She took the elbow, and hit a whole lot closer. Danny liked this. If she was cold, he certainly could warm her up. Then she glanced around a short time later, and he noticed.

Why was she glancing around? Was something wrong? Had he done something wrong without realizing it?

She squeezed his arm, and he didn’t need to consider body language or whether he had done the wrong thing or not anymore! Because she flat out told him what the problem was.

The problem was... that they should go. She sounded nervous, and he upped his speed at her urging. If she had sensed something, something he could not sense, he was wise enough to listen to her about it. Rather than argue and make the situation worse. Some people do that. Sometimes, you just gotta go with the glow though, and extend a lil bit o trust.

A voice spoke behind them... and Danny did not trust it. Nope. Not one bit.

“Heeeey. I’m a bit lost.” A male voice murmured dreamily. “Bit lost. Could you—“ The man licked his lips.

Danny looked over his shoulder. Green man, trench coat. Voice gave him goosebumps. Creepy AF.

He tried to keep walking, but for some reason... his progress was impeded. As if by an invisible wall.

For Ash Lee, Desdemona, or whatever her name was that evening (Devia), the emotions coming off the guy would be heady and intense. A predatory glee, amusement, a hint of paranoia. He liked the situation, and had a good feeling about it. But there was always the chance he had picked wrong. The girl was a strange color, and he had not noticed that. Did not like it as much as the man goggling at him dumbly. She could be a threat.

“Dude.” Danny said, turning back towards the green man. “She said she wanted to follow you, but this is ridiculous. Man. Drop the wall and let us leave. You’re creeping her out.” And him. He was creeped out, too. But he was not going to broadcast for very much he disliked this situation! Devia was scared, and he needed to be cool-headed. For her.

The green man smiled his toothy smile. He needed a dentist. Crooked yellowed teeth. Gaps. “Just asking... asking for directions.” He said, and took a step towards them. Danny could not take a step back. The man stepped forward again, and there was a flash of silver.

Danny did not think. He acted purely on instinct. He brought his free hand up to block the silver thing, and as he did, he tried to move his other hand to touch something... and failed. Because it was linked with Devia’s arm, and she was close. So, he did the best he could do, and swiveled his hand do that he could brush his palm against the side of her body, and her shirt.

He focused for a second, past the slicing pain. And suddenly, the knife was gone. The shirt was still there. In a week, they would be separate again and Devia would have a knife with his blood on it. Hell of a souvenir!

Danny followed up the super cool disarming move he’d just done by taking the bag off from where it hung by a strap over his shoulder, screaming like a girl, and swinging it at the green man’s head.

The bag was heavy, but not bulging at the sides with stuff. There were a few things. Minor things. But it was the smallest thing, the lone guitar pick, that gave the bag it’s hefty weight. When he made duality objects, you see, the item gained the additional property of weighing as much as the heaviest item in the pairing, in either form. Which technically meant that Devia’s shirt now weighed as much as a heavy Bowie knife. Unless the shirt had weighed more from the onset. And also, it technically meant he was smashing the green man in the face with an electric guitar. Without damaging the lovely guitar, itself.

The man flew sideways and crumpled. From the knife slash to the bag smash, the whole thing has probably lasted about six seconds.

“Screw you!” Danny shouted. “Ain’t nobody following that!”

And then, he shifted his bag back over his shoulder and hauled Devia by her arm, forward.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!”

They passed through the invisible wall. Danny has been scared and all nerves before... but he liked it when he passed on through.

Ash jumped as a voice chimed in, saying they were lost. It was followed by a sinking feeling in their chest. He liked... this. He liked the hunt. Didn't like that they were what they were. There were other likes floating about. Sick ones. Ash clung even tighter to Danny. They didn't feel safer with him, to be honest. Maybe throw him in the way of any attacks, and escape when they had a chance?

The boyish man spoke up, and doll-like eyes widened as they stared up at him. He sounded brave. It was sort of stupid, though. What was he going to do against an obvious mutant with some sort of strange power? A strange power and a knife. Their heart skipped a beat. Oh god. They were going to die? They were so beautiful, and some slimy green man was going to kill them in the night while clinging to some loser!

