SoulCoil

((no need to ask to reply for this one, feel free to jump in!))

On nights like these, Severo would wander out around the city. Not for hunting, but only just to enjoy himself, glad to be getting some time away from Damian to do things he otherwise couldn't do due to his partner's demading and restraining nature. Sometimes, he would just perch atop of a car and just ride around, enjoying the breeze that went by. Other times, he would fly around and take in the peace and quiet in the night sky. Though on this particular night, he went around on foot, crawling around on all fours in dark places like alleyways, backstreets, and sometimes, even inside some randomly picked buildings. He liked going around in the vents or crawling along the ceiling, observing the people inside as they went about their lives, completely oblivious to the big bat monster that eyed them curiously.

Currently, he went around the alleys in the city, crawling along the walls, his sharp claws helping as he maneuvered around. Severo was interested in what sort of people would come by; whether they be in the competition, or just passing by. He wasn't all that worried about competitors, though. The bat-like Revenant was rather confident in his speed, if a fight ever would arise--which was highly likely.

On a side note, Severo's personal opinion about this whole thing; he couldn't really care less. Getting picked for this thing wasn't on his agenda. In fact, it messed up his whole sleeping schedule. As he climbed up the walls of a building, he thought about what sort of wishes these people were after. Severo knew his partner was going to wish for some sort of huge gang to go down in flames, which frankly was a huge insult to Severo himself.

....Friggin' screws. He thought as he climbed to the rooftop, turning himself to peer down at the alleyway below. Absentmindedly tapping his claws along the rooftop's railing, he perked his ears, tuning in to see what sort of nearby sounds he would pick up.

Enri leaned, motionless, against the wall of the roof access, watching the few stars strong enough to be seen over the city. At least when clouds or haze didn't blot them out. It was the one pretty thing about this particular little hotel.

What a week it had been. An unexpected alliance, evidence of more and more active Revenant, and talk of some very violent humans stirring the pot in the seedier parts of town.

He nearly sighed, but prickling cold and sudden tapping stopped him. He held his breath, heart beating wildly. A Revenant was near.
Worse, Amanita was nowhere to be found. Off somewhere doing recon with her stealthing capacity, no doubt.

But that didn't help him here, with one of those things so close.

Play it cool, Enri, play it cool. Get back inside, act like you don't notice... Maybe you'll get lucky and it'll leave you alone.

Thankfully, Enri had got good at playing down his fear from an early age. Hide it with a smile, a snarl, a yawn - anything that could draw attention away from it. In this case, he stretched and took a deep breath; force his heartrate back down some and seem like he'd just dozed off a second. When he rounded the corner, he continued his stretching and lazily scanned the rooftop with a 'sleepy' grunt. And seeming not to notice anything of interest, he leaned into the door handle to push it open.

With any luck, that bat-eared beast would ignore him and Enri could get away unscathed.

For a little while, it had seemed as though nothing exactly came along. Unfortunate. Severo was hoping for something to do while he was out. He found himself lazily looking down at the streets off to the side of the building he was lounging around at. Then, finally, he scratched the side of his snout, grumbling something unintelligible, and he moved to raise his arms and fly somewhere else.

But his ears pricked and he froze, as he had picked up on a noise nearby. It was slight, but it almost sounded like some sort of yawn, almost as if....someone.....was around. His train of thought had slowed significantly. That always happened when Severo got excited about anything at all. He glanced back, then tried hobbling towards the source of the noise on his two hind legs, only to nearly trip in the process. After getting down on his claws, he opted to just use all fours instead, going over to the source.

Seeing the man leaning on the door of the roof access, he paused in front of the door and immediately wondered if he was able to see him. There was a good chance he couldn't, but Severo was in desperate need of socializing with someone who wouldn't try to kill him. With that in mind, he plopped down on his rear end with his bat winged arms in front of him, ears perked up as he gave his signature, sharp toothed smirk. When sitting, he was about 3 feet in height rather than his usual 4 when only on his hind legs, so either way, he had to pick up his head to look at the guy.

