Players:
Summary: Some people meet up at the Park and discuss Kick and the effects it has had on the community.
Log Title: Bad Advice, Good Advice
Rating: R
NYC- Thompson Square Park
Thompson Square Park is a small park in the middle of Mutant Town. The benches might need a fresh coat of paint, the fence might be rusted in places and the pavement is raised and has cracks but it's all part of the mutant haven and fairly relaxing. Trees and grassy areas are in between the many paths, there are a few structures and benches along the path as well as a special area of the park that is marked 'the dog walk'.
Two trees have been planted in the park as a Memorial to Carmencita Florez and Detective Baxter each with a plaque stating the tree is in their memory.
Scene
Thompson Square Park has been frequented less and less by the people of Mutant Town over the past week. It might have something to do with the chilly temperatures, but it is more likely that the random bouts of violence that keep springing up here have been scaring people off. Right now there are only a few people in the park. A couple of kids are smoking something in the north of the park and a man is walking his dog in the east. From the south a woman in a long black coat enters the park. She shivers slightly against the cold and continues forward. Eris frowns as she surveys the area, so much for getting information from the locals. She was hoping there would be more people hanging around that she could ask about the Order that popped up recently.
Fiona is once again here in the park - this time she seems to have a bit of a purpose though. She's standing in front of a rather large pile of sand, gazing at it, poking at it idly with one of her toes. She even stoops down next to it and picks a bit of it up, rubbing it in between her fingers. The sand, of course, seems normal enough - so the purple eyed girl sighs, wandering over to a park bench before plopping down on it and smoothing out her skirt. This being Mutant Town, she's not particularly discreet about using her powers - so she opens a portal, pulls out a sketch pad, and begins to draw the scene with a charcoal pencil.
From along the road at the edge of the park comes the high-pitched whine of a motorcycle engine. A black Kawasaki Ninja streaks into view, and pulls into a vacant parking spot as the tires squeal from the abrupt halt. The rider, a rat girl in biking leathers, arches her spine and stretches before swinging her leg over the side and dismounting. She feeds a couple of coins into the parking meter before plucking a paper bag up from between the handlebars; looks like McDonalds is for dinner today, as Tabitha wanders her way into the park, with her naked tail swaying proudly behind her.
Eris vaguely notices the motorcycle pulling up to the park near her, not looking twice at the rat girl. This is Mutant Town, after all. She decides to head more toward the center of the park, stopping by a tree as Fiona pokes at the sand and moving forward after the girl has sat down. "It's not typical for it to be piled in the middle of the park like that. Dingo must have been here." She is speaking to Fiona, but she's not really looking at her. "I hear he's been using that new drug. Apparently it makes him crazy. Such a shame."
Scribble scribble, scribble scribble. Fiona jots down 'DINGO' below the picture of the pile of sand in the middle of the park, glancing up at Eris, "Is that his name?" she wonders - it's more of a rhetorical question though, because Eris has already told her that it was. She's sort of trying to piece together what happened the night before, as if recovering from a really intense bender, hung over. "I vaguely remember fighting him last night… I think…" she trails off - she's really not very good at keeping her mouth shut, or judging when it's safe to give someone a particular piece of information - for all she knows, this could be one of the man's allies. Still… "It was a giant… beast… maybe…" she eyes the scorchmarks in the ground as well. Hm… At the sound of the squealing tires, she glances over at Tabitha - yes, she's seen this one before. This time, she doesn't stare, or say anything REALLY embarassing, at least…
As she's walking along, Tabitha's gaze catches Fiona's look. The rat girl's ears perk up, and she nods in the direction of the apparently possessed young lady. "Hi," she comments, as she gets close enough. She's got one of her burgers in hand now, and takes a bite after making her greeting. She comes to a stop standing beside Fiona, and looks up at Eris, then back at Fiona. "Friend of yours?" she asks.
"Dingo? You'd know him if you saw him." She bends down and inspects the sand herself now, frowning at it. Sand is hard to get clues out of. She laughs. "You THINK you fought him? Trust me, if you fought Dingo you'd probably remember it. He's basically one of Magneto's generals. Unless…You had taken one of those drugs yourself?" She nods, "And yes he tends to fight in the form of a sand golem shaped like a dog. He's on the news every few weeks for destroying one thing or another, have you seriously not heard of him?" Eris has also been on the news in the past, but her powers are a little less destructive. She glances at the rat girl but says nothing to her yet.