F@#$!

The green man stepped forward, and Ash clung even tighter. Something happened. He swung with the knife?! No, there was a knife, and then there wasn't. There was a moment of great enjoyment. A feeling of being about to kill, replaced by a sudden dismay and then silence as a bag smacked into the green man's head and he went flying, landing with a thud.

Ashes heart skipped a beat as Danny dragged her off. They were still looking back and forth between the potato sacked green man and the lead singer one night stand they were still clinging to as they were dragged off at a quick clip. What the hell? had... just...

He'd saved them. He... Oh god. That was so @#$^ing hot! As soon as they were safely around the next corner, Ash ambushed him with a shower of kisses "Oh my god, you stupid, silly man you saved my life!" They weren't those sensual lip locks you saw in the movies, either, but a barrage of smoosh faced smooches of deep, deep appreciation. "We need to find a dark corner or something. Holy @$^&. This is going to be the best night of your life." S@#$, did he look a lot prettier all of a sudden?

They made it around the corner, and-- Yipes! She pounced him like a tiger. Buried him in kisses.

She was talking, calling him stupid, silly. But she wasn't mad at him. He had saved her life. She was thankful, wasn't she? Well, yeah. What with the kissing and all. Appreciative kisses. Not salacious. Sloppy. But that was okay. Danny liked it.

Unerneath the avalanche, he was grinning stupidly. The grin got wider when she mentioned dark corners, and the best night of his life.

"Oh yeah? Heh. Well." He looked around, to get his bearings. Clenched his hand. Noticed he'd gotten a cut. Nothing life-threatening or anything. A good score, not too deep. They could wrap a towel around it and it would be fine. He'd changed the knife before it could do anything worse.

Danny noticed he was staring down at the cut on his palm. He looked back up at her, and smiled weakly.

"That sounds wonderful. I think I saw a hotel about a block or so down when I was looking around a second ago. Maybe we could go there, wrap this." He wiggled the fingers on the hand he was holding up for her to see. "And then, we can talk about all that other stuff. Because it sounds wonderful. And you're lovely." That said. He planted one on her. And this kiss. This kiss, he tried to put some of that senSUality into that the other kisses had been missing.

As he broke away, he smirked at her. Then, gave a gentle tug with the linked arms. In the direction of the hotel.

A rapidly beating heart started to settle down as the reality after the excitement of the moment shifted into another type of excitement. Still, the momentum of the trucking train was certainly thrown off when they noticed him looking down at his hand.

Oh, he was hurt. They leaned in to take a look at it, before looking up to him. He didn't seem particularly worried about it. Wow. Ash hated pain of any sort. He seemed to like the idea of what the devil had planned more than he disliked the pain he was feeling. Ash liked that; they liked being liked. Wanted. Still, the ping of disliking the pain from the cut would be present until they could get it treated. Their face smooshed a bit at the hassle.

"Okay, yeah, yeah that makes sense. Let's-" He kissed them and they replied in kind. It was nice. They had kissed all sorts of people in their life, and this was certainly a person they were kissing. The smirk afterward was adorable. He liked that little moment of feeling suave. They giggled and let him have it.

One tug later, Ash was following him toward the hotel. In this part of town, the best of options would be seedy at best, but that was perfectly fine! They weren't planning on spending the night, after all.

They were objectively terrible at first aid, so he would have to do most of the work himself. They were amazing at what came next. Imagine going into such an experience with an expectation in mind, and ending it hours later after a whirlwind of your greatest momentary desires, maybe even some you weren't fully aware of, being tended to with passionate energy and undeniable skill, and you might be somewhat close.

Afterward, Ash stood before the bed getting dressed with a satisfied grin on their face, "Do you smoke?" This was one of those experimental questions. If his mental reaction was that he hated cigarettes, so did Devi. Easy as pie. Boy, though, did they like a nice smoke after doing the deed several times. "What next? The night is still young~" It was pretty late, actually. They felt energetic still, though, and thus the night was young.

