Arriving at JFK Airport (open)

[Raylexing]

Satoru had just stepped off the plane. It had been a long journey from the Tokyo Narita International Airport, a good 14 hour flight plus the added time spent taking the train from Hiroshima to Tokyo, arriving at the airport early, and then finally being able to depart. The actual flight itself was rather uneventful. There was the couple in the back with the crying baby that everyone secretly despised, the in-flight movies were nothing special, and the book that Satoru had purchased at the TNI airport was unfortunately rather dull. Luckily Satoru was able to make a flight buddy with the man sitting next to him. They talked about business for a while, with Satoru making up a profession for himself as a small business owner. He obviously wasn't going to tell his human friend about what he really did, or was. But alas, one can only talk for so long, and the remaining 13 hours went by rather slowly.

The terminal of the JFK airport at New York was a blessing to behold. Satoru had become quite bored on the flight as he found it difficult to entertain himself with the humans in such an enclosed space with so many of them; he couldn't use many of his foxy tricks to entertain himself. On top of that, he had to sit still. He was now finally free to move about and enjoy himself. Behind him he tugged along his one luggage case, which was quite small. Satoru really didn't need to bring much along, just his bank card was really all he needed. He strolled with his luggage out into the night. He had left Tokyo 14 hours ago at night, and it was still night here... the time zones were messing with Satoru a little, as he had never traveled for this long before.

When Satoru stepped outside, his first thought was to hail a taxi and spend the night at his hotel, but when he saw the traffic, he changed his mind and decided to skip it. The cars weren't even moving there was so much traffic. He decided to look for the subway instead. It took him a few minutes, but he found it, sure enough. Satoru descended the stairway with his luggage held, still a little excited that he was off the plane and in a new place. He had lived in Hiroshima all his life, after all. Inside the subway was a man playing a homemade drum-set made from trash, with a few passersby dropping a couple bucks into his hat. The subway terminal was filled with the sounds of trashcan lids and people shuffling about. Satoru found that he had to purchase a subway card to ride the subway, so he did so. It was his first purchase in America, and he was going to save this subway card and show it to his uncle and everyone back at the caern.

Once inside the main hub, he saw the railways of the subway and a large map on the wall. He looked over the map to see which train he needed to take. While reading the map, he couldn't help but get the feeling that he was being watched. His intuition usually wasn't wrong, so he shot some glances at the people in the hub over his shoulder while he was looking for his train, trying to find the person watching him.

[Desmond Vinson]

Knives go on. Knives go off. Knives go on. Knives go off. Natasha Darcel giggled as she watched her pretty hands become scalpel-like blades and then shift back, over and over again. The expenditure of Glamour was irrelevant; the mass of mortals surging nearby provided ample fuel with all of their confused emotions twisting and intermingling. As she stole their dreams and devoured them, she imagined what it would be like to watch the blood pump from a trinity of inch-long cuts on each of their faces. But it wasn't time for the next slaying, not yet.

She stood in the darkness below the platform, just behind the tracks that guided the giant metal beasts known as subway trains. She had to be patient; as much as she wanted to leap into the crowd and slit their throats a dozen at a time, she knew that doing so would attract the attention of beings even more powerful than she. The law she did not fear, but only secrecy could keep her from the opened jaws of the night's most powerful predators. She was a Darkling, and the shadows would not betray her to her enemies.

And then something else appeared to her senses, something... unexpected. It was no ordinary mortal, to be sure; its dreams and emotions were somehow distorted and alien, as though she gazed at them through a curtain of water. It did not possess the distant, laughing cruelty of the Fae, a cruelty Natasha herself had come to emulate, and the mere fact that it had dreams at all ruled out the pallid Vampires she had seen on the streets of this city. What, then, was this being? Her curiosity was aroused; she had to know.

With one easy leap she returned to the platform; a quick expenditure of Glamour camouflaged her, ensuring that no mortals noticed the conspicuous action. She looked down, making sure that her hands were hands and not knives, and then mingled with the crowd, blending into the sea of faces. Being pretty, her bronze skin and dark brown hair flowing nicely over a trim but powerful frame, she earned a few second glances; it was well that no non-fae could see her for the hideous creature she had become.

The object of her interest was a short Oriental man, thin, trim, and proper. There was nothing unusual in his appearance, save perhaps the interest he seemed to have when looking at things New Yorkers took for granted; clearly he was a visitor from far away. But his aura practically cast sparks in her vision, and that meant he was a possessor of potent powers despite his mundane looks. The same was true of her, after all. Suddenly he turned from looking at the subway map to scanning the crowd; he knew he was being watched.

