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grison-in-space · 11 months

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"that ability to just modify your perspective and step into the context someone else is wrestling with and listen, that's such an upsettingly rare skill for knowledge workers and healthcare workers... if you ask people why they're struggling, you can fix it and build a better process!"

You might be interested to know that when I was in pharmacy school, those patient interviewing skills mentioned by you and clockworkcrow in that reblog chain about provider burnout were taught to us as a set of techniques known as "motivational interviewing." It's not really in the scope of the personal vs systemic interventions that that reblog chain is about, but one of the revelational takeaways that I got from learning them was the idea that the healthcare provider cannot assume that their goals for care line up with the patient's; sometimes, the patient really doesn't care about the treatment or its outcomes because they have different goals of care in mind, and eliciting those goals during interviewing (because a lot of the time people are not at all articulate about what they want out of life) is a kind of ongoing step one.

I'm also curious if you or the MDs in this discussion have ever encountered ambulatory care pharmacists practicing the approaches that clockworkcrow talks about? I ask because listening to patients, identifying patient-specific blocks to care, and addressing them was something we were taught to do in pharmacy school (because our program pushed us toward ambulatory care). But since I didn't go into ambcare after graduating, I'm unsure both how much of an impact it has/how widespread such practices actually are, and whether ambcare practitioners actually, on the whole, put their money where the educators' mouths are. Can ambcare clinics actually make a systemic difference?

Oh! I had no idea they taught y'all those skills, but then I don't actually think I've ever had a conversation with a pharmacist about meds beyond a perfunctory question about whether I know what side effects there are. In general I am not used to pharmacists, doctors, or other medical professionals like psychiatrists taking a lot of time to really listen to me. Some of that is probably that all my main health complaints are things that feel normal to me and some is probably that I am a chronic minimizer--like I said in that discussion, it's a coping method.

I have never heard the term "ambulatory care" -- oh, it's outpatient care. Yeah, okay, let's use a specific physical issue: I can't run for more than about two to three without finding myself unable to breathe. This has been a thing for essentially my entire life, and in middle school we did running with heart monitors, so even apart from the physical experience of not being able to breathe and having to stop and take great heaving breaths of air, I was aware that objectively my heart rate was going up very fast no matter how hard I tried.

(We are talking "run until you start getting black spots in your vision, then walk until you can just barely breathe again, and then run, rinse and repeat. Literally the only kid slower than me was excused entirely from running because one leg was an inch shorter than the other.) No one around me seemed to think there was anything unusual about this or that I was anything besides just physically lazy, so I kind of wrote it off until my mid twenties. I mean, I'd been visibly struggling with extended physical exercise my whole life, and no one had called it remarkable yet, but friends were telling me it wasn't normal to experience those kinds of breathing issues, so...

I presented myself with this complaint to a nurse practitioner who basically told me I was just fat and needed to exercise more. I pushed past this and was grudgingly scheduled for an ecg (normal) and a peak flow test (astoundingly poor). There was no explanation presented for the peak flow except that I was out of shape and needed (guess what?) more exercise. Tried a pulmonologist, who confirmed it was not exercise induced asthma (which I had been sort of hoping, because there are fixes for that) and told me I was basically fine.

I more or less gave up until a dentist idly mentioned that my airway was very, very small and told me that micrognathia was something I should look into: my airways might be occluded. So I went to an ENT, who also immediately tried to tell me I was basically fine but did grudgingly agree to scope my airways... and discovered major blockages from my tongue (insufficient room in my jaw, so it gets shoved backwards over the airway), my nasal turbinates (swollen almost completely shut), and I forget what else. It was incredibly exciting to have a reason.

Okay, I say, what do I do with this? Exercise more? But I want to do that, I just can't breathe. I was aware that there is a surgery to artificially extend the jaw; it involves breaking the jaw and encouraging it to heal while maintaining space between the halves. So I brought this up. He was very dubious about this. I asked for a referral anyway and was referred to a plastic surgeon. The surgeon was perplexed by what I wanted to talk about and had clearly expected me to have come in for a cosmetic procedure like a nose job. Eventually I got too exhausted to follow up further; I've been meaning to resume this thing for like six years now.

