two suitcases || phoebe!

[Ulquiorra Cifer]

Ulquiorra was getting tired of Las Noches. There was very little for him to do there, since it was not only smaller than the one he knew but devoid of most of his former allies. Although he did busy himself by reading and other, similar pursuits, that grew boring. Ulquiorra was far from an adventure seeker or anything close to that, but there needed to be some variety. So, Ulquiorra had decided to travel to the human world. Although most humans were just trash, Ulquiorra had found their world to be more interesting than he had assumed - especially since the rifts were bringing in all sorts of people.

Ulquiorra had made his way to San Francisco, an area he'd never explored. He had no particular interest in the city, nor it's inhabitants.... but, he had heard that many strange events had taken place in the town before. That was worth investigating, although one of said strange events was a totally normal story of some banker killing himself over his wife cheating on him. The things emotions led people to do... Ulquiorra was standing on top of a building, watching the people below mill about. It was a relatively non-busy street, though there were a few people wandering around. Deciding to take a closer look, Ulquiorra used sonido to get to the ground without people noticing.

As he had expected, it was only marginally more interesting when close up. The small details were, of course, more visible, but not exactly more interesting than the larger things. It was all rather bland, but Ulquiorra had no problem with that. He wasn't exactly looking for excitement, after all - just something different from the goings-on at Las Noches.

[Phoebe Halliwell]

Between their busy work schedules, and their busy...demon-hunting schedules (not to mention the two children Piper now had to take care of), it was rare that Phoebe and her sisters ever simultaneously got an afternoon off to just...hang out the way they used to. Today had been different. Today Piper's club was closing early, Paige had been given a break from her whitelighter duties, and Phoebe had gotten her newspaper column written early. Today the city seemed free of supernatural activity, and Leo was watching the boys.

So what had the famed Charmed Ones decided to do with their day off? Watch movies all afternoon.

Piper and Paige had run off to the store to grab every kind of snack imaginable...and Phoebe was in charge of picking up the movies. Which, given her infamous love of bad, cheesy old horror films, probably wasn't the best idea - but evidently her sisters hadn't learned by now. She'd picked out the first three Sleepaway Camp movies from the video rental store - plus a few other gems. There was Teen Witch, which all things considered Phoebe figured everyone would get a kick out of, as well as The Cell - typically modern horror wasn't really her thing, but this one looked ... interesting. And then, there was the one that the man who worked at the rental store had personally recommended himself. Described as a 'quirky black comedy' and 'a riot', she supposed the movie - mysteriously titled The Room - seemed interesting enough to be worth checking out, at least.

Movies in tow, she headed down the street and only narrowly avoided running into a rather...unusual looking man she hadn't noticed was situated in her path up until now. Skidding to a halt, the witch glanced up at him distractedly. "Whoops! Sorry, didn't -"

And then she broke off. She hadn't meant to do it, really - she'd gained a considerable amount of control over her abilities over the years, but one couldn't really just...turn off being an empath. And while as a rule, Phoebe usually made sure to try and be as non-invasive as possible, it was hard to avoid not reaching out to sense another person's emotions at this proximity especially. But it wasn't what she sensed that surprised her - it was what she didn't sense. There was...nothing radiating from the thin, pale man in front of her. Just a sort of empty, void feeling where his emotions should have been - she strengthened her abilities intentionally this time just to be sure, and still picked up nothing. Her eyes widened slightly. "You don't have...why...?" Phoebe wasn't really one to think before speaking at the best of times - and it was on occasions like these that her filter caught up with her a little too late. She quickly clamped her mouth shut, staring at him. What was he? Some kind of demon?

[Ulquiorra Cifer]

Ulquiorra had sensed another presence coming towards him. It was a little bit like a human's reiatsu, but much more powerful. It was something he hadn't quite seen yet, but he could detect that it's powers had something to do with... magic. On Earth, magic meant a great many things. There were so many different forms of magic on Earth that it was difficult to measure them. Thankfully, Ulquiorra was able to sense a great deal about powers, so he knew what was coming.

Or, perhaps he didn't. Instead of a powerful being, he was confronted with... a normal, human woman. Ulquiorra turned to look at her, staring with his ever-unchanging expression. At first, she was apologetic, something Ulquiorra expected. It was simply polite to apologize for nearly running into something. Ulquiorra could appreciate politeness among humans, since in many cases they seemed to be sorely lacking. Ulquiorra simply nodded in response, but she stopped herself. Ulquiorra tilted his head slightly, wondering what she was doing. She seemed... possibly surprised?

It's incredibly difficult to read people when you don't understand emotions.

Once she spoke, he realized why she had stopped. She had used her abilities to detect that he had no emotions. For a human, that would likely be difficult to understand. Ulquiorra honestly couldn't explain it himself, but he accepted it - even appreciated it after seeing what emotions did to humans. "I have no emotions because I have no heart." He replied, simply. That wasn't exactly true. He had been given a heart and, by extension, emotions, upon his death... but he still couldn't feel emotions, so it was as if he didn't have a heart at all.