"Well, um, I," Fiona grabs the end of her long braid nervously, "No, I wasn't on any drugs…" she murmurs, shaking her head. "One of Magneto's generals, really? He's that strong?" she glances at the pile of sand - yeah, she 'woke up' in it after the whole ordeal ended. "Sometimes I kind of… black out. But I don't take any drugs!" the girl says defensively, getting a little riled up - her eyes glow faintly. "I guess I don't follow the news enough…" she trails off, glancing over at Tabitha, "Hi! And no, I don't know her, not really…"
"Not officially. He definitely works for Magneto, though Dingo causes enough trouble by himself honestly." Eris stands and begins slowly walking around the area. "Don't watch much news eh?" That could be useful for her purposes. "Well if you really fought him and are as unharmed as you appear then you did something right." Or Dingo was in threat mode. He's really too soft hearted in the woman's opinion. "Did you happen to notice if he was using last night?""
"Well, he was definitely on something when I first saw him, he was ranting and raving like a madman and his eyes were all glasses over, er, well sorta, anyway," nods Fiona, as she continues to work on her drawing some more, shading in parts of it here and there after the overall gist of the picture is complete. "Well I don't know, like I said, I kinda remember, but when I came out of… erm," she pauses, "When I regained control again, I was just sitting in this pile of sand he was gone."
Eris shrugs. "Well ranting like a madman…Could be normal depending on your views." Many of the things Eris tends to rant about are viewed as insanity by most of the people in this city. "Could have been drunk. Maybe Kick." She ponders for a moment. "He was gone gone? Like no trace?" She narrows her eyes and bends down to look at the sand again. "What is your ability. Sometimes when he's knocked out it takes him a few days to return to normal form."
Fiona shakes her head, "I don't think that's probably what happened. I doubt I'm that strong…" she trails off, reaching for her keys to open another portal; she sticks the notebook back inside and comes out with a set of ivory wands, engraved with various less-than wholesome looking symbols. You know. Like pentegrams. She twirls them in her fingers for a moment, and then grips them more sturdily, purple energy flowing around them as she handles them. "These do… beams. You know. Like a laser!"
Eris quirks a brow. "Lasers? Probably wouldn't do much against sand. So your mutant power is…Portals? And then you have these strange laser shooting devices?" The woman approaches to get a better look. "Those are of odd design. Nothing by Stark I'm guessing." Actually they don't look technological at all. They kind of look like movie props to Eris.
"Something like that," Fiona nods, her eyes glowing briefly before she stands up; taking careful aim so as not to actually hit anything - fires off a quick blast; it's not exactly a laser at all. It's more of a barely controlled stream of raw energy - bits of it it peeling off until it finally dissipates at maximum range. "Nah they're… custom made, just for me."
Eris watches the girl as she fires off a beam and shakes her head. "Yeah he probably wandered off. Dingo can be hard to take down when he's in the right mood." She turns to the rat girl, "What about you? You hear anything about this Kick stuff? Apparently that riot a few days ago was caused by that stuff."
Tabitha perks an eyebrow upwards, as she pops the last bite of her big mac into her mouth. "Yeah, but," she comments, chewing with her mouth open. "You ain't a mutant. Girl, I'm not quite sure how you do all that fancy-pants portal stuff, but there's only two mutants standing here, not three." She looks up at Eris, and shrugs her shoulders. "I wasn't there," she replies, as she fishes around in her paper bag before coming up with another burger — crispy chicken, if the wrapper is to be believed. "Dunno anything about any Kick. I saw a fight go down between some gang bangers the other day though, but they were arguing over Toad Juice and MGH." She nods towards Fiona. "She was there, too, just about got squished for being an innocent bystander." As she speaks, she unwraps her burger and holds it up for inspection, still half-wrapped; she tilts the top of the bun upwards, and makes a disgusted sound with her throat. "Assholes, never get it right," she observes; her fingers pluck the mushy slice of tomato out, and she flings it unceremoniously onto the pile of sand.