Generally, my experience of doctors is that they have been trained to be suspicious of patient accounts that don't fit a very specific narrative, and that they are impatient to get on to the next thing unless you are very proactive about your own care. If you don't have a condition in mind that you can point them at without making them decide you're med seeking, they are quick to tell you that you are just making things up in your head. There are a few exceptions but I cannot underscore enough how rare I have found them to be.

And they will all tell you to exercise and lose weight as a first line of response. Not that I'm bitter.

Now, actually working in healthcare, @scientia-rex or @clockworkcrow might have more relevant commentaries than I do. But my experience in this field has not been, to put it mildly, great. Let's not even talk about my history of psychiatric care.

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worm-death · 1 year

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Good and Bad Anime Backstory Integration

I'm writing this blog post to discuss in length something I'm really passionate about: making good, relatable characters. And through the many anime I've seen, it's done both good and bad. And so I wanted to write this to give my take on the subject. Fair warning: I will be spoiling certain anime series. I will warn again when I am about to spoil something (Demon Slayer Season 1, Hell's Paradise Season 1, One Piece, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Lupin III Part 6, Galaxy Express 999, The Wind Rises). These are also just my opinions. I'm not demanding you to write stories like this; simply my thoughts on the matter.

This is by far my least favorite way to tell a character's origin story. Right as they're dying, or even if it's the last time we see them on screen. Why? Because you don't have any time to let that sink in. I will tell you, nothing is worse than watching a character die just to have the wade to white and the BOOM flashback, no thank you. This is mainly in regard to villain characters.

Demon Slayer was a constant notorious example of this, and my main conflict with the entire franchise. It made every villain a complete sob story. And that's not even necessarily a bad thing, but it's the execution that is faulted every time. (No explicit spoilers since I can't remember Jack about that show, but season 1 spoilers, I guess. Skip this next paragraph if you wish to avoid any).

An episode starts out introducing our new demonic villain. Simple enough. And it's pretty straightforward: evil person does evil things. And it remains that way until Tanjiro has the final fight with the episode's villain, cutting off their head and whatnot. And as we see them fall back in slow motion, blood gushing everywhere. The origin story jumpscares me.

Why should I feel bad for a character who has only been presented as evil with little to no redeeming qualities? There was never a pre-established reason for me to feel bad for this character. They have only been presented as a bad person I should want dead.

I want to put this into perspective in the real world. There are plenty of deplorable people out there, the real-life villains. And aside from those few individuals born into this world truly evil. The majority of the time, there was a significant event in that person's life that brought them to the point of committing heinous crimes. And what does the public do when they find out these people are put on death row or sentenced to life? We are happy. We are glad that this evil person is gone (the sane ones of us, anyway). So, I see fictional villains the same way. "Oh good, the hero killed the villain! Wait, now I have to feel bad for them?? Uh..."

What it boils down to is the inability to form connections. The human mind does not work like: villain (I hate them) -> backstory (THEY WERE AN ORPHAN?!?!?) -> villain (OMG I LOVE YOU!! you were just misunderstood....) No.

When I say this is my least favorite form of backstory delivery, I have seen more of them fail than succeed. But that is definitely not the case for all stories. In fact, there are some simply amazing stories. I will be spoiling One Piece twice here (Dressrosa and Wano, please skip the next paragraph).

I think the smarter thing to do when creating a backstory like this is not to make it a sob story. In episode 1062 of One Piece, Zoro fights King, someone we practically knew nothing about, and gets his backstory revealed. It was great. And it's the tone that makes it great. It is an info drop, not a sob story. Simply informing the audience on how King and Kaido met. In turn, the information from that flashback also plays into Kaido as a character and adds more depth to him. There are practical things to take away from the flashback, even if the central character is no longer going to be relevant.

