IT'S QUIET UPTOWN [goldenluxury]

[Luca]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; border-width:0; width: 70%; text-align: justify; line-height: 1.5; font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;"]It feels weird getting settled in. Something tells him that he didn't make too much of an effort to get around in the past. A couple seem to know him well, more than he's comfortable with, but most only respond vaguely when hearing his name. He wonders what his motives were as he idly shuffles around his old home, ignoring the tight pain in his chest and sorting through dusty jars. He hates this place in particular for a reason that he doesn't yet know. The thought in itself is unsettling, but even more so is what he finds lying around. Possessions that would never have belonged to him, indicators that he wasn't the only one that had lived in this makeshift bakery. How could he have trusted these people enough to let them into his private life? That was one thing that he had always kept separate, a rare constant among countless lives. In the past he had only ever met people in their homes, and anyone that ever entered his didn't get the luxury of leaving. His stomach churns with nerves, and for the first time in a long while, he's suddenly overcome with a sense of unease. He finds his mind wandering to the pregnant girl, the one who he had taken a liking to upon his arrival.

She's one of the ones that seems to know him below the mask. Miss Goldenluxury Roux, current captain and daughter of the former. While she has the personality of a potential leader, Luca finds himself thinking that she's a little young. Maybe leadership runs in her blood, but he had grown up watching the effects of intensive physical and mental labour on the young and those unfit to work. He can't help but wonder how those parasites in her womb are taking it all. But that's not his issue with the girl, not at all. What has his mind lingering on her so thoroughly is the nagging question of what does she know? It bites and claws at his mind until he can't take it anymore, and he sets a jar down just hard enough to crack it. He has to get more information, the lack of knowing would drive him crazy long before the next bout of corruption set in.

He sets off towards the submarine. Later he would come to question how he instinctively knew to look there first, but in the current the motion was so natural that it went entirely unnoticed. One step after the other, hopefully bringing him closer to the answers that he'd been craving since he first woke up in that off-island forest. His mind whirls as he recites questions in his mind, trying to conjure up a way to ask them naturally. People are less likely to answer if they feel like they're being interrogated, that's something he definitely remembers from his past years as a less than respectable weasel. He can't remember how intuitive this Goldie is, or how many times he's tried to pull information from her in the past, but hopefully he'll get something out of this. It's only when he reaches the submarine that he stops and realises that he isn't quite sure where to go now. He lingers, shifting his weight every now and then, waiting for some sort of hint from above.

[bubblegum]

[Luca]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; border-width:0; width: 70%; text-align: justify; line-height: 1.5; font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;"]Rather than the hint he was hoping for, it seems the universe had decided to hit him right over the head with Goldie's location. Judging by the all too sudden voice behind him, she's right at his rear. The sound of her call is met with a flurry of activity, paws spinning him in a circle so swift that it causes his world to spin. It's obvious that he hasn't yet adjusted to life in the Typhoon, if not by his defensive crouch then by the almost feral snarl on his face. Pink blood dribbles from in between his teeth, lungs agitated by the sudden rise of his heartbeat. He stays like that for a second, a low growl bubbling from his pink-stained maw, until reality sets in and he realizes that there's no threat. Only Goldie with her tired eyes and growing stomach. He blinks once, twice, and then the tension slowly begins to leak out of his limbs. The swell of bunched up muscle subsides, and is then hidden completely behind curls of silky fur. He looks embarrassed now, hiding bloody lips behind a raised paw.

"Um," he says, and then pauses to lick the blood away. His paw drops back to its position in the sand. "Yeah, actually. I wanted to talk about stuff." His tone was casual despite the subtle yet displeased crinkle of his nose. He had never been the best at hiding his emotions, despite how sneaky he liked to pretend to be. Jaws open to speak again, but then snap closed. A breath. Repeat. He stares at the ground for a bit before looking back up at the bengal. What was it she said he used to call her? Dee? His gaze lingers on hers for an uncomfortable amount of time before he manages to break himself out of his trance, pulling the pair out of the uncomfortable silence with a cough. "Um, talk about... the Typhoon, or, no- I meant, to talk about me. In the Typhoon. Before now." Words poured from his failing tongue, and it looks like he's going to blabber on before he winces and stops himself, taking a deep inhale to reset his body. He breathes out, and the look he gives Goldenluxury as he does so is one of defeat. "I want to know what I was like, what happened," he murmurs in a steadier voice, throwing away all his plans of silver tongued hijinks. Clearly his brain isn't his side at this particular time. A part of him wondered if it ever would be.

[bubblegum]