The Golden City After Dark

[sofiaviolet]

Inspired by reading all of brigid's Secret Chicago posts in one sitting, I've decided to write some creepy little odds and ends about Auriel.

Hoping this is the first batch of at least a few.

There is a young man who works a particular corner, night after night. His face is pale and unnaturally pretty, and metal gleams occasionally at the crown of his head, as though silver wire is wound through his dark hair. Little else differentiates him from any other young man in his line of work. The money he earns pays for a small apartment that is his and his alone. But money isn't all he takes from his clients.

She wears dark, close-fitting pants and shirts with modest necklines. Plain shoes with thick chemical-resistant rubber soles. Her white lab coat - which has an unusually feminine shape - is always pristine despite her work in the alchemical laboratory. There are always two wooden sticks through her bun, though her hair is actually held in place with metal hair pins. Some people speculate that the sticks are a weapon, made of some special wood that aids in some aspect of her work outside the lab.

The hair sticks are weapons, but that has nothing to do with their composition. It's what she does with them.

Halfway up a hill is a low stone wall which separates the street from the property on the other side. People leave things on top of the wall - clothes, books, sometimes food. Although there are no signs, and no one ever discusses the wall, it's understood that everything left there is freely given, and that anyone may take the offerings. But the wall's magic is available only to those who walk past it routinely - perhaps because the wall requires time to learn the needs of its visitors.

If you see the wall often enough, and if you leave something at the wall (even once) but never take anything away, the wall will provide you with something you truly need. Be sure you need the item before you take it - the wall only provides this service once.