The Pay Off

[Kida]

The Steampunk town was not exactly what Kida was into, but damn did she love it at that moment. KYYYAAAAA!!! Rebel Forces #179!! Kida scooped the comic into her arms along with the few dozen others she had. This comic book store was going to adore her as their new patron. Just like the book the music stores that were next door.

"This is when working your ass off pays off..." she sighed euphorically. This was a major fun binge that she wasn't going to be done with any time soon. "AH! The new reality of Batman!" Kida pounced. She was restraining herself (very barely) from cuddling the merchandise in her grasp.

Despite all the fun she was having, she was getting a lot of curious stares from the few guys that were in the comic book shop. Kida glanced at them and went back to her shopping. What? Never seen a chick like comics this much before? I doubt that. She sighed. "Oh my precious comic books..."

Was there anything else in the world better?

{Open}

[Seance]

Sean eyed the comic book store with his eyes wide. After 8 years of living, he never knew the existence of anything this...bright. The Batman poster pasted on the store's window attracted his attention, just like the music store beside. He's not used into wandering these parts of the world, but he likes it thus far.

His curiosity peaked when the invisible bird on his left shoulder crooned melodically, as if signing him something. "What is it, Celeste?" He whispered out, and the owl that he and only he can see, just stretched her neck and crooned again. The child watched the owl strangely, and after a moment, decided to enter the strange store.

It feels so alien, entering a place he barely knows about, but Celeste's with him, so he believes that he's going to be fine. Plus, nobody can see the bird, anyway. Everyone looks so tall from his height, and the poor boy just rushed his way to the corner of the store in order not to get trampled by anybody.

A lady is standing right near him though.

"Hey," he called out, hoping she could hear him from his height. "Can you tell me...what's the name of this place?" Though he's certainly a cute child, Sean spoke with such a mature air, its hard to fit him. "I need information."

[Kida]

When Kida heard the voice, she expected to turn and see a man near her. Or at least to see anything at all. Kida blinked, then seeing something out of the corner of her eye she looked down. A kid? Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. "Uhh...I think the store's called 'Ka-Zaam!'. Ya know....old Batman joke." She shifted all of her plunder in her arms and turned towards him. "Are you lost, Kid?" It was the first thing Kida thought after the mention of needing information and not knowing where he is.

For being a short kid, he sure didn't act like it. Kida thought he looked kind of solemn, not eager or bored or even agitated like a kid should be. "If you want, I can take you to the nearest Aid Station. If you've got someone looking for you, that's the place to go."

[Seance]

Sean only stared at her with his eyebrows wrinkling in confusion, certainly having no idea of any Batman jokes. He was grown without any knowledge of the existence of comics...or any books whatsoever. That's why he can't read. That's also why he didn't pick up any comic while he's here.

The child stepped back slightly as this lady turned to him. Those high stacks of books in her arms almost made him jealous that he's unable to read. "I'm not lost." He snapped, though in control of his tone as to not sounded too pissed off. That's the exact question everyone has been asking him from his months of travel...it's starting to get annoying.

"Nobody's looking for me, don't bother. I'm the one actually looking for someone." He went straight to the point, his eyes sharp and focused as he said so. He's going to find this man, and there's nothing that can stop him. "I'm searching for a spectacled man. His name is Anthony Reinhardt."

That was his line. He's been saying it with the same words and tone for months, and that verse trail him to here. ...Hopefully, nothing stops him now, even if there's a possibility a victim of that said man will unleash their payback to the son.

[Kida]

Twitch...twitch, twitch.

"Reinhardt...?" Kida ground out through her clenched jaw. Calm, calm...breathe. It was bad enough the thought of the man was enough to make her ready to kill someone, if she ever ended up running into him one day Kida would slaughter him. One way or another. Kida forced her hands to relax when she realized that they were gripping her items dangerously. "Look, kid....I don't know who you are or why in God's name you're looking for him....But trust me--And I mean it, trust me....You do NOT want to go anywhere near that man."

This kid, whoever he was, probably didn't know anything about Reinhardt, considering he was actually willing to look for the guy.

[Seance]

Sean patiently waited for the lady's response, but according to how her face is slowly lacking color at the mentioning of the name, Sean almost jumped in excitement at the new-found clue he just detected. "You know him...don't you?"

Celeste made a sharp chirrup, and the little boy's attention was then drawn to the bird, eyes widening at the sudden reaction. Though, from others' eyes, it looked like the kid is watching something imaginary on his shoulder. Sean nodded, creased his eyebrows, and muttered things to his side...communicating with the unseen. Good thing he's still an eight-year-old, or people would dub him crazy.

