Bleach Hereafter RPG

Vance was drinking, which was quickly becoming a bad habit that he really should have been trying to stop. He looked at the bottle of whiskey set next to himself and made a guttural sound of annoyance. Drinking Canadian Whiskey in France seemed, like he was in misery. The bottle moved as he touched it with his fingers, still steady as a rock. His wrist didn't even move as he poured a drink again. A skill lost to the days of sword fighters and gunslingers.

He finished throwing back the current shot and then left a tip on the table and put his coat on, still in the drab boring nobody suit of the OGA. He looked up as he headed outside and grunted as he thought about time. Back when his ancestors lived and died by the way of the gun. Was it all simpler? If you had any argument you just, forced them to draw and fire and just be quicker. Now, he was a dam glorified Man in Black straight out of some B-Movie.

It wasn't worth it, he thought as he started walking. There was no reason to keep thinking about it. His soul was about to go on a rampage as someone used some power near him. He felt it tug and jerk as it latched onto something in the distance. He looked in that direction, because of his distribution he could not tell the exact distance. He shrugged and started walking that way towards whoever or whatever was showing up.

Vance looked at the edge of town as a young woman approached, he leaned back against the building and looked at her with bored eyes. He didn't address her until she was close enough. "Welcome." He drawled, then added the same in Spanish and French with his accent.

This was such a different world than the one to which she'd become accustomed. The world of night and sand was an endless struggle just for survival. One had to stake their claim on everything they would need to see the next day, and fight to the death to keep it. Even on her excursions to the world of the living, Sombra's experiences had very much been the same; the only difference was a more pleasant view during her hunt.

This, the world truly of humans, was much more calm, however. People came and went without trying to catch one unawares. Their cars roared not for intimidation, but for the simple act of moving. Their expressions... Well, their expressions were very different! She usually only saw looks of fear and terror, so the looks of... Well, that was confusion. That was concern, maybe? That was also fear.

"Honey, isn't that..?" Sombra picked up a brief question from an older woman as she passed by, her feet carrying her perhaps a little more quickly than they should have. She looked the part of a mortal right now, but she certainly wasn't thinking to act it. However, before she could hear the rest, someone was speaking directly to her -and in several languages.

"Bienvenue?" Her tongue and lips shaped the word with a little difficulty, as though she were unsure of how to make the sounds themselves. In truth, she didn't know from where the knowledge of his words was coming. The memories? Had to be. Whatever the cause, she had only a passing understanding of his words until his third attempt to speak to her, which seemed clear as a bell to her ears.

"Why welcome?" The voice with which she spoke was a little harsher than her appearance might suggest, backed by the torrent of rage and confusion she was trying to suppress for now. Fortunately, it still came out sounding human, which was the goal. Her features hardened a little, her eyes growing stern as she looked over this stranger speaking to her now. Humans didn't just... talk to one another casually, did they? Was this normal?

As she breathed, a certain scent caught her nose. It stood out from the many smells of weaker souls going about their day, and of the exhaust spewing from cars driving alongside the road. It wasn't freshly made food, either. No, it was coming from the man speaking to her now. It made the hair stand on the back of her neck, and Sombra took a tentative step back and away. She was wholly unused to being so exposed, without her mask to hide her heart, and the brunt of her mistrust and concern showed plain as day on her face.

However, she couldn't take her eyes off of him. No, to do so would be to invite death. Of that, she was absolutely certain.

Vance watched the young lady with a look of morbid curiosity. Most of the time, things like her showed up with holes, fake bodies and spewing some nonsense about their Queen. Though they seemed a bit more civilized than something like himself. The second she started staring at him like a predator he made sure his hands were in the least threatening position they could be in, well his right hand anyway.

Unfortunate for Vance, being a gunslinger was in his blood, and that look, the one she was giving him now, sent his senses right where they should not go when you're trying to get information. He had barely even realized how relaxed his left hand was, or that it had shifted to flex over his holster. When he did, he pushed that part of his DNA to the back of his mind and offered her a hand.

"It's a common greeting." He stated in whatever language she had responded to him in. He had been hired for the fact he knew English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Cantonese. Though sometimes it took him a bit to get in the swing of it, and the southern drawl never left. Remnants of Tombstone, and Deadwood. Vance pulled his hand up and flourished with a bow.

"Don't worry, I'm harmless to things not on my boss' hit list." He chuckled, though he was telling the truth, after all his organizations motto was "shoot it, or recruit it".

"What brings you here on this fine afternoon?"

The man gave her mixed signals, one hand literally not knowing what the other was doing. The right seemed like he was trying to appear nonthreatening towards her, but the left hovered near the thing he was wearing. That stood out in particular to her, and her eyes focused intently on its presence. Despite its position inside the holster, she could hear the bangs echoing extremely vividly. She could smell the gunpowder.

She could taste blood.

Sombra roused herself from the intrusive memory, about the time she'd realized she had been holding her breath. She unclenched her jaw, and forced herself to breath deeply while she blinked away the hint of yellow returning to her eyes. The people around them were stopping to stare, a little more than the few who were doing so when she'd walked close to town before.

