undergrounds | OTA; various locations and times

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OTA; various locations and times

A) One’s An Incident

“—listen to me!”

Somewhere near you, whether it’s at the park or on the sidewalk or in the café or riding the tube, there is a young man engaged in a heated conversation. The identity of the person he’s arguing with may not be readily obvious to those without supernatural hearing; the discussion is taking place over the phone. Should you attempt to tune Stiles out, it’ll quickly prove fruitless. His voice rises in volume the longer he’s on the call.

“I’m telling you, it’s fine. …No! I’m not sending you a picture of it. There’s nothing to see! …No. …No. It was just an accident, okay!?”

Distractedly, Stiles turns in your direction. There is an ugly, swollen bruise taking up half his face, clearly the work of someone’s fist. You may be able to infer that this is what the fight is about.

“—oh my god, don’t. You were the one who shipped me off here. You don’t get to pull that card on me, not now. …Dad. …Dad. Would you— …Would you just TRUST me for once!?”

Whatever his father responds with, it elicits an immediate reaction from Stiles. Expression twisting miserably, he seems to lose all energy for continuing the exchange. His voice is wooden, weary.

“Fine. I gotta go. …Yeah, I will. …Alright. Love you too.”

The call ends. Maybe you make eye contact with Stiles awkwardly. Maybe you decide to talk to him. Maybe you try to pretend you hadn’t overheard.

“Sorry about that,” he says to you, light and cheery. His smile is tight. “You know how it is. My old man always has to get his say in.”

B) Two’s A Coincidence

If you venture to the library, you’ll likely find Stiles buried nose-deep in an oversized tome. He’s piled high a wall of literature around him, to the point where it might be difficult to see him from the front. The titles of the books? All on mythology and mythical creatures. On occasion, a particularly interesting passage has him muttering under his breath and jotting down a few notes in his journal. Feel free to pull up a chair and harass him; he could use a break.

C) Three’s A Pattern

Guess who just drove his shitty used bicycle into you or your vehicle? This guy. Eyes wide, he hastily stammers out an apology, then loses his balance. Both bike and boy crash to the ground in a mess of whizzing gears and muffled groans. Maybe he took you down with him.

D) Four’s A Warrant

Night in London isn’t kind to humans—not that that’s ever stopped Stiles from exploring the city at inappropriate hours. However, there’s something different about the young man tonight as he wanders the streets aimlessly. For one, he’s clad only in a pair of loose-fitting sweatpants and a long-sleeve shirt with no shoes in sight. He doesn’t even have his trusty lacrosse stick on him! If you get close, you’ll see the unfocused, glassy fog to his eyes. Hopefully your intentions are well-meaning. Or maybe you’re looking for an easy snack. Either way, Stiles doesn’t seem to be in a position to argue.

( If you prefer brackets over prose, I’ll follow suit! PM me if you’d like to plot out a specific starter for your character! c: )

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If Heiji had been in fox form, his ears would have pricked up at once. "No kidding? My old man used to be a cop, back in the day! Probably why he's so damn strict about everything."

Of course, since then he'd retired from public life and lived firmly in the Other Realm as a model citizen. "So he sent you out here to keep ya out of trouble?"

“Whoa, weird coincidence.”

Though, in comparison to what Heiji has allegedly dealt with, Stiles has only ever reaped the benefits that come from having a parent in such a prestigious position of power. He’s been abusing the system to fuel his own curiosity for years.

“And yeah, that’s pretty much the sum of it. If only he knew.”

Grinning, he shoots the fae a sly look. Get sent to London to stay out of trouble? Immediately find trouble.

Well. Heiji, of course, did not believe in anything so prosaic as staying out of trouble. "So does that make us both problem kids? Still, what was he thinkin' sending you to a whole other continent to keep you outta trouble?"

Like... knowing Stiles, wouldn't that just encourage him to get in deeper?

"Speakin' of being shipped off, how long you planning to stay here? You got a study visa or something?"

To be fair to Sheriff Stilinski, his son hardly needed encouragement to find trouble. He’d simply hoped that Claudia’s parents would have had a stabilizing effect on the boy he’s still learning how to raise.

“Nope.” Though, he has been considering the possibility of finishing his high school education in Europe. “I’m a dual citizen. The plan is for me to just stay the summer. At least, that was the plan. What about you? I mean, you could go like, anywhere you wanted, right?”

Heiji laughed. "Yeah, I guess I ain't have to worry too much about visas. Though I do have one. I guess I just been thinking about why they shipped me out here. I mean, maybe it was for a reason? ...Besides gettin' rid of me, that is."

He put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Things here are definitely different. I wonder if I shouldn't stick around for a while and see what happens."

The thing about Heiji is—he inspires a strong sense of solidarity in Stiles that he hasn't really known...well, ever. Scott may be his best friend, but they aren't particularly alike. Which is fine! More than fine. Opposites attract and all that. It's just that Stiles trusts Heiji a hell of a lot sooner than he trusts most new acquaintances.

"I'm thinking the same thing. Things are pretty chaotic here. Maybe your family sensed that. Being all..."

Here, he makes a wiggly-fingered gesture at Heiji, as if to try an encompass his magicky-faeness.

Heiji smiled. "Yeah, maybe so. My old man, he's actually a pretty important official in his area. And he keeps track of things happening elsewhere -- at least more than most. Maybe I'm supposed to be learning something?"

He raised an index finger, getting that mischievous look in his eye. "Of course, out here they can't really stop us from gettin' into trouble."

