Halcyon Days Bygone Summers [Reida]

Months of watching this particular seed with nothing to show for it, she had watched from afar and dared as far as she could hope to stress the woman she'd kept a loose tab on for the last decade and a bit. It always began the same a poor pregnant victim, a toxic reiryoku of some kind getting into their system be it an attack or some kind of poison being given to them. For this little subject it had been physical trauma rather than anything subtle.

What came next in the process then besides observation? Powers responded to stress. So she induced it for amusement and interest, what did they develop into, what were they worth to her? Crops that she meant to reap. Hollows were not enough to provoke this one which meant drastic measures were required.

The girl known as Braelynn was easy to figure out and had a strong relationship to the unrealised fullbringer, which made her an ideal sacrifice for the sake of the arrancar's whims. Removal of a soul, possession of physical flesh. How easy was that to impersonate someone?

"Howdy darlin'. A bit late but lookin' pretty as a peach as always though."

She sang to Reida like any good friend might to give them a bit of pep to their confidence, she had a lit cigarette already halfway burnt down with the ash ready to fall at any time. These tasted like absolute crap from how cheap they were and that enough was to take away any regret she might've had about what she'd done. Oh, don't be silly though, there was none of that but if she did have those feelings.

"Got somethin' good to sip on I hope?"

The girl resumed, already offering a crumbled looking cigarette from the remaining ones of the pack. Girls gotta work together, right?

Reaching their little usual hangout spot by the tracks in town, a cheap bottle of beer in her hand that she'd snatched from the fridge while daddy wasn't looking, Reida's expression lightened a little bit at her best friend's voice. Something seemed a little bit off, admittedly, but that wasn't too unusual. They got into stuff all the time, after all.

"'Course I did, Brae. Y'er sure soundin' extra happy tonight, you find yourself a new guy to get all fussed over?"

Reida laughed to herself at that one, holding out the drink for Braelynn as she accepted one of the subpar cigarettes and lit it effortlessly. She was well aware this was hardly a quality product, but it wasn't as if she cared at all.

Everything about this was so cheap and trivial that she had to keep herself from scowling. At the very least it wasn't like it mattered in this bag of meat which was no different than a corpse now. So she gave a coy grin at the words that meant very little to her as opposed to who they were intended for. There was a shrug to try and play it off a little bit but she took a swig before getting back to this idle chit-chat.

"Still had the taste... 'til about three seconds ago."

It sounded more like showing off than anything else, a little bit of friendly one-upping though as much as she'd love to keep up with this meaningless back and forth there was more interesting things at play. She had to somehow had to coax Reida to something that'd illuminate the situation for her.

"Almost died on the way 'ere though. Some colourblind jackass shootin' through th'streets as accurate as Mama on the range. Ya ever had a close call like that where ya don't know if ya goin' to kick the bucket or not?"

Reida actually coughed a bit at that one, not having been prepared for the notion that Brae would've been that involved with some guy. Who'd it've even been? Jeez, wasn't that some kinda surprise and a half...

"Once'r twice, but I dunno if I'd say I was worried about my life. Ya catch the plates at least? Not like them cops're good fer much but might as well send 'em anyway."

Taking another pull from the cigarette, Reida's attention turned a little more to her friend now, a look of faint concern replacing the usual cool disinterest she had about most things. Something certainly seemed up, but she couldn't quite place what it was.

"You feelin' right, Brae?"

Well, she should've known that a month, or so, of observation with a short but intensive amount of time spent with the identity of this body wouldn't be enough to fool a friend of many years. It was just so sad that people could be so perceptive sometimes when they all fumbled around insignificantly like they did. Now was not the time to compare the masses to herself though, set that aside and focus on the subject.

"Well, 'sides the fact I almost got run over. I reckon I'm fixin' to come up right as rain after a snack. How 'bout you? Lookin' a little tense at the moment. I'm not killing a buzz or nothin'?"

She kept her eyes on the traintracks rather than on Reida's as she smoked, it might be too easy to read into her eyes and tell that they weren't right if she made eye contact. Should she drop the act or keep it up? No, there was no real point in continuing to play these silly games when she wanted to see her labour bear fruit to be had.

"Huh? Nah, nothin' like that. Ain't exactly been day drinkin' the hours away."

Despite her saying that, though, Reida still couldn't really help but feel something was off. Daddy'd taught her how to keep a sharp eye, after all, and Brae was her best friend in the world. When something was wrong, she'd notice right quick, but this seemed different than the usual problems.

"Well, you oughta at least tell me about this guy'a yours if you're so stuck on'im. Who is it, huh?"

In a way, Reida didn't really know what she wanted out of this question. She wasn't entirely sure any particular answer would really be a good one, but something about all this still didn't seem quite right to her, and that was one of the only things that had stuck out.

Wow, this was boring she thought. She could not begin to imagine how humans became so boring now. Oh well. Reida was far more interesting than any human after all, she'd made this one special but she was reluctant to show her the fruits of labour.

"Don't r'member his name."

That was true at the very least. When she'd tried to get as much information as she could, these insignificant details slipped her mind. So "Brae" shrugged it off and flicked the finished cigarette away. How to tackle this little problem child? Did she just attack her now to see if she could provoke a reaction? Pull out one of her cards from her sleeve to show? Somehow she needed to stress her out and her discomfort was a good start. Let's keep building that up, maybe we try and drop the annoying accent that this girl had a little bit. It wasn't like she'd emulated it very well to begin with.

"Do you still have one? I don't remember."

The kind of thing a best friend wouldn't forget, right?

The first answer had already been enough to set Reida on edge. Brae wasn't stupid enough to just forget something like that, or irresponsible enough. But it was the second answer that had drained all the color from Reida's face, as the dull moment of realization set in for her that this wasn't her friend. She didn't know for sure what it was, but there wasn't exactly any good answer. So she pulled the knife from her pocket, flicking it open with practiced dexterity as she pointed it toward "Braelynn."

"What'd you to do Brae?"

There were a lot of answers to that question that Reida knew she wouldn't wanna hear. She'd heard enough stories from her parents to know what could happen to someone in the world. Hollow? Demon? Something else? She just had to hope that the real Brae was safe.

Tch. The friendly face shifted in irritation at the concerned look and audacity to pull a knife out like it would accomplish anything. It was quite funny, really, what did this girl hope to do with this? Cut her friend's throat? Make her just disappear?

"What you made me do."

She shot back cryptically to the teenager, everything that was happening now was this girl's fault for not getting to a stage that she was happy with.

"Don't stress though Reida, I only want you to show me the powers that I gave you and I'll give you back your friend. Sounds simple, right? Tell me that you've been keeping them secret this whole time. Though that would really annoy me if you made me go out of my way to have to help you along."

"What the hell're you talkin' about!?"

Powers? What kind of powers? That didn't give Reida anything she wanted to know, and that was a problem, because she was quickly realizing this might be out of her league. She didn't have any powers, and that was one of the things that kept her from going too far out of town. Not like the world was exactly a nice place out where nobody was around to help.

"I ain't ever met you in my whole life, whoever you are, 'cause I sure's hell ain't got any powers. You're lookin' at the wrong girl. Now gimme Brae back 'fore I do somethin' rash."

But, in all truth, she didn't know what that would be.