WHO: ashby & simon WHAT: a small, distressed child and two equally distressed, large adults WHEN: afternoon of christmas eve if this works for you mj? WHERE: a park WARNINGS: n/a STATUS:ongoing
Sometimes Ashby liked to people watch. It was just nice being able to sit in public without feeling like the police were going to catch him any moment or that everyone saw him as a freak. Well, the latter was still probably true, but he cared a lot less about it. He sat on a bench and sipped at some hot chocolate, enjoying the mild weather as he watched a snowball fight rage on. Eventually it was broken up as parents began taking their children away, much to the distress of some, leaving one child to continue playing by herself.
Ashby looked around, but there was no one else close by. That was concerning. Maybe her parents just went to the bathroom? Oh wait, there was a lady reading a book on another bench. She was probably the girl's guardian, and Ashby sat back and checked his phone.
The lady bailed not even five minutes later when someone arrived and they left together. Oh lord, there was an abandoned child. How was he supposed to break that news? Was there a number he could call? Maybe there was a service to pick these children up, like animal control or something. First things first though, he trudged through the snow and walked over to the girl.
"Hey there," he greeted and kneeled down to meet her at eye-level, "I'm Ashby, what are you making? A snowman? It's looking pretty good so far."
"A snowwoman," she corrected, "and I'm Kayla."
"My bad, Kayla. So where are your parents? It's almost lunchtime, maybe you have to go soon?"
"Oh, they're right over the—" Her pointed finger hung in the air, and then she looked around, realizing that her parents were nowhere in sight. She turned back to Ashby, eyes wide and lower lip wobbling.
"Oh no." Ashby lifted his hands. "There, there," he tried, but it was too late. She began wailing, and wailing, and wailing. He looked around and saw some people staring, and in his panic he swooped Kayla up in his arms. "Hey, shhhh shhhhhh. Check this out!"
She sniffed and grabbed his diamond fingers. "Are you a superhuman?"
"Yeah! I'm a superhero too, and I'm going to help you find your mommy and daddy." He was still trying to discretely look around though, and his eyes landed on a figure with horns. Stars & Stripes member or a weird cosplayer? Probably the former, and he went over to him with Kayla at his hip. "Hey, hey! You're Liberty Flame or some shit, right? I've got a, uh." He mouthed 'lost child' behind Kayla's head. "Help."