She's just another fractal butterfly [OTA]

[please_see_me]

Outside where the Conrad Hotel used to be is standing a tiny, blonde teenager with very brightly-coloured wings and a canvas messenger bag with colourful doodles all over it. She wasn't standing there a few seconds ago, but most of the people passing by don't seem to notice her

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[shellbreaking]

Mark is walking through Chicago. It helps him sometime to walk through the sidewalks and put pieces together of whatever puzzle he is currently working on for the case.

There are a lot of puzzles this time, and he has walked a long way from the Crowbar by the time he stumbles on Dusty.

"Woah." He pauses, because clearly there is a young person in distress and that is not okay. "Hey, Rainbow-Bright, are you okay?"

And he doesn't even mean Rainbow-Bright in a mean way, but his gaze took in the wings behind her and it's the first thing that popped out of his mouth. He processes things quickly, but he doesn't necessarily speak the right words when he should.

[please_see_me]

Thankfully, Dusty is not inclined to take a name like that personally, or even in a bad way. She looks up when he speaks, then glances behind her to make sure there's no one else he might be talking to.

Even if people can't see her, she doesn't like the idea of making an idiot of herself answering someone who wasn't even talking to her. But it seems as thought there's no one else even in talking distance, let alone that could be remotely considered "Rainbow-Bright".

"Y-you can see me?" she asks hopefully.

[shellbreaking]

It's all to do with the pretty wings, Dusty. They are very shiny and colorful, and Mark has seen a lot of wings. He has a good memory, remembers all the ones that he has ever seen.

Mark nods and offers her a small, reassuring smile.

"Yes, I can see you. You're right there! You have rainbow wings, which are kind of like a neon flashing sign of I'm here! I'm here!! I know some people think I'm blind sometimes, but it would be hard to miss- You must be either an angel of death or a children's angel, and I'm kind of betting on the second one. I'm an angel too so I can see you. No issues there," Mark says, folding his arms across his chest and shaking his head with something of a frown. "I always thought it wasn't a very good design flaw about how children's angels can only be seen by that very certain group all the time."

[please_see_me]

"Oh!" And there's that little tickle in her head, the one that says 'angel!'. She looks sheepish for a moment. "I totally could've known that, couldn't I? I'm still not totally used to that and usually I just kind of ignore it 'cause it's not really important and yeah, it really sucks not being able to be seen by people? And I was adopted, and both my parents were muggles, so after my wings came in nobody I knew could see me and it was this big thing, but--"

Dusty cuts herself off and looks back at where the Conrad was, her face falling again. "What... what happened to the hotel?"

[shellbreaking]

"You could have, but you... look like you were in distress so it probably didn't occur to you to think anything more but Oh! Person! Maybe talking to me and maybe not! I totally get that, which is why I am here to remind you that I am angel, hear me roar, and see me... see you," Mark says, waving a hand at the sheepish look at it is nothing to feel sheepish about. "I love that you call your parents muggles. Good Harry Pootter reference, not that... I am happy about them not being able to see... you. Because that is not... good, and it would be really hard."

He frowns at the question, scratching the back of his head. "It's-- It was destroyed. Over a year ago in May. A Rift opened up in the middle of it and the whole hotel crashed down. So... let me take a wild guess reached by the conclusion of a lot of little pieces of evidence and say you fell through a Rift and you're just now... back."

[please_see_me]

Someone who rambles like she does! A kindred spirit! Despite the fact that she's upset and a little scared, it does present an immediate silver lining to her current situation.

Except that then he mentions 'over a year ago', and her eyes go wide. "But... but I was only gone a few minutes, and... and some of my friends lived here and... and all my things." Her eyes are filling with tears despite her best efforts to be strong and brave and not cry. "Wh-where am I gonna live now?"

[shellbreaking]

Mark is all about the rambling. It is difficult for him to not ramble at all, because his mind works as fast as it does and words spill out of it while his thoughts are processing-- or barely processing.

"You must have fallen through a Rift of some kind," he says, wincing and looking apologetic. His hand rests against her arm in comfort, reassurance, what little he can offer of it. "There's the Kashtta Tower. It's where most people-- wanderers, angels, demons stay when they have nowhere else to go. They'd take you in. No problem."

[please_see_me]

"Oh." Dusty wraps her arms around herself, her wings puffing up a bit as she leans into Mark's hand. She's big on physical contact, so it's probably the most reassuring thing he could do short of hugging her.

"Well... well I guess I'll go there, then," she says after a moment, her voice wobbling a little. "Maybe my friends are there. Or someone who knows if they're okay. Right?"

[shellbreaking]

Mark nods as he looks at her, and he knows the chances of anyone she knows still being alive are small. In fact, he is an angel of knowledge so he probably worked out the chances down to the nearest tenth of a percentage point.

