here."

"Y'gotta have cash to have fun 'round these places," he pauses to think, and then he's just... Pretty much shaking out the rest of the contents of the purse to spread it all out--Oh! That's a nice watch! He'll just slip that around his wrist and pick the bag back up to let it swing lazily back and forth from his fingers. "I mean, y'figure these bastards don't use yen so pawnin' shit would be the next best thing, yeah?"

Though there was that strange mark on his hip... He didn't really pay much attention to it. Instead, he'll allow his gaze to follow Anya's up to the barrier.

"...Think there's a way up to the surface?"

"It sounds like a much more solid strategy than going around flashing people." No one had explained the tattoo to her. Of course, with the city being under the curse, there were probably a lot more places operating on hard cash. Whatever passed for hard cash in Vatheon. She bent down to pick up a small coin purse that had also fallen out, and inspected the meagre contents. "We'll have to make sure they don't cheat us just because we don't know what these are worth."

She glanced up again at his question. "Well, there must be a way if they brought us down here in the first place."

Flashing people, huh? That...

Actually doesn't sound like a bad thing to see in his opinion. Of course there was a time for that later considering there were more important things at hand. "...I'll check around at the pawn shops 'n jewelry stores. Once I find shit out I'll treat you to lunch or somethin'."

To make up for snapping. ...And he was getting pretty hungry himself after all of that running around, so there's no harm in it!

"That's sweet of you," she said, emphasizing the statement by leaning up to kiss him on the cheek.

"Do you want me to help? I could ask around and see what I can find out about where we are." She was very good at asking questions. They weren't always answered at first, but persistence could change that.

o3 | Did someone order a cat burglar?

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