[Atoli01]

Sybil Averill | Satella
#397F8C | #920B09

"Every day is summer vacation for you, you damned NEET. And now you're making me take time off of work to be your chaperone? I have no doubt that the girls will burn down the casino while I'm gone!"

"Not every day, my dear Watson. Only the days during the summer. From what I've seen, the girls are perfectly capable on their own. Besides, it's like taking a weekend off. What can go wrong?"

Seriously, how long did he think it would take to wrangle up one little bird?! At least she wasn't asking him to take her all the way to Sa'fir for a beach trip, like what most friends do at this time of year. Maybe she'd treat herself to a beach day with her new Mr. Wilson after they caught it. It would complain less than Sybil.

The sight of the pair walking shoulder to shoulder, joking around in such a picturesque place seemed perfectly out of place. They were two street rats--the owner of a casino and some abomination of a vampire--prancing around a park alongside children and the elderly, using the guise of "summer break" to hunt down a bird wearing pitifully oversized shoes.

Satella was right-- What could go wrong?!

[Atoli01]

It had to have been an hour at least that Sybil watched little kids screaming past him, kites and ice cream cones in hand, and Satella... well, Satella had been digging around under rocks for the past hour. If it was a gag, it was a gag that had been going on for far too long. He needed to end this before it was too late. "My dear Satella, you do realize that birds fly, do you not? I don't think Wilsons are of the burrowing sort."

Satella looked broken. She had the face of a child whose snow cone was ripped right from their tiny grasp. "I-it's not like we know that for sure. If they were easy to find, then everyone would have one," she replied hesitantly. What happened next was like a scene out of a comic book. Sybil snickered and pointed straight ahead.

Perched right on the rock in front of Satella was a small bird with those terribly oversized shoes.

[Atoli01]

It was amazing to Sybil how Satella, whose eyes looked as though they had seen death's doors when they first met, could have so much drive and energy now. She pounced on the poor bird as a feline would, but instead ended up with an armful of thin air and a few dirt patches on her white coat. Waves of laughter overtook Sybil at the sight. Being the gentleman he was however, he offered a hand to the fallen girl. He was sure the sight looked absolutely bizarrre to onlookers.

Those onlookers weren't what concerned Sybil at the moment, though. He realized that as he stared into the young girl's amber orbs. Immortal being or not, she had long since been frozen in time. The eyes she carried were ones in which loneliness and sorrow pooled. That look... he knew it well. She relied on him. Without him, she'd be dead. At best, slowly dying on a street corner. Though there were countless aspects of the girl's world of which he had no knowledge, she had chosen to open up to him. Sybil would be lying to himself if he said the idea of her reliance didn't strike fear down to his core.

"Sybil?" He didn't notice Satella had already grabbed his hand. He always was afraid of commitment.

[Atoli01]

"Ahh, yes," Sybil said, and shook his head. "I was thinking, my apologies. I know I don't do it very often." Damn right he'd insult himself before that little beast got the chance to. One swift tug and Satella was back on her feet. Curiosity and a slight twinge of concern. Sybil couldn't be sure if he just knew the girl this well after all this time, or if she was just that open of a book. Sybil offered his trademark "mysterious" smile in response. Satella waved it off; it was obvious from that that there was no amount of poking and prodding that could get him to open his mouth.

"So, in that case, where do you propose we search next for one of those little buggers?" Satella asked. She wasn't the type to be perturbed by one minor slip-up. No, she had been through too much by this point for that to be the case and for her to still be standing in front of him. "Well it's not like they're uncommon, you know. I propose we simply stroll around the outskirts of the park. Unless you're looking for a particular bird, I'm sure you'll be able to stumble upon one who suits your tastes."

[Atoli01]

The frown on Satella's face was not a good sign. It never was. "Fine. But on one condition!" she said. "French vanilla ice cream. You share it with me. There is no greater joy in life than watching prissy girls get all huffy and puffy over what they don't have." The little devil. That frown turned into a smirk, and just that alone--not even taking her words into consideration!--was a perfect indication of bad things to come.

It's not like he could reject that face, though. It was like saying no to your kid. Hell, she was essentially his kid. Only, well, parents don't usually pretend that they're dating their kid. "Fine," Sybil groaned, and fetched his wallet from his pocket. "We're getting a three-layer cone, and the middle will be mint. That's my condition." Satella's lips tightened into a line. Sybil waved it off though. He was the one paying for the cone; she had scarcely any room to object.

[Atoli01]

And so they were strolling through the park, awkward hand-holding and all. He was convinced that, in some screwed up way, this was just Satella's way of coping with her loneliness. What was a massive pain in the ass though, Sybil could tell you, was having to share alternating licks of his favorite flavor of ice cream. He got only one ball as opposed to her two, and quite frankly, she was taking bigger licks out of that one than the others. Well... it could just be his mind playing nasty tricks on him, but Sybil liked to believe in his brain. It had served him well, until at least this point in his life.

