Night Watch (action)

[fabricati_diem_pvnc]

Though he was towards the top of the police hierarchy, Vimes still always kept an eye out for excuses to go on patrol, especially at night. It wasn't that he liked tramping around Venture City at 3am during one of the city's rare rainstorms. It was a bloody miserable time to be about. But...

But some of the best days of his life had been in the middle of rainy nights. You stood behind a statue or something to get out of the wind so you could light a smoke, you hunched your shoulders just like so and your hat directed the rain down the back of your jacket, leaving you in a tiny little bubble of warmth and dryness. For just a few minutes, you could pretend that the world made some kind of sense and fade into the background. If you could manage it, you became part of the architecture.

When Vimes had been a younger officer, on a night like this, he had become so much a part of the background that a purse snatcher had ran around a corner and stopped standing right next to him to catch his breath. Vimes had grabbed him and whispered "You just got nicked, son." and the poor man had needed a change of underwear.

Tonight, it had been quiet so far. Vimes stood in the lee of a phone booth out by the docks where the rain wasn't quite so bad, hunched his shoulders like so, lit a cigarette, and waited, looking to see what kind of characters would come out in the dark.

Comments

[rose_liberated]

It was late, true. And it was raining. But Rozalin had been unable to sleep, wakened by nightmares, and thus had taken her umbrella and wandered out for a stroll.

But now she was lost, and she had left her little phone with the map in it on her dresser, looking around for some landmark-any landmark to guide her back to the apartment. And even if she had dressed down for the occasion, she was still a beautiful woman out and about on a dark and rainy night.

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Vimes loomed out of the darkness, but with as unthreatening a face as he could manage. This wasn't say much, as the only reason people couldn't describe Vimes as disgruntled was that he was never gruntled in the first place.

"Are you lost, miss?"

[rose_liberated]

Perhaps Vimes shouldn't have been so intimidating looking-because when he loomed out of the dark, Rozalin reached for a pocket with a suspicious looking lump. A sort of rectangular one that hinted at a rather dangerous moment here.

Still, she held back. "I'm afraid I did get turned around a bit."

[fabricati_diem_pvnc]

Hmm. Going for some sort of weapon. Sensible precaution for the time of night, but a little odd when she was facing someone clearly dressed as a police officer.

"Where are you trying to go?"

[rose_liberated]

She relaxed a bit, but kept her hand on the comforting presence of her handgun.

Still, it might be best to trust the somewhat scraggly officer of the law for now. "100 Venture Park Avenue." Nothing important. Just one of the most expensive addresses in the city.

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"Park Ave? You're on the completely wrong side of town!"

Of course it's never good news.