The road a wide expansion before the dark-haired man. One that had personally gone on too long for his liking. Though driving has always been his least favorite chore. Too many variables. Too many morons and he swore to whatever higher beings was listening that if he got one more person on his ass while is going the speed limit he is blindfolding his daughter and showing someone their own ass today! Just a few more miles. Just a few more and he’ll have something else to be on edge about. New places, new towns, and new homes, or at least for as long as they have it. It was the best idea he supposed. No, he knew that it was the best idea he’s had in a long while.<br/><br/>Warm, honey brown eyes glance in the rearview mirror at the young girl, no more than five years old, sat in her booster seat, content with portable DVD player in her lap. Firery red hair that was every bit her mother’s, pulled high and to the side, with a bright blue scrunchy. She had happily chosen it herself, something she was proud to mention to anyone who noticed, as he had brushed and pulled her hair up in only the way a father who has spent the last four years figuring out how to do without having a toddler try and knock him out. Bright yellow overalls with a large white daisy on the front of the bib, and a bright blue t-shirt underneath. He had let her choose what she was going to wear that morning when they had left the last motel. The shocks or shoes didn’t match but she was getting better at choosing what she wanted. So what if she had one pink and one blue sneaker on?<br/><br/><br/>He needed to remind himself that he was doing this for her. Just for her. For that happy little smile that was all dimples and freckles. A littering of freckles that matched his own lighter ones that sprinkled along his cheeks and down his neck to disappear beneath the collar of his faded red t-shirt. Her eyes shot up to meet his own, she grins at him as she asked. “Daddy, are we almost there yet?”<br/><br/>“In a bit pumpkin.” He chuckled as the girl stuck her tongue out at the bit of news, kicking her feet before she groaned dramatically.<br/><br/><br/>“We’ve been driving for-ev-er!” She huffed, dragging the ev out longer than necessary as she looked back down to the screen in her lap.<br/><br/>“It’s been an hour.”<br/><br/><br/>“I’m five, dad, an hour is a lot of time to a five-year-old. It’s like twenty old man years.” Huh, where did she learn that level of smartassery? Oh, right.<br/><br/><br/>His bowed lips quirked up as he resisted a snicker. Something about irresponsible parenting one preschool teacher had called it. He liked to call it raising a free minded kid. Or he just accepted he was a horrible influence. “Uh-huh. Yeah well, we got forty more old man years left before we get there.”<br/><br/><br/>The deadpan look was all he needed to know that she didn’t get that level of math necessary to figure out that it was two more hours left. “Pop in two more DVD’s and we will be there short stuff.”<br/><br/><br/>“Ugggggh!” Lilian groaned dramatically, much to her father’s amusement. Six years ago he never would have thought that this would be something he would look forward to. A little girl making cracks about his age and being his precious little diva. When had this become the moments he looked forward to?<br/><br/><br/><br/>Lilian sat in bright-eyed wonder as she watched tall, massive tree’s pass by her window, twisting the best she could in the bright pink and black car seat to continue watching the mighty giants. She had never seen such large trees. Not even the ones that her grandmother had taken her to see in the park. There were so many! She had looked up from the screen a little while ago when the soft baritone of her dad’s voice had broken through the peace the car had fallen into as she got absorbed in the show. His long, finger pointing ahead to the looming mountain face before them. All of this was so much different from the city.<br/><br/><br/>Mason took in the little details as they drove. The fact there was only one clear, main road in and out of town. There could be a few back roads but so far the one he came in on seems to be the only one. Little buildings, a good handful of what he could call mom and pop shops. Others a bit more mainstream. Though small town feel was definitely something this place radiated. Maybe that was it? One would find it hard to believe looking at the man at first glance to think he was anything but a fine, average man. Lean muscle left his frame harder then one would expect a single father to have time to build on. His white button-up shirt rolled to the elbows, revealing the few odd scar and freckles.<br/><br/><br/>Those scars? Each one had a story to it. Most of those had to do with his line of work. If most would ask, he would claim he was a journalist. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have a degree in it. A flight of fancy he parents had dubbed it. Maybe he was looking for a normalcy that those like him was never meant to grasp but he did. If nothing else it made him the least suspicious of his cell when government sorts came sniffing around. They were hunters. He was a hunter as his parents before and his grandfathers before them and so on and some such. Five generations of hunters that protected humanity from all that would make them prey. The cell he was raised amongst? Maybe it was something that the outside world and his stent away from home had allowed him. A way to see the outside, and maybe, just maybe, burning things alive wasn’t the only answer to a problem.<br/><br/><br/>There was a stark difference between necessity and fear in his mind, and he refused to become them. He would not become them.