"Yeah, they definitely could be, and I'll go with you so you're not lonely on the trip over there. How is that?" He slides an arm around her shoulder, able to tell that the contact helped and that it might help stabilize her more than anything else. It's a half armed hug here. "Gotta make sure you get there okay. I'd be a terrible person if I didn't, and I'm not terrible. I'm pretty good. I'm Mark by the way. Who are you?"

It is time to distract her while he leads her to the Tower.

[please_see_me]

"You seem very nice," Dusty agrees, happily settling under Mark's arm, her wings folding back so as not to get in the way, though she doesn't hide them. She likes having her wings out.

"Oh! It's nice to meet you. I'm Dusty, which is kind of a weird name I guess but it's mine and anyway there was an old gospel singer named Dusty Springfield and she had a really nice voice. I looked her up once in the library when I was little 'cause a boy teased me about my name."

She's pretty easy to distract, at least for short periods of time.

"So what kind of angel are you? What do you do? How old are you? Do you live at the Kashtta, too?"

[shellbreaking]

"Thank you very much. Seeming can be deceiving as we well know, but I promise that my seeming nice is actual nice," Mark says with a smile, and he makes sure to avoid the wings and doesn't tell her to keep them in

[please_see_me]

"I'm seventeen and a half!" Dusty proclaims proudly, and giggles a little. "Which isn't that impressive, really. But you can totally call me R.B. - that's for Rainbow Brite, isn't it? I totally love it, it's bright and shiny like me!"

She bounces a little, making sure to tuck herself securely back under Mark's arm after. It's like being out with Adrian again, except she's getting called "Rainbow Brite" instead of "papagayo", and Mark's an angel instead of a demon.

It's really not too similar, except that she's being looked after by an older man who could easily be an older brother figure to her. Mark, you have been adopted, by the way.

"Why do you live in a bar? Does it have an apartment above it? Is it like a swanky nightclub bar or a sports bar or like a seedy underworld mafia bar? Oh my god, do you work for the mob?" Dusty's imagine might be running away from her. Quick, Mark, before she starts imagining you as a hit man!

[shellbreaking]

"Hey, in angel years, neither of our ages are all that impressive," Mark says with a shrug and a grin at her. "Yep. Short for Rainbow Brite, which is what your wings remind me of... just minus the pegs and the batteries needed and the glowing. But just like you."

BAW! Mark likes being adopted. He is easily pleased that way, and he has a tendency to adopt many people too in his own way at any rate. He is glad he was out in the city today, and he could help her on her way instead of leaving her to be sad in front of destruction.

He laughs at the question.

It is... not too far from the truth for people that know Sonny. However, they do not do mob things. Sonny just reminds people of a mob boss. Sometimes.

"I live in a bar, because my cousin used to live there and work there and do good things for the city through it so after he... died, I wanted to help take care of his son and stuff. So I moved in," Mark says with a small smile that widens into a grin once he moves past the awkward talking about his feelings part. "I do awesome

[please_see_me]

"Well, I guess that's cool too," Dusty allows. Clearly it would've been cooler if you were a mob boss, Mark. "I'm sorry your cousin, died, though. That must've really sucked." And the thing about Dusty is that she is really and truly sincere when she says that. She is almost sickeningly sincere sometimes...

"Do you have a phone number? I should totally get your phone number. I mean, also journals, but if I have your phone number I can call you right away if something cool is happening! And I can totally make you brownies or cupcakes or something for being so nice to me!"

[shellbreaking]

"Sorry I couldn't be more awesome!" Mark says but he is totally joking, of course. Clearly, he would be, and he agrees. Ahem. "Yeah, it was... yeah." He shoves his hands in his pockets. He's not good at talking about his own stuff for whatever reason.

Though he can talk about anything else without any issues.

"I do have a phone number, of course! It's 2011, R.B. I'm all about the cellular phones." He takes his phone out of his pocket. "Even made some apps for this thing, one of them figures out Rift activity so it's useful and pretty because I filled it with colors. Okay, do you have a paper or pen? I will write my number, and you can call-- I do love food. Brownies and cupcakes. My cousin and I used to have like food competitions, see who could pack away the most food in the shortest amount of time."

It was pretty much... awesome.

[please_see_me]

"Cool, hang on!" Dusty doesn't have a cell phone anymore, but she does have her journal, a pink and purple affair with a unicorn and a rainbow on the cover, which she digs out of her bag, along with a sparkly pink gel pen.

It's too bad the people on the journal networks can't see that her entries literally sparkle.

"Okay, ready! So I can call you and we can make yummy treats and binge and watch movies and stuff!"