Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5999656-20161216022828

A warm afternoon in Vale. After a spate of chilly weather, the citizens of the kingdom are using this reprieve to enjoy their weekend outside their homes. Even with the reports of increased criminal activity in the cities, it seems people can't help but be lulled into a sense of peace when the sun is shining so warmly above them.

She can't help but think everyone deserves it. Zanipher knows firsthand just how chaotic the last few months have been, what with the Grimm being constantly generated from the fallen academy, and the lowlifes who think that's cover enough for their illicit activities.

The woman is clad in casual dress, scarf dangling loosely around her neck, as she strolls past the shop windows. Her ensemble still favors black rather heavily, but there are plenty of young adults who consider that color the epitome of fashion. She passes a few of them on the sidewalk, chattering loudly in their loose clumps, but she herself is all alone as she meanders past a coffee house, comes to a stop, and stands outside examining the menu pasted onto the window.

Everything changed so quickly after that day. Mom and Dad were back to take the reigns, something Zan wasn't complaining about given how thin she'd been stretched trying to actively recruit for the Dragons while managing a multinational company. But then the unthinkable happened. The Nine Dragons of Vale stepped back and the alliance fell through.

No, that was an exaggeration, Zan mused, as she pushed open the glass door, wind chimes tinkling gently. The street gangs were too many, and the network was expansive enough. There was no way they could keep track of all their subsidiaries with all the police and Hunters scrambling around, and there'd even been rumors of sellouts all across the street gangs. So they'd had no choice but to cut all ties to unorganized crime, and have the organized factions halt communication indefinitely so they could keep up the masquerade.

"Peppermint mocha, please," Zan told the cashier. She gave her name as "Chihong", and dumped all the change from the twenty she handed them into the tip jar.

It wasn't so bad, being a Dragon in name only. She had more time to spend with her younger sister, for one, and it'd been a long time since she could enjoy a simple pleasure like today. And besides, things would go back to normal eventually. So it really was just a long vacation for her.

Zan took her drink and sat down at a table for two near the window. It really was nice being a normal adult without CEO and mafia don duties. And yet she couldn't help but feel unfulfilled, somehow. Before, she was constantly monitoring the network, looking for threats, vulnerabilities, or potential new allies. And now? She had no idea was what happening with everyone. She could just hope they were doing well on their own.

Zan took a pensive sip from the drink. 