hunterlucio

[hunterlucio]

montymcallister‌.

This was truly disgusting, on principle. Monty had definitely seen worse, had handled messier dealing with aircraft, and at least his car wasn’t trying to squirm out from under the spray like a certain puppy had a tendency of doing after rolling around in the mud, but still. Worms. Entirely too many to be normal, and they had squished into the grooves of his tires (and been ground into the driveway) when he’d gotten home the night before. The easiest way to get rid of them, he’d decided, (and the fastest way of dealing with them before Simon saw just how many worms had fallen victim to his tires last night) was to pull out the power hose and deal with the dead worms after they were no longer on his car.

Not very far up the driveway, with music playing from his car radio rather than earbuds, he could hear when footsteps along the sidewalk slowed as they approached the stretch that connected to the driveway. “Sorry,” he called as he paused in blasting one of his tires with water, “I was gonna sweep them all up once I’m done here.”

          Lucio had seen a lot of things. A lot of strange things in Edgewood even, but this was a new one. There were so many worms. He personally didn’t have a problem with worms, in fact he thought they were actually pretty cool creatures. However, the amount of worms was what was disgusting. It was everything he could do to not to step on them as he walked around town. They were everywhere. When he’d gotten the call early this morning that there was a worm problem, he almost thought it was a joke until he walked outside. He’d seen weirder, stranger even in Edgewood. But this was a new one. 

          Walking around trying to find something to do, he spotted someone squirting their tires with a hose to get them off. “Do you want some help?” he asked, as if he had anything better to do. He didn’t know what time this problem had even started. He’d been asleep. “It’s honestly probably the least I can do to help.” This worm problem was going to be a mess. He just hoped it wasn’t going to get worse.

[hunterlucio]

xavier-bennett‌.

“So then that means that there’s no harm in you telling me then, is there?” Xavier asked, eyeing Lucio where he was at the bar. “Come on, you can’t leave me hanging like this.” He said, wiping down the counter with a rag but focused more on his conversation than the task at hand. Luckily it wasn’t all that busy at the moment and he could indulge in the conversation without guilt.

          “Alright, alright,” Lucio said with a laugh. “So I get called to this lady’s house because someone is apparently across the street and had just been there staring at this single mom for a whole day and at this point she’s terrified. Since I was the only person free, I got sent. I get there, ready to arrest some creeper, but instead all I find is a cardboard cutout of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Turns out, her neighbor and her were in some prank war. I guess this means the neighbor won.” 

[hunterlucio]

speed meet / lucio & bea

February 14th, 2020

Lake House Bar and Grill

Closed

          Lucio had signed up for this event after his sister complained he still hadn't made that many friends yet. So he showed up and was given two names of people to meet. Dating wasn't on the table yet; new friends were always nice though. "Oh!" he exclaimed as Bea walked up to him. He hadn't recognized the name, but the woman who walked up to him, he had met before. "I know you. Sort of. I'm Lucio."

Beatrice grinned, recognizing the man in front of her-Lucio, he introduced himself. "Hey, yeah! I made you jump in leaves. It's Beatrice. It's nice to have a name for the face." She said, pleased at the turn the night was taking.  He wasn't technically a new person, but it was still a positive interaction!

          He still didn't know that many people in town, but the ones that he did know by name, he liked—well, most of them anyway. Lucio smiled at her. "Yes, I have to admit that's probably the most normal thing that's happened to me here so far." He let out a little laugh, but knew it wasn't far off from the truth. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Jumping in leaves is a perfectly normal activity, you know." Beatrice replied, although she knew what he meant about the strange things that happen in town. "How long have you been in town, then? Because that was back in the fall." Not that she had much room to talk, still being pretty new to town herself. Although... it had been a year now, hadn't it?

          "Normal for Edgewood at least. I moved at the end of the summer, so it's been a while now." But through tales of his sister, sometimes he felt like he'd been here longer than that. "My sister moved here a couple of years ago and we've always been close, so I finished up a few things and eventually decided to settle here." He'd been all over the place though, travelling was fun. "What about you? How long have you been here?"

“Oh that’s nice, that you have a close relationship with your sister and we’re able to join her!” Being an old child, Beatrice longed for that kind of closeness with someone else, and it always made her sad when she heard about people who never spent any time with their siblings. “A little over a year now, actually. I came here because I enrolled in the university, but I wasn’t able to start until the spring semester. I guess that means I’m a sophomore now, doesn’t it? Oh wow, time flies fast.” She was surprised how quickly the time had passed, that she barely even noticed when she’s passed the year mark.

          "I guess." A first meeting shouldn't be spent complaining about his sister, no matter how much of that he liked to do. "Oh, wow! That's a long time." He'd never lived in a place for longer than a year. Usually a few months was the only time he needed to stay in a place before wrapping a case up. "So besides school, what do you do with your free time?"

"I take a lot of walks. Usually in the woods." Beatrice answered. "I do a little bit of gardening, and I spend a lot of time with my housemates." Usually that time was spent practicing her magic, but Lucio didn't need to know that. "It's not as boring as it sounds, I promise. What about you, what do you do? For work and when you're not working."

          "Oh, I bet you know tons of good places for picnics and whatnot." He grinned, thinking about how much time he'd spent in the woods. "That's fun. I guess you get along well with your housemates then? If you spend time with them." Lucio lived alone. "Honestly, that's about all I do with my time. Work takes up a lot of my spare time. I do enjoy the woods and hanging out with my sister." He couldn't exactly talk about weapons and hunting as his hobbies. "What are you studying in school?"

"I do, yeah. I don't really, uh, stick to the trails. I've always been really good at navigating in the forest." That was a bit of an understatement, but she figured that he didn't need to know that she tended to just wander around and not really pay attention to where she was going. She didn't need a lecture. "Yeah! They're not students, but they've really helped me out a lot. Charlie she... she's kind of like a sister, to me." Beatrice smiled when he mentioned that he liked to spend time in the woods. "I haven't declared a major yet, but I'm thinking something in the natural sciences."