Though, Kida brought his attention back towards her as she spoke of how seemingly dangerous this person he's aiming to find is. Seance's semi-excited expression drops as she ended her words, and half-closing his eyes, the child spoke in an intelligible manner, "Don't call me 'kid'. My name is Seance Reinhardt."

He figured, that revealing his name would suffice enough information and reason of his pursuit.

[Kida]

"......................Rein......hardt...........?"

Kida's first response, besides the twitch and the second round of gritted teeth, was to get pissed at the kid. But almost as fast as labeled the kid, Seance, with everything negative about his--twitch--father, Kida realized a very important thing. Anthony Reinhardt was the kid's father.

This poor....poor.....poor kid. 'Reinhardt' and 'father' shouldn't even be used in the same sentence, let along to refer to this kid. Hell he didn't even look old enough to be on his own and yet here he was, speaking to her with the authority of an adult. So far, Kida saw no indication that he had been poisoned by his--twitch--father.

Kida almost, ALMOST asked herself 'who would breed with him?!' but then, she figured that some women had to find that kind of ....thing.... charming. He was polite (sort of), charming, a sweet talker and most definitely a lover of women. Poor naive women.

"....You're kidding right?" She couldn't help it, it just came out of her mouth. "I mean... That he..." ...Would have a kid. Kida didn't know what she could say to the kid so as to not insult him somehow. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help her feelings toward the kid's dad.

[Seance]

Seance watched the lady's reaction with mild surprise, so is Celeste perching on his shoulder, actually. He's more worried that the stack of comic books on her arm would fidgeted off-course from her balance point and the child would be trapped in the avalanche of comic series. "Maybe you should put that...down first," he gingerly pointed the items weighting down Kida's arms.

The child is totally unaware of what kind of impact he just emitted by only revealing his name, obviously not having even the littlest idea of what his father is up to through the time when Sean's busy being abused by his mother. "Are you...well?" Though he has a vague view of how his father is really like, he can pretty much detect that this woman didn't like this man at all. She's on the same term with his mother, too.

"Is my face similar to that man?" he suddenly asks out of the blue, his face lacking all the lightheartedness and naivete a normal child should have. "My mother hates me for it. I'm curious of the reason."

[Kida]

"Yeah, I'm....fine." she managed. Just adjusting to the new rotation of the Earth, thanks. "Uh...Yeah, I guess. Just your face is younger and more..." Kida searched around for the word for several moments. "More serious....? That damn moron always has the stupidest and perviest grin plastered on his face." It didn't occur to Kida that she still spoke of Reinhardt in the present tense even though she hadn't seen him for so long. Perhaps it was because the mild trauma and anger were still fresh. Then she realized what she had just said aloud about Reinhardt senior.

"Uh... I mean." Damn, there was no way to recover from that. Obviously the kid didn't know his dad or he wouldn't be asking such things. And wasn't it just like Kida to spit something like that out to him about his dad? Damn, I'm dumb. And his mother seems to hate him for it. Well that was one severe woman, Kida thought. And if she hated a kid for something that was her own goddamn fault she should just get over it.

Easy said than done, of course. Everything was when Reinhardt was involved.

[Seance]

Seance shut his mouth tight, refusing to speak anymore to this woman unless he found the right words to say as a reply. His eyes cornered its way to his left shoulder, almost as if he's staring at something invisible there, and caught himself in a deep thought. Celeste hooted slightly as she watches the young summoner trying to consider something thoughtfully.

"I...I apologize for his place...whatever he did." He stated after a moment's pause, maturely too, exactly the opposite of how Anthony would normally say...if the idiot ever apologize, that is. Of course, no matter how bright the child is, there's just some things that he simply cannot understand, due to his young age. This woman is obviously angry at this Reinhardt person, and Sean doesn't like to push his luck, but he has to try.

"I'm sorry if I bring up any bad memories...but do you mind telling me when and where was the last time you met him?"
By the way he speaks, the similarity between him and his father seems to be so distant.

[Kida]

"That's sweet and all, but even if he apologized to me himself I wouldn't forgive him." No, he'd kissed her a few times too many. "Don't worry about it. Sure it pisses me off, but I got the upper hand him a couple of times too." Almost drowning him with a puddle had been the highlight of her free time a while ago.

Kida glanced down at the kid--Seance--she reminded herself. The look in his eyes gave her pause. With in seconds she felt so incredibly guilty and not just for the comment, or her irritation, but that she could have thought this kid was anything like Reinhardt at all. She sighed heavily and squatted down so they were closer to eye level. "You're really nothing like him at all, are you...? In the short time we've talked you've already been worlds more polite than he ever was."

