Players:
Summary: Bruce gets into an argument with Lil and Anita over Kick.
Log Title: Attempted Intervention
Rating: R
NYC - Nowhere
Nowhere is a community bar, with a slightly old world feel. All of the tables and chairs are made of wood, though there are some couches in a slightly offset room with green fabric. The music varies, depending upon the Owner's music taste for the day. Beer and Liquor are both served, but are both carded for as well.
At the front of the bar, right as one walks in,is a large sign. "Superhuman friendly establishment. There will be no tolerance for disparaging remarks based on one's genetic status. Any fights will not be tolerated within the bar. The management holds no responsibility for where combatants are teleported."
It is also quite impossible to use fake IDs here. There is a telepathic bouncer that works the door.
Scene
Early evening, a time when Anita would normally be at Sapphire's, on a chilly spring day finds the dancer instead hunched over her third beer instead. She's slightly pale and looks like she's been living on a 'liquid diet' for the past couple of days, her eyes shadowed by dark circles and her cheeks vaguely hollow. The hispanic beauty ignores everyone, just looking into the amber liquid in the glass on the bar before her. Her hands shake faintly as she lifts the glass to drink.
Lil frowns at the girl at the bar and continues to clean out glasses. The look on Anita's face reminds her of how Bruce looked the last time she saw him sober. The woman sighs and puts down her towell, walking down the bar toward the opposite end as another mutant taps on the countertop. "Hey Vinny. Any word? Haven't seen him since China Town." The man shakes his head. "Damn. Well at least there hasn't been much about him in the news lately…Oh never mind." The woman looks up to the door as a man staggers in.
The man in question is none other than Bruce himself. The man is pale and looks like he hasn't shaved or showered in a few days. His shirt is ripped and he appears to be sweating purfusely. Bruce makes his way up to the counter and leans on it heavily. He has a manic look in his eye and his arms shake slightly as he braces himself. "Hey kitten. Could you do me a favor and uh…Hand me that box under the counter?"
Mention of China Town has Anita looking up from her beer, her eyes faintly hazed, "Wha's that about China Town?" She runs a hand through her hair, pushing it back out of her face, and keeping her other hand on her glass. Then Bruce is walking in and Anita gives him a quick glance before looking away. She obviously knows that she doesn't look much better than he does, ducking her head a little and focusing again on her drink. The low sound of muttering can be heard from her, the woman giving herself what sounds like a lecture in Spanish. She swallows hard, apparently forgetting about her question to the bartender.
Lil glances over at Anita and shakes her head, coming toward her to speak to Bruce a little easier. The woman's voice is hushed, but Anita will still be able to hear her. "What the hell are you doing here and where the hell have you been? When was the last time you were at your apartment? I went there to check on you and Tiberius looks like he hasn't been fed in DAYS. You're lucky I'm such a good person you know that? I've got him now and you're not getting him back until you get help." She does not look happy right now. Not at all.
Bruce is breathing a bit heavily and shakes his head. "Lil, Lil. Ok ok I'm sorry. You know I'm doing important work out there. If not me who else is going to protect these people?" He gestures around a bit and lets his hand land on Anita's shoulder. "Look at this lovely lady right here. Just wants to stop in for a drink, right miss?" He nods at Anita, agreeing with himself. "Couldn't do that if the cops came in and shut this place down." He releases Anita and puts both hands on the counter again, looking Lil in the eye. "Now Lil. I really need that box. It's quite important."
Anita frowns when hearing that someone, apparently a helpless animal, had been neglected, but relaxes a little when Lil says that she's got him and is taking care of him for the time being. She scowls, flinching away a little when Bruce's hand lands on her shoulder. He'll find that her shaking isn't just contained in her hands, that she's trembling slightly all over, just not quite visibly, "Yeah, sure." She tries to brush his hand off her shoulder, "Would you go ahead and give him the effing box he wants, lady? Anything to get him out of here." Seems that someone isn't exactly in the best of moods at the moment.
Lil looks at Bruce and then at Anita and back to Bruce. She crosses her arms across her chest and frowns. "The box had Kick in it. And yes I found it. Did you really think I wouldn't Bruce? It's gone now. I wasn't going to keep that shit in this bar. Not after what it did to you. I took it to the Embassy, and I think you should go there too. You need help." She glances at Anita. "Actually so do you."
Bruce's expression switches from calm to irate in a split second. He reaches across the bar to grab at Lil but misses. "WHAT!? You did WHAT!? That was MINE! I NEED that and you just GAVE IT AWAY!?" The people in the bar are all looking at Bruce now, many of them frowning. "You stupid Bitch. Who the hell's going to make this city the way it SHOULD be if you won't give me what I need to get it done?"
Lil's suggestion that Anita needs help and should go to the Embassy has the dancer scowling, "Yeah, and who asked you?" She doesn't need the unsolicited advice of some bartender- Wait… "What the hell is Kick, anyway?" She never heard what it was that asshole Kyle sprayed her with. Then Bruce is going off on the other woman and Anita raises one brow at him, just watching him for a moment, "Shit, man. I'm sure that if you're that desperate for whatever this Kick stuff is that you can find more from somewhere." Even if he has to find it on the streets, "And if it's something that helps you to protect people…" Well, then maybe he should.
