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[/h1][/sup][/color][indent][sub][COLOR=f26522][sub][b]Location:[/b]Homes/Phone Convo[/sub][/COLOR][/sub][/indent][indent][sup][right][COLOR=C11B17][sub][b]Collab:[/b] Alistar Sabbath[@Alistar Sabbath], Jiang Shijian[@Akayaofthemoon][/sub][/color][/right][/sup][/indent][hr][hr]

There were quite a few unpleasant sensations she felt upon awakening from her short bout of sleep. The first was that her eyes felt agitated and burned behind her eyelids, which was followed by her head painfully throbbing, her body feeling extremely achy, her throat being horribly dry, she desperately needed a toothbrush, and on top of all that while she was in a sweater the cold was still seeping into her side. Jiang slowly opened her eyes, instantly regretting it with a groaning hiss at the sunlight that was leaking in from the other room and her hand instantly going up to block her face. She slowly forced her way off the tiled bathroom floor, frowning with a scrunched nose of disgust as she took in the mess she had made. Carefully, she used the counter to stand since she was still a bit dizzy, flushing the toilet and turning on the sink to wash her face a bit. She was definitely looking more than a little worse for the wear as she stared into the medicine cabinet mirror but she didn’t have time to care as she opened it, instantly going for the meds. She popped the pills into her mouth, swallowing them down with some water before working on brushing her teeth and debating on if she should clean, eat, or change first before continuing her [i]lovely[/i] morning. 

Ultimately, her morning grievances were completely her own fault and Jiang was old enough to know better than to binge her frustration away but old habits die hard. It had been a long time since she had fucked up this bad though, black out was not something she had felt comfortable enough to experience in decades and even then it wasn’t like she work to get black out drunk.[i] ‘Talk about coming back strong.’[/i], she scoffed in thought as she spat in the sink and rinsed everything away. She pulled her hair up in twin messy space buns to get it out of the way as she worked to scrub up the missed puking attempts from the night before, figuring if she got dirty then at least it was already affecting something that needed to be washed rather than risking new clothes. Once everything was in much better shape than when she awoke, she headed into her room and only stopped to slam the curtains shut before attempting to find a new outfit for the day, preferably something loose and baggy. She dragged the filth ridden sweater over her head, tossing it to the ground when she heard an audible ‘thunk’ of something heavy within its pocket. 

She took a seat on the bed, snagging the sweater off the ground and rifling through the pocket when she pulled out a phone. This wouldn’t have been that much of a surprise if it had been her own phone but it clearly wasn’t. Jiang took a moment to inspect the outside of it, really making sure it wasn’t hers without the case or something but it was completely unfamiliar. Had she bought a new phone last night? Had she stolen a phone from someone? She frowned, placing the phone next to her before digging more into the pocket for a receipt or something to give her a clue and while she did find a folded up piece of paper, it was definitely [i]not[/i] a receipt. She felt herself go a little white and her current nausea rising from the nerves she now felt with the first few words. 

[i][color=#C11B17]My dearest Jiang,

 I'm sorry for the way we seem to always meet. I find myself in awe of you. You make me wish I could be good but I don't know if I can, or even be the man that should be by your side. Ha, I don’t know why I think I even deserve to be around you but I can't stop how I feel. In this phone is my personal number. I will give you one favor that you can use at any moment no matter what it is. Maybe you can consider me a friend sometime in our lifetime. 

Your devilish friend,
Alistar Grimm Sabbath  

P.S. If you are ever needing a place to lay low or if someone is after you, call me. I will arrive as fast as I can.[/color][/i]

She stared at the message in her hands far longer than she should have, re-reading it a dozen times as if it could magically answer the most important question she now had. What the hell had she done last night?! She couldn’t deny to herself that she hadn’t seen Alistar last night because there was no way he got this to her while she was sober. One, she never usually let them close enough to do so and two, she would at least have had a partial memory of the event. It made her heart sink, wondering what else she had said or given away. Heck, she could have just flat out insulted or rejected him and have a pissed off demon on her hands. She wanted to rake her fingers through her hair and instantly regretted the buns decision she had made earlier so instead she rubbed her temples. Jiang’s headache increased and she tried to take deep and slow breaths to calm down before she glanced weakly at the phone. She could ignore it, pretend she never saw it and move on but it was going to eat at her. The note seemed sincere and it was an olive branch of sorts. They didn’t see eye to eye. They viewed things differently. She couldn’t rely that if it came down to whatever plans he had, that she wouldn’t get physically or emotionally hurt by not being chosen over said plans or worse, that this was a trick and invest in an illusion. They did have somewhat of a respect for each other but she had never admitted to a friendship with either demon through the years. 