She went for the direct approach. Walking out of the crowd with a wide smile on her beautiful face, she went over and leaned against one of the posts supporting the subway map. "Welcome to New York," she whispered, still grinning. It was a risk, but he wouldn't attack her with so many mortals around, and if he was a newcomer he probably wasn't tied to all the groups that wanted so badly to hunt her down.

[Raylexing]

Satoru noticed that a woman was approaching him through the crowd. She leaned against the post and welcomed him to New York. Satoru could tell upon looking at her that the form he was seeing was not her true form; there was some illusion masking her true self, and yet for some strange reason he was not able to see through it, only to know that the illusion existed. What power must this illusion be that even he could not see through it, or just what was this woman?

While Satoru was thinking on this, he greeted the woman with a smile on his face. "Ooooh, hello. Am I that obviously not from here," he scratches the back of his head as he says this in a rather heavy Japanese accent. "It is very excite for me to be in New York. Such a wonderful city from what I have heard."

After saying this he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a digital camera, adding, "I have taken many pictures of the city. Please allow me to have one of you as well." And without waiting for a response he takes a picture of the girl. "Ah yes, many thank yous," he says, pointing the camera this time at the now departing subway. "You should take one with me, too, so I can show my family," Satoru asks while smiling, this time waiting for her to give her response.

In the back of his mind he was studying the girl, watching her and analyzing her reactions. Would she care if he got her picture? What did she think of the city? He would ultimately try to find out exactly what she was. Also he was still weary of others watching him. The feeling that he was being watched had faded, but Satoru was ever cautious, still scanning the crowd under the guise of being a curious tourist, like when he took a picture of the subway. If there was already some powerful magical being in front of him after 15 minutes of being in New York, there were surely many others elsewhere. Truly this was an interesting city.

[Desmond Vinson]

Natasha blinked as the little man suddenly took a picture of her, but her smile didn't falter. As long as she didn't do anything suspicious, his picture wouldn't give her away. It was an inconvenience; she would have to choose between letting him walk or trying to kill him, which carried the possible consequence of his escape. If he did get away knowing who she was, there would be the further consequence of the possibility that his photo would find its way to unfriendly hands. The authorities she wasn't worried about, but the pallid puppeteers who ran New York were far more powerful than she.

"Of course, of course," she said, taking the camera from him. She walked around him so that he was between her and the subway, waited for the crowds to part somewhat, and snapped a quick pair of pictures. Walking back over, she handed the camera back, still smiling. "You are... Japanese, if I don't miss my guess. What brings you all the way to this side of the U.S., if you don't mind my asking?" She was genuinely curious; faint memories remained in her mind of a visit to Tokyo when she was very young, but she otherwise knew very little of the island country halfway around the globe.

He hadn't revealed anything about his true nature, but he could hardly be expected to give so much as a hint with so many mortals around. The power she sensed in him belied the meek, bumbling demeanor he projected; he was clearly an adept trickster, and probably knew the dilemma he had caused with the photograph would buy his own safety. But who was he, and why had he come so far? A being with gifts such as his did not go sightseeing, for such beings rarely if ever took their duties lightly. She would learn what she could of him; perhaps, in some way, he could be of use to her.

[Raylexing]

Satoru handed the camera to the woman and smiled as she took a few pictures. When she handed him the camera back, he checked through the pictures and found that they were not blurry or at bad angles. Satoru thought to himself, "Yes, another person who doesn't have a seizure when they're taking a picture."

When she asked what brought him here to the states, he did a lot of thinking on the spot while he was talking to create an interesting story that would also be believable. "I have vacation from my work, and I have always wanted to travel outside Japan. My uncle was visited Japan, and he has told me so many story that I wanted to experience the same things he has. Also my youngest boy plays the Pokemon game, and at the Pokemon Center in New York they are giving away a rare Pokemon. My son will love this souvenir I am getting him," he answered. Of course, almost none of this was true, but it made for a far more interesting tale, and this stranger had no way of verifying any of this. And why would she even want to?

"So excuse me for asking," Satoru then said, "but I want to know about the people of this country more. I am trying to find out what people truly are." Upon saying those last four words, he changed his facial expression completely. His smile straightened as he took on a serious tone of voice, and he stared straight into the woman's eyes with his eyes much more wide open. He returned to his normal happy demeanor with his smiling face and half closed eyes after saying these words, his hope was that she would get the hint that he knew she was hiding something. Satoru was quite curious as to what she was hiding. "So how do you like it in America? What are some of your favorite things about it? And what is there to do for fun around here," he asked inquisitively.

