Heathens

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The snow lay like a blanket over Philadelphia. Thick, heavy flakes drifted down from the sky and settled down to rest. The streets were quiet and few people made their way down the sidewalk, wrapped from head to toe, keeping warm and to themselves. The streetlights illuminated the town in a comfortable warm glow that seemed to make time stand still. Slowly, one by one, the lights from the windows above began to extinguish as people settled in for the night, warm and cozy in their homes. The moon peeked through the clouds, as if to wish the city a good night. Somewhere in the distance the sound car engine purred through the air, the only noise to disturb the wind and the silence of snowfall.

Looking out on the street from the catwalk of a fire escape of all places, Fjor sighed, content. Something about this sort of weather stirred something inside his heart. The silence, the snow, it reminded him of home. Of the woods of Scandinavia in the old days as the hush of winter lie on the land. It reminded him of men, women, and children sitting around a bonfire, telling stories and enjoying good food, the flames dancing up towards the heavens. Such as it used to be, so long ago.

Fjor tugged the scarf around his neck a little tighter with his teeth and then bounded down the metal stairs. The scarf, a bright pink cloth, looked rather ridiculous on the sleek black cat, but it was warm. As much as Fjor loathed the color, looking silly was better than freezing. Still, as his paws sunk into the snow on the ground, he shivered. Thinking back, hindsight told Fjor it might have been a good idea to have stolen some little boots from the pet store along with the scarf. Then again, he looked bad enough now without becoming the personification of a fairytale character.

The cat chuckled at the thought, but as he slinked down the the street padding through the snow, the wind blew again, cutting through him to the bone. Shelter was beginning to seem more and more appealing. Fjor looked around, his ears perked up, and searched for a place that seemed a feasible mark. He spied one storefront that still had it's lights on. Meowing in triumph, he bounded across the street and leapt onto the windowsill. Peering in, Fjor saw shelves after shelves of old, dusty books. The store was dimly lit, but looked oh so warm.

The feline jumped down from the window and took a few minutes to walk around the building, looking for another way in. In all his years, Fjor had never found a way to defeat push doors. Still, he often found there were other ways to gain entrance to a place than the front door. Even if no physical entrance presented itself, there were still ways. After a few moments, it became clear to Fjor the latter option was in need here, after no ajar window or door presented itself.

Running back to the front of the store, Fjor hopped back up to the front window and waited. Before long, a girl emerged from the back. Fjor smirked to himself, as well as a cat could. Young women found little, shivering cats adorable. Add the cute little scarf, and this would be too easy.

Doing his best to look as cute and needy as possible, Fjor began to scratch against the window and meow loudly, doing his best to attract the girl's attention and persuade her to open the door. He perked up his ears and opened his eyes as wide as he could, swishing his tail back and forth as he continued to scratch with one cute little paw.

Take the bait, dammit. Come on, come on, I'm cute, adorable and freezing my ass off. Just walk over here and open the damn door...

"I guess that could be nice, yes. I wasn't exactly planning on sitting out here though, it just sort of happened. Besides, the cold doesn't bother me anyways. I might as well have a warm drink anyways though, even if I'm already bundled up." Justin chuckled as he responded, leaning back on the bench and still holding the thermos in his hands.
"Well, it's a bit of a long story. It started when I went to the library to do some research, and after finishing I went back to my dorm. Apparently I had forgotten the keys to my room though! and since we have no spare and nobody was home I walked back to the library to get my keys. Then I just got bored of walking and decided to sit down." He explained, leaning forward and standing up.
"I guess I should be heading back soon though. It is getting a bit late." The teen took a step and stumbled a bit, slipping on a patch of ice. He regained his balance, but dropped his thermos, spilling hot coffee on the ground and hearing it sizzle as it touched the snow. Well, crap. That was smooth. Justin thought to himself, picking the thermos up and putting the cap back on.
"So much for coffee I suppose." He laughed, smiling at Fae as he put the thermos back in his bag.

Nomina just looked at the talking cat for a moment. Something was telling her she shouldn't be buying this bull. Then again, she found that the cat actually made a very sound arguement, and why the hell not. So what if it was weird, might as well explore it while the opportunity presented itself.

"So... 'Fjor'," Mina began hesitantly, somewhat shell-shocked by the cat's impressive full name (she was so, so glad he had a nickname), "...That's definitely not a Japanese name. But then again, nobody said the lucky charm had to come from the country... Err... sorry. Got lost in my thoughts." Mina looked at the cat. The pink scarf was definitely very... pink? Mina wasn't exactly sure what the significance was behind that, but whatever. Can't really blame a cat for trying to stay warm in this weather.

