Even Downtime is Busy.

[kiturian]

Every once in a while, it was good to step back and smell the roses-or in this case, the fresh air that blew off the river. Kiturian had parked her truck and leaned against it as her eyes watched the dark waters and the sliver of silver that was the reflected moon. At this hour the place was devoid of people, the last of the fisherman having gone home for the night. It was tempting to drop a line and relax a bit in such a manner, but unfortunately that wasn't an option. For one thing, she didn't have a fishing pole on hand. And while one could probably be fashioned through the various supplies in her truck, she had more important things to be worrying about. Like the care of the equipment she already had.

With a sigh she turned from the view and unlocked one of the two large silver-colored lock boxes that were bolted to the bed of the vehicle. Rather than containing tools and other such things as most people carried in the back of their trucks, Kit's contained a small arsenal, the other packed with books, papers, and articles. Those fortunately took a little less upkeep, aside from occasionally sorting through and organizing everything. They were not her main concern tonight.

She pulled a small crossbow from the open box, and placed a bolt into it before pointing and aiming at a tree. She took aim and let the bolt fly freely to embed into the wood. She walked over and frowned as she pulled the bolt loose. The sight was off. It wasn't much good if she couldn't hit what she aimed at, so that would need some correcting.

She returned to the truck and jumped up to sit on the open truck bed to work. She began to work on cleaning the crossbow first, not wanting to fix the sight only to mess it up during cleaning. As she worked, she muttered along to her music, wondering not for the first time if the singer actually had made a deal, or it was simply a coincidence that his song made it sound as though he had done so.

[Simplicity]

Simplicity listened to nothing but the dirt crunching under her boots. That morning Jefferson had been explaining the difference between Black dogs and Hellhounds. While she was sure this was probably important, Simplicity was getting bored and honestly falling asleep. So in the middle of his talk (rant) she stood up, walked to her room, changed into pair of shorts, white shirt, and hiking boots. On her way out she called out to the boys, saying she was going for a hike and that she had her phone and would call if she was eaten by a Wendigo.

She wasn’t sure exactly where in Austin she could go hiking but she was enough of a city girl to consider a dirt path with two trees a hike. Thankfully someone pointed out that the Colorado river had some woodened areas around it. Smiling she walked to the path and enjoyed the illusion of untouched nature.

Getting used to walking with a gun at her back was one thing but hiking was another. Heck she remembered grab one of the guys button ups to hide it. That would have brought unneeded attention to himself and then there was half the crap in her back pack. Honestly she didn’t want to explain to Ranger Rick why she had lighter fluid and trail mix or that lovely conversation starter, “Why yes! Those are silver bullets!”

At the end of the trail she could hear the soothing rush of water. Glancing around she could see the edges of the water and the light reflecting off it. She also saw a girl a girl in a truck working on a cross boy. Simplicity wrapped a finger around the cord of the anti-possession charm Jeff had given her. He had said to keep it hiden but she was more than up for sporting some demon proof bling. Made her fell like “Hunter Barbie”, the only one in the collection that had the guts to tell Malibu off.

“Ya know,” she said walking up to the truck, “they have ranges for those things,” Simplicity smiled and waved at the girl when she caught her eye.

[Jefferson]

Simplicity had just gotten up and left. Jeff was mad, and finally it was his anger he was feeling and not someone else. How dare anyone leave in the middle of his lecture? Sure the chances of seeing and actually fighting a hell hound were slim, but they were scary dangerous and he was responsible for them. If the chance ever arose, he would kill Casey for throwing this responsibility on top of him.

Grabbing his jacket and gun, Jefferson headed outside. He told Adrian to follow him, but was already outside before he saw Adrian move.

Outside, Jefferson could see someone off in the distance. That was definitely Simplicity and he was going to torture the hell out of her the only way he knew how: sitting her down and forcing her to write a ten page essay about how to identify and kill a Wendigo. She did the crime, so she's going to do the time.

Walking toward her, Jefferson noticed the anti-possession charm around her finger. Great! She was really adding to the punishment, and Jeff was trying to vent out the anger. This girl was going to kill him with stress.

Approaching Simplicity, he noticed the other person with the crossbow. He took out his gun, began to twirl it around his finger. Simplicity went straight to the advice on the crossbow, which made Jefferson laugh.