Fiona glances over at Tabitha, scowling a little bit maybe… "I already told you once," she shrugs, shifting both wands into her left hand and shrugging, "I already told you once, didn't I?" she asks Tabitha - looking a bit helpless to explain. Yeah, they probably wouldn't believe her if she said, anyway! Not that it's in her best interest to fully do so anyway… "I'm not really sure what any of those are. Well, I've heard of MGH… I guess I heard that Dingo guy say something about Kick last night, I think. At least, he was sure on SOMETHING… Dunno about Toad Juice though."
Eris stops inspecting and looks at the two girls. "Not a mutant? But you have a laser stick. And the portals were opened by something as well now that I think about it. You aren't one of those pseudo-mutant bastards like Iron Man, are you? I so hate that man…" She pauses for a moment. "MGH gives mutant abilities to humans. Kick increases mutant abilities in naturally occurring mutants, but causes madness. Toad Juice…I am not certain what that one does. I heard that it kills non-mutants though, so I'm fine with it."
Tabitha brightens, and her ears perk up as she grins. "Oh yeah!" she declares, just before taking a bite and continuing to talk with her mouth full. "You drank demon blood. I 'member now." She swallows, and grins proudly. "That's got to be some level of hardcore." And then, the comment about Iron Man. "Yeah," she observes, as she tilts her head up to look at Eris. "Yeah well, just keep talking about Mr. Stark that way. What's the problem anyhow? He's *awesome*. You have no idea."
"Iron Man? He has his suit… No, it's not really like that at all," decides Fiona, shaking her head. Although this doesn't bode particularly well… "That's right, it's magic," she grins a little, "Anyway, he IS pretty cool. Well, him'n Spider-Man and…" she trails off, glancing at Eris. Maybe that wasn't the best thing ever to have said.
"Demon Blood? Right…" Of course Eris has heard rumors of such things, especially while working for the Yakuza. She has always assumed such things to be mutants attributing their powers to some other source. The woman turns and gives Tabitha a piteous look. "Tony Stark is an arrogant fool who thinks that he can police a species more highly evolved than his own. The same goes for Spider-Man…I guess…Maybe. Is Spider-Man a mutant?" She shakes her head, "It doesn't matter. Stark interferes with mutants too often. I'll be sure to tell him that a rat thinks he's dreamy before I kill him though.
Tabitha scowls, as she takes another bite from her chicken burger. "Yeah, well," she replies, chewing with her mouth full once again. "I don't think he's dreamy, but I do think he's covering all of my costs to go to get a good education, so y'know what? That makes him alright in my book." She perks an eyebrow. "And before you go off fighting him, even on the off chance you might beat him? Which… y'know, I doutbt lady, I mean have you seen his armor? He's practically invulnerable; but you'll find me there backin' him up, and you definitely can't handle me. So there you go." She holds up her sandwich. "Food for thought and all that."
Fiona blinks back and forth between Tabitha and Eris - oh no she didn't! She really has nothing to add to that particular monologue, but she holds a fairly large admiration for Stark; someone who uses their wealth and power to do at least a little bit of good, versus… someone who has already said that they like to kill humans! Well, of course. "Anyway, it's fine if you don't believe me, I guess. Believe whatever you want."
Eris smirks at the rat, ignoring Fiona for now. "You're lucky that you're a mutant and that I have better things to do than stick around and teach you a lesson. I've gone up against Iron Man quite a few times and I'm still standing here, so he can't be all that tough. But if you do see him that regularly, give him this for me…" The woman snaps her fingers and a ruby dagger materializes in the air. She hurls it at Tabitha's feet, where it strikes the ground and sticks. The woman smirks and turns to leave, offering a quick wave over her shoulder as she heads out of the park, "Be careful with him. He's been known to turn on our kind." If the dagger is inspected, Tabitha will notice that the hilt has the words "Miss You" etched into it.
Tabitha snorts loudly. "Yeah yeah, this is what I get for looking like vermin. Everyone always underestimates the rat chick. Or they stick a shotgun in my face for trying to buy a bag of chips!" She lifts her burger to her mouth, but lowers it without actually taking a bite. "Teach me a lesson? Iron Man already taught me a lesson and I *learned* it." She looks sideways at Fiona, with her lips curled up in a rather… toothy snarl. Then her gaze drops back down to the dagger at her feet; she hooks the toe of one of her boots under the crossguard and kicks it up into the air. At the apex of its flight she catches it with her left hand, and holds it up to look at it. "Man… Tony's gonna think I'm the weirdest chick like ever."