If you can make a backstory practical and give them a takeaway, then it's worthwhile. Something other shows fail to do. We may see a character's connection to another relevant character, but that's it, just a connection and doesn't actually say anything about them.

Again, back to Demon Slayer. All the demons were turned by Muzan Kibutsuji. We see how they met, and aside from literally turning the character into a demon, that is it. Each interaction doesn't give us a hint into Muzan's mind. He's simply there to serve the plot device.

With One Piece (yes, more spoilers), even though the central focus is on King, we get a bit of inside into Kaido. Although portrayed as a completely standoffish, cold monster, here we see a caring side of him. He lends a hand to someone who needs help. We aren't meant to feel bad for these characters in this flashback. We are simply having information being established. I call it a footnote in the middle of the fight because it is additional information not strictly required but adds further information.

Can an emotional backstory before death be done right? Yes! It's hard to pull off; again, I will use One Piece, Dressrosa, this time as an example. (Skip next paragraph)

Senor Pink is meant to be seen as obscene, pervy, and not a good guy. There's no reason to believe he isn't all of that until they reveal his backstory, as he's losing his fight against Franky. It clearly explains why he dresses like a baby to this day. It is genuinely tragic, even though I hated this guy mere minutes ago. Why can this strike a chord with me while other shows can't? Okay, sure, there is bias because One Piece is already awesome, but there are others! I may have hated Senor Pink until then because he presented himself as a horrible person. BUT I knew who he was. I understood what he did on a surface level, and that is crucial to establishing an origin story. I felt bad because it was relatable and tragic and explained why he acted the way he did. It left me thinking and reflecting. It gave me something to chew on.

This is still risky territory to deal with. You have to put a lot of faith in yourself as a writer that you can engage an audience with your characters without them having any idea who they are. Sometimes it's done well, and sometimes it's done poorly. And unfortunately, I see it done poorly a lot. It's definitely more of a mixed bag than final-moment backstories. I've seen more cases of it done well considerably, but it definitely doesn't mean it can't be screwed up. I will now spoil Hell's Paradise Season 1 (skip the two next paragraphs).

As characters start arriving in Paradise, they give some of them character introductions (or, as I like to call it, padding). Of those are characters named Tenza and Nurugai. In their introductory episode, or at least the first time we spend time alone with them, we are given both their backstories. Nurugai's village is completely destroyed, and she is blamed for it. Tenza was a child who never received love from anyone growing up and did whatever he could to survive, learning to kill people. Then, he's adopted and trained to become a swordsman. Learning to have respect and have someone to look up to and want to achieve goals for. Except, I don't care.

I think the trope of the characters' villages being burned down is overdone. The troubled child turned hoodlum trope is overdone. I couldn't care less about these characters because I've seen it 100 times before. There needs to be something that can engage me and allow me to feel bad for these characters. Tenza is a boring character through and through. I don't care how many times they show me his flashback. He's overdone. He fights valiantly and finds purpose in himself, fighting the monsters he faces to protect someone else. Then he dies, so it's like, ok, cool. Even if I liked his backstory (because, let's be honest, there's heavy bias because I did NOT like Hell's Paradise in the slightest), it didn't have any time to simmer with the audience. HI, CHARACTER YOU DON'T KNOW -> DEPRESSING BACKSTORY -> YOU LOVE HIM NOW -> HE'S FREAKING DEAD. Stop it. Don't do that.

Watching that episode felt like a waste of time. Why did I have to sit there and learn about this character's backstory, expecting they would be a bigger deal, just for the end of the episode to punch me in the face and laugh at me for how I just spent my past 20 minutes ingesting information that will not matter.

I'm happy to say I have more examples of how this can be done well. All of which cover different moods. The key to making a good introductory backstory is to have all the events surrounding the character be intriguing. We should be engaged and curious about the situation at hand, not just the character.

