Midnight Strolls [ Lewis / Public ]

The city certainly much more. . . exciting at night. Much more so than London—Or maybe not. Perhaps London was more exciting at night, he’d never really been allowed to wonder about at night so freely. There was a light mist covering the area, obscuring his view beyond a certain point and it was certainly chilly out. But given the chance he would have probably chosen to stay indoors anyway. Besides, there was one major drawback to being out at night like this.

Namely that it had reduced the Englishman to a nervous wreck.

Or maybe that was what he wanted. Did that make him a masochist? Wanting to scare yourself silly. . . Who knew, Lewis certainly didn’t, nor did he care. He was only interested in the atmosphere of the city at night—certainly good for a story! Lewis nodded, scrawling done notes in English (German could be such a pain sometimes, really) on the atmosphere, taking special care to think of as many words to describe it effectively as he could. He paused for a second, looking around anxiously when he thought he heard something.

Nothing there. . .

He let out a nervous laugh, rubbing his neck a bit and scrawling down a few more notes before stopping. Wait. This was what real men did. Well. Maybe they did other, more manly things too, like climbing mountains, riding horses bare-back and growing moustaches. Being outside alone was a small step, but a step in the right direction none-the-less! A smile formed on his face, scrawling less frantically now he was momentarily calm and lost in his thoughts.

[[ Being the last person to reply in most of these threads is really doing a number on my paranoia. /sob REALLY SHORT BUT SHHH. Whoever finds him best be ready for the girly scream-- /killed ]]

((I really shouldn't be getting into any more rps right now, what with the way school is kicking my ass. BUT I CAN'T HELP MYSELF. /sob /shot If I forget to reply, keep spamming me with PMs or something until I do. I'm 100% serious. :l))

Rafael probably shouldn't have been running around this late at night, but...what his family didn't know didn't hurt them. Besides, it wasn't as if he were going to brothels or anything of that sort--there was nothing scandalous at visiting the church. One corner of his mouth tugged upward as he glanced up at the monumental structure, bathed in the soft glow of moonlight. All day, he'd been considerably stressed, but now, he couldn't be calmer.

He'd been heading back to reclaim his bicycle where he'd left it by the church entrance, when he'd spotted another young man skulking about. Being both a sociable person and naturally curious (not to mention a tad fearless when he perhaps shouldn't have been), he found himself deviating away from the path that led to his bike, and following the stranger instead.

It was when he was rounding a corner of the church that he stepped on a small twig--evidently, the stranger heard, for he suddenly stopped. Instinctively, Rafael pressed himself behind the building, so as to remain unseen. 

(For what purpose, he didn't know, but it definitely was exciting.)

A nervous laugh... He peeked around the corner... Aha, he was in the clear. Quietly, on the tips of his toes, he crept up behind the man--who seemed distracted enough by whatever he was writing (What could he be writing about?)--and... Slowly... Heart-pounding... He reached out...

And clamped a hand on his shoulder.

"Good evening," he said pleasantly, "Are you also looking for the arsonist?" As per usual, he had a calming look of serenity on his face...that perhaps came off as being a bit dissonant, given the atmosphere. The fact that the silvery light gave his pale skin and hair a near-ghostly appearance likely didn't help much, either.

((MUSTACHE-GROWING CONTEST, GO!! /shotdown))

[[ /sobokay. I might as well ask while I'm at it but since you're busy anyway you probably haven't had time haah-- but did you get my email? the stupid things been hating on me recently. :T ]]

Lewis paused for a second, putting the pen to his mouth. He'd learned to not suck on the bloody thing and get a mouth full of ink through years of practise and having just that happen. But when he thought about it-- he should jot down what had just happened-- it was certainly scary. Though writing about it. . . It might have been one of those 'you had to be there' moments. But a good writer should surely be able to convey his point with words. Yes, of course!

The only problems was that he didn't think he was a very good writer. . . Well. There was nothing stopping him from trying. Now what would be a good creature to have in this story? Werewolves? Vampires? Or maybe--

He froze at feeling something grabbed onto his shoulder. Within a nanosecond he turned on his heel and screamed (probably a higher than some one of his gender hould have made) and jumped away from the name, only registering that he was pale.

"GH-GHOST--" he shouted, falling back and landing on his backside. The Englishman winced a bit. What did his doctor say? try not to hit anything hard? Well oh dear. Surely one little bump on the bum wouldn't mean anything important. . . right? He glanced up at the young man who had grabbed his shoulder-- definitly not a ghost. This was certainly embarassing. He could only hope that he didn't understand English and didn't know what the word 'ghost' meant.

He laughed a bit awkwardly, pulling himself up and rubbing his lower back. "Ahaha-- I'm sorry, you startled me. Good evening."

He stopped when he was at full height, staring at the younger man, "Arsonist. . .?"

[[ LEWIS HAS ALREADY LOST. /shot ]]

((FFFFFFFFF No, I didn't, actually--I was wondering about that, but I didn't want to say anything, lol XD))


At first, the reaction startled him--though not nearly as much--but after the initial shock, it was difficult not to laugh. If he'd known the man was that jumpy, maybe he would have been less sudden about it. ...Or maybe not. It had been pretty funny, after all.