          "Oh, that's cool! I've been trying to map out the woods a little so I don't get lost when I go out there. I've always loved camping." It was an easy enough lie he'd told over the years. Didn't work in major places. "So maybe next time I go out, I'll ask you to tag along if that's cool." He nodded. "Sometimes sisters are annoying, so a really close friend can be better." Everyone in his family was sort of intense. "That's cool. I just did a degree in criminology and then the police academy. Natural sciences seems fun."

"I mean, sure, I love walking in the woods, but I'm really not sure how helpful I would be. Being good at navigating and actually knowing where you're going and having a map are too totally different things." Beatrice kind of shrugged, like 'what can you do?'. "I wouldn't really know. I was an only child." And then a lonely child. "There's nothing wrong with that though. You knew what you wanted to do and followed it. Yeah! I feel like it might be a bit too on the nose to go into, like, botany, but I just really like nature and plants, you know? So maybe ecology?"

          "Ah, yeah. I see. But you've been there loads more times than me, it seems like. I'm just a casual hiker. Although Claudia probably knows the woods better than me." He laughed awkwardly. "I love my sister, I guess. I just was never real competition for her growing up." No matter what, he was never going to match Claudia. No matter how hard he worked, she would have always been better. "Cool! Do you like just plants or are you interested in the animals in the woods too? Does Edgewood have any unusual species of animals?"

"Yeah, I'm a couple levels up from casual." Beatrice laughed, shaking her head. Even if she wasn't as familiar with the forests of Edgewood as the forests of her childhood it really wasn't a problem for her, not with her magic and her pact. "Aah." She said, nodding in understanding, or as much understanding as she could have, having grown up without a sibling. "Animals are just as important as plants in the woods, or anywhere,  if not more so. No, I don't think that I've seen any usual animals on my walks."

          "I just want to know my way around in case I ever get lost. I think I'd be okay, but you never know." He smiled. He normally didn't have time to learn every inch of the woods, but since he was staying here, he might as well try. "Oh, well. I'm always interested in local species. But I guess Edgewood is weird enough without adding anything else strange."

"No no, that makes sense. It's important to be aware that the woods are wild things." Beatrice was well ware of this fact. She was really lucky that she'd never gotten horribly lost before. Even now, when she felt more at home in the woods than anywhere else she still had a healthy respect, and fear, for them. "I mean, sure some weird things happen in Edgewood, but is it really that strange?"

          He was sure he could handle himself in the woods if it came down to it because he'd been lost before. Though being lost wasn't an enjoyable experience. "Exactly. They can be unpredictable." Maybe not in regular places. "It's stranger than a lot of the other places I've lived. I don't mind though. The strange and unusual is interesting to me."

"Have you lived a lot of places, then?" Beatrice asked him, curious. Edgewood was only the third place that she'd lived, and the second place that she'd lived was only one town over from where she'd grown up, so it really didn't even count as somewhere different. "Coming here was my first big move, so I don't really have much to compare it's levels of 'strange and unusual' to."

          "Oh, yeah. I've lived all over the place." When he had a job like his, travel was part of it. Lucio really liked the travel part of it, though it did get exhausting. "I like it here," he said, a smile on his face. "There's lots of interesting people and the strangeness of this place doesn't bother me. Nothing really shocks me anymore." Not considering his job as a hunter. "Oh, it looks like our time's nearly up. It was great to officially meet you, Bea." Lucio smiled widely at her.

"That's got to be neat."  Beatrice said, although she couldn't see herself doing something like that. It took so long to truly get to know all the quirks of a forest. "Yeah, the people here are really great!" She said, thinking about the friends that she had made, and the kindness that had been shown to her, an outsider and a stranger. When Lucio mentioned the time Beatrice glanced towards the clock, then looked back at him. "It would seem so. Well, I had a lot of fun too, it was nice to officially meet you too, Lucio." She said, punctuating her statement with a large smile.

[hunterlucio]

heatherpayne‌.

Heather knew he was right, but something like kickboxing still had to be better than nothing. Personally, she just used kickboxing to keep in shape. It was good conditioning and cardio. It was from other lessons that she learned practical fighting. But it seemed like Lucio was going to have lots more to teach, and she couldn’t help but feel a bit of excitement. 

She snickered at his honest response to his joke about knife fights. He was fun to talk too, though he didn’t fall into the banter Heather tried to build. 

A red flag went up. From his father?  Whose father taught how to fight with a knife? Country boys kept knives, but they were mostly hunting knives. Maybe he came from a rough part of town, but Heather had trouble believing that. Could their father be ex-military and paranoid? She couldn’t remember if Claudia ever mentioned anything about her father, but now she was extremely curious. “Wow, that’s a new type of family bonding. Did Claudia get in on the action?” 

She couldn’t help but smile at the compliment. At least someone appreciated her choice in weapons, unlike a certain vampire. She drew it and then held it out to him by the blade for if he wanted to inspect it. It was a silver knife, and it had been a hassle to find one that was practical but still solid silver. “Thank you so much. I’m really looking forward to it.” 

          Edgewood seemed like a place where he absolutely needed to know how to handle himself when it came to self defense. If he had moved here as an innocent human, he might be more inclined to learn self defense and how to teach himself to get out of bad situations. Luckily, he didn’t have to do that. He knew how to handle himself. And it seemed that was going to come to be useful here. He’d known that when he moved here. Lucio even liked that about Edgewood. 

          Lucio liked to talk about his family. They were important to him. He didn’t think making comments about his late parents were unusual. Even if some of their family bonding was unusual. Lucio usually played it off as if his father was very into self defense and left it at that. If someone wanted to pry more, he’d say his dad liked survival stuff. He’d been stuck in some odd situations where needing to know the kinds of berries to eat was important. “Ah, not really. He was into survival stuff. I know lots of random stuff. And no, Claudia was off being Girl Wonder as a kid. My dad taught me a lot of cool stuff.” He tried to mention Claudia in that sense without being jealous, but knew he failed. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t also popular, good looking, smart, and athletic growing up. But his sister could do anything, practically. 

