A Normal Evening in the Park [Closed]

Adelyn thought that changing the world would have a clearer starting point. Maybe that was a little naive of her, in hindsight. She has to work on that. The forest taught her cleverness and survival, but it didn’t teach her politics.

There aren’t good forests in the city. Even in the protected copses, the city is waiting right outside. Inescapable. Loud. Smelly. Still, this is where everyone is and where she can make the most impact. So, the city it is.

Err, just not right now. Right now, the park. Which is technically in the city, so maybe it still counts. She’s settled on a bench, arguably reading the newspaper held out in front of her but really just people-watching from behind dark tinted sunglasses. It does not occur to her that she is imitating every bad spy in every movie ever, and that the looks thrown her way by passerby settle more on indulgent or suspicious than the innocuous air she was hoping for.

It’s later in the evening, just nearing dusk. It’s a little hard to read the newspaper with her sunglasses on. She does not remove them, but tilts her head at an angle to watch a woman idling beneath a nearby streetlight that has just clicked on for the night.

There’s something odd about that woman, something that keeps drawing her attention away from the people walking past her - there are less of them, now; are they afraid of the dark? Are there things to be scared of here, in the trees in the dark, like there were back home? She thought there weren’t any big beasts in the city.

For a moment rustling draws her gaze away, instinct taking over as she notices something scurrying through the bushes. Adelyn goes very still, almost holding her breath. Her claws prickle at the fingers of her glove, but she jolts out of it as the squirrel scampers up a tree and away.

There are so many things to notice in the city. Her eyes drift to the side, again, back to the woman. She’s woman-shaped, but… off, somehow. Not quite right around the edges, like disturbed leaves hiding a pit in the ground.

Adelyn folds her newspaper down into her lap as she makes up her mind. She leaves it on the bench as she stands, a few leaves falling from her lap to the ground.

Birds are best approached quickly, with a leap right as they take flight. Mice require the lightest steps. When fishing, a reflection on the water will scare the fish away. What is the best approach for a woman who seems entranced with a streetlight?

Hopefully a normal one. Adelyn walks right up to her, hands clasped together in front of her and a smile on her face. “Hi there.”

She tilts her head up to blink at the streetlight, then looks back at the strange woman. Even now that she’s closer to her, she still doesn’t seem quite right, and Adelyn leans perhaps a bit too close in her examinations before remembering her manners. “Sorry, why do you look weird?”

Well. Some of her manners.