Rice Bluff Unplanned Excursion

The plan had been the Starling Hills Library, but Sebastian's insomnia had other ideas. As per the norm, he hadn't been sleeping well. He hadn't expected the bus ride to lull him to sleep. When the bus came to a halt he groggily made his way off and glanced around. This didn't look like Starling Hills at all.

"What? Where? Oh bloody hell. Wait don't--!" Sebastians arm reached towards the bus that was already well on its way down the street.

Groaning he shoved his glasses up into his hair and scrubbed at his eyes. Cursing under his breath he tugged his glasses back down and sighed. "Well that's just lovely.."

Passing by the bus station but having no need to stop here was an ambling Rizwan, who had been having quite a peaceful life lately. Not that that was a complaint, it just meant that it was very notable when someone in his vicinity suddenly complained.

Brows rising, he slowed his already slow gait even further to a complete stop.

"All well?" he asked.

He wondered where the man was from, privately.

Sebastian jumped slightly upon hearing the strangers voice. He hadn't expected to be asked. "Oh uh..yeah I nodded off on the bus and now I haven't the faintest as to where I ended up."

He took another look around him, his frown deepening. "I meant to end up in Starling Hills. The library had some a parcel for me."

Ah! Unfortunate and understandable. "I've done that before," he chuckled mildly. "We're in Rice Bluff. You'll want to cross the street for the next bus heading back. Unless you'd rather Uber."

Of course, he wondered about the library parcel too, but it felt rude to ask about it immediately?

Rice bluff? Where the hell was that? He scowled as he pulled out his phone and scrolled through the gps app. He was indeed in Rice Bluffs. "I've never been here before. Do you know the area?"

Sebastian wasn't sure if he should try and use the bus again. It was a current risk of falling asleep and ending up somewhere else again. "How far is it to Starling Hills?"

He nodded to the first question, though he didn't get a chance to explain why. (It wasn't a very complex explanation, at least.) Instead, the conversation moved to Starling Hills, and he hummed thoughtfully.

"On wheels, it will be probably fifteen minutes or so. I don't know about walking. Probably closer to an hour."

"Well that's not too terrible I suppose." Sebastian scrubbed one hand down his face, trying to help keep the sleepiness at bay.

Turning to the stranger he then extended a hand. "My sincerest apologies mate. My name is Sebastian, thank you for your assistance."

Ah! Handshake! As he did, he saw a sort of brightening of his vision, everything around them going up like a light switch had turned on. This was someone who wasn't just human!

"Sebastian," he repeated for himself, to commit the name to memory with the face it was attached to. "Riz. Or Rizwan."

He'd been recently made aware of the term 'rizz' which, while funny considering his pseudonym, he would not claim in his daily life.

Sebastians head tilted to one side of the other, a curious smile on his lips. "What an interesting name. Does it have a special meaning?"

Sleep deprivation made him speak more than he usually would. Sebastian often refered to himself as antisocial with strangers. The brightening and change of the other individuals eyes had him slightly wary. Not human but then what.

His own eyes flashed a brief shimmer of silver. A light acknowledgement and show of respect.

"Don't all names mean something?" he postulated in return with good-natured humor, a rhetorical morsel for thought as he continued to answer the question: "Rizwan means, ah... contentment. Something along those lines."

Though he did notice the other's eye color change too, he wasn't sure exactly what came of it. Was he performing his own aura check, or was he doing some other sort of trick? Admittedly, Riz was not the most knowledgeable of all the different sorts.

"That's very true I suppose. All do in some ways." he shrugged with a small chuckle. The answer made him nod along. It was an interesting name meaning all in all. "Sebastian is something along the lines of 'Revered'."

Stifling a yawn, he covered his mouth with the back of one hand. Giving his head a shake he grumbled lightly. "Pardon my awful manners, I haven't been sleeping well. Would you know if there is a library here in Rice Bluff?"

Revered! Riz might have made a joke, but even partial yawns were contagious, and he was caught up in one himself upon the sight. A hand flew up to cover his mouth, and then he chuckled for it, waving the apology away.

Though that Sebastian was not going to go to Starling Hills to retrieve his parcel was a little surprise.

"Oh, probably," he mused. Most towns in the county probably had at least one small public library if not more. He withdrew his phone and searched, and indeed found one some twenty minutes by walking. "It's over on Ponderosa Drive between Fordham and Bradley. Bit of a walk. I could go with you."

Two was better than one in Rice Bluff, even in the daytime.

Sebastian perked up at the confirmation of a library. He hadnt heard of those streets but so long as they could find it, he didn't care. "Brilliant! Lead the way mate, I'll follow." he grinned.

He wanted to see if the library had an old archive as well. Something he could bring back to avoid a scolding for missing his stop.

Well! If he insisted. Riz wondered idly if his alias's books might be there, but he had no intention ow drawing attention to that. Instead, after a few minutes, he decided to ask a question.

"So, I saw your eyes change color, earlier."

A polite question.

Sebastian followed along, his eyes wandering the new surroundings. He wanted to take in what he could, just incase he ended up back here again. When the question was posed he gave a light chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah. I'm a psychic. I was twelve when it manifested. Luckily its not something that's obvious. Aside from the eyes of course." He truly didn't mind talking about what he was. So long as he didn't end up eaten by a vampire he was fairly open about it. "Yourself?"

Not something that obvious! That was fun. But also fun was that he was just like Riz. Who had lived a life of hiding what he was, but was happy to live in a world where they could be more open about these things.

"Me too," he confirmed brightly. "Since childhood, also. Are you in a pact?"

Maybe he should have asked what the guy could do actually, but! He did not.

Sebastian felt more at ease knowing he was around another psychic. He hadn't met many so it was a unique joy to know another one.

The mention of a pact made his eyebrow lift in confusion. "A pact? What's a pact?"

He attempted to jog his own memory but he couldn't recall hearing about that before. It seemed his isolation kept him quite behind the times.

Oh! He'd never heard of it — this was fair, as they'd only come into existence a few years ago, as far as he'd been aware.

"It is..." he waved a hand for a moment, contemplating words. "Psychics coming together into a grouping. It lets them do some very interesting things to be in one."

"That sounds quite fascinating. Do you know of many pacts then?" he continued that line of questioning, a small curious smile on his lips.

"Interesting things? What can they do that's different from a psychic on their own?" Sebastian was quite curious but attempting to be polite about it.

Rizwan had yet to meet a single pacted psychic, actually, and he shook his head no for it. He knew they existed! But he did not know where! And also he was a person with his own life and that life had yet to cross paths with anyone.

But as to the second question, he said, "the biggest thing they can do is make someone human again. Shifters or vampires. I think there are incidents of people not wanting to be those."

Hmm. He could probably look up the news article, and then did, passing his phone to the other man so he could see it.

Sebastian felt like he'd get a crick in his neck from the way his head snapped around. "Make them human again?" He repeated the words in a stunned whisper.

Taking the phone delicately he went through the article and read it. Absorbing the information he blinked. "That's incredible. I've been so horribly out of the loop it seems."

He chuckled.

"It happens," Rizwan waved it away, retrieving his phone and looking up something else, an article even older talking about pacts from an original mystery source.

"Here. Sums it up better than I can."

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this official information would be present in that article's voice so feel free to imagine how that might go :3

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After which, they'd talk a little about it before going separate ways.