<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>The Fuchsia Fox and an Artifact Absent</strong></span></div><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3f/cb/51/3fcb513183b094b643a10c74bed38b1e.jpg)</div><strong>NAME:</strong>Date Toshiro<br/><strong>DAY:</strong>December 26th, 2018 | 1:30 PM<br/><strong>LOCATION:</strong>SOPHE, Second Floor Balcony<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong>Nerissa | Mentions: Albion<br/><strong>EXTRA:</strong><br/><strong>WEARING:</strong>An overly large gray hoodie with a Polkadot Stingray emblem (https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.746250090.2683/ssrco,lightweight_hoodie,mens,grey_lightweight_hoodie,front,square_product,x600-bg,f8f8f8.2u3.jpg), black jeans, and his worn running shoes.<br/><hr/>Toshiro's hand froze mid stroke amid Marceline's fur, his breath, once ragged for having remembered the night before, suddenly ceased entirely; and even the cold winter air seemed to lose it's chill as beads of sweat began to form at the sides of his face at the usually friendly intonation of the demoness who had so coldly taunted him only the night previous, Nerissa. Before the seated man could break free of his momentary paralysis, he felt a pair of warm coat adorned arms wrap around him, the weight and warmth of her body painfully pressing up against the still massive bruises that covered most of his torso, the sting an unnecessary reminder that her gesture must have been little more than an effort to amplify his pain and humiliation. Reflexively pulling from her touch, a held back but still audible groan of pain spilling from Toshiro as he rose to his feet, the ache that shot across his abdomen a clear sign that his body would not readily cooperate with such sudden movements.<br/><br/>To those that had attempted to harm the scientist exclusively, of which there were many, almost none had seen him return their attempts with anything less that joviality and a desire for mutual understanding. For those who were mainly curious and only caused harm from the occasional misstep, Toshiro was usually quick to wave off their damage for the sake of the building a potential relationship. However as he turned his gaze from the building's edge, to which he had stumbled dangerously towards as he righted himself, towards Nerissa, there was no mistaking his half open eyes and furrowed brow for anything other than utter contempt of the demoness who had approached him.<br/><br/>Taking a few labored paces away from the balcony's edge while keeping his distance from Nerissa, Toshiro briefly considered both the placement of the balcony's security camera and the damage a fall from this height could cause before placing his cold narrowed eyes back onto the fox. “There aren't any audio recording devices up on this balcony Nerissa, I've made sure of it, so do not pretend.” His words were, for those such as Nerissa who may have only known Toshiro in a more social environment,  uncharacteristically lacking in any sort of emotion as he presented them without any sort of flair or playful dramatics, instead he spoke slowly, precisely, and without embellishment as if it as the most important thing in the world that his intent was clearly conveyed. “I am going to have the statue back. Whether or not you return it voluntarily is up to you, but by extension, so is what will follow.”<br/><br/>If it had not been for the hours spent with nothing but his thoughts and a painting standing in for last night's sleep, Toshiro would have been able to keep this objective persona indefinitely, but concern had festered into ever cranny of his mind with nothing but the worst possibilities permeating his every waking thought from the moment that the creature standing before him had left bleeding on the floor of his apartment. Taking a wincing step forward, a slight twitch in his nearly passive facade giving way to a pained fury as he asked with mounting frustration, “W-why? Why choose me? I'm... you couldn't have known I'd have had the statue, but you... you knew...” Nails digging into the palm of his hands as his fists balled with anger, another agonizing step bringing him even closer to Nerissa, his angle of approach putting the fox demon directly between the much taller man now looming over her diminutive frame and the ice slicked edge separating her from the significant yet potentially fatal fall below if he were to push her from just the right direction.<br/><br/>Reddened eyes now widening with the most significant of his injuries now coming to the forefront, Toshiro grimaced through the pain of his partially still broken body as his dragging steps put him slowly back within arms reach of Nerissa. “You knew about me and Albion... but you're... you were his friend... he opened up to you but you... it wasn't real. It was all for last night, wasn't it?” Slowly he reached out to her, his long fingers gripping her by the shoulders. All he had to do was push, Albion might not be able to forgive him, but Toshiro had grown accustomed to the scorn of those he cared about, wasn't it worth it?<br/><br/>However Toshiro never had to face the answer to this question as his hands suddenly pulled back at the sound of a small metallic tingling ringing out from below. Looking to Nerissa's ankles, Toshiro almost collapsed as the immense weight of his body pulling down against it's battered frame suddenly came to his awareness with the sight of Marceline purring as she pressed her body heavily against the fox demoness' legs. Falling back into his seat on the bench, Toshiro looked back out over the wilderness reclaimed section of Tokyo, it's prolonged contact with the arcane lending it a perpetually altering state of being as hues and shapes shifted with no apparent pattern or reason. With a mixture of disgust in his voice for what he had been considering and exhaustion from his still proceeding travail, he spoke in defeat, “You didn't kill me last night, so you must want something. What's it going to take to get you to give me the statue back, and get out of Albion's life.”