"So, you said 'a long time' earlier... I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but my apartment complex doesn't allow pets. I guess I could sneak you in, depending on exactly how long you need a place to stay..." Mina began before quickly realizing that she had no clue what this cat even wanted. "Err, sorry. What exactly was it you wanted again?"

The crowd was surprised to see a strange lone person setting out towards the wave the life guard had called unfit for surfing. They were amazed when she boarded the wave, and began to surf the monster. Harvey was impressed as well, it took quite some determination to win and bravery to confront this monster wave. He watched the dot in the distance ride the waves that were once his, wondering if it would escape the wave in some amazingly crazy feat.

His thoughts were answered as the wave crashed down, engulfing the surfer. The crowd watched the wave anxiously, waiting for the surfer to rise and give some kind of sign that they would be okay. A speedy boat was seen patrolling the area despite the waves, who had seemed to calm down now that the big one was gone, waiting for a sign of the surfer to collect them and probably bring them to medical attention depending on their condition after such a crash.

"I want you Nomina. What I'm about to tell you may sound silly, but you're having a conversation with a cat. Therefore, you can't judge.

"I'm a god. The God of Death, in particular. Now, I may not look like very much in this form, but I guarantee you, I'm quite terrible when my powers are not constricted. I am the Abyss. The Omega. The Shadow of Mortality. 'Out, out brief candle!' I am Death."

The little cat quickly licked some left over milk off his whiskers.

"I need your help. You are going to be instrumental in the ushering in of a new age. In return for this, I can promise you rewards beyond your wildest dreams.

"You'll have to leave tonight. Leave this life behind. I won't lie, this path will be fraught with danger and peril. I can't guarantee you'll be the same person when you come out on the other side. As a matter of fact, in all likelihood you won't.

"Still, haven't you always wanted more? Something exciting? Something fresh? Do you really want to live like everyone else? Boring job, dull people, average life. No. You deserve more. You want more. You need more. I can give that to you.

"And so Nomina Torres, I offer you an invitation. Come with me. Help me. Follow me into the dark, into rabbit hole and I'll show you the what's on the other side."

Mina looked distraught, especially when Fjor commented on how "dull" and "average" a normal life was. She started feeling like she was going to shed tears again, but she fought it off and tried to ignore the newly-forming lump in her throat. No need to cry now, she decided.

"I don't know if I can agree with you, Mr. Ca- I mean, Fjor. I don't really know what a normal life is like," Mina responded slowly. "In fact, that's what I've been working towards since I first entered college..." she continued with a sigh, "However, you do seem pretty desperate... I'd normally encourage you to try to find someone more fit for the part- I mean, there are so many intelligent and capable people on this campus -, and yet I doubt any of them would believe anything a talking cat told them. Or that a cat could talk at all."

Mina rubbed at her temples. She wasn't really sure what was helping her to react as calmly as she was; either she was really used to the chaos or she was just in a state of shock caused by the information that had just been fed to her brain. She just continued to sit there and think in silence with her eyes shut for a while as the conflict buzzed around in her head like a bunch of angry flies.

"I can't say the cold really bothers me much either, if i'm honest," she commented as he explained why he wasn't wearing anything to keep him warm in the chilly weather. Maybe it wasn't so abnormal for humans to be indifferent to the cold after all?

Fae chuckled as she listened to him recount why he was out here. Of course, it was unfortunate for him, but on the plus side it gave him more time to enjoy the beautiful layer of snow that covered the area... or perhaps that was just how she'd have made the best of the situation, after all she couldn't speak for someone she didn't know very well.

"Of course," she smiled as he made to take his leave. She was about to turn to head home herself when he slipped on a small patch of icy ground, likely created by the feet of others as they trampled on and compacted the snow - or maybe it was even his own feet that had caused it. In her surprise she'd dropped her books in order to try and help, though he'd regained his balance shortly after without need of her assistance.The teen's coffee however had spilled out of the thermos, the liquid beginning to seep into the pages of the books Fae had borrowed from the library.
"So much for keeping these dry as well," Fae replied with a half smile, picking one of the books up and watching the quickly cooling liquid drip from the edge of it, discolouring the melting snow below. Quickly fishing the other book from the small pool of diluted coffee, she held both of them at arms length, cringing at the sight of their ruined, coffee stained pages.