starter for: @beyondredemptionrabbit
connection: first time – unlikely hero.
It was rare for Iseul to be on his own, usually flanked by at least two of his men - but he’d slipped free of a dinner tonight, out the back when nobody was looking. Seconds after he’d walked beyond the threshold of his home, his phone had begun to hop with calls and messages - panic ensued, he was sure, but the man just turned the device off and left it in his pocket. A summer’s night was warm, and the sky was clear; it wasn’t too often he could afford such a luxury, a chance to be alone, be pensive in his thoughts.
Gravel crunched underfoot as he walked the empty city streets, a cigarette hanging free of the corner of his mouth -- a little stream of smoke trailing off into the night’s air, but even this relaxed posture wouldn’t fool an observant eye. Dressed head-to-toe in black, his knuckles were tattooed with fading ink and the scars on his cheeks were enough to tell even the foolish of men to stay away; Iseul, in his own way, had found the life of crime to be a lonely one. People ran, and perhaps, he worked best that way----
---- thought were interrupted by a shout.
Iseul’s head turned, and beneath the grimy glow of a streetlight - he saw hooded youngsters crowding another male with wide eyes. Flecks of silver reflected back to his eyes told at least two of them were brandishing knives; a late-night mugging. Perhaps it was morbid curiosity, or maybe his boredom was even worse than he thought, but Iseul changes course. He walks towards the little huddle, tossing away his cigarette end but the step of his shoe on the loose gravel announced his arrival.
One turns to him, yells something about walking away; but in the next second, Iseul had pulled his gun from the holster beneath his jacket, pointing it straight at the youngsters. “Get moving---” He answers, motioning with the edge of his gun. “And leave the poor kid alone.”