Players:
Summary: Scout courts a possible new recruit for her gang.
Date: January 10, 2010
Log Title
Rating: PG-13
Union Square, NYC
Always bustling with life is Union Square, with its large statue of George Washington standing in the center. Live music, dancers, artists, activists, vendors, and more can all be seen here on a daily basis. There are even some tables set up for chess games. The Green Market can be found here, selling fresh fruit, breads, vegetables and other farm products. Union Square has more of a younger feel as most the kids who hang out here have that artistic, indie look to them, making Union Square one of the more open minded parks in the city.
It's still early in the evening, but just about the time that the green market vendors begin to pack up, causing the majority of the earlier crowd to begin dispersing . It's not quite as good pickings as it was before, but Scout none-the-less continues to mill around, looking for the easiest of targets to pick - i.e. the obvious tourists. She's gotten quite adapt at slipping wallets from peoples back pockets, using her abilities to control the shadows to her advantage. She's rarely caught these days and has begun to feel a sudden over whelming sense of confidence. It's only a matter of time before the teen slips up.
Lucas is clearly a tourist. He's wearing a pair of well worn, tattered khaki cargo pants with a wife beater covered by a thick brown plaid flannel. He also has a long, wool pettycoat on. Over his hands are thick, insulated, oversized gloves. As he meanders, he looks around with a bit of noob wonder. At some point, someone bumps him, and he offers, "Sorry, didn't see ya'll…" in a thick southern drawl that's cute enough to be charismatic, but still makes him seem a little uneducated.
Yes, this kid clearly stands out from the rest of the crowd, though it is hard to shy away from the old couple dressed in matching running pants and winter coats, the type you can just tell wear black socks with sandals during the summer months. The long coat is a little bit of a hindrance, but Scout is always up for a challenge, deeming the combination of thick southern accent and thick, over-sized gloves as a sign that he's probably 'special.' With her sight now targeted on him, she slowly begins to creep up behind the kid. She's dressed in her usual; black skin tight jeans, and two hole filled black hooded sweat jackets - doubling up for that extra warmth.
Lucas pauses in front of an Earth Now! booth, with propaganda aimed at making people blow things up to save the whales and rainforests. He reaches out to take a pamphlet, but as his giant glove nears the rack, it's clear there's no what that glove will be capable of taking one, he drops his arm back to the side with a little scowl. He sighs, the cold air smoking as he exhales, and then just looks at a few other pamphlets, standing still for the moment.
Scout is directly behind the teen now, leaning in to figure out a way to get into his back pocket, considering the long wool petticoat he's wearing. Hoping luck is on her side, she gives one of the front pockets a quick try, hoping to find something of value. Timing was poor. Real poor. Couldn't have been worse, actually, as the dark dressed teen is bumped into by a Earth Now! pamphlet curious tourist, which lands Scout directly into the back of the gloved teen, her hand obviously shoved fully into his coat pocket. Under her breath, she begins to curse her decision not to go for the dumb looking older couple. "Oh, hey there… sorry about that."
Lucas turns his head, and glares at her. He reaches down and wraps his gloved hand around her forearm. It's rough and scratchy, but mostly, it's very warm. Almost hot, but not quite. He pulls her hand out, and keeps a tight hold on it. "May Ah help you?" he asks, staring right in her eyes with a fierce confidence.
Scout looks down at the gloved hand, now wrapped around her forearm, feeling the strange warm sensation that should not be coming from a glove like that. Normally her stench would be horrendous this close up, but she's learned it doesn't do much when you're trying to rob people without them knowing when you smell bad enough for them to immediately notice. "Yep! Mind putting that weird, warm glove on my cheeks - it's cold out here!" Her eyes dart around, trying to locate which pedestrian just bumped into her so she can make a mental note to knife them, after she fulfilled her mental note to either get a new knife or get her favorite one back. Coming up without any prospects, the dark haired teen refocuses her eyes onto the gloved hand still holding onto her. "We're wondering what's up with the oven mitt? Sorta dorky if you ask me."
Lucas rolls his eyes, "Really? It done felt more like you was tryin' ta find my wallet." He lets go of her hand. When she makes fun of the glove, he looks annoyed, "Fuck you, Dodger."
With her head cocked to the side like a confused puppy, Scout, now with both hands free, shoves them down into her top jacket pockets. "Maybe I was. What're you going to do about it?" She responds, attempting to make her voice sound as tough as possible as her eyes move directly back to the gloved hands as it's becoming nearly impossible for her not to stare at them. "No seriously, what's up with the oven mitts?" She asks again, debating internally whether or not she should risk poking them.
Lucas looks around, and then takes a step towards her. He speaks slow and deliberate, with a little threat to his words, which is almost made funny with his accent. "Look, lady. Ah don't wanna teach you a lesson, so Ah reckon you just best done move along… Don't push me."
"But I haven't pushed you yet. This would be pushing you." Scout replies, giving the other teen a very light push with her right hand into his left shoulder. It's more mocking him than anything else, a sort of 'look what I can do' gesture. "Ha! ha!" Her lips curl up into a mischievous grin, while Scout's eyes remain directly on the kids gloves. "So what lesson are you going to teach us? Baking?"
Lucas scowls, and suddenly the air around them grows a few degrees warmer as he steps towards her and shoves her. His shove is strong and hard, stronger than he looks, and he offers through grit teeth, "Walk away…"
The hard shove, combined with it being completely unexpected, is more than enough to send poor Scout tumbling down onto the hard concrete, the sound of her bottom connecting resonates a deep 'whump!' "Aw!" she cries out, hand immediately moving to where her tail bone is located. "Ok, ok. We were just messing with you, that's all." Picking herself back up to her feet, the little teen's eyes immediately go back to the insulated gloves, licking her chops as she's beginning to put one and one together. "We just really want to know what's up with the gloves? Is that too much to ask?" She takes a couple more steps near Lucas, stopping so she's definitely out of the other teens reach.