"I'm..." She started to answer, but stopped short of being unable to give one. What could she say? Stating her actual problem out loud would only make her more vulnerable. She couldn't have that. "I'm just visiting. I knew this place... before." That wasn't too much information, she thought. She hadn't had the time to come up with a good lie, but what lie would even sound convincing? What she was doing was already strange.

"I think I lived here." Saying it out loud helped, somehow. She breathed again, and Sombra resumed her pace along the paved road into town. Her instincts screamed at her not to turn her back to the man, but seeing his weapon only made the noises louder. It frightened her far more than some foe who simply wished to kill her, and she didn't like that. Still, she kept her senses sharp; in particular, her Pesquisa kept such vivid detail of him that it was as good as seeing the stranger with her own eyes.

That was good enough.

"Well, if you lived here, welcome back I guess. I would leave you alone but that could end badly for people, so I think I may just tag along for a bit." Vance said as he pulled a glowing tube of drops out of his coat and dripped them into his eyes and ears. Just in case she decided she no longer needed a meat suit and he was not in the mood to have to do it later or go looking at his phone to catch up with her.

"How long ago did you live here, Miss?" He asked in a polite drawl as his soul latched onto hers, feeding it power at a minor rate. Not like Vance had a say in it anyway. He was the weirdest thing he had ever seen and this was no different. He looked down the street at the generic small town bustle and realized it was a little too quaint for his liking, he would have been a bit more happy back at the bar. Then again he could have used his employee badge to go back to the OGA building but that was probably not the best solution with a potential threat just wandering around like a lost lamb.

He clearly knew what she was, but the only response Sombra gave to the man was a brief huff of annoyance. She didn't want to be followed. That was the entire point of the disguise, after all! So that she wouldn't be found and harassed while she looked around! For a moment, she considered if her Sonido would be enough to get away from him, but the thought was pushed aside by his line of questioning.

He couldn't escape her Pesquisa, so she'd play along so long as it remained convenient to do so.

"I don't know." Her voice was a little more flat than before, and her steps slowed and quickened with every new smell that came her way. Strangers continued to give her odd looks, joining the few who were visibly afraid of her image, but she didn't pay them any mind. What did she care what the locals thought, anyway? They weren't important right now.

Aside from that line of thought, her brown eyes widened as she rounded a corner onto the town's main street. All along the sides, people were sitting and talking among one another. There was plenty of laughter and smiles, but it was the food that had hit her so hard she felt stunned by it. Her mouth watered a little, and she swore that she could feel the fresh baked bread in her mouth already. She could taste a little of... of... something which the name escaped her. It felt bubbly on her tongue, though.

Another small pulse from her Pesquisa, and her attention lifted up from the road and into the distance. There was something... familiar in that direction. It felt oddly safe, but also, something in the pit of her stomach dreaded it more than anything. As her steps carried her through the crowded street, she grabbed a piece of bread from a table and bit into it. It tasted good! Good enough that she didn't pay any mind to the couple yelling after her, or the attention that had gotten.

"So..." The single syllable passed her lips just as soon as it'd entered her mind, but she didn't have the heart or knowledge to finish what it was. By the time she'd finished her bread, Sombra had come to a stop in front of a townhome surrounded on either side. The brick facade was showing signs of wear, like it'd been well taken care of until only recently.

However, the Hollow's face could only twist in the beginnings of rage. Her soft eyes had hardened and become stern, and she scowled at the wooden door that barred her entry. What was it about this place that angered her so? She wasn't entirely sure, but something was lurking in the back of her mind. For just a moment, her power rose from the depths of her soul, and from the white of her dress, several ghostly orbs appeared. They circled around her briefly, then flew off through the wall of the home and into its hidden rooms.

"Something..." She muttered, her eyes flitting to and fro as though to follow the orbs as they passed by the occasional window. Her expression grew angrier, and she clenched her jaw tightly enough that her teeth began to ache as the floating orbs grew faster. "Where..? What is it?" She balled each hand into a tight fist as her attention rest solely on the searching orbs. Something here had called to her, but whatever it was was no longer here! It was gone! That... That piece... Something of hers!

Vance slowly moseyed after the young lady as she walked around like a child who was seeing something for the first time. He did not impose or intrude to get in her way, having her go feral and start causing chaos would have been a problem for two reasons. One, Vance was bad at combat, like really bad. Two, and far more importantly, he was off duty and had just pulled a eighteen hour shift investigating another hollow that had simply ran away after eating a plus.

Which was lucky in that he did not have to fight and really did not want to. Though the Armorer's recent fascination with what it called the In-Between was making all the agents like him run around taking readings with who knew what. Then, she went off and stole bread, which Vance wandered up and apologized and paid for. This was not nearly as bad as taking Grey or the Armorer into public but it was pretty close. She was just new, those two geniuses had no idea what common sense was.