          Almost by looking at it, he could tell it was silver. The color was different compared to other types of daggers. He wasn’t going to point that out however. Heather didn’t need to know that he knew about weapons and the uses of silvered weapon in comparison to regular ones. “Me too, but I really should get going. You’ve got my number. We can text and figure out a good time. Maybe others will want to join too.” 

hunting, but definitely not that

[hunterlucio]

werewitchsimon‌.

“Vampire lore?” That was one Simon didn’t hear every day. Even rarer for it to be genuine, and not some kind of bizarre or unkind joke made by a passer-by who didn’t take the shop itself seriously. Simon’s brow furrowed slightly. “Well I would be able to tell you if I have seen it or know something if you would show me what the symbol is.” The statement was uncharacteristically cross. Simon had to wonder, though, what the point was in rushing over to the shop to ask a question if he intended to let his question go to the wayside until there was a chance to ask someone else who he was, apparently, familiar with. 

If he intended to let Simon go about their day without interruption, why wait until he already had?

“I know a little, but it is not Edgewood-based,” Simon warned fairly, pulling their hands from their pockets to cross their arms against the cold, “so unless your symbol is very old or not just here…” It was up to him if he wanted to ask, really, but Simon did wish he’d pick one way or the other, so they could then decide whether to stay there on the sidewalk or step back into the shop to talk.

          “Yes,” he said, almost matter-of-factly, as if he believed in this stuff. Which, of course, he did. The general public didn’t believe in that sort of thing though. Lucio didn’t want to establish himself as a hunter. He knew what kind of hatred and fear people had against hunters. He was different than them though. There was something else going on in this town and he wanted to do his best to figure it out. Something worse than supernaturals hurting innocent people. “I mean, that’s fine if you don’t know. I figured it’d be best to start here instead of asking random people.” There were probably better people that knew what he was asking. Maybe she knew. He didn’t know unless he asked. 

          The officer held out the book, and pointed the symbol out. “I don’t know if this is Edgewood based or not. I don’t know much about... lore.” Specific Edgewood lore. He was still learning. This was getting to be dangerous territory for him to talk about. “How much Edgewood supernatural lore is there?” he asked, a casual tone. “I’ve always found this sort of thing interesting.” 

[hunterlucio]

xavier-bennett‌.

Being a bartender, Xavier was used to patrons telling him all sorts of stories, and he’d been the receiver of many confessions and the keeper of many secrets, but he couldn’t help but take pause at this most recent revelation. “Is it still a secret if I know about it?” He asked.

          Lucio was making a better attempt to get outside of the house at night after work. Now that he considered himself to have a grip on his reality, he could make an effort to figure out Edgewood After Dark. Which is how he ended up talking to Xavier at the bar of the club. This wasn’t his usual scene. “No, I guess not. It’ll probably end up in the police blotter anyway.” 

[hunterlucio]

constance-hollingsworth‌.

“If there is anything I can change of a weekend, it’s to remove Monday.” 

          “I think removing Monday wouldn’t be as beneficial as making Friday a weekend. Tuesday starts to the week are always a little chaotic for me.” 

[hunterlucio]

heatherpayne‌.

Heather was relieved that Lucio didn’t seem suspicious. Honestly, she didn’t like breaking the rules despite how often she did it nowadays. As a kid, she had been a devout rule follower. She always believed that rules and systems were in place for a reason–though those reasons could become corrupted. But, she found herself becoming more and more comfortable with bending rules and stepping out of bounds, and a part of her was worried about that. 

She followed his gaze to the hospital. It was ironic and tragic that one of the attacks happened at a place of healing. That couldn’t be comforting for the people healing from other injuries in there. “Um hmm,” she agreed, but didn’t elaborate on any story about working hard. She was actually off today.  

Heather was surprised by how he jumped to helping her, not only giving an escort but also self-defense lessons. Like he had said, he was off duty. She smiled, thinking that he really was a good person. The Rinaldi siblings seemed to be some of the only people she could not only stand, but actually liked in town.

“Oh, no, don’t worry about me. I’m not helpless. Remember, I take kick-boxing lessons with Claudia?” She perked up at the mention of blades. “Did you get into a lot of knife fights at the police academy?” she couldn’t help but jab. She figured that knife training for police was actually more for when perps pulled knives out on them. “Actually, I think I will take you up on that offer.” She chose her words carefully, knowing that working with law enforcement was treading dangerous ground. He had an excuse to use weapons; she was just a pharmacy tech. “We’ve been moving on to weapon’s training in my martial arts class, and it’s been super interesting.” In order to assure that she only wanted this for personal defense, she added, “And I’m sure you have plenty of practical defense moves.” 

         He was relatively skilled at keeping most emotions off his face. Although he tried his best to give people the benefit of the doubt, he did know when to be suspicious of someone. With Heather, it was mostly that he just didn’t know her well enough—he didn’t think she was actively trying to do anything wrong right now. Or maybe he read her entirely wrong. Claudia always had better people skills than she did. Lucio really didn’t want to deal with the people side of things all the time because it got exhausting. If his job could solely be working with supernatural, he’d love that. But it couldn’t when he knew that he’d just get a bad reputation for hunting. He liked Heather well enough that he wasn’t going to press further unless she said something that he knew wasn’t right.

         Lucio really wished that he had more time to investigate what was going on rather than work. It was all hands on deck though and even if he could go home after this, he had other things he needed to get done. This wasn’t at the top of his list, as much as he wished it was. Lucio hoped that things would get better not worse because he liked the people here.

         Claudia might have been more of a people person, but Lucio considered himself friendly enough that he was liked by people. He tended to ignore people for work however and that sometimes made things awkward. He noticed the look on Heather’s face as he offered help. Sure she’d mentioned that she knew self-defense, but it wasn’t the same as being taught by someone like him who had learned things sort of thing since a very young age.