"Well well well. Look who I found. Made a friend did you Simp?" Jefferson nodded his head toward the new girl. "The name's Jefferson, and may I ask why you are carrying a crossbow around? As for you Simplicity, I thought I told you to hide that?"

[kiturian]

Had she not been listening to her music, Kit may have picked up on the sound of footsteps. At least it wasn't so loud that it drown out the sound of voices. As the other girl's voice rang out, Kit shifted her position so she'd have an easier time getting up should the need arise. She watched the girl carefully as she grinned, lowering her headphones and setting the crossbow aside. It was partially taken apart from being cleaned-useless at the moment, so no reason to keep a hold on it.

"True true," she said with a cheerful nonchalance, "but have you tried going to one lately? Always crowded with other people around to distract you and telling you all their little tips and tricks for a better shot. Not to mention having to listen to all the stories of who shot what and who has what...it's just a lot of socializing and not much good for practice." She paused briefly before glancing at the charm the other girl held. "Cute charm."

As she spoke she could see another person approaching, a gentleman this time. Internally she sighed, the hell didn't people sleep? Or maybe this place just had one hell of a nightlife, and people always took walks along the river at night. Well whatever the reason, there were two people here now, and that meant she had to deal with them. Pity it would be really impractical to just jump in the truck and drive off.

Kiturian's eyes flickered to the gun that twirled around the man's finger, her cheerful demeanor fading a fraction. "You'll shoot yourself if you keep playing with it like that," she commented lightly as she moved one hand carefully to grab one of the crossbow bolts. Even if she couldn't use the bow itself at the moment, the bolts were still plenty sharp and she had no intention of staying unarmed. Not at this moment.

"Thrilled to know you Jefferson," Kiturian said as she jumped down from the truckbed, keeping the bolt concealed. At his question she merely blinked, before answering in a serious straight-faced manner. "Extreme fishing. The whole rod and reel thing takes way to long, this method is much faster," she said.

[Simplicity]

It took all her will not to groan at Jeff’s arrival but she did send him a bored glare. So much for friendly conversation. And she was so going to kill him in his sleep for that nickname.

“Nah,” she looked back at the girl, “I got a place out back I practice but not with one of those. Best of both worlds, not much distraction and no random people walking behind the targets. Though that might be incentive not to miss.”

Simplicity but a hand over the charm and smiled, “Thanks,” then out of curiousity lifted it away from her body so the girl could see it better, “do you recognize it?”

“Don’t worry kid, I’ll shoot him myself if he does anything,” she said in regards to Jefferson’s gun. She also looked at the girl with an expression that said, no seriously, I will, please give me an excuse.

“Extreme fishing? My uncle does something like that with dynamite,” Simplicity laughed, part of her wished she was kidding, “Name’s Simplicity, since you already know the Neanderthals. Got one of your own?” She held out a hand and smiled.

She glanced back at Jefferson trying to gage his mood. Pissed yeah, that was to be expected, she did walk out. Seriously though after days of hearing about nothing else but the supernatural from him she need a breather, stat. Now she just hoped that random girl would distract him long enough to be rational and not drag her off before getting to know the younger female. Because hotel with two older men? Not nearly as fun as advertised sometimes, Simplicity needed her girl time.

[Jefferson]

Extreme fishing? Jefferson thought with an eyebrow raised. If all his years as a hunter taught him anything it was don't trust anyone, especially if they say something outrageous as extreme fishing. As for shooting off the gun by accident, highly doubtful. He was an expert at weaponry, even if he did hate using them.

Laughing at Simplicity's remark, Jefferson spoke in a much cheerful voice, "Really? You are going to shoot me? Don't make me laugh; your aim might be good, but I'll be able to take the gun away from you before you even start trying to kill me."

"I won't shoot myself, mostly because the gun is on safety, because I'm pretty good with guns. Years of practice, years and years of practice." Jefferson said the last bit with resentment. Just to prove his point, Jefferson held the gun still, took off the safety with the hand holding the gun, aimed at the hole on the tree that was caused by the arrow, and pulled the trigger. Bulls-eye!

"You see mate, I'm good with weapons. Which is why I'm going to ask again, why do you have a crossbow?"