Since many backstories try to be tragic, I'll start with the first episode of Galaxy Express 999. We are given some world-building and then introduced to our titular character, Tetsuro. Immediately, we are already captivated by the world in which these characters live. We are now just following the life of one individual. I will forever praise Leiji Matsumoto for this and his ability to attach you to characters you've just met. There's something that comes off as just so human there's an immediate connection to be found. When we watch Tetsuro and his mother struggle through the cold, barren snow, you can feel the love they have for each other and their desperation for a better life. We understand their struggles. When Tetsuro's mom is killed, we feel bad for him. We don't even know him yet, but it's just the reality that this poor 10-year-old boy just lost his mom, and now he was to brave this harsh, cruel world alone, a world where humans are treated like dirt. This backstory sets up the motivation for his entire character as well. It's perfectly executed, and we can perfectly understand why he wants to get a robotic body to make up for the time his parents didn't get to live for.

The way Leiji Matsumoto executes backstories can be seen in practically every episode of Galaxy Express. In every episode, Tetsuro and Maetel travel to a new planet and encounter someone new and the life they struggle with. A part of the beauty in the message with Galaxy Express is no matter where you go or how distant you feel from other people, there's an inherent connection between us all. It's illustrated so well in this show that even though half the characters aren't even human, we understand their pain. Some characters don't even have backstories, all we see is the oppressive world they live in and feel immediate sympathy. This could be me being a major Leiji Matsumoto simp, but I think that there is so much care and consideration poured into that story. The difference between Demon Slayer and Galaxy Express is one says, "I want you to feel bad for this character," and the latter says, "I want to create something that's human."

Now, there are two other examples of good introductory backgrounds I want to bring up because they both show how this can be done to completely different genres.

I would first like to mention the start of Cowboy Bebop. At the start of the first episode, we are given a greyscaled noir-esque opening. The only sound is a singular music box as we see guns firing, a red rose, and a grenade, and then BANG, the opening starts. For anyone who's seen Bebop, you know very well that the intro sequence shows how Spike faked his death to escape the syndicate. It's something to be appreciated in retrospect, but this is gripping for newcomers watching the show for the first time. It's whiplash, this quiet scene, and then the loud booming intro. When I watched this show for the first time, I was excited. "Whoa, this is gonna be a wild ride," I thought. You want to find out what the backstory was about, however, and the pieces are put into place over the course of the show. The thing I love about Bebop is it's made to be rewatched. We understand the true meaning behind that first scene only by re-watching it. It's gripping with action, even if we have no idea who any of the characters shown were. That's not the point of introducing the characters. It's just meant for you to be curious.

As a final example, I want to talk about the first scene in The Wind Rises. The film starts out showing Jirou's childhood, but this is just a small part of the movie. The movie has a fantastic way of engaging us with the character. The first scene is Jirou's dream of flying a plane across the countryside of Japan until he's shot down. We don't know anything about this guy, but we can tell he loves flying, and it's done in an exciting way where we want to see more. His childhood is meant to show us where he is now, and you already have a great idea of who he is before we even reach the present day. It's done in such an engaging way, especially when he first dreams about Giovanni Battista. A kid so deeply rooted in this passion for planes, you want to see his story unfold.

And finally, my favorite way to integrate a backstory. It is in the middle of a show's runtime or after we've already established a character. I think that this is the perfect way to show a backstory because you've already gotten to understand and like the character, and you still have plenty of time before the show ends or the character dies for that backstory to truly feel like a part of the character that they carry with them and so when the show does end, or the character dies, the gravity of their whole story is felt that much more. However, there still is a way to mess that all up.

One glance at my profile, and it's obvious I really like Lupin, but any sane fan will tell you Part 6 was not it. It suffered from a lot of problems, both technical and in the show itself. It's obvious that the whole thing got thrown together quickly, and that goes for our main antagonist, Lupin's "mom." Hearing Lupin mention his mom was just a "nuh uh, no, we are not doing this." Did it have the potential to be presented in an interesting way? Yes, but that's not what happened.