         “You sure? Kick-boxing is great, but sometimes those sorts of things aren’t effective.” He knew he shouldn’t talk about this sort of thing with people. Sure he was a cop, but cops shouldn’t know about weapons like he did. “No, not really. I learned this when I was younger. My dad taught me. The academy taught us the basics of what to do in a knife fight. I learned more from dad.” Lucio never talked about his father like this. It was actually sort of painful and made him think about the open case. He wished he could solve it—well, he wished he could close it. What had his dad been working on at the time? “Absolutely. Anytime. That looks like a great blade there.” He couldn’t see the whole blade, though from what he did see of the handle, it looks practical. “Yes, I’m quite skilled when it comes to self-defense moves.”

hunting, but definitely not that

[hunterlucio]

caterinasingh‌.

The woman let out a hum. Caterina couldn’t say she wasn’t disappointed - she was. Getting the inside scoop from a cop would be fascinating. Of course, they were not ready to share, and she was not about to get a new officer in trouble. This story was not her real interest anyways. “Well, then, no worries. I have you down as ‘no comment’ and will keep you out of the article.” She was a woman of her word.

The woman nodded at that. When some citizens couldn’t call the police with their ‘anonymous tips’ they turned to journalists. Of course, they were always the result of paranoia, so she could only imagine what people at the station had to sift through. “So is that why you’re here then, keeping an eye on things? I, personally, agree. I think with suspicious running rampant in the town, people are bound to act out of paranoia.”

Caterina had forgotten about the crazy storm, because she’d been out of town. “It is odd those two weird events happened to Edgewood in the same year. I mean, I grew up here and it does seem this town draws an unusual crowd. But, nothing like this before…where did you live before you were here?”

          Lucio knew that it could sometimes be troublesome to get quotes for newspaper stories. He’d heard Claudia talk about that sort of thing before. Sometimes being a cop was the same way. Not everyone wanted to talk to a cop. It wasn’t his job to change people’s opinions on people like him, though he tried his hardest to be a good one. “Oh, thanks.” He smiled. “I’m sure there will be an official statement sometime soon.” He wasn’t sure if there would be, but the public was going to have a lot of questions on this one and he wanted to do his best not to anger the other people he worked with, even though he considered some of his sister’s friends his own friends. 

          “Sort of,” he nodded at her question. “I’m not officially signed to the case, but there’s been a lot happening at the station these past few weeks. I’m helping out as much as I can to keep the public safe.” Lucio’s first goal out of everything was to make sure that the innocent people were safe. Everyone deserved that. “Yeah, we’ve seen what paranoia in the past has done to people. I’m here to keep the peace.

          “I’m used to unusual stuff, but Edgewood... well it just seems like a bunch more strange stuff happens here in comparison to other places. Maybe it’s just me thinking that though. Not sure.” Lucio laughed at the other question. “It’s more like where haven’t I lived? I’ve been all over. Chicago before coming here though.” 

[hunterlucio]

raiden-dryad‌.

Raiden would be an idiot to assume that Lucio wasn’t at all suspicious of his behaviour by now. They were equally wary of one another and Dryad was gradually beginning to put some puzzle pieces together; it started forming an answer he really didn’t like. Trawling through the forest, he kept his senses just as alert at her rear as he did ahead of him. Brushing aside outgrown branches and ducking underneath larger ones.

Lucio’s answer to Raiden’s statement was both a little snarky and a reminder that full moons were not the best of nights to be out for him. But there was something out in public during thing one. From behind Rai, a beam of light passed by his arm and shone ahead of them. Resisting a laugh, he couldn’t help but feel amused that it was the solution to Lucio’s sight. What more do you expect from him - he’s a cop, they have flashlights?

“Good idea.” Raiden jabbed, attempting for it to come across like it he actually cared for the wavering beam. It was unnecessary for him, but he couldn’t tell the officer that. Especially if Raid started believing that there was more to the police officer than just met the eye.

They were gaining on whatever the source of blood was, Raiden could tell, but the howls has stopped completely - there was nothing else teasing his senses past the blood. The only concern he had was keeping up a front to Lucio when they found whatever was left at the end of their search. “Nothing will happen to me, officer, but I understand your duty.” he ended up murmuring towards the man behind him, eyes narrowing in the distance where he thought he could see movement. You’re stuck with me this evening. That earned the vampire’s displeasure, the thought of being glued at the hip with a cop was not how low profiles went.

Despite the caution Dryad felt about Lucio, he seemed genuine; like he did care for the well-being of the other man, which was not typical of what Raid’s head had been building around what else the officer could be behind the badge. Then, rustling ensued from behind Raiden and he turned to see that the officer was fishing for something in his backpack. Quietly, he watched for what he would recover from it.

Lifting his head at the sight of the taser, either Lucio was packing to punch whatever was out in the night, or he was playing a game with Raiden. Maybe both. “Is it just wolves that are vicious when they’re hungry, officer?” He asked, a little edge to his tone as he went on about standard issue as if Raiden hadn’t seen the very not standard issue Lucio was a skilled marksman in. “And that involves getting close enough to one to be in range, wolves are fast, Lucio.” he continued to warn, glancing between the taser and the cop’s face as though daring to make a move. “You’re better off with your knives.” Dryad added with a smirk, stepping back as if to continue on their prowl, they were so close, a distraction like this now wasn’t needed.

Raiden would have it out with the officer after they’d tended to whatever injured person was out there. And what’s having it out with him entail, hm? Rai was over the newfound weapon in the other man’s hand, he didn’t exactly want to be on the end of it, but it would be Lucio’s mistake to try. “I hope you brought a medic kit in that bag of yours.” The vampire jibed from in front, fingers brushing out towards a tree trunk where a small spatter of dried blood stained the wood.