Jiang grabbed hold of the phone, staring at it before tossing it back down on the bed. She stood up, deciding to continue stripping down and changed into her outfit for the day. She went to the kitchen, knowing she needed to eat so she could help get rid of this vicious hangover and quickly worked to make a simple rice cooker congee since it would be light on her abused stomach and started up a kettle for tea on the stove. She plopped down on the couch, switching on the tv but putting it on low sound settings so it wouldn’t cause more of an issue and turned on subtitles. It appeared that her Gala had been newsworthy in all the wrong kinds of ways but at least she recognized someone from the broadcast when it switched to Oberon Price. It seems with the benefactor of the event being anonymous and no one able to get a hold of anyone else who had planned the event that part of this had landed on his shoulders or maybe he had things to say. It was short, sweet, and to the point which was just how she liked her news. She quickly flicked to a different channel, tossing the remote onto the coffee table when something caught her eye. Usually, she kept her keys in a bowl by the door so she wouldn’t lose them but instead there they sat in the middle of the table with a bright crimson feather that shimmered in the light almost as if the embers of a fire flickering to life here and there. 

She gently picked up the small feather, petting it lightly before placing it back down quickly like it had burned her. Where on earth had she gotten that? The huge gap in her memory was getting more frustrating by the second and she wasn’t sure she was mentally prepared to deal with anything of this nature this morning but she probably couldn’t avoid it forever. If it got to be too much then she could just hang up, right? If it was worse than too much then she could just toss it out the window and call it a fluke moment that would probably never be repeated or discussed again. [color=f26522][sub]”Fuck it.”[/sub][/color], Jiang muttered to herself before moving over to the bed and snatching the phone, pressing the only available contact and waiting as it rang. 

Alistar had just stepped out of the shower as he heard a familiar tune played from his phone. The tune was a song he recently found called Insane by this man called black gryphon, it was very catchy. Sliding to the phone he picks it up and says,[color=#C11B17] “Well well well darling you must have a massive headache today”.[/color]

She pulled the phone away from her ear and rolled her eyes, covering the speaker to take a deep breath and try to curb her frustration since she was currently hung over, sleep deprived, and lacking coffee or at least tea but it didn’t seem to have helped because what popped instantly out of her mouth in a sarcastic tone was,[color=f26522]”Thank you, Captain Obvious. Glad you seem to be enjoying my suffering. Here I thought, maybe you could be of some assistance but I guess that was too much to hope for….”[/color] Jiang paused for a moment, debating on if this was a good idea or not but at least she didn’t wake up bleeding or dying and got home in one piece so she could at least cut him some slack. [color=f26522]”Can you please just tell me what happened last night?”[/color]

With a quick serious tone he says, [color=#C11B17]“I don't like your suffering, you should know that by now. I have half a mind just to hang up, but since you asked nicely I will tell you. We had a nice quiet date. That's what I would call it. I found you drunk as a skunk at a bar which was my fault for the gala, you have to know if we knew that was yours we would have done things differently and for that I'm sorry. It was just you and me and we talked.”[/color], he would go into detail about the conversation. [color=#C11B17]“Then you took me by the hand and showed me to your favorite place to eat, which by the way is mine too as I helped the owner out in the past, then we danced. After that I took you to a roof top to show you something of mine.”[/color]

It was truly hilarious that they both had half a mind to hang up on the other but we’re sticking it out for one reason or another. She was extremely skeptical of the fact they had a ‘date’, still not sure if you could call it that with half the party completely three sheets to the wind. She frowned at the mention of the gala, about ready to state that it shouldn’t matter if it was hers or not, that they shouldn’t have tried to cause chaos at all but she figured it would be on deaf ears. They were going to do what they wanted like always and at least she was getting an apology out of it, plus she didn’t want to interrupt and have him stop the explanation of her evening. Jiang felt her nerves spike at the mention of her favorite place to eat, seeing as it was so freaking close to her home and the last thing she felt comfortable with is them knowing where she lived. She was used to avoiding them both, not spilling everything in one damn night! What in the gods' names had she been thinking? It was all the more unsettling that she had no real clue on anything. [color=f26522]”Showed me something of yours…..should I even ask?”[/color]. It was honestly somewhat of a valid question seeing the demons’ track records with verbiage about women and the actual flings she had witnessed. 