For his part, he rather enjoyed hanging out with Stiles; it wasn't too often that he got to chat with normal(???) humans about underground happenings, especially with the rules the Night Council had established in London. And they'd turned out to have much more in common than he'd thought. And maybe because he came from outside London, Stiles didn't seem hung up on a lot of the rules and suspicions that others held.

Stiles’ brows rise dramatically. Nevermind taking a plane to Japan…they can simply ambush the jerkhole on his own turf here in London! Okay, so it’ll never happen—so what? It’s gratifying just to imagine it.

“They sure as hell can’t. And how are we supposed to learn anything if we’re not in difficult situations? Honestly, we’re just doing exactly what we should be. Building character.”

Oh, god, Stiles. Don't encourage Heiji to get in trouble, he already gets in plenty.

"Speakin' of building character, I heard you were at the May ball. Nancy mentioned you were her plus one. See anything interesting while you were there?"

There's no such thing as too much trouble. Embrace your new partner-in-crime, Heiji. We're going the distance.

"You know Nance?" Curious, he's about to start needling the fae for all the details on how they were acquainted, only to be pulled short by the question. "Well...you could say that."

Stiles pauses, deciding if he wants to share this information or not.

"There was a weird guy there. I've met him before, but... It was like he did a complete 180 in personality. I think he was a hunter."

"Hmm... well, I met a few weirdos there, myself. Was he kinda short, dark hair like it was cut by a kindergartener?"

Yes he was talking about Sasuke. No, he was not sorry about it.

"...Definitely not the same guy."

Though color him intrigued.

"You'd know right away if you'd met him—tall, gold eyes, has a random dyed streak of hair. He seemed chill at first, until he had some kind of psychotic break and threw me in a closet."

"Hmm... actually, I do think I ran into him. He seemed really crabby, so I just let him alone." Heiji paused.

"Oh yeah, he's fae, by the way. But I don't know what his story is. He felt weird."

"Fae!?"

Between the eyes, the sharpened canines, and the way he'd growled...Stiles had instinctively assumed werewolf. Thrown off, he reevaluates his assessment of Will.

"He said the world would be better off without your kind, and got really pissed when I asked if he was a witch. Guy has some serious issues going on."

"Seriously? That's so rude." And, in Heiji's opinion, completely unwarranted. Then again, there were humans who thought the world would be better off without humankind.

He looked thoughtful. "I wonder if he's one of them outcast fae..."

Stiles folds his arms over his chest, head tilted to the side inquisitively.

“That sounds kinda self-explanatory but I’ll bite—what’s an outcast fae?”

Get ready to have some knowledge dropped on you Stiles, I hope you like textwalls.

"Well... you know how fae belong to courts, right? There's the Seelie court, which I belong to, and the Unseelie court, its opposite. All the fae here are part of either one of the courts, and they gotta present themselves as such. Except the outcasts."

He crossed his arms. "Outcast fae are for one reason or other thrown out. That means they don't have any rank, and they can't live in Faery any more. They gotta live in this world, and they're also weakened. It's kinda like bein' excommunicated. I don't know what that fella did to get tossed out, though -- you'd have to get that from him, probably. But in any case, outcasts tend to pose as somethin' they're not to fit in better. Like metahumans."

Do the textwalls come with colored pictures, at least.

“Whoa. Harsh punishment.” And also really kind of cool. “What are fae thrown out for? We talking like, hardcore criminals here or is it sometimes used for like, petty mistakes?”

Well, I mean. They did if you were in Detective Conan?

"It depends on the court, really. In the old days, sometimes fae would get thrown out for getting too close with a human, depending on their rank. In general, it's best to avoid pissing off the King and Queen of your court. And of course any sort of insurrection... well, the point is, you wanna try and avoid getting tossed out if ya can."

“Huh.”

Seems strange to him that the fae would have such stringent punishments for mingling too closely with humankind. After all, wasn’t that supposed to be what fairies did in their free time? Interfere with human lives and make everyone miserable? Or maybe Heiji is talking about a different kind of closeness. Ah…that’d probably make more sense.

“But your family didn’t try to get you thrown out,” he points out suddenly. “That’s good, right?”

"Wh -- " Heiji took a moment or two to turn bright red.

"Wh-what are you sayin'? I didn't get that close! Besides, I'm too young to settle down!" Clearly Stiles just needed to stop impugning his character with these terrible insinuations. He was only 200 years old and that was WAY TOO YOUNG TO GET MARRIED. Leave him alone, mom.

It takes Stiles a moment to catch up with the jump Heiji has made, and when he does, he doesn’t try to correct the other boy. Sure, this may not be what he meant, but there’s no way in hell he’s going to waste a beautiful opportunity like this to tease Heiji.

“So you did get close though, right? You going to have little fox babies with her?”

The response was immediate.

"It's not like that! Nothing happened!" He was too young to know any better, shut up.

"Anyhow, that wouldn't happen. When a fox and a human get together, any kids almost always turn out human. Like Seimei." Oh, wait. Stiles might not know who that was. "A metahuman, basically."

Sorry, Heiji, there’s no way you can escape so easily. Seeing the normally cool, calm, and collected young man get so flustered is awesome.

“When a fox…and a human…? Dude, whoa. Too much information. I’m not sure what kinky stuff you’re into, but that’s TMI.”

"It's not kinky, you just stay in human form! It works fine, I done it before." Although it hadn't really occurred to Heiji that there might be other... possibilities? But that would be weird. How would that even work.

Shut up Stiles, you're banned.

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