For a moment, Raid halted, confused by his own tracking. Now he was so close, the scent faltered, as though it was running, rapidly. He wasn’t sure how or why, but the trail stopped almost like a magical barrier had cut him off from the source. That was a frustration he couldn’t release in the presence of the officer; his fingers gripped the trunk tightly and he turned back to the officer to relay the findings through gritted teeth. “It’s gone - whatever it was, it’s gone.” More irritatingly, he didn’t know why.

         At this point, the dance they were having around each other was getting boring. Lucio knew that Raiden was suspicious of him—Lucio was suspicious of Raiden. They knew this. Both of them knew that they didn’t trust the other. But hopefully, Raiden hadn’t put the whole puzzle together. He really didn’t need the rumor going around that there was a hunter here, even if he claimed he was different than the other hunters. Lucio was different than the other hunters. He knew though that other people weren’t going to see him in a good light because of that rumor. Someone might try and send him a message. Worse things had happened in the past.

         He smirked as he pulled the flashlight from his bag. Clearly Raiden could see well enough in the dark that he didn’t need a flashlight, but it was a clever comeback to Raiden’s obvious jab at him being human. The hunter tried to come prepared. The moon was high in the air tonight and even if he could see by moonlight if he wanted to, the flashlight was better for investigating. His bag was filled with a bunch of other things he might need tonight. Lucio just hoped that he wouldn’t need them. Since he’d rather have Claudia as a partner than trust in Raiden to help him if something bad happened.

         Though he wasn’t about to tell Raiden that he didn’t trust him to help if the situation turned south fast. “Right.” He smiled, trying not to seem like he was suspicious. This was getting exhausting. At this point, he could just outright ask Raiden, even if it would compromise himself. He didn’t know how much more of this he could talk.

         He couldn’t stop himself from scoffing at Raiden’s statement of nothing happening to him. “This i Edgewood. If you really think that, then maybe you ought to think about the town you’re living in,” he pointed out. Lucio knew that as a hunter, he had the tools to fight different supernatural creatures. He knew that everywhere he went. That didn’t mean that he was safe. Being a supernatural didn’t mean someone was safe either. And if Raiden believed that, then Lucio wanted to know what planet of denial Raiden was from. Anyone was dangerous to anyone given the right circumstances. Tonight he hoped that if anything, he could keep one person safe in town. Even if that one person was Raiden. Even if that one person didn’t trust him. Even if he didn’t trust that one person.

         Either Raiden didn’t know anything about lore or had picked up on the question that he asked. He clearly wasn’t a werecreature though. Lucio knew that. He didn’t know enough yet to rule out anything else. “No, of course not,” he said, and looked directly at Raiden, “anything is capable of danger when they’re hungry.” He caught the edge in the other man’s voice. “How about you?” He doubted the question would return an answer, though he was going to ask it anyway. “Uh, no. The one you have to get close to someone with is a stun gun. This is an actual taser. I can be as far back as twenty feet.” His knowledge on weapons was more advanced than most others was, but he’d been learning about them since he was young and knew the dangers of them.

         “You say that as if you think I’m going to get hurt, when I learned to fight at the academy. None the less, I do have medical supplies with me. A few in case something terrible happens. Along with a bunch of other useful items, just in case.” He said that as if he thought Lucio wasn’t a threat—which clearly wasn’t the case given their previous interactions. It seemed slightly stupid to keep this tip toeing around each other up. There was more to him than a simple cop and by now Raiden had to know that. He was more than a simple cop. He always had been.

         Tracking was a skill he knew how to do—but it wasn’t something he was particularly skilled at. Though he probably could do a better job than Raiden if he tried. Still he didn’t want to seem like he knew what he was doing, so he sat back and let the other work. His job was directing the beam of light towards wherever they happened to be walking. “I hope it doesn’t come back,” he told Raiden. That wasn’t true at all though. Whatever the creature was wasn’t something he wanted to come across. However, he did want to know what it was. “Well are you done with whatever this is? I can escort you home or somewhere else if you want?”

[hunterlucio]

werewitchsimon‌.

Simon had a thought. An image, there in mind: a dog when a fly landed on its ear. Generally, the dog would simply flick the mentioned ear and continue sleeping, or whatever else it was doing. Likewise, they were tired, and a little grouchy and, as one might expect, tempted to stick to her no way and take the offered out. Their shift was over. They had swept the floor and clocked out and locked the doors. He could come back in the morning… but…

“.. What book?” That was the curious bit, wasn’t it? What kind of book sent someone to a witching shop looking for answers? Assuming, of course, the book hadn’t come from the shop to begin with, there was very little Simon could think of that would lead there. Simon stuffed their other hand into their pocket, seeking reprieve from the frigid wind. “I have a minute or two.”

          If the answer was no, Lucio would have walked away and not given it another thought until the morning. Usually, he wasn’t this rude. He was better at time management. There were some subjects that he just got sucked into more than anything. That was the thing that made him a good hunter though. He looked at all the details, not just what it looked like on the outside. There was more to every story than one person’s point of view, more to it than several people’s points of views sometimes. The truth was an unusual thing. He wanted to keep people safe, innocent people that didn’t deserve to be hurt, but he knew that was more complicated than it sounded. 

          “It’s... uh,” he responded, letting out a sigh, then let out a little chuckle. “Well, here’s the thing. It’s on vampire lore. I don’t exactly know how much you’d know about that.” Witches were different than vampires after all. “I found a weird symbol is all and I’m wondering if someone who’s been here longer than me could tell me if it’s been spotted around here.” Lucio knew that it wouldn’t sound crazy. This was Edgewood. Unusual came with the territory. “You know what, I can ask Claudia tomorrow. It’s, uh, she might know.” 

[hunterlucio]

werewitchsimon‌.

As Simon stepped through the door, there was an initial second, an enveloping hug of cold, that they couldn’t help but puff a breath out into the world. They watched, smiling to themself, as the little cloud spiraled up and away into the sunset-red sky. The moment passed, and the keys in Simon’s hand were already unreasonably cold. They wasted no time turning the lock and checking the handle. They even gave the door a good shove to make sure it was secure; it was sealed up tight.