Lucas looks around, still a little angry. "Maybe it IS." he asks, turning his attention back on the girl. The air is beginning to get cold once more. "Who's WE?"
"We?" Scout responds as her brows furrow up in confusion. "It's just me. Wait, what do you mean?" Now the little teen is taking an aggressive stance, her arms uncrossed and lower at her sides. It's odd, but even to just the casual eye, it appears that any and every shadow in the area is begin to stretch out towards the teen, like several long, clawed hands reaching out to grab a hold of her ankles.
Now Lucas looks a little confused. "You keep sayin' 'we.'" He looks around, and then sees the shadows, and looks back at her. "Oh…" His right hand crosses over and lays on his left glove, as if he's waiting to see if he needs to remove it. "What do you want from me?" he asks.
"No I didn't!" Scout is quick to snap, her eyes going wide and wild. "You said we, not I. You trying to mess with my head?" The question is emphasized with a quick tap of a finger to the side of her head. Her eyes immediately go to Lucas' left hand, watching as he looks prepared to pull the glove off. She begins to lick her chops like she's seeing a fully plated dinner table for the first time in years.
Lucas continues to look a little bewildered. Then he smirks, "Ya'll are fuckin' with me, ain't ya?"
Scout simple stands still and for the first time in a while, appears to not be paying any attention to the gloves at all. There's something definitely not right with the way she's poising herself, like she's definitely plotting something. "Not at all." Scout says, her lips twisting up into one last grin before she makes a dash to pull the glove off the other teens left hand.
The glove pulls right off, and the revealed hand is a blindingly bright ball of nuclear fusion, the heat immediately beginning to melt the snow around them and heat the air. He panics, "NO!" and spins, pulling it away, but he ends up smacking it into the wrack of pamphlets, which instantly bursts into flames. People begin to scream, and he steps back, jerking his hand away from the paper, and right into the arm of a passerby. The stranger howls in agony as his coat and sleeve incinerate in the blink of an eye, his now exposed flesh rippling with burning blisters. Lucas steps back, finally out of harms way, and looks at Scout.
His face turns a little red with fury, and the air gets even warmer. "Ah warned you…"
Scout watches with absolute glee as the whole situation begins to unfold before her, evening appearing to take extra joy the moment the unlucky pedestrian's sleeve becomes incinerated, revealing blistered flesh beneath. "Holy shit!" She yells out. "That's fucking amazing." She takes a couple steps forward, ignoring both the ensuing panic around the two teens and the obvious anger in Lucas' eyes. "Why didn't you show us that earlier?" She's still maintaining more than an arms length of distance.
Lucas widens his stance a little more, and lifts his arm back slightly, as if he is preparing to throw the ball of glowing energy. He holds it, and he too, ignores the chaos around them. "You better…" And then he looks a little unsure, registering what she said. "Wait… what?"
The shadows begin to subside, pulling back to where all of them originated as Scout takes a couple steps closer, her eyes glued to the up held and glowing hand. "Do you understand how useful you could be to us?" She asks, stepping around his side, head still cocked upward as she tries to see all angles of the kids hand like it's some sort of modern sculpture on display. "I met this old guy too, I bet he'd find you useful too."
The energy is like an undulating ball of yellow, orange and lots of white light, brilliant and hot. It also emits a faint hum that's a little eerie. Lucas remains still, at the ready, but his head follows her, his eyes remaining on the girl. "Ah don't much wanna be useful, thank you." He continues to stare at her as the last of the panicked crowd runs past, leaving them nearly alone in the large area. "Give me one good reason why Ah shouldn't fry your ass," he demands.
"Ah, but you are useful." Scout hisses, still watching the undulating, glowing ball. After finally make a full round of Lucas' body, the little dark teen stops just before him, her arms once again crossing over her chest. "Why? Because I'm like you. I'm not one of these pitiful people, running in panic because what will eventually overcome them has reared it's big, ugly ass right in front of their eyes." She pauses, watching the few stragglers left splitting the scene. "Fry them, not one of your own kind."
Lucas glances at the last of the runners as they disappear from the open area. "They're all afraid of me…" He looks back at her. "Ah don't know how Ah feel about that." He watches her for a moment, his eyes drifting to her chest for a second as she folds her arms. It makes him glance away, and then back to her face, but the air gets just a little warmer. "Who are you?"
"Excited? Powerful? Superior? Those are just some words that come to my mind when I see people fleeing because of me." A devilish grin returns to her features as she glances around the now empty Union Square. Then there's the expected sound - police sirens. They're still far off, but it's only a matter of time before they arrive. "I imagine it's getting about that time." She says, holding up her wrist as if there's a watch there she can look at, but there isn't. "Name's Scout. You can usually find us in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood."
Lucas tilts his head a little when she says those three words. She's hit a chord with him, but he doesn't seem to want to admit it. "Scout…" he repeats. He looks around, hearing the sirens as well. Then he looks back at her. "Ah'm Lucas." He furrows his brow a bit, a little surprised he told her. "Um…" He looks at his glove, in her hand. "Can Ah have that back?"
"This?" Scout says, looking down at the glove she's still holding. "Of course." She tosses it back to him, taking a couple steps back as the shadows begin to once again pull towards her. "Look me up. Shouldn't be hard." The denser the shadows begin to build beneath Scout is the moment she begins to sink down into them, slowly at first. "Seeing as I already have a way out of here… good luck!" she shouts out before completely disappearing.
Lucas catches the glove, watches her slink into the dark, and then turns and runs.
