Shady Place for Shady Business

The underground was good for more than just fairy tale black market. There existed all breeds of dealers down here, and while Siri had experienced the buffet of narcotics and potions this section of town had to offer, she was here for her old faithful.

Beneath the night sky, she was naught more than a long grey coat and a head full of bleach blonde curls. She averted her eyes with practiced disinterest as she sidestepped a man making a bloody feast of a woman's neck, and swiftly skirted around a gaggle of winged imps. Indeed, she headed with burning purpose towards a rather... scaly looking fellow.

No, seriously- he had scales. With a serpentine face, to boot, and a forked tongue that writhed in the air with her approach. A bead of sweat glistened in the hollow of her throat as they conversed in hushed tones.

"I need another hit." Siri's hands balled in the pockets of her coat, her nails carving half moons into her palms. "I get my paycheck at the end of the week."
"Another loan?" The naga drawled, his smile full of fangs. From his bags, sopping wet, he'd procured a ziplock with a handful of small, powdery white pills. He dangled them before her. "You're already indebted to me for a small fortune. Six hundred."
"The fuck!" She'd hissed, her voice pitching into outrage, "I'm only into you for three hundred! Where are you getting six from?!"
"Interest, child. Are you daft?"
An exasperated sigh bled from between her clenched teeth. This was a typical trick, one that she wasn't entirely unused to, but it made her blood boil all the same. Particularly since the dealer's rate was inhumanly high (figures). It made her long for her last dealer, a pixie who would only ask for payment in random shit, like a vial of her blood or a gum wrapper. She'd no idea where he'd went off to.
"Would you... want something other than cash?" She'd tried, inwardly wincing at the way it sounded. She didn't think he'd take it as she'd intended.
"Petty human. I've no interest in your flesh." The naga scowled, disgust wrought across his face. "Now I will require seven hundred for your insolence."

Siri pressed her lips into a fine line, and snagged the baggie from the naga's claws. He'd grinned widely as she'd wrenched the bag open with trembling hands, and mashed a pill between her teeth. It was bitter on her tongue. Wordlessly, she'd tucked the bag into her pocket, bowed her head curtly to the naga, and marched off deeper into the underground.

The drugs were already thrumming through Siri's veins as she'd made her way through the alleyway. Each step she took felt more muffled, until she was all but floating over the asphalt. The flickering neon lights buzzing in the shop fronts, which had been creepy in her sobriety, were now charming and fascinating in their design. Even the puddle of blood in the middle of the street didn't bother her that much.

Yeah, this night was going pretty well. That is, it was going pretty well until a hand shot up in her peripherals. It practically materialized out of the darkness of the shadows cast by the building, and the voice that accompanied it had the girl halting immediately. The same voice (rather, it was the accent that was so memorable) of the man from the library.

The man with the labyrinth mind. She'd wheeled about on her spiked heel, the tail of her coat flaring out behind her. "Aren't you that guy...?" She wondered aloud, only able to make out the general silhouette of him against the wall due to her wildly dilated eyes, "I'd thought you were some sort of professor or school official. But, you wouldn't find anyone with a reputation to ruin on this side of town."

Siri wrinkled her nose at the towering Russian, quipping, "Sure, but I'd wager we're in the more 'underground' area of the Underground. As in, if more people knew that this tiny island even had an alley like this, they might shit themselves."

At his inquiry, the blonde huffed a derisive snort and knit her arms over her chest. "Isn't it rude to ask someone what their abilities are around here? How about... you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine?" Decidedly settled into a conversation with this man, she'd loomed a bit closer to the building to stand among him in the shadows. It felt a few degrees safer where the locals couldn't quite see her, so she leaned a shoulder against the wall in a fashion none too different from his own and craned her neck waaaay back to peer up at his face. "Name included."

Siri would've frowned if she could've, but since she was a hot second off of taking a hit, she only managed to lull her head inquisitively sideways in answer to his initial statement. "Er... I mean, I wouldn't put it like that. I just assume most people's moral compasses point more due north than a place like this." As he mentioned her 'sleeping' her fellow students, she'd cringed for just a moment... moreso that she'd been caught, than that she'd been doing it.

"I admit to nothing." She chirped, clasping both hands at the small of her back and rolling her eyes innocently skyward. "But, if I had done such a thing, you'd be very right." She'd pointedly ignored his snort towards her, but did blink back some surprise at his admission, "Cool, Sasha. I guess it figures that you know my name, since I'm a preeeetty big deal around here." She drawled, a sarcastic grin pulling her lips, "And I am terrible person. Jesus, my reputation really does proceed me."

"You seem like a 'rather terrible' conversationalist. Who opens up with a creepy 'sup girl, I know your name already somehow'" - she puffed her chest as she imitated him, making her best attempt at a deep voice with a Russian accent -"and then follows it with a 'by the way, you're terrible, are you going to break the law again at some point in the future, just wondering.' Damn." She'd tossed her wrist limply in a manner that implied it was of no use, physically displaying her mental dismissal of his demeanor. "What's my name then, if you really know it?"

Siri drew back a step, just one, but one that spoke volumes about the comfort she had with the idea of him having gathered all this information on her. "Huh..." She managed, raking her hand through a fistful of white curled hair. Her brows were furrowed in mild horror, dark eyes wide as she gave him a quick once-over to assure herself that he wasn't about to do something like... oh, clamp a handkerchief of chloroform over her mouth and drag her deeper into the shadows?

"Ah... heh! That's right, you weren't really taking the bait on my game in the library, were you? I did wonder about that." She was making her best attempt at continuing with a normal conversation, but the calm in her voice was miscast coming from her strained smile. "So... Is that your power, Sasha? Are a human pokedex?" She'd laughed uncomfortably after that, rubbing her hand against the back of her neck in a fit of awkward.