Lil pulls back from Bruce's grasp and holds up a hand to the man's face. Her palm flashes a brilliant burst of light directly into the man's eyes. "Calm the fuck down! I am so sick of this." She leans on the bar and points a finger at Bruce. "He look like he needs more of that shit? Last time he took it he went Godzilla on China Town. Said he was going to "Turn this city into the new Genosha"." She makes little air quotes as she repeats the man's words. "Kick is a drug. A dangerous drug that magnifies mutant powers and has the wonderful side-effect of causing the user to go bat shit insane."
Bruce yells out when Lil flashes him. He stumbles back and knocks into a table. "Damn it you stupid bitch!" He lunges at the bar again and slams a fist into it, leaving a rather sizeable hole in the top. He appears unharmed by his outburst however, and anyone looking close enough will see that the arm he attacked with is made of sand currently. "I will do it Lil. I'll do it for all of us. Then you won't have to worry about those cops taking people away anymore." Bruce is looking increasingly manic. He keeps clenching and unclenching his jaw and he looks around as though he is expecting someone to jump him.
Anita growls in surprise and shields her eyes with her arm as Bruce is flashed, "Cuidado, perra estupida." She doesn't try to attack anyone, but she's certainly not happy at the moment. She looks over at Bruce at the comment about him intending to turn the city into the new Genosha, her eyes narrowing slightly, finally making the connection between him and the mutant called Dingo. The arm made of sand just verifies her suspicion, "So those New Mutant Order jackasses are following you, huh?" She obviously doesn't think much about the men that gave her the first exposure she's had to drugs in the last five years, "Nice." Her voice drips with sarcasm, "You've got some real winners for friends there, don't you." She doesn't actually make any move towards him, but an idea slowly starts to form, her eyes full of speculation as she eyes the angry man.
Lil backs up again as Bruce punches a hole in the bar. "Damnit Bruce get the Hell out of here! Go get help and don't come back until you get it!" She turns to Anita, "This is New York City. Don't try to hide your insults behind Spanish, everyone here understands it." She sighs and rolls her eyes, "And he's probably not the kind of person you want to pick a fight with. Seriously. He's not in his right mind right now."
Bruce just glares at Lil and decides to ignore her telling him to go outside. "My my. Girl at the counter sure is big and tough. Lets insult a group here to protect Mutant Town." He leans in close. "Know who doesn't like us? The filthy stinking humans who crawl around this city like the disgusting hairless apes they are! And you? You stink just like the rest of them. Maybe you should get out of this town before you wind up like everyone else who gets in my way."
"And who's hiding anything." Anita just slips into Spanish when she's irritated, is all. As for the NMO protecting Mutant Town, "Oh sure they're protecting Mutant Town. They're just going around getting random people hooked on some nasty shit and not telling them what the HELL it is they've just been given." She doesn't raise her voice, but she certainly doesn't try to keep her anger at what was done to her contained, "I don't see why I'd smell like a human. I haven't been accused of that in over ten years." She doesn't hide that she's a mutant, she just doesn't normally advertise it, "And if you're going to let 'protecting' Mutant Town get in the way of taking care of an innocent animal that depends on you for everything, then maybe you're just not the man you think you are." She stands, "I seriously don't have to stand here and take being insulted by a tonto el culo like you. This isn't the only bar in New York, you know."
Lil looks pretty unhappy now. "I said OUT Bruce! OUT!" The woman's skin is giving off an eerie glow right now. A few of the patrons have turned away and one or two are covering their eyes.
Bruce just holds up a hand to Lil. "So you are a mutant. How sad that you'd not appreciate what we're doing. That stuff you're 'hooked' on? It gives us god like powers." He smirks, "Well…It CAN give god like powers. I guess it just depends on what you're capable of. I'm already extremely powerful. Boost my powers? It makes me nearly unstoppable. So go ahead and judge me. Or if you want to act tough and run away I'm fine with that too. I can't blame the weak for their envy."
Anita hasn't really been in Nowhere very often, and never when there's been trouble, so she's rather oblivious to the threat offered by Lil's eerie glow. Her voice takes on a sugary sweet, and highly mocking, note, ignoring Lil for the moment, "Well, with people like you to look out for us, honey, then why should I bother to do anything?" She straightens to her full height, "I don't need to be all powerful. I've got the whole of the animal kingdom to do what I ask; why should I bother to get my own hands dirty?" She flips him the bird, "I might chip a nail, after all." She turns to the door and tries to stalk out, moving past Bruce.
Bruce laughs at the girl when she retaliates. "Oh no! All the diverse rats and pigeons in this city are going to come after me if I'm not careful! They might DIE HORRIBLY when they realize that I'm MADE OF SAND!" He allows the girl to walk away from him and reaches out a hand to Anita. Lucky for her this is exactly when Lil decides to unleash a rather mighty light flash. The light is blinding and bathes the entire room in white. There is a crunching noise and when the spots clear out of everyone's eyes Bruce's sand arm is stuck into the wall next to Anita. If she had been a few feet to the left it is likely she would have been impaled by the spear the arm has become.
The woman just scowls at Bruce when he gives his comeback, bristling with indignation, "Fuck! It's no wonder Tony told that Fiona chick to run if she ever saw you. You're a fucking monster with no regard for any life but your own." Anita glares for a moment, ignoring the hand reaching for her, "You don't care anything about the people of Mutant Town. You obviously don't care about anyone but yourself!" Then comes the flash and she cries out, again covering her eyes and cursing in Lil's general direction. When her sight clears, she looks at Bruce's arm beside her and then back at the sandy mutant, "Fuck you. I'm out of here." She stomps toward the door again.
~ Fin ~
