Blue and White, But Something's Not Right [Kaede, Akira]

Despite how long she'd been in the City of Lights by this point, she still didn't really want to draw a whole lot of attention to herself. She was just a normal citizen, trying to get back on her feet. Ehefra was basically demanding it, and even though she was trying her best, old habits died hard. Right now, however, she just was scavenging for any kind of scrap to use for future projects.

'This sucks. Stupid clean city. Even the seedy parts don't have a lot to work with.'

Kaede kicked a rock, grumbling to herself as she sat down to start rummaging through the tossed-out innards of computers and other varying things from the electronics store inside. Not much of it was particularly useful. A pile of fried motherboards, some outdated GPUs that might work for some low-level stuff she had in mind, and a handful of various wires for either soldering, or just to throw out again if they didn't end up working.

Part of her wanted to try and learn how to do what Ehefra did with her adorable little robot companion, Beeps, but after her last outburst on the topic of Quincies...she hadn't tried to broach it again. Fingers scratched briefly at her arm, before eventually wrapping around it, and Kaede slowly started to curl up, choosing instead to wrap her arms around her knees.

She looked around, seeing the light bustle of people as they walked by, paying her no mind. Stuffing the findings in a backpack, Kaede looked around to see if there was anyone new or interesting passing by. She might not have known most, if any of the people here personally, but she recognized their faces enough to know not to try anything.

However, she did see a head of white sticking from all the rest -- that white hair was attached to a surprisingly pretty face. Maybe she could finesse some coins from him, or, even better, snatch his whole wallet. Or, maybe she could just play around until he got mad, then run away. Tucking her head behind her legs, she snickered softly to herself, before rising, dusting herself off, slinging her backpack over her shoulder, and walking over to the new face with a wide, mischievous grin.

"Soooo, is the daikon look natural, or do you just really wanna stand out from everyone else?"

She hadn't expected to get called out for her own choices in cosmetics. Kaede took a half-step away, a hand slowly reaching toward her own extraordinarily long twin braids. From the sides and front it looked fine, but, anyone looking at her hair from the back would see the fading color, spots of black fading in with the cracking dye.

"Blue's still more normal than white!"

She didn't really know much about self-expression beyond her own, but from what she had seen, most of the people around the city had pretty normal hair colors. There was a surprising amount of blondes, but beyond that, most people were pretty normal. She could have sworn she saw someone with pink hair at some point before, though.

"Besides, at least I don't look like I haven't seen the sun in a few decades."

A slightly smug, but overall playful look was present as she spoke, sticking her tongue out at the man. She was quick to slip around the chair, she hung over the end of it -- likely not moving it, given the difference in weight and strength -- looking at his notebook as the long braids idly draped near his face.

"Soooo, what's with the creepy beginnings of a human model? Looking for your next victim or somethin', Ted Bundy?"

Meanwhile, she balanced herself expertly as dexterous hands quietly felt around for a wallet. She'd done this a hundred, even a thousand times before. Unless he had some freak level sense of touch, he wouldn't suspect a thing. Hopefully. She'd come across plenty of freaks in her life, and god knows she didn't need another.

Kaede was quick to slip the wallet out, idly rummaging through it behind his back, making sure she didn't make any noise as she did. She slipped the money out, sticking it down the side of her shorts. If she had better...assets. she'd just shove them down her shirt, but what she was granted in physicality would have to do. Expertly, she slipped the wallet back into his coat as she peered in to look at the drawing more closely.

"What, do they fuel their bones with spirit juice or whatever? Is that why you're drawing a ribcage? Why do you even need it? You're talkin' about them like you're not one of them, so...you probably have your own cool thing to substitute."

She propped her head up on the end of her palm to give her neck less strain, still listening with surprising fervor as he spoke. She looked at the design, his notes, and thought about it for a bit. Innate? She hated that word. She hadn't been around the supernatural very often, but stuff like this was never "innate." So, puffing her cheeks out slightly, she turned to look at him.

"Least it'd get me out of the cold or heat. Bonus, I get somethin' in my system."

As Kaede stared at the mildly morbid drawing, idly twirling a long braid. She didn't really understand the point he was trying to make, but as she heard him questioning her safety and wellness, she froze. For most, if not all of her time on the streets, random people never just...asked that. Her eyes widened slowly as she stopped fidgeting, letting the braid fall to the side.

All of a sudden, something tugged at her heart. Why?! Why now, of all times did something like this happen!? Slowly, but surely, she shifted the stolen money around, keeping it hidden as she slipped it from her hand back into his pocket. Even in the cold, her whole body suddenly felt warm. Hot. Burning. She slipped off the chair, slowly starting to back away.

"N-No, no powers..."

She trailed off, still unsure of what to do. She didn't know how to respond to something like this. But, she quickly thought back to the idea of lunch, and, as if in response, her stomach audibly growled, causing her to wrap her arms around it defensively. If Akira turned around and gave her a good, full look, he probably would notice how...dangerously thin she was.

She couldn't think to move. All she did was stand there, arms wrapped around her stomach, frozen like a deer in headlights.

Hearing the man's neck crack made her take a step back, and the sudden, thunderous snap of the book's pages closing made her visibly flinch, taking another step backward. She didn't run, however, but oh, she was tempted to. Part of her was afraid to -- with the weird drawing, the feeling of power she could sense from him, and just the distrust she had cultivated through her time on the streets -- the fear made her both rationalize that it was the safest decision to run, while also unsure if he had the potential to bring her back and bring her along -- forcibly.

As he drew closer, easing his jacket off, Kaede retreated again, trembling from the cold. But, as he put the coat over her shoulders, she took one more step back, looking at him, confused. Normally, she'd just run, but, with how hungry she was, she knew better than to turn down a free meal. So, shyly following Akira, she pulled the jacket over herself in such a way that would hide her face as best she could.

Despite her growling stomach and the schizophrenic smells from every side and angle, she remained rather sparse and humble with her choices as she quietly picked up a plate, loading it with only brief amounts of food, trying her best to keep herself hidden away in the jacket.

"Don't need them to pity me. No one really likes helping out people like me."