lake

@⬙ ﹕ snow angel. "Not all of them," Kitae says. "But it's not unheard of. A lot of the creatures I meet with have had bad experiences with humanity in the past, so they tend to seclude themselves away from any further pain. Though, I will say... it's not usually to this extent." As they near the lake shore Kitae also begins to feel a sense of unease; it's not like the answers he receives from his divination that tells him something is going to happen, but rather a gut feeling. The person they're meeting should be here, but the ring of land around the lake it devoid of anyone else besides the two of them.

"What is your home like?" Kitae asks as he looks around, curious now that his companion has mentioned it. "If you feel like sharing. You don't have to." The question has Kitae momentarily distracted long enough for him to be taken by surprise when he takes a step closer to the edge of the lake and feels something brush against his ankle.

Suddenly, a loud clattering sound rings through the area as a long expanse of metal chain shoots out of the water to wrap around Kitae. The parts of the chain that make contact with his skin burn, and he realizes that the chain is crafted out of silver. It constricts around him until he's immobilized. Kitae turns to see if his companion has met the same fate, which is when he finally spots a figure half-hidden by one of the trees. "Behind you-!" Kitae warns his companion before another length of something - a lake plant? - slithers around his face and forms a makeshift gag, stopping him from saying anything else.

Kitae has no idea why this is happening. He struggles against his bindings, but it only makes the burning of the silver worse. His pack drops to the ground and he realizes he's being pulled toward the lake; like they intend to drag him under.

[] i hope this is ok ! i wasn't exactly sure what to make the trap, but apparently some semi-common vampire weaknesses are silver and drowning so,,,, yeah aha - also ! i didn't really have any specific plans for the person/thing instigating this, so feel free to come up with whatever you want unless you want to discuss it first !

@⬙ ﹕ penumbra. Yuanbin was not one to question his client's line of work—but perhaps it wouldn't have been wrong to be a little suspicious of this one.

Of course, he doesn't voice out this concern just yet. After all, it wasn't exactly his area of expertise to begin with, and he thought it would be quite rude of him to assume the worst right off the bat. He was rather silent for most part of the journey, preoccupied with memorizing their environment, and hoping the flowers and vines they'd passed along the way would warn him of any potential danger. But no matter how hard he tried to tune himself in, the local flora would not respond to him. It worried him—because their silence was not that of a flower that couldn't communicate with him, but that of a flower that feared getting crushed underfoot. Yuanbin notes the rest of its patch that seemed to have been trampled down and plucked clean sometime before their arrival.

He only perks up when his client speaks to him again, looking over to the lake with a short, contemplative hum. For a moment, he's reminded of the lake he used to visit so often back at the facility. He lets a controlled sigh escape him. "It's pretty," he starts, picking out his words very carefully in his own head. "It reminds me of home." Indeed it did, and painfully so.

Yuanbin doesn't dwell on it too long though, because his attention is caught by a certain buzz in his ear, pulling his gaze towards another patch of half-trampled flowers not too far from where they stood. Unable to resist the growing hunch, he tried to listen in, but once again—the flowers are scared, and they give him nothing. "Not to be nosy or anything but, are your clients... always like this?" Yuanbin inquires curiously, feeling the hairs at the back of his neck stand with unease. He could've sworn he felt the grass tremble beneath him, but he couldn't be quite sure.

@⬙ ﹕ snow angel. It's the perfect day for a walk. For Kitae, at least.

The sun is hidden behind the clouds, which are light grey but don't appear to bring any threat of rain. It's also warm enough to only need a light jacket and Kitae is grateful to not have to carry the additional load of a heavy coat. There's a light breeze coming through the area now, tousling blades of grass and slipping through Kitae's fingers as he reads over the map again. The area they're walking to has an electromagnetic interference so his phone is pretty much useless right now, hence the paper map.

"We should be there soon," he says to his traveling companion, trailing a fingertip over the inked red line of the path. "Maybe five more minutes." When Kitae is done he folds the map up and places it in his messenger bag, looking around the area. In the short distance he can see a large clear lake. The surface is a deep murky blue, with ripples forming here and there because of the wind. Several large trees also dot the area, but it's mostly water and grassy fields. "What do you think?" he asks. "About the scenery."

It's not the most common area that Kitae has had to meet up with a potential business associate, but it's also not the strangest place he's been too. The only things that really make it "weird" are electrical signal interference and the fact that there does not appear to be a house or any type of building nearby, indicating that the person they're meeting probably doesn't live around here. Unless their home is within the lake, but Kitae doesn't know enough about them to be sure.

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ • • • ㅤㅤ caught red handed ㅤㅤ ╱ ㅤㅤ open starter! ㅤㅤ (multiple responses okay!)

[ TW: NPC death, mentions of blood, potential violence, potential chasing, general uneasiness, casual . To be honest, I want an excuse to write out her more intense, broken, and scary/dangerous side. Not the side that she shows when her handler is around or when she's around heroes. Reply to this if you wish to explore that side of her with me. ]

Rising to the surface of a lake and wading through its waters is Sohee, her body bare and patiently following after a startled prey who did not heed this warning. Her steps are soft and slow, ever so light as she drags herself through the liquid and onto the shore above. She's known to those closest to her to have a friendly and lively demeanor, but right now, she was rather calm and collected... cold even. Dark brown eyes that normally carried a certain brightness and pep had been colored in a rusty, glowing red and were void of anything but pure concentration. The various smiles she normally wore on her face were erased and replaced with something that almost felt like a frown. The horns atop her head, usually small and dull in brightness, had grown and shined almost as much as her eyes beneath the moon's lovely light.

Her bare feet finally make contact with the ground, and immediately she picks up her prey with a flick of a finger, dragging him closer and stepping directly in front of him. A glimpse of her own reflection in his eyes makes her falter for a moment, brings her to sympathetically take his face in her hands and wipe away some of the tears on there. A few tears even started welling up in her own lashes as well because she knew this would happen and she was tired of doing it... but then the nails of each finger deeply sink into his cheeks... his warm blood starts to trickle down her fingers and seep into her skin just as fast as it leaves. The oncoming tears once glossing over her eyes get back with an accompanying twitch and she forces her thumbs deeper into his skin to make the drain easier for both of them, and until his very last drop was bled, until his skin had lost all color and life, she held him there in her hands.

Him saying she wears "ugly underwear" was unfortunately the very last thing he'd ever say to her before their game of chase began, and if she had known that would be the case in advance, she'd have kept him talking. She knew either way she'd win the game, she also knew he wanted this, but his death just didn't feel right... He was just supposed to be a friend with benefits she hooked up with. They weren't supposed to get so deep into an argument. He wasn't supposed to call her a monster, say she'll never be anything but that... With a soft sigh, she hugs the hollow and shriveled remains of him to her chest for a solid five seconds before promptly dropping them to the ground. "Should have clawed out his nuts and drained him dry straight from his tiny ," she mumbles, mainly out of annoyance despite her tone being heavily laced with disappointment. Life just wasn't going as planned lately. But just as quickly as she let him go does she turn around and off the remaining blood from her hands. Her horns start to shrink and her eyes gradually revert back to their usual color, glancing across the lake while she on one of her thumbs and freezes in place when she spots what looks like a person staring in the distance. "Oh?"