But...'ghost'? What was that supposed to mean? The Galician wasn't at all familiar with the word, but he supposed that wasn't the important thing. What it told him was that this man was also not Viennese. This tidbit of knowledge already helped to warm him up to the stranger; it was usually nigh impossible for foreigners to tell that Rafael wasn't actually an Austrian (something he secretly had quite the complex about).

"Ah--I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention to surprise you." A little white lie never hurt anyone. "But I couldn't be sure that you weren't him--the arsonist, that is."

He looked around, but there was not another soul in sight. "Have you heard? There's been someone setting fire to things; mostly petty crimes, but still, they haven't caught whoever it is." He waved a hand around nonchalantly, "It's a long story, but I've become quite interested in the case, so I've been following it, myself. Back there," he pointed in the general direction he'd come from, "I found the remains of a...well, something small that was burned down. So I thought he might still be in the area--" He stopped, and then eyed the stranger with a hint of suspicion, "You...haven't seen anyone else around here, have you? Excuse me for saying so, but you do seem a little...jumpy, Herr...?"

It would have looked sketchy to anyone: some foreigner, wandering around near the scene of the crime, practically fainting upon being found, writing something in a book, in a rather odd manner... Rather it would have looked sketchy, if Rafael didn't know who the fire-setter really was.


(( It's okay, Lewis. Your Peter the Great 'stache makes you a winner, to me--/SHOT ))

"It's fine, it's fine, really. No need to apologise, it was my fault, really!" Lewis nodded a bit as he spoke, dusting off his jacket and quickly picking his top hat up off of the floor. Not that he had suspected him of even the smallest of lies. He was well aware of how jumpy he was and just put it down to that. Though. . . He couldn't ingore the feeling of paranoia coming over him. "And besides-- If I was I'd probably more soot or ash-covered, wouldn't I?" He smiled lightly at him, trying to hide how nervous he looked.

But this was all rather exciting. Who'd have thought he'd been so close to an arsenist? He scrawled down a final note in his notebook before popping it back into the inside pocket of his overcoat. It was rude to keep out out and keep writing (which he'd forgotten very briefly, unfortunatly) and he'd cetainly been raised better than that. And besides, he wanted to know more about this arsenist.

"I-I haven't heard, no. . . " he said quietly, looking off and back at where he'd heard the noisebefore the other had shown up. What if that had been the arsenist-- looking for his next target? Wait. What was he so worried about? Arsenists don't burn people. . . Do they? Oh dear. He really didn't know and now he could feel himself shaking again. Well, hopefully the other wouldn't notice it. "W-well, I did hear noise from over there. . ."

Hold on, that was where the young man said he'd come from. "Actually, nevermind. . . Ah! Lewis Fletcher, it's nice to meet you," He smiled again, more cautiously this time. But wait. . .

If it had been him that had made the noise, then why did he hide? Strange. . . Did that mean that he was the arsenist-- Or worse, a mugger. But then again didn't they normally act faster than this? He was probably just over thinking it in reality.

[[ I really wanna draw that now-- ]]

((FINALLY, tests are over...for now. :l /sob))

Rafael smiled. It was difficult to stop himself from asking 'do I look soot-covered, to you?' But then again, if he wasn't good at covering his tracks, he would have been in trouble long before then.

Nevertheless, he decided to drop the suspicious act. If his mannerisms were any indication, then this person looked like he really didn't need extra stress--a sentiment that the Galician could identify with. "That was just me," he reassured honestly in response to the concern about the mysterious noise, "I stepped on a twig, while I was deliberating on whether or not it was safe to approach you." He waved a hand, as if waving some vague notion away, "If you were the arsonist, it might have been dangerous, after all."

Nodding, he returned the introduction, "Rafael Ritter de Werhya." There was a slight note of distaste in his voice, in regards to his surname. He wanted it to be a 'von', not a 'de'. "I'm pleased to meet you, Herr Fletcher."

Looking around once more, he exhaled in defeat and shook his head, "I was excited for a moment, but I suppose the criminal really has fled the scene. Oh well, I wasn't expecting much, anyways--I was getting ready to go fetch my bicycle, in fact. I shouldn't have left it lying around in the first place, but I was in such a hurry. Do you mind if I...?" He gestured, indicating that he needed to go reclaim it.

It would have been easy to just part ways at that point, but he was becoming curious as to what this Lewis fellow was doing wandering around, in the first place. Who took strolls in the dead of night, anyhow? And what was it that he was writing? Was it possible that he'd caught Rafael in the act, and the nervousness was due to his trying to cover up the fact? He couldn't rule out the possibility. Best just to stick around for a while until he was certain there was nothing to be concerned about.

(( https://2img.net/h/i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww48/bionic_cripple/photo-66.jpg Bad photo, was too lazy to scan--/SHOT XD))