All of a sudden, the remains of ice cream cone went flying in the air. It can be assumed that the spotting of a Mr. Wilson is what spurred the sudden reaction of Satella. Sybil fumbled around with the cone, and only looked to confirm his suspicions once it was grasped snugly in his hand.

[Atoli01]

The man's eyes were met with a small flurry of feathers. Satella probably scared the poor thing to high hell! Let's not even mention himself! That would've been a perfectly good third of 5 KS wasted had be not been so keen! "Satella! You can't face the birds head on! At least come up with a plan of attack that won't allow the Wilsons to see you coming from half a mile away!" Sybil exclaimed. He held out the cone to her as if to say, "And what about this?!"

The only deserving response Satella could offer was a nervous smile. "Well it looked like it was going to get away otherwise, so I had to try something..." she explained. There had to have been some alternative to pouncing on it like some lowly animal though, right?

[Atoli01]

Sybil appreciated her efforts of course, but they just weren't helping the cause. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry, Sibyl. I know you want to get back to work..." Satella muttered. Even if it was a big deal, the man had started to develop a bit of a soft spot in his heart for her. (That's what happens when you spend all day, five days a week with someone-- you learn to either love or hate them.) Sybil just couldn't stay mad at her, regardless of what she did.

"It's alright, I suppose," he sighed. "How about the next Mr. Wilson you see then, you tell me? You tell me, and we can come up with some sort of attack plan together. How does that sound? We're never going to step foot out of this godforsaken park again if we keep charging at every bird we see." Sybil wasn't sure how encouragingly his message was delivered, but he was more concerned with catching that Mr. Wilson and going home than he was about winning over a mutated vampire's undying affections.

[Atoli01]

Luck be told, Satella didn't take any offense to the way the suggestion was worded. She offered Sybil one firm, resolute nod before she stepped back onto the path leading around the park's outskirts, one step ahead of him. Off for more Wilson hunting it was. Somewhere deep inside, Sybil was actually a little glad she didn't try to take up the "lovey dovey couple" facade she had going on either. What it also meant is that he had the bottom of the ice cream cone all to himself.

Sybil was anxious to break the silence between them as they walked through the park. "So Satella, if you wouldn't horribly mind my asking, what did you want to do with your life before, well, you know..." Assuming she gave an answer, it was so incredibly indicative of Satella's character. It was hard for him to believe that he had never actually asked the girl such a question. Maybe because, before now, the wounds still appeared too fresh in her amber eyes.

"Music," she said. "I wanted to sing."

[Atoli01]

"Sing?" Sybil didn't even try to hide his shock. He had never heard Satella sing even once in the entirety of the time he'd known her. It was always obvious to Sybil what most people's passions were; naturally, that was the case, considering how normal it was to show off the skills you had put so much time and effort into. "What's stopping you from pursuing it now? You know you've got the perfect opportunity waiting for you at the casino. You have something of a name there. You have connections."

She chuckled. Not the happy kind, but the kind that was laced with sorrow. "I used to write songs. I won my fair share of school talent competitions with those. My parents didn't approve, so I tried to sing in secret, but... but then I fell ill." Satella's hands shot up to cover her mouth. My, my, my, Sybil was just finding out all new sorts of things about her too! "Anyway, I admire people like Aislin and Riseha, but I could never climb to their heights. I'm just an unwanted street rat. Imagine the stir there'd be if everyone learned their favorite idol was so disgusting that she could only feed on her own kind?"

Sybil wanted to refute that. He wanted to more than anything, but he couldn't. Humans are, by nature, cruel beings. "But never mind that. We have a bird to catch, remember? Keep your eyes peeled, Sybil." Ahh, but there had to be a way to lessen her burden.

[Atoli01]

Why in God's name did Sybil decide to wear his usual suit jacket today, of all days? The heat was really getting to him by this point. He was about to groan about how damn long it was taking to find one silly bird, but when he glanced at his watch, he discovered that it was a mere ten minutes that had passed. Good thing he thought better on that one. Can't have little girls thinking you're some sort of wimp.

But, y'know, come to think of it... was it really the heat that was getting to him, or the fact that Satella had been silent the entire time since her exposition? Sybil knew the girl well enough to intuitively know that the girl's mind was only half occupied with searching for that bird. He wanted to say something to knock her out of her thoughts, which were undoubtedly growing darker and darker by the moment, but how? He wanted to ask what she meant when she said she fell ill, but would it be insensitive of him? Should he try to comfort her instead? Would she get angry? Would she cry? She probably wouldn't care, would she?

Damn, were women complicated.

[.:Random Event:.]

The park was a bright, happy place, with cheerful families and happy children everywhere. As Sybil and Satella  strolled through, they heard a rustling noise in a nearby bush. Peering in, they first noticed a pair of Little Shoes, then what said shoes were attached to. Suddenly, in a flurry of feathers, a small shape shot out of the bush, landing on Sybils' head. Apparently they had made a new friend, one content to stay in its newly found spot.