<br/><br/><br/>That was why he was here. Jacobs called for who would be willing to investigate this little town just inside their borders, he grabbed the offer with both hands. It almost could be argued that it was right on the border between his home cell and another but that was beside the point. He was here. If he was lucky? The sudden rise in missing people reports were simply runaways or even maybe a very human serial killer? He could claim that he wanted to keep a running eye here and maybe essentially just separate. Raise his little Lily-pad away from it all. Let her grow up with a father that was there. Not always bouncing between him and her grandparents.<br/><br/><br/><br/>She deserved better. He would give her better.<br/><br/><br/>Mason pulled what could only be called a soccer mom van, into the drive as the GPS instructed. The sight that his eyes fell upon was something else altogether. A small, fanciful part of him that no matter the years of cynicism and training tried to beat out of him. The Victorian home was twice what he thought it would be. He was expecting a larger space, sure, though this? He could only imagine a place filled with old, fanciful stories and charming ghosts causing mischief around every corner. Something less malevolent as it sat nestled by tree’s already starting to change colors. It was well kept and by no means mincing. Something his daughter readily agreed with if the excited gasp was anything to go by. It took only one glance in the rearview mirror to find the girl had thrown the DVD player in the seat beside her. Squirming and fidgeting to try and get a better look at the house as he pulled up the drive. Laughing as he put the faded army green minivan into park. The hunter appreciated the convince the van gave him. Few questioned a man with a minivan and a hot pink and black car seat. Her small hands fumbled with the buckles of her car seat trying to get free to explore.<br/><br/><br/>He cut the engine before he unbuckled and climbed out. Well worn work boots meeting concrete as he moved in an easy stride to the door not covered by boxes. He might have skirted the traffic laws a bit when it came to packing up the car with all he could count as he really owned. The irony is that probably more than two-thirds of these boxes had Lily’s name on them. The red-haired girl squirmed in what could only be called a valiant attempt to free herself from her safety prison her father waiting patiently before she huffed at him, pleadingly holding out her hands to him, hands grasping at nothing as her bottom lip poked out. “Daaaaad!”<br/><br/><br/>The laugh that left him was nothing but warm and fond that grew from his chest at her distressed look. He felt a bit cruel for doing so, but he quickly worked at the buckles to free her, before he helped her from her seat. No sooner had those mismatched shoes met the floor of the van did little arms wrap around his neck in expectation. One he didn’t question or deny as he scooped his arm under the back of her legs, lifting her from the car before helping place her on the ground beside him. She holding firmly to his hand as she looked around herself, taking in the large front yard. The excitement bleeding a little into a slight nervousness now that she was outside the familiar confines of the van. Mason glancing around before his eyes landed on the man in the open garage. He looked a little younger then he had expected. Honestly? He was thinking he’d be renting from some old man. Someone wizened and he doubted would notice him slipping in and out at odd hours. Though this man was far from some aged older gentleman. He hardly looked to be any older than the twenty-four year old. He absently running his fingers over his uneven locks. Dark brown hair he had so foolishly thought it would be a good idea to leave the top longer than would be wise when he had buzzed the underside of his hair. Long strands that would usually fall to frame his face, pulled back the best he could manage into a stub of a ponytail. Strands having fallen in his absent motion to tickle his jaw.<br/><br/><br/>His gaze absently brushing over the sleeves of tattoos that peaked out from a well worn and abused white t-shirt. A frame he could only call impressively fit. If he hadn’t thought he worked with his hands catching sight of the workspace in the garage he saw, the set of his shoulders and muscles that pulled across his arms. And that face? Thoughts of that he was pulled from as he felt a hard tug on his fingers as Lilian’s little hand started tugging him in the direction of the man. He absently closing the car doors as he went. A friendly smile taking it's placed on his lips, fueled by fatherly amusement as the social butterfly of a little girl decided to direct her father in the direction of someone new. Oh, she loved new things.<br/><br/><br/>Lilian’s smile light up her whole face as she approached the slightly scruffy man before them, ignoring her father’s chuckle as she let go of his hand to stand before him. “HI! I’m Lilian! You smell like paint. Do you like to paint? Cause I like to paint! Is painting fun, right? You look like you are a really good painter too! Though daddy says I get more on me then on the paper, but he’s silly! He says a lot of silly things! Y-“<br/><br/><br/>Mason busted out into an amused laugh now. Each rapid questions and statements having made the small, friendly smile on his face only grow and grow as his daughter practically assaulted the man with words. He finally gave in to interrupt her as he patted her on the head, ignoring how the girl batted his hand as he tried to swallow down his laughter into more manageable chuckles. “Take a  breath, princess, you're starting to look a little blue.” He teased, before finally lifting his gaze to meet a two-toned one. “Sorry about that, I swear she does sit quietly sometimes.” He didn’t need to mention that was just when she was sleeping. “I’m Mason, and I can’t take it you were who I talked to on the phone?” He asked, holding out a hand to shake. Hopefully, this guy doesn't scare easily? More so that he was a little unobservant. It sure as hell would make his own job a lot easier.<br/><a class="username" data-user-id="289" data-username="@Knit_orious" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/289/">@Knit_orious</a>