For those not well-versed in the Lupin universe, there is basically no canon outside of the very, very few established things. Lupin's grandpa and dad were both master thieves; Goemon is the 13th descendant of Goemon Ishikawa, and Inspector Zenigata is the descendant of Heiji Zenigata. That is literally it. Characters' pasts are changed constantly, and even within the same show. Really, a "canon" event is only canon for that singular episode. I preface Part 6 with this because, obviously, bringing up a new character that is a massive part of Lupin is a big deal.

As it turns out, this character, Tomoe, was not actually Lupin's mom but his mother figure who helped train him to be the thief he is today. She was the one secretly pulling the strings behind every episode. That's why all these girls started appearing in Lupin's life. Ok? So yeah, you suck? Tomoe's character is confusing at best, but it is such a slap in the face to anyone invested in the show. That is why I use it as a perfect way to NOT integrate a backstory into a pre-established character, because the way part 6 was handled feels like fan fiction.

To compare, Lupin Zero which came out just a year after Part 6, was a 6-part series solely created to show the origin story of Lupin and Jigen. In that series, it includes Lupin I and Lupin II. These are characters we've only heard talked about, so seeing them was very exciting. Their existence and influence on Lupin are believable and add to his character because this flashback doesn't come out of nowhere. "Oh we've heard of these guys, and now we finally get to see them!!" See that's how to do that right. Not just "Haiii guys~~ So I have a mom now~!!☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆ She is also evil now and you have to believe this is extremely important!!!"

In summary, characters like Tomoe feel like someone inserted their OC and we had to sit there for 24 episodes and actually believe that she was someone we should care about. (This is why I don't read fanfics with OC's). If you're going to throw in a backstory, make sure it doesn't come out of literally nowhere.

There are two different types of middle backstories, one is leaving hints and only getting glimpses into the past, and the other is dumping the whole thing. And both can be done really well.

My favorite example of just leaving little hints, is Evangelion. Practically all the characters follow this type of progression where we're giving a lot of hints where we're meant to put the pieces together. One I want to give special applause to is Asuka. Until the episode where her backstory is revealed, we don't really know much. Like Bebop, Evangelion is a show that demands rewatch in order to understand where everything fits into place. Initially watching Evangelion, Asuka comes off as annoying and narcissistic, and she is, but through her backstory, we find out why she acted the way she did throughout the series. The clues were all there, we just didn't fully understand until we got the main reveal.

As a kid, the one person she ever cared about was her mother, and the only thing she truly felt accomplished in, becoming an EVA pilot, she was never able to tell her mom before she hanged herself right in front of her daughter. This is why she comes off as so high and mighty because she needs to reassure herself that she is because she never had anyone that mattered to her, tell her that.

The way we perceive her actions is now understood because of her past. We needed this story to take place in the middle because we needed to form an opinion on Asuka and pick up on her character traits so that her backstory would explain all of that. The final two episodes speak a lot about her past and why she's like this, without this prior knowledge, we would not understand why she is such a troubled character and after we are allowed to see her express herself, why she is feeling insecure.

One final example. Luffy's backstory is almost as iconic as the character himself. Something I like that the anime does is put his backstory 4 episodes into the show, a change made from the manga, where it's the first chapter. I think that allowing us to spend 3 episodes with Luffy and getting to know his character so his backstory has all the more impact. I instantly fell in love with Luffy's character, so seeing him be so different as a kid and the emotional connection he has to Shanks, has all the more impact to me. I now understand why that hat is so important to Luffy. The little bit of context to Luffy's character before getting to know his past I think creates a deeper connection than starting out with it (I am not dissing the manga at all, I just prefer the anime in this one instance).

I think I've been able to explain my thoughts on how each type of backstory integration can be handled, and again I would like to reiterate, that this is all my opinion. This is something I find very important to me still, so I wanted to share the ways in which they are executed properly and improperly in all different forms. This part of a show is a make-it-or-break-it for me, so I think it's good to have high standards for how to execute a backstory properly. I hope whether you agree or disagree with me, you at least found this interesting. If you do have your own opinions I would like to hear them.

