It was business as usual in Botanical City's civic center, and here, business was politics. City Hall, where Sebastian was interning, was a beautiful building. Designed in Spanish Colonial Revival style, it was a call back to the time when this part of the country had been La Florida, part of the Spanish Empire. It was a three story tall building, with a large tower capped with a dome standing in its center. From either end of the building's front a wing extended back, where they were eventually connected together by a bridge. White stucco walls and red roof tiles all around it. This building, its wings, and the bridge formed a square, in the center of which was a small courtyard, in the center of which was a fountain, next to which was Sebastian.
Sylas, his familiar, had taken to swimming in the fountain during Sebastian's lunch break. The otter was in fact presently in the process of doing so, while the human sat on the rim, an empty paper bag next to him, a half eaten sandwich in his hands. It had already been a long day, and Sebastian was looking forward to getting home and getting out of the button up shirt he was wearing. Business casual apparel had allowed him to keep his normal jeans, but he still had to look semi-presentable to his boss. Thankfully, despite the midday heat, the courtyard itself had thus for been kept cool and shaded thanks to a number of trees and other foliage growing within it. Truly, it was peaceful here.
Or at least, it normally was. Sylas suddenly shot out of the water, coiling around Sebastian's torso until the otter managed to work its way up to his shoulder. "There's a Stranger afoot!" the otter hissed in his ear.
Sebastian sighed, "And I was just reflecting on how nice the city was today, too."
Still, it couldn't be helped. Depositing what was left of his lunch back in its bag, Sebastian followed his familiar's directions into the city proper. He tossed the bag into the first trash can he passed. No way he was going to have the time to finish it now. Sylas' directions took him out of the civic center, into the town's commercial district to the north. There was a park here, a general area for people to relax between shopping runs. Thankfully, it seemed like the area had mostly cleared out when the Stranger first appeared, there didn't seem to be any injuries. Thank god for small miracles.
The monster in question was easy to spot when he got there. An exceptionally large black bear - or perhaps a black furred grizzly bear - with glowing red eyes. Handily, it looked like someone else was already planning to engage the monster. They looked like they had barely hit puberty, but they had already gone and activated their Cross and seemed generally like they knew what they were doing. Good. Maybe that meant Sebastian could hang back and observe. He didn't like calling forth his own raging waters unless he absolutely had to.
