<div align="center"><a name="user_fuschsiafox"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>The Fuchsia Fox and an Artifact Absent</strong></span></a></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 | 7:00 PM<br/><strong>LOCATION:</strong>Pawnhouse Zaisan, The Gate<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong>Nerissa | Mentions:<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. Currently Toshiro's hood is up, and he's borrowing a black angora scarf from Nerissa.<br/><hr/>Once Nerissa had made it apparent the coast was clear, Toshiro gingerly untangled himself from her and crawled out from behind the dumpster. “I didn't shove your tail into my face on purpose, good to know it's not something foxes enjoy all that much though.” The scientist couldn't make out Nerissa muttered under her breath as he'd already turned his attention towards finding something the pair could use to jam up the fan.<br/><br/>As he rolled his chest over the thin cold lip of the dumpster in a way that caused his injuries to scream out once again in spite of the combination of oricots and pain killers he'd consumed, he tried to distract himself from the pain by questioning  what Nerissa had just told him about her shape shifting. “How far out does something have to be from you to be included when you change form? Like... if I held on to you, what would happen to me when you changed?” He had no desire to be the first to find out the answer to this quandary if Nerissa didn't know, but on the off chance she did, it could be an extremely useful tool. “Oh and it only looks like a bell, that's where the camera lens is. I'm no tech wizard so it only looks out ahead of you. But at least you won't have to worry about it making noise. Unless you break it. So don't.”<br/><br/>After overcoming his vast reluctance to once again put all his weight on the still sadistic lip of the dumpster in order to extricate himself from it's foul smelling interior, Toshiro handed the precious table leg to Nerissa as the pair made their way beneath the now uncovered vent. At her idea of using it as a method of scouting ahead, Toshiro nodded simply, only somewhat taken aback by Nerissa pressing herself close to him for the third time that day. Having an idea on what the fox demoness' plan was, Toshiro wrapped his arms around her warm diminutive form in time to keep her from falling to the horrendously coated alley floor below.<br/><br/>Once Toshiro had gently and slowly wrapped the collar around Nerissa's now much furrier neck to make sure it fit without any excessive discomfort, he withdrew a packaged moist towelette from his messenger bag and quickly passed it over the surface of the compass before holding it out for the now far smaller fox to take in her mouth. “Now make sure you let me get a look at the compass through the collar as you get closer, if you don't get close enough to get a definitive read on it's location, I'll still be able to figure out where it is with the other readings I've gotten from around the building.” He then held the surprisingly lightweight fox form Nerissa up to the now open vent where she adorably, and somewhat worryingly scampered off into the darkness within.<br/><br/>Just as soon as Nerissa had vanished from view, Toshiro had withdrawn his cell phone and pulled up the monitoring software that was usually reserved for Marceline. Flicking through the list of collars, he picked out the one Nerissa was wearing and began to watch intently as the feed from her collar filled the glowing surface in front of him, or at least it did for a short time before darkness from Nerissa's end overtook most of what he was seeing. This at least had been expected, and while it filled him with a sense of unavoidable dread that accompanied being rendered ignorant to Nerissa's well being, it was nowhere near the level of colossal shock and concern that drove through his mind at sight of light suddenly rapidly approaching Nerissa through the grate as she slid down the ventilation duct.<br/><br/>Grabbing hold of a nearby trashcan, Toshiro set the cylinder on its side with a groan of effort before climbing on top and shining his phone's flashlight down the vent. The vertical downward drop that Nerissa had slid down seemed to start only two meters out, which was something of a relief as Toshiro could easily fling something light that distance without risk of injuring Nerissa or alerting those inside the building to their presence. The only question was where he could find something long and flexible to reach out to Nerissa with, while still soft enough to avoid making noise. Rope would be ideal, but of course it was one of the things the often prepared scientist hadn't thought to bring on a simple trip to a pawn shop. There was an obvious option, but Toshiro would have preferred to avoid it until he'd exhausted all other possibilities, or at least that's what he thought before he heard Nerissa's small defeated sigh.<br/><br/>Not long after that sound was made, a large bundle of extremely soft angora wool descended upon the trapped fox from on high, its still body warmed dark surface disappearing into the darkness of the ventilation duct above. However Nerissa made it out, either by biting hold of the scarf and being pulled up, or simply using the uneven footing it offered as a climbable surface, once light from outside began to illuminate the duct's interior, it became apparent from the distance traveled that the scarf alone would not have been nearly long enough to reach all the way down to the stranded fox. The source of the remaining length of makeshift rope became immediately apparent as she climbed out into the waiting hands of the now shirt and hoodie absent Date Toshiro, the only thing bracing his lithe torso against the cold air of a winter evening was a thick layer of purple tinged bandage and gauze that seemed to cover ever inch of skin below the collarbone.<br/><br/>With an obvious shudder to his voice and the occasional chatter of teeth, he held Nerissa long enough for her to revert to her larger form before asking, “Are y-y-you ok? You d-didn't get hurt from the f-f-fall did you? D-d-did you find the s-statue?” Against both the chill exacerbated pain and the accompanying stiffness of movement, Toshiro began to slowly untie the sleeves of his hoodie from both the t-shirt and the scarf as he waited for a response.