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wombo--combo · 2 years

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SO. This is just IMO so take nothing to heart- actually. scratch that. Yell obscenities at me. state your opinion "calmly". Criticize me. take it so to heart you find my house and steal my (very cute) dog. Please tell me your opinions on Starship or talk about your favourite Starkid production/villain song

ANYWAY- Starship is one of the best musicals Starkid have made, all of their productions are GREAT but there's something special about Starship that makes my dumb little brain go WOOSH. So I'm going to rant about it, because of COURSE I am.

To start of-- The underlying message! My main takeaway from it is seeing something beautiful in something unusual or new- even if it isn't "beautiful" on the outside- which is a long way of describing it, but how else do I word that lol. But as someone who ADORES things that are strange and beautiful in a non- uhh traditional (I guess??) way, especially insects, it just hit me really hard in my chest. I don't think I've watched another Starkid musical and really RELATED to it like I did with Starship!

OF COURSE I can't go without mentioning both Dylan Saunders and Meredith Stepien! Their duet is absolutely WONDERFUL! It's- literally and metaphorically- music to my ears. Dylan's range gets me every single time! My brain barely makes the connection of Pincer and Tootsie being played by the same guy- It astounds me from how he can go from a smooth, clearly evil scorpion to a bumbling, lovestruck oaf so effortlessly. PLUS! Kick it up a notch is one of the best villain songs I've heard EVER! The jazz (I'm calling it jazz even if it's not shush) mixed with Dylan's smooth as hell voice is just brilliant, and Pincer's blatant manipulation- He's clearly a villain but I wanted (in the first few minutes of the song) to trust him.

It's also worth mentioning that Starkid weren't as experienced as they are now- they didn't have as much training in vocals or funding but they still managed to make something brilliant that was still high quality! I mean the stage was TINY!!! AND THEY STILL MANAGED TO DO SO MUCH WITH IT!! Every location genuinely feels like a different stage entirely.

Finally, Up regaining his toughness. As it got closer I could see it coming- and I was dreading that he'd be turned back into a cold-hearted son of a bitch completely, that his softness would be forgotten and looked down upon- but instead he accepts it, and becomes so much stronger for it! Any moments past the mosquito scene where he acts 'soft' It's not truly looked down upon- and any moments where he's tough it's not forgotten either, It's such a perfect balance of how his injury- I mean, his famous injury, that everyone knows about- changed him, and how in some ways he is still the same man.

Plus my teeny girl crush on Taz so that makes me kinda bias.

#This is for three people #and three people only #you know who you are #dylan saunders #meredith stepien #joe walker #joe moses #lauren lopez #joey richter #starkid #team starkid #starship #starkid starship #Up #Taz #tootsie megagirl #megagirl #pincer

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one-boring-person · 4 years

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Only Traitors Consort With The Damned. (Part Three)

The Lost Boys x reader

Warnings: none

Context: The senior officer (Y/n) is expecting arrives.

A/N: Im not really sure where this story is going, but anyhow. I'm sorry, there really isn't that much mention of the boys in this, but I guess this can kinda count as a filler chapter?

Masterlist.

My hands are shaking as I check my watch yet again, biting my lip nervously as I shift in place, my coat drawn tightly around me to fight off the cool night air, the rest of my clothes as smart as possible, to make a good impression. In my left hand, I hold the creased envelope, the edges torn and dog-eared from being handled so much, the letter inside stained slightly from where I picked it up with my hands covered in gore, the contents nearly branded into my memory by now. A senior officer is to meet me at the Santa Carla train station at eight o'clock exactly, should the train be on time for once. Since I received this information two days ago, I have not stopped fidgeting and worrying with myself, my nails bitten down to the bed, the skin painful and red, my nerves running rampant within me, resulting in a thorough tidy-up of the shed and many unforseen training fights with the hand-made dummy behind it, my knuckles as sore as if I've been in a real fight.