Instead of simply telling her he unfurls his wings and sends her a picture with his shirtless body and the red fiery wings, [color=#C11B17]“I showed you these darling, you and Rex are the only ones to see them darling. Maybe for once in your life you will trust me and not go straight to bad thoughts with me. You know you are ruining the fun we had last night, the most fun I had in ages but of course I'm the bad guy right? So that must be all I want from you is just your body RIGHT HUH ANSWER ME!!!!!”[/color] this would make Alistar pissed off. She could hear him break his sink with a single slam, and if she would listen closely she would swear he was crying softly in the background. The feather in her hand would seem to dim a little bit as if it was still connected to him.

She winced at the loud beep in her ear, figuring he had sent something via text if his words were any indication but she was really unfocused and dizzy. She could barely hear what he was saying as he sounded both up close and far away at the same time while nausea bubbled to the surface. She literally shut her eyes, shaking as she tried to ground herself but when he actually started to scream at her, Jiang dropped everything in her hands to cover her ears as she desperately tried to stop the ringing and searing pain. She shouldn’t have called and just took a nap like a normal person, let go of her curiosity but nope, she had to let curiosity kill the cat. She blinked tears out of her eyes, noticing the clattered phone on the floor but instead picked up the feather first to place carefully on her nightstand. She went to reach for the phone but found the world tilting on its axis, ungracefully falling with a yelp against the wall, nightstand, and then to the floor. She groaned, her aches and pains from earlier seriously protesting from sleeping on the bathroom floor and now this. 

Jiang reached her hand out, patting the ground for the device and planned to just hang up as soon as possible. She wasn’t ready for this obviously and needed to hang up soon so she slid the phone weakly closer to her ear, only to have more rotten luck as the teapot started to squeal loudly. [color=f26522][sub]”You have got to be fucking kidding me.”[/sub][/color], she muttered, completely forgetting about the fact she was on the phone for a split second. She carefully pushed herself up, holding the phone unconsciously with her shoulder and planning to stand up off the floor to deal with the teapot when she heard soft sobbing over the line. Jiang paused all movement, pulling the phone away to look at it before placing it back to her ear to make sure she was hearing right. Was Alistar…crying? She opened her mouth a couple of times trying to find words but she was honestly stumped and speechless. How do you comfort a demon? Or worse, how do you comfort a demon when you can't remember why they were crying because you didn’t have the skills to listen? She bit her lip, debating if she should just let the issue drop and give him space but that didn’t seem right when she thought over the note she found earlier. [color=f26522]”Are you alright?”[/color], she asked in weary concern, feeling completely stupid and lame. [color=f26522]”I’m sorry if I upset you. It wasn’t my intention,”[/color]

Taking a deep breath he would pick up the phone, [color=#C11B17]"Sorry about that darling, it's just when you make me sound like a bad guy it does hurt. When you were drunk you said I ruined your Gala, yet all I did was defend myself like I always do. I was hoping that seeing my wings would jog your memory of last night then you wouldn't be mad. Last night was perfect. We both had fun and you even rubbed my feathers. I understand it's hard for you to trust me, cuz of my past but know this, you are important to me."[/color]

She pulled her knees slowly to her chest, curling into herself as Jiang listened to his words. She had never been the best in this category or types of situations but there was no backing out now. [color=f26522]”My gala was ruined long before the two of you showed up but Rex is always a complication, raising the dead and all. It was just the cherry on top of an already horrid evening because I am the one to usually clean up the mess.”[/color], she stated, taking a moment to pause, feeling awkward and unsure how to word her next words. [color=f26522]”As for last night, I apologize but I don’t remember it. I don’t doubt what you are saying as I do have a feather but trust is not something that is easy for me. Everyone I have trusted is no more or has used that trust to harm me in some way. I never asked to be important to anyone and to be honest, I’m not sure why you see me as such. As far as I know, I have done nothing to have any importance placed on me.”[/color]