[Desmond Vinson]

Natasha had no way to detect lies, but she had a feeling anyone with an aura like this had more important business in New York than picking up Pokemon for his son. Still, she hadn't expected a straight answer; they were in a subway station packed full of mortals, and any supernatural being with half a brain wouldn't start babbling about hidden true natures. Besides, everyone who walked in the world unknown to mortals had an agenda, and she certainly knew that there were good reasons to hide one's agenda. There were always people who would oppose it or trade knowledge of it to enemies of the person in question.

In any case, he was good, practiced at deception. No matter how much of his story he had improvised, he'd kept a perfectly straight face, and none of it would be unusual to anyone who couldn't sense the unnatural-ness that clung to him. The questions that followed were typical of an inquisitive tourist, and aroused the suspicions of no member of the crowd of New Yorkers surging around them. Natasha wondered when he was going to stop playing this game, if ever; and then, for just a moment, he did. His tone and expression shifted, putting the emphasis on a few key words: "what people truly are".

So he knew that something was different about her; that put them on even footing. Good. Now they might finally get somewhere. But the game of veiled words would have to continue while within earshot of mortals, no matter how little or how much they knew of one another. "Unless you have somewhere you urgently need to be," she replied to his final questions, still smiling, "why don't I show you? It's easy to get lost in this city, but I'm off work, and I can give you a little tour and point you to the Pokemon Center." It was hardly a lie; being unemployed, she was always off work.

[Raylexing]

Satoru took a mental moment to go over this conversation he just had. The woman here didn't appear to care that her picture was taken, meaning either she truly didn't have anything to hide, which Satoru was doubtful of seeing as she was not in her true form, or she has the ability to gather her thoughts and keep her emotions in check, an even more impressive feat coming from a woman. She was also the one who had approached him, so she is either a friendly New Yorker who has the spare time to show tourists around, or she can sense something about Satoru, maybe even knowing exactly what he is, if she was strong enough. He would assume the later; there was no consequence for assuming the second and then the first ending up being true.

Most importantly, and most relevant to his response, she was trying to get him away from the subway. This could either be to show him something or to get him away from people or to meet someone, or very unlikely just to help him with his son's souvenir; he did not know the exact reason, but he was curious as to what it could be. This was going to be fun.

Satoru responded to her generous offer, "Oh... I have nothing else planned for today. Thank you, that is very generous of you. My uncle was right, the people of New York really are some of the kindest people. Are you sure it won't be much trouble?" He would have to carry around his small luggage case, but he had packed lightly, and if need be he could leave the luggage behind if he was in a tight spot. It contained mostly clothes, nothing of real value, and certainly nothing that would give away anything he didn't want others finding.

[Desmond Vinson]

"Not at all," Natasha replied, beaming. She knew that this man was no fool and no victim, but she was more curious than homicidal at least for the moment, and away from the eyes and ears of mortals she might begin to understand who and what this strange traveler was. It would be a challenge, a game, a puzzle, and she liked all of those things very much. And it would occupy her time until the hour of her next move arrived; for all of the insanity the papers attributed to her, she had a very precise gameplan.

"I'm Natasha," she said with a little bow in the fashion of the Japanese. There was no harm in a name; no one knew who she was, and most would laugh at her for claiming she was who she had been. Besides, in a city like New York there were probably countless people who shared her name. "The quickest way is the subway, even if it's a little... crowded." There would be time for her investigation to continue when they arrived. Until then, she merely had to keep being patient.

[Raylexing]

"It's a pleasure to meet you Natasha. I'm Alex," replied Satoru, making up a name on the spot. He had no idea what this creature was, perhaps she could control him through the use of his name. There were some fairy tales in Japan of such things, anyway, and Satoru was ever cautious. He was likely to never see her again anyway, but he also wouldn't mind being called Alex. It would probably be easier for locals to remember anyway.

Satoru stepped into the next subway after Natasha. He had already calculated the route that would be needed if they were to go to Nintendo World while they were conversing, but he played dumb and let Natasha lead the way. If they weren't on course, he would know and would prepare for trouble.

(if you want to move this thread as we get off the train, just post in this thread where the new thread is. Satoru will get off anywhere Natasha does. If we go to Nintendo World it'll be in Manhattan)