"Ey buddy! If you can hear me, it's fine, I'm not tryin' to rub ya out or nothin'. Just wanna make a conversation or somethin', ya know?"

As the door gave under his weight, Enri's eyes gave him away. For the briefest moment, he glanced down at the Revenant and its sharp teeth. Then he picked up the pace and slipped inside.

The door closed and everything before he had a chance to register its words. Enri knew better, and yet...

"Yeah? You just wanna talk. For reals?" In response to the bat's manner of talking, and probably a good bit of fear, Enri slipped out of his 'usual' way of talking. Less smooth, harsher, clipped and short.

"Conversate, huh? 'bout what?"

Damn curiosity. He'd got too comfortable these last few days, laying low. And now, he'd probably pay for it... Made him wish he had his switchblade.

Severo didn't respond for a moment, and he only changed his expression, which was some sort of a half frown. He tilted his head to the side. "Are you tryin' ta make a fool outta me, wiseguy?" For a few moments, he didn't say anything else. Eventually, he let out a laugh, which sounded much more human than anything.

"Well, I'm gonna be honest with ya, I didn't think any of this through. I was half expectin' for ya to not be in this whole thing. I was only out on the town, 'cause boss was bein' a real pain in the ass lately. Good to see that you ain't tryin' to ice me right away, yanno?"

Fuck. He could've got away, no fuss.

Shaking slightly, he pressed his back against the door. Which let him feel slightly better, pretending he was keeping the thing out there. And also kept the shaking to a minimum. Time to engage in small talk.

"Yeah. Yeah. 's cool when you don' have to fight at all hours... You want him taken care of? Or you don't care?"

Shit. What was he doing? Offering to off some unknown guy for being a pain? That wasn't small talk.
Couldn't take it back, though. Could only wait for the Revenant's response.

Completely ignoring what he had said at the moment, Severo shifted slightly. "....I was gonna go along with this, but....what the hell are you doin'? I mean, I'd pinch you if you continued to talk ta me like that any longer. And you gotta be kiddin'. You tryin' ta ice boss? Funny, real funny."

He paused to scratch the side of his face. "I can see ya shakin'. Ya don't have ta be scared or nothin'. I don't ice anybody like you, capiche? S'my night off anyway."

What the hell was he doing? Talking to a strange Revenant, in the middle of the night, without a weapon or knowing when backup might arrive if things went south? Knowing that this Revenant could tell he was shaking only made it worse.

Enri took a deep breath and held it a moment before letting it back out. There was another moment of silence while he looked at the peeling paint in this shitty little stairwell.

"So... you won't kill me if I come back out there? T' talk, I mean."

For a moment, Severo had forgotten that he couldn't be seen, so he nodded in response. "You got my word, buddy. No claws on ya. Affatto. Non." He replied.

Falling silent, he waited, scanning the area around him a bit. He was expecting this guy to not come out, to be honest. Severo's approach was rather direct and with this competition, it put everyone on edge.

At this point, fetching his briefcase would not only be an insult, it'd take entirely too much time. Enri braced himself, then pulled the door open and stepped outside.

"Italian, 'uh? Ay, what am I doing up here?" The last half was a muttered sigh and Enri shook his head. "So... uh.... fuck. Guess you're not the only one who didn't think this through."

Then Enri laughed. He couldn't feel his hands with how scared he was, and here he was up on this roof, vulnerable as hell and trying to chat up a Revenant. And doing terribly.

"Sorry. Let's back up, yeah? Do this over like civilized people... It's nice meeting you, I'm Enri." He held out a hand to shake. "What should I call you, Mr....?"

The comment earned a small snort of amusement from the bat. "No worries here, pal." Reaching up, he grapsed Enri's hand with a claw and shook it loosely. After a moment, he released it, scratching the side of his face.