What incredible timing, then, on the part of the person who slipped up to Simon’s left, some sense of wanting hanging off of them as they came down the sidewalk- or at least, that was the meaning Simon took from their slightly hurried steps and puff-puffing breath. No way, Simon thought. They shoved their hand, fingers curled around their keys, deep into their coat pocket. I’m going home.

“Sorry, all closed up for the night,” Simon informed them politely. And, just to field the next question, should it be coming, they added: “We open tomorrow morning at eleven.”

          He was trying to get to the shop before it closed. There was something in a book he was reading about lore that just didn’t make sense. Maybe it was the age of the book or something, but Lucio wanted to get to the bottom of it in case it was important. He knew he’d be close to closing though if he went to go ask. But it didn’t stop him from heading towards the shop, ignoring the color of the sky and the beauty of this town he lived in because of his own curiosity. The second he arrived, he hopped out of his car only to see the doors being closed as he did so. 

          “Oh, well. I guess I’ll be back tomorrow then,” he’d only had a quick question. “Unless... you can just answer a quick question for me about something I found in a book. You don’t have to. I can come back tomorrow.” The hunter smiled at Simon. Either way, he’d be fine if she’d rather wait. “I know when I’m finished with work, I always want to be done for the day.” Although when he was finished with work, he had his own investigations to deal with. 

[hunterlucio]

raiden-dryad‌.

No matter what Raiden was feeling about Lucio; the suspicion; the unease; the fact that this human police officer had some sharp skills that earned Dryad’s wariness; it had to wait a little longer. He wasn’t out to get into an altercation, he wanted to find the source of the inhuman noise and now, he wanted to scout the source of the tendrils of blood wafting through the air and sending his senses into alert. There wasn’t time for small talk – Lucio made that clear to him too when he shut down the sarcasm.

“Exactly. You never know what’s in the darkness – how’s your night vision?” he asked, withholding the quip from entering his tone at the question. It didn’t take the vampire another moment to turn and begin prowling further into the forest, assuming the officer would be on his tail. Despite listening out for the noises in the distance, he was making sure to be able to hear each footstep Lucio made at his rear. Hearing the man scoff at his continued remarking, Raiden paused and turned his head a little questioningly. You’re not going to blurt it out are you, even as a joke? Of course, he wasn’t. Dryad wasn’t intending to out himself purely for his own amusement – there was more riding on his stay in Edgewood than he cared to admit.

Raiden didn’t try Lucio on it. The fact that he had already put together enough suspicion about him to put him on edge told him enough to not expose any further weaknesses – not until he’d sussed the male behind him out completely. Who throws knives in the night; goes snooping for howls without backup? The questions didn’t pose pleasant answers no matter which way Dryad chose to look at it. In fact, it led him into the territory of whether Lucio was dangerous to him – assuming a lot more of Lucio was better than underestimating him.

Rolling his eyes, he could understand that Lucio had a duty out here, to usher him away from danger – protect the public. Raiden wasn’t exactly one of the most ordinary men and he felt more than capable of handling whatever was out there. Are you? But that didn’t mean he was going to concede or let his guard drop out of misplaced confidence. “Appreciated,” he murmured, wavering his arm over the cautionary warning. “but unnecessary…” he trailed off when he took a few more steps into the forest, a sharp wave hitting his senses in a sudden gust that almost sent his fangs rocketing from his gums. If Lucio wasn’t pinning his gaze on him like a hawk, he would have been gone in the wind by now. Instead, he opted to look at the officer, no more jokes in his tone. “We need to move.”

There wasn’t an exact location in mind, Rai couldn’t pinpoint the place he’d scented the blood but there was definitely something out there that was either injured – or had hurt someone. His gut clenched at the prospect, unsure about what he’d find at the end of the trail. Raiden during his perusing through the forest, glimpsed back towards Lucio, recalling another thing he couldn’t shake about the man. It probably shouldn’t have passed the vampire’s lips. “Before,” he began, tongue snapping on his teeth thoughtfully at the way Lucio had been each time they’d encountered. “you asked me if I could take on something, what are you expecting to find out here, Officer?”

         He’d been in weirder situations before with people far sketchier than Raiden. He was trying to give the other man the benefit of the doubt, but still there was something there that he just didn’t trust. He’d figure it out—probably wouldn’t take that long if he was careful about it. Though right now that wasn’t the first thing on his mind. People could be in danger right now. As much as he wanted to sit here and figure out what was going on, try and get Raiden to talk, there was something bigger going on tonight. He had no idea why anyone would want to be out on a full moon, but he wasn’t going to mention that because it was suspicious.

         Lucio bit his tongue from saying something stupid. Obviously, he didn’t have night vision. He was human. He couldn’t see in the dark no more than any other human. Although he did have night vision goggles back at home if he ever needed them. He didn’t in Edgewood so long as Claudia was around helping him—he’d admit that there were some benefits to having his sister around to help him. “It’s a full moon,” he responded, as if that hadn’t already been obvious. So long as the moon wasn’t behind a cloud, he could see. “And it’s better with this,” Lucio pulled his flashlight out of his bag. At least he wasn’t ill prepared.

         He hated the feeling of unease that he got around Raiden. There was no proof that the man wasn’t anything but unusual. That in Edgewood could mean a lot of things and he had no proof that Raiden was dangerous or had committed any crimes. Therefore, he couldn’t do anything about it. All he could do is smile and pretend not to be suspicious of Raiden—though he was sure he was failing at that. Lucio knew better than to act without evidence. His father had drilled that into his mind, and it was the one rule that he always followed no matter what. He didn’t think hunters had the right to take out supernatural creatures just because they were threatened by them. The justice system said innocent until proven guilty and Lucio knew that extended to the supernatural in his own book.