Even now, I can feel the bruising under my gloves smart with every movement, my fingers flexing instinctually as I watch the thinning stream of people emerging from the station doors, eyes hoping to catch sight of the officer soon, knowing the uniform will be the tell tale giveaway. My own uniform is neat and tidy for once, as the rules of the SRS state, my long overcoat concealing the weapons I'm obligated to carry around with me: a gun loaded with wooden bullets, three vials of holy water, a stake and a silver knife. Legally, I'm allowed to carry these weapons in full view, being a Hunter for the SRS and all, but most of us choose not to, seeing as the civilians tend to find the sight of them pretty unnerving, but there are some, more arrogant ones, who choose to flaunt their status for the whole world to see, making them easy targets for almost any supernatural being. A wry grimace makes it's way onto my face as I recall the time when my first drill sergeant as a Cadet stalked into a werewolf pack with all of his silver weaponry out on show, instantly resulting in an all out brawl, which only some of us survived. The sergeant was the first to die.

"(Y/n)! It's been too long!" A horribly familiar voice snaps me from my thoughts, my eyes swiftly locating the tall figure walking over to me. Elijah Finch, the lanky, dark haired man I went to Hunting School with, wearing the neatly pressed black jacket of a senior officer, the rank badges sewn onto his chest showing that he has also reached a very high number of kills, as well as a completely new status.

"It's good to see you, sir." I address him with the correct formality, a tight smile forcing it's way onto my lips, my posture straightening as I salute him. For a brief second, I see a faint glimmer of pride flash through the crystal depths of his eyes at the title.

"Ah, don't call me that, (Y/n). We're friends, and that's not how friends talk to each other." He grins as he steps over to me, dropping his holdall momentarily in order to sweep me up into a tight embrace.

Relaxing into him, I return the hug, inhaling the familiar smell of his cologne as he crushes me into his chest, clearly happier to see me than I am him.

"If you say so, Elijah." I respond in his ear, pulling away after a minute, smiling at his broad grin, taking note of the new scar on his right cheek, the pale line splitting his sharp cheekbone in two, "The hell happened to your face?"

"Oh this? Nothing too bad, just had a bad encounter with a possessed child." Elijah smirks, picking up his bag again and slinging it onto his back, refusing my offer to help him out.

"A child gave you that?" I lift an eyebrow at him, finding this amusing.

"A possessed child." He corrects me, falling into step beside me as I lead him away from the train station, aiming to get to the main road, where we can pick up some decent food without coming across David and the boys.

"Sure." I chuckle, rolling my eyes, "You hungry?"

"I could eat. Anywhere good in town?"

"Eh, I guess. Most of them are takeaways, but there's a pretty decent diner just off the main road." I inform him, sticking my hands into my pockets as we walk, hunching my shoulders a little as the cool wind blows around us, chilling me to the bone.

"Lets go there, then. I'll pay." The tall Hunter says decisively, giving me a pointed look when I glance at him queationingly.

"Sure, if you don't mind." I frown slightly at this, fumbling with the notes in my pockets a little out of protest, "When did you become a senior?"

"A month back, I think. Yeah, it was around the beginning of September or so." He replies, clearly looking as if he wants to go on, something which I am only too happy to allow.

"Oh yeah? What was the mission?" I inquire, referring to the SRS concept that a Hunter is promoted to Senior only after completing a particularly difficult hunt.

"Oh, it wasn't too difficult. There was a coven of vampires trying to take over the French Quarter, back home in New Orleans, and had started a fight with the witches that already lived there. I had to go in with a squad of Hunters and eliminate the bloodsuckers, before everything got out of hand. I managed it, and didn't lose a single member of the squad." He goes on to explain, sounding impossibly proud of himself as always, his tone laced with self-confidence.

"Congrats, it sounds like it was well deserved." I congratulate him, stopping outside the diner I usually stay out of, preferring to go to the one on the Boardwalk, my jaw clenching as I see that it is closed for the night.

"Damn that sucks. Is there another one nearby?" Elijah asks, blue eyes looking the structure up and down, hand adjusting on the straps of his bag.

"Err, yeah. There's one just over there." I inform him, pointing at the entrance to the Boardwalk, which lies a good 25 metres away down the road.