The gunfighter followed her to a townhome that had been damaged by time or something and he took a picture of it and her with his phone for later. Slightly off delay by cleaning up her messes on the way there and he stared at it, as if it would tell him something. It did not and his investigation just basically told him that to her, this place was wrong.

Vance watched the orbs as he recorded the tail end of them and then followed her, following the orbs of light. He was now confused, as this was not something he normally saw from anything that called Hueco Mundo home, this was more a Reich thing. He noticed her growing angry, like a poker player who just could not deal with the fact that the house was taking everything away from them. He followed her through some hidden areas, still taking pictures and marking the place on the OGA app to have someone follow up.

When she finally spoke, about it, Vance wondered what the hell it was. If it was something that mattered to her or something that was spiritual. He could not sense anything that his soul wasn't directly attached too and helping kick the snot out of him so he had no idea what she was looking for.

"What is... it?" Vance asked, mainly for lack of better terms as he looked at the area she was searching for a rough size estimate. "Is it yours, is it dangerous? Is it from Earth?"

In truth, she had almost forgotten the stranger was standing there by the time he'd spoken up. Her attention had been entirely too focused on the search, though for all her mind raced, she couldn't determine what it was she was looking for. She simply knew that it was supposed to be here, and that it was desperately important. It may even have been able to stop the flood of memories and agony, for a time.

"Yes," was her muttered reply. Her eyes only grew more furious as her orbs flew faster and faster within the home. Her Pesquisa pulsed with stronger beats every moment, threatening to undo her disguise if she wasn't careful in how she used her power. "It should be... here. My... Mine..." Her visage became ugly as it twisted with rage and anguish both. Why wasn't it here? Where had it gone? She just wanted... Why wasn't it here? Why? WHY? WHY?

"Did you know them?" An unanticipated voice stopped her just shy of the boiling point. Her hair stood on end, and she was certain her palms were bleeding from how tightly she'd been clenching her fists. Inside of the home, the orbs slowed to a swift stop, as her attention turned from the home to the older man who had approached behind her. He couldn't have been spiritually aware, or else he'd have known the danger he put himself in just by approaching. Her once brown eyes shone a hungry yellow, to all but the simple humans who resided in this place. But, it was all that he could see was a young girl standing in the road, trembling.

"I'm sorry, miss. They moved on about two months ago." Her face ran the gamut of emotions for a few seconds, from rage to despair and back again as she listened to his explanation. "It was too much to bear staying, I imagine. What happened was... terrible." With only the best of intentions, he laid a hand on her shoulder to stop her trembling. However, all the Hollow could feel now was her anger: at this revelation, at the world, at herself, and most importantly, at him.

The old man's face distorted with pain for only a second, then he simply fell limp to the ground. A distinct hand print remained on his chest, burnt through his clothes and into the skin by the malicious temper she demanded be released. In the world beyond the material, he still grimaced and pleaded silently through the pain, as the girl held him by the collar and squeezed. The unbroken chain still connected him to the body now lying in the road, but in the grasp of a predator, that meant very little.

Sombra opened her mouth and screamed, giving voice to all of the pain and anger playing like a cacophonous orchestra warming up before the concert. The smaller voice of the human girl gave way to her true and terrible sound, as a roar built up and echoed throughout the small town. Her dress grew and began to take on the appearance of fur, even splitting in the back into the beginnings of two distinct tails.

Behind her, the orbs within the home detonated and shook the structure to its very foundations. Bricks fell from the facade, and a piece of the roof slid free only to crash loudly onto the road. Windows shattered out, and the door flew from its hinges. She didn't care about the disguise any more, as her power swelled and cascaded out of her crumbling facade. She didn't care about anything right now. All she wanted to do was to end the pain...

Inflicting it upon others would have to suffice.

Vance sighed as the hollow gave him roughly the same amount of information that everything that was not in the OGA gave. That was literally, we don't say anything cause it would incriminate us cause we're obviously evil. Honestly, it was a complete drag, maybe shooting everything was a better solution, be like everyone else and their genocidal tendencies for no reason at all. Vance scratched his chin and looked around one more time before the hollow went bug nuts.

Of course, just as brainless as every arrancar and hollow. Let's get mad and start destroying stuff cause we can. Vance wondered why he always got caught with these yahoos. His hand twitched as that voice in the back of his head, the one telling him to draw and fire, woke up and his hand flexed down to his gun. The debris hit him and his clothes tore in several places to his annoyance as he made a sound of frustration.

He went with the old western model three. Quick draw and it would let him slam a number of shells really quick, he also did not have time to dump a vial of reishi on the clips of the FnX cause he had not thought he would be at work this fast. The weapon was leveled at the monster as it held the human outside of its body and he let a breath out.

"On behalf of the OGA, you are now allowed to make a choice. But let me make it perfectly clear, I am not a nice person." Vance stated as he let the battery that was his soul go rampant, knocking out the human even in plus form. "Shoot it, or recruit it. You now work for the OGA, or you die." He stated, in a completely calm manner as if he was doing nothing more than talking about the weather or playing poker.