[kiturian]

Kiturian was silent as the other two spoke. The girl at least seemed easier to deal with though the man...he seemed to be the more dangerous one. Still if there was a way to get through this situation without having to resort to violence that might be a good thing-hospital time was never fun and considering he had the gun and with it the upper hand, it seemed a likely occurance should things get out of hand.

At Simplicity's question she nodded, wondering if the older girl knew herself. "It's a charm intended to prevent the wearer from becoming possessed by a demon," she said.

The girl introduced herself and Kit nodded. "Nice to meet you Simplicity. My name is Kiturian. Kit for short," she said as she took the offered hand and shook it briefly. Alright officially this girl was pretty likable, the sort Kit wouldn't mind spending a bit of time with. It was always a good thing to know and be reminded there were a few decent people around. You just had to be lucky enough to find them.

The man, Jefferson, was speaking again and Kit shifted her attention to him. The brief exchange between him and Simplicity made her wonder if perhaps the girl carried a gun as well. Hm, maybe it would be best to keep an eye on her also.

Jefferson continued, explaining why he wasn't at risk for shooting himself before demonstrating his level of skill. The shot rang out and Kiturian flicked the bolt she held towards Jefferson's hand that held the gun. Far less effective than firing it from the crossbow, still it was capable of causing some small amount of damage should it actually hit.

"Is it really all that fair that you're questioning my crossbow when you yourself are armed with a gun?" she asked, taking a step back towards her truck. She wanted something to defend herself with. "But fine if you don't believe the extreme fishing thing, then just go with the idea that I have an overactive imagination and an inability to accept reality as it is and instead cling to delusions that things like monsters and demons are to blame for things rather than accepting that the only monsters that exist are no more than ordinary men and women who do terrible things. Least that's what my last therapist said."

The answer was the closest thing to the truth, without directly stating it. She wasn't certain just yet if these two could be trusted. They were dangerous yes, but as for trustworthy, she didn't know. It would be easy to check on the pendulum about such a matter, but now didn't seem the best time to use the trinket she wore. Later perhaps, unless answers could be found sooner.

[Simplicity]

Simplicity smacked Jefferson upside the head, feeling extra gratified at the sound it made. She did it firstly because he insulted her and second because he was giving the girl, Kit, a hard time. “You such an asshole,” she muttered stepping intentionally between the two of the.

She touch the charm on her neck and smiled at the girl, “Not many people know that, just assume it’s some cool occult thing I picked up at the flea market. What about that one you got, any special meaning?”

“Kit, catchy,” she smiled, “If you feel the need to shorten mine, it’s Sim. Not Simp.” She sent another glare to Jefferson. Simp sounded way to much like Gimp for her liking.

“Told ya he’s an ass,” Simplicity snort before becoming serious as Kiturian spoke. Less than a month ago she’d met monsters, she knew they were real. If some shrink tried to tell her otherwise she would have dragged them out on a hunt herself. Maybe used them as bait. That however wasn’t a good lead into the conversation of asking the girl what she knew about things that go bump in the night.

She took a few steps toward Kit, hands on her hips, “Most of the time I’d agree with them. There are a few good exceptions to the rules though. Ya know what I mean?”

Simplicity wrapped a finger around the cord of her necklace again. She glanced at Jeff with an eyebrow raise then back at Kit. She looked young to be a hunter but the older man had mentioned a few up north that couldn’t drink legally and had seen more big bads than her. Letting go of the charm she replaced the hand on her hip and waited for a reply.

[Jefferson]

Jefferson grabbed bolt with the free hand before it ever hit him. Kiturian had guts and she knew about demons; things were starting to get really interesting. As for Simplicity smacking him in the back of the head, well he deserved that. He wasn't really a trusting person, but now things were different.

"You know about demons? That was really unexpected, but thanks to that little bit of information I can trust you now. I'm a hunter of the supernatural, I've been one since I was six or seven years old, and with all the knowledge I've gathered over the years I've got to say that a crossbow will cause as much damage to a demon as a butterfly to a wasp." Jefferson put the safety back on the gun and threw it at Kiturian, so it landed in front of her. "Take my gun instead, I don't need it anyways."