         Despite all that, he still had to at least act like he was just a regular police officer. Raiden might have seen him in the woods throwing knives, but that probably was one of the least sketchy things happening in Edgewood at any given moment. “Right, well, I appreciate your appreciation. However, it’s my job. And I’ll never forgive myself—or you—if something happens and I just let you go on your own.” He wasn’t on duty. Though he took his job seriously and even if he wasn’t on duty, if someone was in need, he was going to help them. “So, like it or not, you’re stuck with me this evening.” He narrowed his eyes at the other, knowing that he was right about needing to move.

         He sighed, following the other further along whatever route he’d obviously decided they were going. Lucio wasn’t going to ask how Raiden knew where he was going—though he had a few guesses. He wasn’t an idiot. There were a couple of things he could do to test gather more information from Riaden—one, he could involve Claudia or two, he could handle it on his own. Lucio slung his backpack from his bag, looking into the pack for a moment before digging around for something. “Ah,” he replied, finding what he was looking for and carefully taking it out before putting his bag back on. “I can hear wolves out tonight. They can get vicious if they’re hungry. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt from one of them.” He looked over at Raiden. “Ever used one of these?” the hunter asked, holding up a taser. “Standard regulation requires us officers to have them. I prefer it to a gun. This one’s my personal one though. Can’t be too careful living in big cities and I’ve lived all over. You can turn up the voltage pretty high on this one.” He carefully studied Raiden’s reaction to it. Any were might be slightly uneasy by the weapon. 

[hunterlucio]

darklighterxdemitri‌.

Demitri knew that him investigating on his own would cause people to question him, but that didn’t make him nervous in the slightest. In fact, he was amused. “Keeping an eye out?” He repeated, a chuckle escaping his lips. “You can’t blame people for being curious, surely?” He folded his arms across his chest as he tilted his head to the side. “When people are afraid, they try to find out answers on their own. Especially if they aren’t getting enough of their questions answered by authoritative figures.” 

His eyes flickered towards where the crime had taken place, then to the entrance of the hospital, and then back at the other male. “And what do you do to those that try to investigate on their own?”

          Of course he couldn’t keep people form trying to investigate on their own, but he hoped people weren’t stupid enough to try. He was hoping that people wouldn’t look for answers on their own because that was dangerous. Maybe he could look because he was a hunter and that was his job, but he wasn’t going to without Claudia. Not this time. Not with something that was clearly more important than just an average werecreature attack. “Curiosity killed the cat,” he responded. “Authority figures are there for a reason. We keep order and peace among people. And maybe the public needs to know answers, but we’re the ones equipped to handle getting those answers. Not some person off the street that has no clue what sort of thing they’re about to investigate.” 

          Lucio pursed his lips, feeling uneasy. He wasn’t sure the vibe he was getting from this conversation, but he didn’t like it. “Nothing,” he huffed out because they couldn’t do anything. “But I can’t guarantee the safety of anyone that tries.” How much did the other know about investigating something like this? “I’m here to make sure people don’t get hurt. That’s my job. That’s always going to be my job. But people that try stupid things make my job more difficult.” 

[hunterlucio]

heatherpayne‌.

At running into Lucio, a million suspicions ran through Heather’s head.  Was he also here to investigate? Was he a hunter here to kill the creature?  Was he the creature himself? Was he returning to the scene of the crime? Was he covering it up? After a second though, she shook herself back to reality. Lucio was a policeman who had a right to be near a crime scene, and a good person as far as she knew. She could and would be wary, but Lucio deserved the benefit of the doubt. 

Heather was relieved that he didn’t seem accusatory at her being here, despite her less than warm greeting. This wasn’t technically a restricted part of the hospital. “Oh, yeah, me too,” Heather affected casually, trying to make it seem like a fun coincidence. “I have a drop off for the pharmacy.” It was the same excuse she had used when she ran into Caterina, so she hoped it held again. At least her story would be consistent among witnesses. 

The witch’s spirits dropped to dread as the police officer noticed her weapon. Her hand snapped to cover the offending item as she cursed herself for not hiding it better. Her jacket mostly covered it, but it needed to be accessible to grab in danger.  “No, I’m just happy to see you?” she tried with a wry smile. She had little hope of actually fooling a police officer about the weapon at her hip. She just had to hope that he wouldn’t find out about the crossbow packed in her bag. Heather forced herself to take a deep breath as she thought up an excuse. “Okay, fine, yes it’s a knife. I take self defense very seriously, and I’m a bit on edge after those freaky attacks last night.” She gave what was supposed to be a self-conscious smile, but it came out at more of a grimace. 

         Surprisingly, living in Edgewood wasn’t that unusual. Sure, it had its quirks and unusual paranormal problems, but it wasn’t like Lucio hadn’t seen weirder stuff in towns where there wasn’t a huge supernatural presence. At least in Edgewood, he didn’t feel like he was that unusual—that his compendium of knowledge on the supernatural strange. He realized he was always going to feel different. In the real world, he knew too much about what made the world different and he wasn’t going to fit in, but worse was being around supernatural and not fitting in because he was human—because he was a hunter. So far, he was just here to keep the peace, to figure out where he was needed, and to put down some roots for once.

         He’d hoped that his demeanor wasn’t too intimidating. He had found that being a police officer tended to make people either wary of him or trust him completely—neither of which he was comfortable with. Heather seemed casual though and he didn’t have reason to suspect her of anything. Besides, Heather didn’t give off a bad vibe to him. Unlike Raiden. “Ah, yeah. I’ll bet you’re keeping busy now,” he nodded, looking at the hospital looming ahead of them. He did have a file to drop off, which he’d already done a few minutes earlier. A part of him longed to be on this case because he had the knowledge to help, but he knew that if he did, he’d have to reveal a part of him he wasn’t ready to yet, so he kept quiet.

         “Oh, of course.” He nodded, not entirely believing her after the first remark. In their first conversation, she’d mentioned self-defense. Lucio did not know how good she was with self-defense. “Did you want me to escort you anywhere? I’d be happy to. I’m off the clock now. I could even give you some good pointers on self-defense if you want.” The hunter smiled back at her. “I, uh, know a bit about fighting with daggers. Well… more than a bit. Lots of weapons actually.” His hand ghosted over his gun for a moment, the only weapon he truly hated using.

hunting, but definitely not that

[hunterlucio]

caterinasingh‌.

