[@FlitterFaux] [b]Lucas Schwarz[/b] I don't look like a Hunter? What's a hunter look like to you, white? Is it because I'm Shiroyaman? Jap man can't be something besides a wageslave? Because my name means [i]black?[/i] ...... Lauren, I don't think I can ever pull that card out of my hat and take it seriously, sorry. It doesn't work at all, no matter how much you teach me. Still, though, it wasn't surprising to hear that I didn't look the part entirely much, with my decidedly pedestrian hoodie and khakis and aforementioned lack of weaponry. It was a bit disheartening, sure; but on the other side of the coin, I knew that it'd be foolhardy of me to expect to have even come close in these three weeks— ten months if you counted my preparatory torture of an extended cram session last semester and a half— of my neophyte Huntsman career... No, even scratching the very surface of my Mother's ability was still entirely beyond me. It would be a long time before I simply radiated [i]power[/i] from my very being, like Mom. [b]"Well, it's funny you should mention that— Do you remember the loud girl in that cafe dressed in yellow?"[/b] I asked rhetorically, rubbing the strangely-empty feeling out of my wrists. [b]"She's my little sister, and just this morning I actually passed of my weapons to her."[/b] Handed down a hand-me-down. How appropriate, right? [b]"I'm working on something new right now, but it's a bit slapdash... Not to mention stuck in the conceptual stage. But, that'd be your reason why."[/b] Believe me, I'm no good at all. In fact, I'm barely hanging in there with all my might. It's just a happy coincidence that I'm unarmed right now... Well, that and the fact that Jericho Piper isn't [i]actually[/i] the norm in terms of how Huntsmen are in our days off and on the town. From what I'd gathered from him regarding how things are in Mantle, his first run-in with the Valic idea of "gun control" was going to be... a bit of a culture shock. Then again, so was Vale being somewhat grounded in Slice of Life as opposed to Cyberpunk Urban Fantasy... [b]"I said [i]relax[/i]. Now— Six stories high, and a lot of windows. Flat landscape."[/b] I repeated the list back to myself, knocking each one off the list that failed to meet the required categories. Luckily, I hadn't needed to use Google-sensei just yet. I normally would be hopeless on this sort of thing, but I had made a point to get on the express line towards familiarizing myself with the hospitals of the City of Vale ever since Lauren expressed a desire to rope me into her usual hijinks. I was pretty sure I knew which one she meant, then. Especially with it being in relatively open airspace, with few other discernible landmarks, the hospital in question had to be... Well over 5 miles away. If not 10. [b]"That's a heck of a walk we're about to be going on... You're [i]really[/i] lost, aren't you?"[/b] It was a blunt way of putting it, and more than likely to send poor Skye into another salvo of entirely unnecessary self-denigration, but my straight man act was far too refined and reflexive for me to stop at this point. If I'd known that this was going to be what I was getting into, I'd have brought my bike... Of course, it would also be pretty awkward to ask a complete stranger to ride double. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Story of my life.