Someone else that knew about the supernatural, but for how long did she knew? Was in anyway Casey involved in this? Jefferson thought he was, seeing as the guy had nothing better to do but recruit more helpers and call at the weirdest times. If Casey was involved, then there had to be something out here; why else would Kiturian be packing heat?

"What are you after? You know about demons, and your out here alone, with a crossbow, which to me points to your hunting something, and it ain't fishes. So what is it?"

[kiturian]

A light snicker escaped Kit as Simplicity smacked Jefferson. Okay she officially liked this girl. At the comment about the charm Kit just shrugged. "I'm a bit more well read than most people," she said, and blinked at the question about her own. So far this girl seemed pretty cool, and it seemed there was a chance she understood what the world was really like. Still, it was hard to predict how anyone would react to information, especially information of the odd and supernatural variety.

She held off on answering that question for the moment, instead letting Sim continue. "Cool," she said to the nickname, "good to know."

As Simplicity took a few steps towards her, Kit tensed keeping a wary eye on the girl. She liked her, but it was a bit soon to be invading personal space. She raised an eyebrow at Simplicity's words, well perhaps there was more to this girl than there seemed.

This theory was quickly proven-or close to proven at least-by Jefferson as he began speaking again after catching the bolt. Damn, it was a much less valid threat if he could just grab th bolt from mid-air. Impressive though.

His admission of being a hunter surprised her, she hadn't been expecting that. It changed things though, it meant these two were trustworthy, at least for the most part. She frowned at his comment about the crossbow. "Best I could come up with, had to steal that out of some guy's garage. Besides it's not completey ineffective. Iron-tipped bolts can cause a bit of damage even if they don't kill," she half muttered to herself. She picked up the gun he threw, looking it over briefly as her smile started to return. This could most definitely be useful. "Thanks," she said.

He began asking questions then, which was pretty much expected. She considered a moment before answering unclasping the silver chain from around her neck to let the pendulum hang freely from her hand. "I know about more than demons, I've been studying whatever supernatural lore I could find since I was ten," she said. "What I'm after is the original owner of this little trinket-and to answer your earlier question Sim, it does have special meaning. It's a pendulum that bears the sigil of the demon Marchosias. Useful for checking on things, and verifying facts sometimes." She refastened the necklace before continuing. "So to answer your question, I'm hunting down the demon that killed my family, and on the way, I'm going to take down whatever monsters and other creepy things that go bump in the night so other people don't get hurt."

[Simplicity]

She was going to kill Jefferson, plain and simple. Seriously the guy had no tact, or sense of subtlety. Flat out telling someone you hunt the legions of the undead as a career, even she thought he was crazy for saying it. He should thank whoever he prayed to that she was just out of striking distance. His only other saving grace was that the girl didn’t freak out and call the cops. In fact she accepted it and told a tale of her own. Kit was hunting a demon that killed her family. Great, now her story about the vampires was sounding more and more mundane. Necklace was cool though.

Simplicity still needed to discuss the matter of talking to normal human beings with him. Black dogs and hell hounds be damned if he ended up in a white room. Or Prison. She shook her head and decided on scheduling that for another day.

“So,” she smiled kindly at Kiturian, “It seems we’re all members of the same freaky club. We should get jackets. Hey wanna give us a lift back to the club house?” Simplicity glanced at Jefferson with a wicked smirk in her eye and yelled, “Shotgun!” before he could even think about the truck.

[adrian]

Adrian drove up to the little crew. He'd finally found them. When Jeff had told him to follow he'd been all to happy to oblige...in his own time of course. He hadn't found the lecture any more interesting than Simplicity but long years of practice had taught him to hide his boredom around authority figures. Besides, after the bar, he could acknowledge that he had a lot to learn. If he'd known more about vamps that situation may not have been as dire as it had been. He was in the killing monsters business now. Had to know how to kill monsters.

Still, he figured what they really needed was a great example. So as he parked his car and stepped out of it he left the door open and the black dog bounded out and began growling at everyone. Adrian laughed and pulled on the leash, holding the dog back. "Look what I found," he said, though he hadn't found the dog at all, he'd adopted it from a friend. "His name is Fluffy," Adrian said in a cutesy, babying voice as he knelt down and ruffled the dog's fur. The dog did not look any happier about its lot but it let him do it.