The woman couldn’t help the sigh that passed her lips at the answer. Since she was flipping between notes, she hadn’t really taken the time to see who had made the comment, and assumed it was someone being snarky. But then she looked up to see Lucio. Right. He was with the police department. “Well, I can’t fault you for that, we’re both just trying to do our jobs and figure out what is happening in this town. Even if through very different means,” with that, the journalist put away her recorder. It would be a while before she would need that again.

“Nothing in particular. No one really seems to know what has happened. Most of what I have heard so far is almost ludicrous speculation. That, and a very wide array of opinions on how people feel about the town still throwing weekend events and going about ‘business as usual’. Is there anything you can say about this whole ordeal?” Normally, Caterina would divert to pleasantries and personal conversation if it was evident that an interview would not be happening, but right now timing was of the essence. If there was a thread of information she could get, she would fish for it.

         He wanted to be helpful, but he also couldn’t give away anything that he knew from an open investigation. On something less important, it probably wouldn’t have mattered—but this wasn’t a normal investigation. This was… terrifying. What happened during the full moon wasn’t normal at all. And he wondered if it was just going to get worse or if this could be stopped. Lucio knew better than to blame the creatures that did this. It likely wasn’t the fault of the beings. But he also didn’t know what to think. “Yeah,” he agreed, sighing. “Really wish I could help you. I just don’t want to get into trouble. And I’m not actually on the case either. So, all I’m hearing is office talk about it—nothing you’d want to know.” He, of course, had another way to get information, but only Claudia knew about that.

         “I think that’s… not uncommon. When strange stuff happens like that it’s… well people have a difficult time with figuring out what actually went down.” He nodded at her statements, then paused at the question. Most of his job so far had been answering calls from concerned citizens. As long as it wasn’t getting published, he didn’t see why he couldn’t comment on the safety of the town. “Off the record, but I know the people involved in the case are doing their best to figure out what happened and as soon as they do, I hope they’ll inform the public. I personally don’t believe that events are a good idea until more information is revealed, however that is not up to me. I do know that what happens will have adequate protection.” Even if Edgewood PD didn’t send someone, Lucio would attend events to make sure innocent people weren’t hurt. “Hopefully, whatever happened won’t happen again and we can go back to regular business. It’s like the whole thing with that weird cloud. That only happened once. You know, Claudia told me Edgewood was weird, but I didn’t expect this sort of weird.”

[hunterlucio]

heatherpayne‌.

January 11, 9:08 A.M.,  Edgewood Memorial Hospital 

Heather was not a hunter. She came from a long line of witches. She practiced magic and was born with innate powers. And, most importantly, she didn’t hurt innocents like some hunters whose idea of valid people didn’t stretch beyond humans.

However, Heather was not an idle bystander either. This was not her original mission in coming to Edgewood, but clearly something bad was going down, and she had the ability to stop it. 

She had spent Friday night in her house to avoid any full moon activity and awoke Saturday morning to hear that hiding out had been necessary. Someone was dead, and there were rumors of other incidents around town. The time of month coupled with some reports on social media of hearing strange howls made Heather pretty sure that this was a werecreature. 

The witch had no actually experience dealing with weres, but she knew enough to pack a silver dagger. Raiden would be so proud, she thought. She put a crossbow in a large backpack and strapped some more knives to her body before heading out to the hospital. 

The creature was clearly long gone by the time she reached the hospital. To her dismay, part of the parking garage was cordoned off. After parking an nonsuspicious distance from the blockage, she made her way on foot around the detail and to a side door to the garage. Making sure she wasn’t seen, she slipped in and headed towards where she thought the attack had happened. 

Heather passed a concrete post with large claw marks gouged into it and paused to take a picture. She shuddered involuntarily thinking of how large the creature had to be. Her hand drifted down to the sheath on her thigh. 

Turning a corner, Heather spotted security and police, then quickly pulled back. She turned to head another way, to ram into someone. “Hey!” she exclaimed in surprise, and then lowered her voice to not be heard, “What the hell are you doing here?”

         Being a Rinaldi meant being from a family of extraordinary people. Sometimes Lucio still didn’t know if he fit into that category. He wasn’t Claudia and he wasn’t his father. He knew he could never best Claudia as much as he tried to sometimes. That didn’t mean he didn’t value his own skills. Being a hunter meant that he had learned a lot. From what his father taught him, to what he’d learned over the years, he was proud of himself.

         Although he knew he was different than a lot of the other hunters, sometimes he wondered if he was better than them. Lucio knew being a hunter came with misconceptions about the job. Some of them were, well actually hunting supernaturals and killing them. The thought of that honestly made him a little sick to his stomach. In everything he’d ever done, supernaturals only hurt other people when something else was going on. Most of them were just as innocent as regular people. Their crimes should be treated as any other crime out there. Killing just because people didn’t understand was wrong—and he prided himself on that.

         He heard about what was going on in part of his job, but he had a low ear to the ground on other news. All hands were on deck at the station for news and tips. Technically, he was supposed to have the day off, but he’d been called in anyway. It was a shame though since he’d rather be attempting to figure out what was going on rather than sitting around at the station. Then when he was told he was needed at the hospital to drop something off and then go home, he was slightly thankful. Really, he wanted to poke around on his own and see what he could find.

         Dropping the case file off, he ignored his urge to stick around and help them, instead turning to investigate on his own. That’s when he directly ran into someone. Lucio looked to see Heather. He could ask her the same question. “Dropping off something and then going home. What are you doing here?” he asked, keeping the tone friendly and casual instead of seeming accusatory. “Are you… Is that a dagger?” he hissed, pointing at the sheath on her side. Wouldn’t he know if Heather was a hunter too? 

hunting, but definitely not that