They took a moment to look back at him, doing some real searching... What were his deepest desires? What did he REALLY want to do... It could be anything; go to France? Rob a bank? Play Yahtzee? They had been saved by him, after all. Anything could happen.

“Do you smoke?” She asked him.

“No,” Danny said. There was a slight tremble to his voice. “Though after that, I’m shocked I h-haven’t caught fire...”

That had been. Wow. You think you’re okayish with words some days, but then. Wow. They all fail you.

He’d almost checked himself when she’d asked. You know?

‘Do you smoke?’

‘Wait, let me check.’ Ha ha. Because of the friction.

‘Nope. Still there.’

She probably would have liked the joke, but— well, words with their failings, and yeah. He hadn’t been certain he could pull it off. She liked a lot of things he did, but dumb jokes? Maybe not? She might have set him on fire for even attempting such a feat.

As far as actual answers went, no. He didn’t smoke. Cigarettes. He’d tried, and failed to enjoy them. Mild distaste, not an unrelenting hatred or anything.

“If you want to, that’s fine.” He added sweetly. Because he was a nice guy.

He was under the bedsheets, after. She was standing, gorgeously, getting dressed. Which was a crying shame. His shirt was off. Bedsheets looked around his waist.

That had been a good night. A real roller coaster of a good night. He figured she was outtie. Then she asked him what next.

Wow. He had not had much of a plan, beyond yum, so far. And rowr. He opened his mouth to say something, and—

“Choo!”

He sneezed. Suddenly, he was someone different. There had been no weird bone shifting or flashes of light. If you’d expected that sort of thing, you were in for a real anti-climax.

He was still a person. Shorter. With curly hair, where he had it. Which was less on the top of his head than on the rest of his. Not his face. Arms and chest, that sort of thing. Dark hair, not brown, but also with bits of salt and whiteness. Snow on the mountain top. A short, stout, rotund little man in his 60s. That was him.

“Wow.” Lucien said. “Looks like the kid got lucky! What’s your name, Angel? I’m Zagan.” He took another look at her after glancing around the rinky dink room. “God. Really lucky. You look sweet enough to rob a bank for! Hey, you seen my pants?”

If she looked, whoever Danny’s clothes had been, she would find a blue pinstriped suit in his size. Duality magic, baby!

Ash sort of... stared with a bemused expression on their face as Danny morked through some stuff in his mind, sensing the likes and dislikes associated with them that made them wish they could actually read minds. Not that they didn't like their natural born talent. It would just have been nice to know why he liked the joke he's made in his mind, and what it was. Ash was a creature of curiosity, after all.

No sense lingering. He was looking at their body now, and boy did Ash like when someone liked looking at their body. Oh, he wasn't a huge fan of cigarettes. No worries. Ash had plenty of vices to indulge in. One off the top couldn't hurt~

"That's okay, though maybe we can hit a few bars down the main road, I think a nice buzz is called for before we really get into trouble, don't y-" He sneezed. Ew.

Wait. What was this? Why was there a suddendly... drastically different set of tastes present? Ash... slowly turned in place. Well, that explained that. It was a different person. Not a disguise, or a dropped disguise, no... This person... FELT different.

A normal person would cover up, scream even. Ash was just curious. They tilited their head as he talked. "Yes, yes he did..." Look at him, getting his bearings. They used the somewhat dark room to slip into a form more to this new person's liking.

"I don't know that I'm ready to give you my name... I will give you your pants, though." They turned, and leaned down to pick up the suitpants, making a bit of a show of it, and then looked them over in mild fascination. "Hm." A simple toss sent the slacks his way.

"You like robbing banks... That's interesting. Could you be a dear and tell me what exactly is going on?" They walked up to the bed post, leaning on it to give him a good once over. "If I like what I hear, and I think I might, this night might not end with me storming out on you." Wow... the interests, the feel of this man... Ash wasn't one to judge much on appearances; they had been with pretty much every type of person there was, and enjoyed it... No, they liked... Extreme people, be they bland and in dire need of enrichment, or... OR... Fascinating. This man, just might be the latter.

They were on the fence.