"And what have you found," he said, standing up and casting an appreciative glance over the young woman standing with his boss and his other boss/partner person. The unfriendly dog still growled at his feet and pulled at his chain. He was an ornery creature but Adrian liked him.

[Jefferson]

Jefferson nodded in response to Kit's story. He tried his hardest to show that he cared, but after years of hearing and seeing a demon rip a family apart, well, his senses toward those kinds of stories dulled a bit. Kit's story was sad, and Jefferson knew it, but it was nothing compared to Aiden's story. Still, he might as well show some compassion, if he could muster it up. Ironic how the empath can't even fake emotions.

"Shotgun!" The sound of Simplicity's voice broke Jeff's trance. Shotgun? Why did they need a shotgun? There was nothing around here for them to kill. Jefferson could only conclude that Sim had finally lost it, which was faster than Jefferson thought would happen. At least he would have mentioned that until he noticed the truck, and it dawned on him why Sim yelled out shotgun.

"Oh come on! That isn't even fair! I should get the shotgun, seeing as I'm allowing you to stay at my place for free!" Through his yelling, Jefferson hadn't noticed Adrian pull up with a dog. It wasn't until Adrian had spoken that Jefferson looked down at the dog. The name Fluffy did not fit the dog, but what did Jefferson care, Adrian seemed to like it, which meant he was taking care of it.

"We found a human. Her name is Kiturian, and she knows about demons. So I'm guessing we gained two new members to our weird little group, a dog and another girl. You know what that means right Adrian, the sausage-fest is over. Oh, I'm going to need a ride home, seeing as I forgot my car back at the hotel." Jefferson smiled at Adrian, hoping he would give him a ride.

[adrian]

Adrian looked up at Jefferson. "Well Jeffy, not that you aren't a hansom devil, but I didn't like the sausage fest all that much." Adrian smiled at the new girl. She seemed cute and he had to wonder what his chances were. "You can ride with us Jeff but I think Fluffy called shotgun." Adrian pet the dog at his side and it sat down, still looking around like it wanted to bite something. He'd known this dog for years actually and it was pretty cool with him. His buddy had been leaving town and had asked if anyone would take him off his hands. When Sim had walked out and Jeff had followed Adrian had figured to use the unexpected half day at school to run some errands, including picking up the dog. It wasn't a bad animal, just protective. He hoped that it would warm up to the others eventually.

"Hey, nice to meet you. Name's Adrian as Jeff has already let slip. If we were the secret identity types we'd be screwed but we aren't," he said with a shrug. "So what exactly are our plans young people?" he asked Sim and Kit. "As Jeff so kindly pointed out, Austin is no longer a sausage fest. I wouldn't mind a little celebrating and there are tons of places open at this hour? Drink?".

[kiturian]

It was always a nice thing to meet other people who actually knew what really existed. Not only was it good to know there were people one could actually speak to about such matters, but the bit of verification that one wasn't completely insane was also nice. Then again they could all be nuts, but hell, at least it wasn't alone.

She laughed as Sim spoke, walking around the side of the truck to open the metal box again. "Not really anywhere else to sit besides shotgun Sim," she said as she placed the crossbow back with the rest of the weaponry. As far as arsenals went it was rather small, a few knives, a machete, holy water, rock salt and in the corner a small bottle of honey. She slammed the lid shut and relocked it before looking back to Simplicity. "Unless of course you want to ride back there," she added gesturing to the back of the pick-up.

Another person arrived and Kit turned to watch him. He appeared to know the others, so likely he was trustworthy. His dog on the other hand seemed a little less trustworthy and more the sort to bite a person's hand off should they get too close.

She snickered at Jefferson's little outburst and rolled her eyes. "You could probably sit up there too if you really wanted. Be a little cramped though," she said, before shifting her attention back to Adrian.

"Hello Adrian, glad to know you," she said, glancing down to the dog at his side. "Nice dog." He gave the suggestion of going out for drinks, an idea Kit readily agreed with. She had a fake id stowed somewhere in the glovebox, so it wasn't like her age would be that big a problem. "Drinks sounds like a good plan to me. I'd have to follow you to whatever place you think is best to go though, haven't quite figured out my way around this place just yet."