"No need to be fancy or nothin'. It's Severo. Nice ta meet ya. Sorry 'bout scarin' ya silly. With everyone tryin' to ice ya and lyin' to ya, it gets hard ta see the truth." He shrugged.

It was Enri's turn to snort. "That's a beautiful understatement."

He regarded Severo a moment, taking in the bat-Revenant's build and coloration... Or as much as the roof access's light revealed. And Enri came to the conclusion that he must have finally lost his damn mind. Here he was, face-to-face with something that could easily kill him - current friendliness aside - and instead Enri's mind said 'I think I'd look good in a suit with those colors.'

"Speaking of the truth, you in this game to win or for fun or...?"

"I'll give ya the short version," Severo began, shifting slightly. "I wanted to relive the glory days, 'stead of sittin' around Purgatory, waitin' for somethin' to happen. It was a mistake, I tell ya, a real big mistake."

His ears drooped a bit. "Boss ain't lettin' me get off easy though." He looked up once more. "What 'bout you? From what I'm gettin', you definitely don't like this game we're playin'."

"Nah, not liking it one bit. Didn't ask to play, got dealt in anyway, and now I can't fold. Can't help feeling like someone's laughing about the whole thing, too."

Enri shrugged, bitterly nonchalant.

"But what can you do? I like living, so I'll do my best to stick around."

"Oh ya, someone's laughing alright, they're laughing real hard...." He picked up on some of his bitterness, and sighed, looking off to the side. "You seem like a nice guy. Too bad that's gonna get you clipped a lot more easier than you think, yanno, with guys like my boss out there."

Enri blinked, then gave an ugly snort. "I guess I'm doing well for myself, then....... 'nice guy'... That's good to hear."

He smiled, but it soon faded. Slowly, he scanned the area again and surrounding rooftops for good measure. Nothing out of place that he could see, but that didn't mean much at this time of night.

"What kind of man is he? Your boss. Ruthless? Driven? Cold? Or is he a wild and firey sort? Mob or Fed?"

"Boss is.... Most of the things ya listed, except fiery. And he ain't any fed no more, and he for sure ain't any mob. He's a guy who likes ta eat alone, ya feel me?" Severo paused, seemingly listening to the sounds of the streets below. "But, speakin' of boss...." Then he leaned in a bit as if he were afraid that someone was going to overhear.

"I wanna let ya in on somethin' though. Boss is a strunzo. I don't like workin' with him. All I want is out. So hows 'bout we do a deal, eh?"

"I feel ya," Enri grimaced. Free agents were always... unpleasant.

As the Revenant leaned in, Enri's heart fluttered a moment. Its words, though, were intriguing and he raised a brow. "A deal, huh? Seems risky..."

Very risky, but maybe worth the payout.
Besides... If Amanita were going to go around behind his back, making deals, he might as well make a few of his own.

A favor here, a gift there, and who knew... maybe he'd get out of this whole mess alive and relatively intact.

He smiled. "I... might be game. What're you thinking?"

He returned the smile with his own sharp toothed smirk. "Boss is real good at layin' low and avoiding people in the contest. It's how he hasn't been clipped yet. He's also real good at clippin' other people, yanno? S' a bit scary." Severo began, relaxing and leaning back a bit.

"So here's the deal, pal. I help you with anythin' ya need for the time bein', and you'll help me ice boss. Sound good to ya?"

Enri rubbed his chin, nodding at each of the Revenant's points. He frowned, realizing that the stubble was getting a little out of hand - his carefully sculpted look was in jeopardy. But... maybe that was for the best right now.

"Hm. Been a while since I tangled with a pro... You can guarantee I get all the info I need to get at this guy? If so, then yeah."

Yeah... Stubble would be good. Fit his other work clothes better.
With luck, he'd be able to pull off this hit and celebrate with a relaxing time at a salon. And before his big meeting next month, if all went well.
Yeah... That sounded real good.

"You got a deal, Severo." Enri extended a hand to shake and, for the briefest moment, his eyes turned sharp and cold.