Sighing he says, [color=#C11B17]"Let's get one thing straight darling Rex doesn't raise the dead, he gives them new life sorta a speak. Yea sometimes they don't ask but, he makes them stronger. He doesn't kill them. The reason why I consider you important…. Well for one I feel like I taught you quite a lot and watching you train I just, I don't know. Importance? Ha you can escape me and Rex no one can usually do that little fox."[/color], Getting dressed he would continue, [color=#C11B17]"I like a woman who can stand up for herself, and let me tell you that you can. I'm old and most women nowadays are all blah, all fakes, where you my lil fox are not. We have similar takes on society. Some people should die, not just go to jail. Now imma just say I've seen you over the years specially during the 20's you have a beautiful voice. I have a few records of your beautiful singing from your days at the club."[/color], He would start humming a song.

[color=f26522]”We will have to agree to disagree where Rex is concerned. I doubt we will fully see eye to eye on that subject. As for escaping, it was only because we didn’t know each other’s tricks so it made it easier to flee from those that would wish to pursue. Besides, luck and dedication to a craft are hardly merit for being labeled important to anyone.”[/color], she sighed with a bit of a chuckle, finally standing and heading to the kitchen to drag the kettle off the stove so it would stop screeching and causing her more pain. Jiang waited on his reply, listening carefully as she poured herself a cup of tea. She hadn’t expected him to dig into more detail on why he liked her compared to others or bring up facts that even she couldn’t deny they shared. She was still weary of agreeing to a friendship when keeping it at acquaintances with mutual respect seemed to be working just fine and she couldn’t even begin to wrap her head around more since she never had any luck in that department. Alistar startled her though as he complimented her voice, a blush rising to her cheeks not only because it was flattering but just the thought of the 20s and the silliness of those years.

Those had been some of the few years where she had tried to have a normal life, instead of being any kind of…well whatever she could count herself as now. Obviously, that hadn’t been something that had worked out but for a short time, it was a nice reprieve from the norm. She had almost given up her swords, been a singer and found a peaceful life but it has lost its luster fast. Prohibition and having fun being on the wrong side of the law had caused all sorts of trouble as well. Jiang didn’t remember seeing him in either club, legal or illegal but that was probably for the best since they didn’t always play nice. [color=f26522]”I thought I had gotten rid of those. Why I ever agreed to record anything is beyond me, I must have been going through a mid-century crisis.”[/color], she joked, taking a sip of her preferred drink as she leaned against the countertop while she waited on her breakfast to finish up. [color=f26522]”Hey Alistar…thank you, for telling me about last night.”[/color]

[color=#C11B17]“Darling it was my pleasure and one thing please give Rex a chance. Now excuse me, I have some business to attend to. Got a business to run and people to deal with. I can trust that you will not get that drunk at this hour huh? Hahaha it's not the 1920’s darling.”[/color], he would then hang up the phone.

[color=f26522]”I’ll think about it. I’m still debating on your chances. Try not to get in too much trouble. Maybe I’ll take my own advice and try to keep out of trouble myself but no promises.”[/color], she answered, tossing the extra phone on the counter once she heard it click. Jiang signed, planning to just eat and take a nice nap, maybe forget about the alternate universe she must have woken up in. This was definitely a new change of pace that she might end up having to get used to. [color=f26522]”Why is nothing ever easy?”[/color], she asked herself, already knowing most of the answers to this very question but it was nice to say it out loud. She popped open the rice cooker, scooping the congee into a bowl before moving back over to the coffee table with tea also in hand. She flicked the station off the news, trying to find something decent when her phone rang and instantly grated on her fine nerves. She practically dove for her phone to answer it, just to make the noise stop. [color=f26522]”Hello?”[/color], she asked curiously before pulling the phone back to see who it actually was before placing it back up to her ear. [color=f26522]”Ash, is that you?”[/color]