"Lets hope that one isn't closed, too." He muses, allowing me to hesitantly lead the way again.

Quickly, we make our way onto the Boardwalk, where I then quickly locate the diner and direct Elijah over to it, hoping the boys aren't anywhere nearby. Thankfully, this one is open, meaning the two of us easily get a table, our uniforms giving us some sort of advantage over other customers, even though the insignia is not a particularly widely recognised one. Sitting at a window table, we take the time to look at the menu properly before deciding on something to order, doing so and relaxing back into our seats as we wait, both of us instinctively turning to look out the window, where I instantly spot the four people I didn't want to see tonight.

Across the pavement, David, Dwayne, Paul and Marko have pulled up on their motorcycles, the four of them drawing attention to themselves as always, something which makes me grit my teeth in annoyance, knowing that Elijah will easily spot them.

"They the resident biker gang?" The Hunter asks, gesturing to the boys with a curious expression.

Tensing almost indiscernibly, I try to suppress the rising fear inside me, nodding as I reply to him.

"It is. They like offering races to anyone who catches their eye." I explain to him, only revealing half of the truth behind them, eyeing the four vampires as they talk amongst themselves, David pulling a cigarette out of his pocket, followed by a lighter, his icy blue eyes suddenly locking with mine across the space. A smirk makes it's way onto his face as he sees me.

"They do, huh? I bet you could easily beat them on yours." Elijah muses out loud, looking me over with a critical eye.

"Yeah, well the only problem with that is that my bike is back in New Orleans, and has been for my entire time here." I remind him, recalling the black Triumph back in the garage at Headquarters, suddenly wishing I could ride it again, missing the exhilaration of the ride.

"That's too bad. I'm surprised, though, you and that bike were pretty much inseparable."

"It's the best vehicle I've ever driven." I shrug, returning my gaze to the four motorcycles outside, only to find their riders gone. Confusion fills me, eyes searching for them, until I hear an unmistakable voice behind me, my heart dropping in my chest.

"So this is where you got to, kitten. We were wondering where you were." David's smirk is practically audible in his tone, my jaw tightening as I turn to face him, only now registering what he called me, a deep blush blossoming on my cheeks.

"Hey David. I didn't realise you were looking for me." I smile cordially at him, trying to signal to him with my eyes for him to leave, before he's caught.

"We got worried." The platinum blonde affirms, eyeing Elijah, who watches the exchange in confusion, "Who's your friend?"

"This is Elijah. He's a close friend of mine. Elijah, this is David, Dwayne, Marko and Paul, some friends I've made here." I introduce them, trying not to reach over and slap their reaching hands away from each other, reminding myself that they boy have gloves onñ and so the difference in temperature shouldn't be too noticeable.

"Nice to meet you, Elijah." David greets, tone sounding forced and completely false.

"Nice to meet you, too." The tall Hunter smiles, shaking David's hand, eyes flicking over the others in turn.

David turns to me once again once he's finished shaking hands, blue eyes teasing.

"Let us know when you're next free, we'd love to spend more time together again." The vampire tells me, before he and the boys step out, Marko and Paul pushing and shoving each other on their way, nearly upsetting a few of the tables.

Once they've left, Elijah looks at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Friends?" Is all he says.

"What, are you implying that I can't make friends?" I tease, hoping not to have to go into too much detail.

"Of course not. They just seem pretty interesting characters." He shrugs, looking over as the waiter brings us our food, thanking him pleasantly before returning his gaze to me.

"They are, but they're a great cover-up story at times." I reason, tucking into my food.

"Ah, right. Makes sense. Anyway, you got any plans later?" He queries, casually, cutting up some of his own food as he does so.

"No, why?" I respond, confused.

"Because I am in the mood for some hunting."

Part Four

#the lost boys #joel schumacher #vampire #david(thelostboys)#kiefer sutherland #paul(the lost boys)#dwayne(the lost boys)#santa carla #marko(the lost boys)#star(the lost boys)

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