Aslan buckled forward, but instinct kicked in and his hands grasped the rail.

Damn. Almost.

“Death smells worse,” Aslan deadpanned. “Wouldn’t recommend it.”

He’d bribed this one before. He knew that much. He was pretty sure he’d picked up food and made up ‘work’ to do that involved staying right where he was, too, just because the fellow looked so hard up.

Wait. It was either that, or he was the pervert and that was a way to keep him busy.

Sadly for Aslan's imperfect memory, he had been both. Francis smiled brightly and leaned against the railing gripping it with one hand just in case.

"Death is quick. Life seems to just go on and on and on. But what is a detective like you doing out here when you so much going for you? Hm?" He rose his brow and looked at Aslan curiously. "I don't think you're here to turn me in for my crimes. Who cares what a nobody does if he isn't a danger to the good and wholesome general public?" He started to laugh softly.

Aslan looked exhausted, but bland as ever. He cast a look the … informant’s? way, eyebrows raised in polite but suffocating judgment.

“Honestly,” Aslan lied, “I was just about to take a piss.”

He regretted his defensiveness the moment the … informant, continued.

“If that’s the case,” Aslan reasoned, aloud, without particularly thinking it through first, “then isn’t the solution to become a danger to the public?”

Francis smiled as if knowingly as he eyed the detective. "Long walk for a piss. But go ahead." He tilted his head and looked quite relaxed.

"Solution? You're saying my life would get more interesting and better and worth living if I took my petty crimes to another step? Like what? Murder? Maybe burn down a building?" The man's slim face stretched to a devilish grin. "Is that how you want to go?"

Normally, his poker face was better. There was a brief moment he blanched when Francis brought up murder, though. He put his fist to his mouth, apparently searching the waters for an answer.

“Hm, I think bank robbery is more the route to go if you want people to care in a good way, personally.”

Francis looked at him curiously and then away. "How is me committing bigger crimes going to be good for me in any way? Right now I'm practically invisible or people avoid me, so I can walk around pretty care free. Having a bed and food is nice, but no one would hire me anyway." He huffed, not about to mention the priests and the church though. Maybe this detective would pity him and toss him a coin. He tilted his head and smiled. "If you wanted to be noticed, is that what you would do? Rob a bank? You'd probably do it more clever than I could."

Whilst Francis found the flaws in Aslan’s plans? Oh, Aslan was making a bucket list. Where would he rob first, if he wanted to be known for something other than his father’s supposed murder?

“I think I’d scale one of the grandest homes in Whitby. Maybe the McPadraics. Swing in on their chandeliers, kick over their nice wines and throw back their bowls of punch. Rip off my clothes and then rob them blind.”

Of course, he wouldn’t make it out with the goods like that. He would, however, probably murder Nisa via the unbearable impropriety.

“But if I were lonely enough to, say, go to a bridge and consider taking a lifelong swim … I think I’d try my luck at a church.”

Assuming it was loneliness and not his own failings that drove him there.

Besides, there was a small that cannibal at the church would let him act out half that fantasy if it meant he got to chug some blood.

“Any churches you trust in the area?”

Francis laughed softly. "If you ever do decide to go out with style, let me know. I may want to join in or at the very least, watch the show."

He rose his brow though and looked away. "Churches are very boring to rob, believe me. Every time I try I get caught by one priest or another."

The guy folded his arms and tilted his head to face away from the bridge. "Oh, speaking of which.." he said in reply to the question. "St. Hilda's is the fun one for anything. They have this new priest. Very pretty but.." He waved a finger in the air. " I wonder if he's.." His finger moved to his temple and he tapped it. "All there, you know? He acts very strange. But he is letting me stay there as long as I work to clean and fix up the stupid church."

A future plan. Looked like this fellow was reconsidering the jump, too.

“Careful what you wish for,” Aslan laughed, turning his back to the water and letting his hands rest on the bridge behind him.

Aslan arched his brows when this fellow said churches and priests. Was that in the general sense, or …?

Huh. This guy had no shame. That could be useful.

There was one part and one part of Aslan’s body alone that moved at the mention of a pretty new priest: his eyes, to regard this bridge crosser very closely from the corners. The rest of him went still.

“I think I know the one,” he mused offhandedly. “The one that’s got a new priest every week, right? What’s strange about this one?”

Francis grinned. "Don't matter, I haven't gotten a thing I wished for yet, why would it change now?"

He crossed a foot over the other to lightly tap the bridge with a bare toe and waved at the detective casually. "Yeah. That's the place. Didn't really plan to go back myself after my last dealing. But then I come in to take a little charity for myself and I see the new guy,, Father Brennan. Quite nice on the eyes, and he pities me and offers me a bed and food if I keep the church looking nice. Of course I take it. He let's me come in for lunch and this is where it gets weird.."

He looks around suspiciously before holding up a hand to whisper though it was more than loud enough for Aslan to hear.

"He's been taken care of by their housekeeper, Higgins, so I offer to help cook. We have a nice little chat but he clearly is curious about the townspeople. So I start telling him some rumors and the like and he us very interested. Well,, I want a little show I did a good job. You know, pat on the head, a coin, even a gulp of wine would do. He's immediately on guard and acts offended I even want payment for information. Acts like he has no interest in it any more, even almost stabs me with a knife, it was a good thing I had an onion in hand. "

He shook his head more and folded his arms. "And that ain't all, before that me and him was getting along alright, he even treated me nicely after I mentioned what caused my woes. As if it's my fault men are more what get me going than women, ya know? Anyway... he tells me if I gave him good information. He'd do anything for me. Literally said those words. I jokingly tell him not to say that or I'd ask for.." Francis made a lewd gesture with his hand. "And he pretends he has no clue what I meant. And then shortly after acts like he's too good to talk to me. I swear. I think he's off. I still have been sleeping there, but I haven't seen a hair of either priest. Don't know what they get up to."