Silent City

24. The Confrontation

    The Radiance had spent the night at Grimm's place, in honor of his request. She didn't particularly enjoy sitting next to Grimm while he slowly drained a bottle of wine and watched episode after episode of the office, but she did have a slight inclination to heed his advice. Despite what others might think, she didn't really want to cause unnecessary deaths, since it did reduce the amount of followers she would eventually have. So despite her annoyance, she sat stoically on the couch and focused on the gentle hum of the air conditioning, slowly falling into a trance wherein she focused on her spreading influence.

The following day, Grimm helped the Radiance disguise herself, which neither of them really enjoyed. First of all, Grimm had a dubious selection of clothing, and the Radiance didn't really want to know why. She was dressed in black clothing, and a long black skirt, which she despised, but none of Grimm's pants fit her. After that, Grimm got to tying back her hair into a knot, which he thought would be easy, but her hair was so unnaturally thick and luxurious that it was unlike anything he had ever worked with before. He ended up just giving her a hat and sunglasses to hide her face. He then took a thin layer of makeup and accentuated her cheekbones severely, then creating lines on her face so that she looked about 30 years older.

"There." He says, stepping away. "You're not the... most attractive person, but that was the point, wasn't it?"

"The point of this body wasn't to be attractive." She mutters. "It was to be practical. It might have been helpful if I wasn't so tall." The Radiance looks at herself in the mirror, and narrows her eyes. "But you're right. By the conventional standards of humans, I'm not the most attractive."

"Don't touch your face." Grimm advises. "I don't know how durable that makeup is."

"Not a problem. I'm going now. Do I need your permission?" she mocks.

"Not like I could stop you." he shrugs. The Radiance gives him one last look before leaving the apartment.

She doesn't get very far.

Getting down the elevator was easy enough. A man got in with her halfway down, looking tired. He didn't pay her any attention, thankfully, but the Radiance had half a mind to just place her hand on his forehead...

The two of them got out on the ground floor and headed towards the exit. The Radiance had bent her knees slightly to reduce her height, but it still didn't get her past the police officer who was monitoring the door.

"Hey you! Ma'am!" He calls to her. The Radiance ignores him, hoping he might give it up. She walks through the door and turns to the left, still walking alongside that man, who was now glancing back at that police officer.

"I think he was calling to you." the man says. "If you don't want to get in trouble you should probably go back."

"Oh, was he talking to me?" She replies, playing dumb. "Ah, how silly of me. I've been losing my hearing lately."

"I can relate. Still, you should probably go back because you might get into a situation if you don't." He looks back down at his phone and continues walking. The Radiance continues walking with him.

"Are you not going to go back?" he says after a minute. "Seriously, you could get in big trouble. They've been putting those officers everywhere lately, trying to find this criminal. He's just going to ask you to take off your sunglasses. Apparently the lady has weird eyes."

"Oh, yes. I will soon." She says. The Radiance definitely would have left him, but she was so densely packed within the flow of traffic that it would be a huge pain to turn back. Plus, she still had quite a bit to go until she got to her old ally's house. "It's just the traffic density. I'll go back when it thins."