"To be perfectly honest, I don't remember the time I saw him last. But I can tell you that it wasn't here or in Gradia. I want to say that it was only a semi-advanced area....So stores and all, but none of the steampunk or the crazy labs. I know that doesn't help much and I'm sorry. But hey." she said before it could make him depressed.

"If you're serious about finding him, which I still don't recommend, I do know a few people who might know where he is. Or at the very least they probably have better information about where they saw him last."

[Seance]

'So what he did is unforgivable...?'

His mind echoed. This lady is definitely in the same case as his mother, because what she just said almost exactly fit his mother's words. Sean cringed a bit, somehow annoyed that he cannot understand what could his father possibly did to make women so angry at him.

The little boy snapped himself awake from his train of thoughts when Kida got down on her knees to meet his eye level. Sean back away about a foot or two from her, not really comfortable about close distance, probably an effect from the abusement he had gone through, then stared at this lady raptly.

At her first explanation of not knowing where Anthony Reinhardt is, it definitely dragged Sean's mood down, that glint of hope in his eyes faded instantly and his frown deepens. He cornered his eyes to Celeste for a while, almost sadly, and was just about to turn his heels and walked off when Kida mentioned of someone who might know of the father's whereabouts.

'Might' is weak word to strengthen the possibility, but it's definitely better than nothing at all. "You do?!" And for once, Sean acted like a normal little child, as if he was about to be given a large piece of candy. His face brightens up, and that serious air around him lessens. Obviously, he liked to hear more.

"Celeste's asking you.." The young boy suddenly said, in a slightly dazed manner, but then quickly regained back his focus towards the woman, "..What's your name?"

[Kida]

Nodding, Kida couldn't help the smirk that came to her lips when Seance's face lit up. It seemed he could be a little normal after all. "My name's Kida. Nice to meet you, Seance. And...Who's Celeste?" Kida tilted her head to the side a little. The kid had been glancing at his shoulder every so often, but Kida didn't know what that had to do with a person named Celeste.

Though she wasn't about to try and guess, she probably wouldn't be too surprised by the answer. "I dunno where my friend might be at the moment, but if you don't mind tagging along with me while I pay for this stuff and drop it off we can try and find him." All she really had to do was pick up Bec and tell him he could go see Orlith. If they could keep up with the little fire lizard he would lead them right to Tyr.

What made a better GPS than a dragon in love?

[Seance]

"Kida... Her name is Kida, Celeste." And for the first time that day, Sean brings up a slight smile on his cute, albeit serious, little face...though directing that rare smile towards his left shoulder. Kida's question of Celeste made Sean turned to her with a full-round of eye-blinking. One has to admit, confused emo little boys are a joy to look at.

"Can't you see her?" The child pointed to a blank space on his left shoulder. There was a moment's pause from him, before he shook his head as if he forgot of something important. "Oh, right, I'm sorry, of course you can't. Celeste is my imaginary friend. She's a very helpful white owl." With the good news that is still fresh in his mind, that happy air is still lingering around his features. The result; a seemingly imaginative adorable little boy explaining the unknown world of a child's independence and creativity. Joyfully.

"I'd like that, though I apologize first-hand if I slow you down." Sean nodded, again with his mature air. It's confusing how he can switch from being adorably childish, to frighteningly mature in the blink of an eye. How he constructed those set of words is beyond of Sean's understanding, he didn't use the word 'apologize' nor 'first-hand' very often. Big words have a tendency to pop out at the back of his genetically-mutilated 8-year-old mind frequently. Anthony's genes it seems...the idiot could come out with the most random names to his victims.

"A-and please call me Sean. Celeste said Seance is hard to pronounce on long-term."

[Kida]

Kida blinked. An imaginary friend, huh? It was ridiculously adorable of this straight-faced, uber serious kid to have an imaginary friend. It almost made Kida want to cuddle him. "Oh. Okay. Well it's nice to meet the both of you--Sean and Celeste." Kida struggled to straighten without dropping any of her items, but somehow, by God, she managed.

You never dropped precious'! "Hey, Sean, if you see something you want, throw it on top." She threw him a smile. "I'm always willing to donate comics to those in need." she joked and winked at him. Hauling the stack/pile over to the register, Kida heaped it all onto the counter. "Comic, candy, manga, guide, illustration book, whatever. Throw it on while we've time." After all, she had enough to carry that it wouldn't matter.

But Kida still got a giggle from the look on the cashier's face at the prospect of ringing everything up.