pullmeoutalive | Ramey

[ He's taken aback by her sincerity, and for once the surprise and mild confusion that crosses his face is genuine. If she's magically-inclined, then perhaps he's not as in deep as he thought he was. Still, he'd rather not take the chance. ]

And what about women loitering on rooftops?

[ Attempt to change the subject is go! ] I feel like there's a double standard at work here.

[She bristles a little at his straightforward manner. She isn't exactly used to being talked to that way, and it would almost be refreshing if not for the fact that she wishes to know exactly what this man's deal is.

It's off-putting enough that the subject change actually does derail her for a rare moment.]

I am training. Nothing more.

[It was mostly true. Her escapes from aristocracy, taking the form of skittering across rooftops at night, was training enough. But this is just as much stress relief for her as it is practice.]

[ Flatly, ] You're training. By jumping across rooftops.

You're not exactly helping your case here.

[w o w she doesn't have to explain herself to you, okay. The quickest, stealthiest way to move across any city is via its rooftops, after all. But instead of saying this much, she turns the question around on him.]

I don't need to justify what I'm doing here. I'm more interested in why you're on the roof.

[ His eyebrows go up, and something insufferably smug makes its way into his expression ]

Well, that's way too bad. I'm a firm believer in fair trade, and if you're not going to justify yourself to me, why should I justify myself to you?

[She can't decide if she should be irritated or impressed by this man's doggedness.]

I told you the truth. I'm training. It's not my fault if you don't believe me.

[She presses her lips into a thin frown.]

And you should also consider justifying yourself or I'll call the authorities on you for trespassing.

[ This lady has guts, he'll give her that, but man, he really wishes she'd drop it. He spreads his hands. ]

Unless this is your house, you're trespassing too.

[She arches a brow at him.]

You're not from around here, are you?

What does that have to do with anything?

[ There's a part of him that has a sinking sensation that whatever the answer is isn't going to bode well for him ]

[She actually scoffs at him. There's a twinge of amusement that threatens to leak out of her attempts at remaining composed and authoritative.

Definitely a foreigner. She makes a point of sounding stern; for all she knows this man could be a prospective robber, or worse.]

It means that you're going to remove yourself from the rooftop at once, or I'll drag you down and question you myself.

[Not exactly an answer to his question, but it gets her point across.]

[ Ah, well. He assumes by her not so subtle hint that he's come to the only city to have rooftop-hopping authorities. He backs away a step, then another, while he flips the mental switch to activate the Enhancement spells inked across his shoulders. Strength floods his limbs, and he offers her a curt bow. ]

As the lady wishes.

[ And then he takes one more step, over the edge, and falls off the roof. ]

[Her instincts had already told her that his man was unlikely to comply. He had been stubbornly avoiding her questions, so she had hoped that showing a bit more authority would make him more malleable to her suggestions.

Dashing forward to the lip of the roof, letting out a sharp hiss of a curse under her breath, it appears it didn't quite work out that way.

She leans over to look down below; frustration fights with concern, one unable to be more prevalent than the other. Suspicious individual or not, certainly he wouldn't have fallen to his death without so much a second thought? Her eyes flit around for any signs of him.]

[ He hasn't gone far, considering she got to the edge of the roof only seconds after he dropped off it. He lands on the street below in a crouch, no worse for the wear thanks to the magic boosting his strength and durability. It's stupid and cocky and he knows it, but he can't deny himself a little fun now that his job has been so thoroughly botched, so he glances up and winks before dashing down the street. ]

[She watches him land as if it were nothing, and that settles it for certain: this was no ordinary individual. A normal man would have shattered the bones in his legs, not look up at her so smugly and dash down the street.

She has no frame of reference concerning how he's managed this, short of being marked by the Outsider himself. If this was the case, there was no situation in which Emily would allow this stranger to get away. And if it wasn't? Well, that cocky look would certainly encourage her to follow out of indignation alone.]

Stop! [She yells, watching him run. She stands, casting her gaze along the rooftops before bounding into a run. She's going to follow him one way or another, even if it has to be from above. She moves in the same direction has him, sprinting and leaping, trying to not lose line of sight.]

[ He could outrun her easily with his Enhancements active, but he would pay dearly for it later. It's much smarter to drop them now and save them for later if he needs, so he does just that. That slows his pace to that of a mere human- eve wit his slight head start, it's going to be difficult to lose her.

Alec moves erratically, skirting down alleys and side streets at random in the hopes of shaking her. Her position on the rooftops give her an advantage in both view and relatively unobstructed running space, and he's yet to find a street to wide for her to jump. Damn this place.

In the end, his unfamiliarity with the city is his undoing, when one of those alleys lead to a dead end. ]

Ah... fuck me.

[Unlike Alec, Emily knows these streets all too well. The twists and turns of the alleys are nigh memorized, and even if she loses sight for a precious second, she can safely assume where she can catch sight of him again, following her mental map.

She knows, then, when he's made a wrong turn before he does. When he chooses the path of a dead end, she takes the opportunity to descend to the street, borrowing balconies and verandas to aid in her descent.

So when Alec comes to a halt, he may hear the sound of her boots hitting the pavement behind him. She isn't winded, but her breathing is harder.]

I'll ask you this once more -- who are you? And why did you run?

[ Alec turns to face her, calm as you please, hands in his pockets. ]

I ran because you threatened to arrest me.

[ He does not deign to answer her first question. ]

[She moves closer, unwavering in the face of his flippancy.]

I threatened to arrest you because you kept avoiding my questions. Which you continue to do even now.

If you were reasonable, maybe I wouldn't have to threaten you at all.

[ This was getting him nowhere, aside from dangerously close to actually being arrested, so he switches gears. ]

You remember I saved your bacon back there, right? How about you cut me some slack for helping you out?

[She stops where she's at, though it doesn't look like his words are truly giving her pause.]

Answer my questions and I might consider it.

[She considers that fair. Because despite everything, what he says is true; but if she allows even the smallest leniency, she has to make sure it's not something she'd regret.]

And if I tell you I was trying to break into that building, are you gonna arrest me?

[She frowns.] That wholly depends on what you were planning to do once you broke in.

[ He quirks a brow ] So it's not the breaking and entering that's the arrest-able offense, it's the... whatever I do after that? You people have some interesting laws.

Then let me be clear: breaking and entering is a crime in this city. But I'm willing to show a certain amount of lenience since you did... help me on the roof previously.

But that lenience only goes so far. [She's not going to let some grand terrible scheme go unnoticed, after all. Not that she trusts this man to tell her the truth, but she might be kind enough to let him off with a warning for now.

That also depends on how much he's willing to indulge her curiosity, selfishly enough as it is.]

Then I guess we’re at kind of an impasse. I was hired to break into that building, but I have this sort of client confidentiality… thing. My lips are sealed.

[ He shrugs, as if to say “sorry, not sorry”. ]

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i realized i have no idea what the setting is, vague city rooftops go?

haha sure. modern day or old timey times?

steampunkish industrialized city with a hint of old timey? idek. i'm flexible

that sounds good to me. steampunk wizards are my jam

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