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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[butyouresocute]

Kim is not the kind of person to save a damsel in distress. But fuck if he doesn't know the look in her eyes. And no one's even stopping to help her. He was waiting for the bus, but he pauses, pulling away and walking over to her.

"Is there like --" Oh god, why he is even talking to her? "Anything I can--" Why did he take his headphones off? "You should probably go inside."

[please_see_me]

Dusty looks at the guy who spoke to her with wide eyes, tears starting to well up in them. Oh, she would love to go inside. There's only one problem.

"I... th-there was a hotel here, and... I don't... this was my home...."

Yeah, she's on the verge of tears.

[butyouresocute]

Kim doesn't know what to say. Well beyond when he says, "It blew up about a year ago. I don't know the specifics."

How the hell did he think he would be able to do anything about this? She still shouldn't be hanging out with her wings out on a public street corner and she shouldn't be looking more of a mess than him. He hangs his headphones around his neck, sighing.

"Sorry."

[please_see_me]

"A year?" Dusty asks, squeaking, her eyes widening in confusion and fear. "But... but I was just here this morning! It can't be a year!"

Her life just went off the "strange and confusing" charts.

[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?"