Fiona blinks at Tabitha, looking a little confused - was that look meant for her? She decides eventually that it probably wasn't. Plopping back down on the bench, she watches Eris leave, raising an eyebrow at the dagger. "She certainly seems like a whole /bucketload/ of joy…" the girl murmurs. "Well, maybe. She certainly seems to be trying to compete though, for that…"
Tabitha turns the dagger over in her hand, and grumbles incoherently. She tears loose a large bite from her dwindling chicken burger, and chews it like she really means it; the morsel is thoroughly subdued through violence by the time she swallows it. The rat girl continues to be non-conversationalist and fails to respond to Fiona, as she whips out a cellphone and flips it open. She thumbs in a number, and holds the phone to her ample-sized ear. "Hi. Mr. Stark? Me, Tabitha. Just met this nutso lady in Thompson Square Park. Why does something bad happen every time I go to a park? I'm not going to anymore parks. Anyway, this chick yammered something about… well, she wants to kill you apparently, and told me to give you this… ruby dagger that says 'miss you' on it. Thought you should know. See you later! Oh by the way, I called that number, and the secretary said someone would call me when they were free." She flips the phone shut, and slips it back into her jacket pocket, just before stuffing the last remnants of her burger into her chops.
Fiona shrugs - she takes that opportunity to tear open another one of those purple portals and toss the wands back inside; it's really not a great idea to just have them out laying around because well… they tend to draw attention! Almost as much attention as those portals, or the purple eyes - although, given the fact that she's standing next to a rat woman, she's probably not got too much to worry about right there.
Tabitha reaches her hand down into her bag, and comes out with… a neat carton of fries. She stuffs two in her mouth, still mashing them up as though they have somehow offended her; the rat's tail follows suit, lashing angrily behind her. "Bitch," she mutters. "What the hell's her problem, anyway?" She chomps down another handful of fries, and half mutters, half growls something unintelligable. Finally, she looks up, and her gaze meets Fiona's; she looks down at her fries, then back up at the young sorceress, and shrugs her shoulders. She offers the carton forwards. "Want some?"
Fiona peers at the fries, reaching forward to pluck a few fries out of the carton and nibble on them. "Thanks!" she laughs a little - at least that tension is broken a little. "It seems like there are a lot of her type around here lately… That Dingo guy I met the other night was the same. He said he wanted to kill off all the humans, said he was a god or something…"
The rat girl sighs heavily. "Yeah, well, doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why ordinary folks don't trust mutants," she observes. "You know I got a shotgun stuck in my face the other day 'cause I walked into a corner store and tried to buy a bag of chips? I just wanted chips. I even had money!" She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "Well whatever, I guess I can't do anything about it."
"Can't say I've had that happen to me, no… I got a shake dumped on my head one time though! I mean… last week…" Fiona trails off, poking her index fingers together. "A shotgun though, that's pretty bad. I'm not sure how I would have reacted to that." Yeah, what with the magic and all - she might have even turned aggressive… "It's not the mutant though, it's the person. I mean. There are plenty of NORMAL people like the one who stuck the shotgun in your face, and, well, mutant powers aren't the only way for someone to be really dangerous."
Tabitha shrugs her shoulders. "You'd probably react like I reacted," she replies. "I backed away slowly and then turned and ran out the door, and got the hell away from there before my brains decorated the walls." She sighs heavily. "That's pretty much how it goes. Sure, I probably could've pulled moves on him, but he had it right in my face and I could see the two big barrels all pointing at me and stuff." She grabs another fry and pops it in her mouth, before offering the carton forwards again. "Want another?"
"Yeah, I probably would have just freaked out about it anyway…" Fiona nods, pulling another few fries from the carton. Nomnomnom. "I don't always handle those sorts of situations in the best way possible. I mean, sometimes, I get scared and just freeze up, or even run away… other times, I totally fly off the handle."
Tabitha stuffs the last few fries in her mouth, and studies the carton for a moment… before stuffing it into the bag with the burger wrappers and scrunching it up. "Flying off the handle isn't usually good," she observes. "I uhh… learned that the hard way, kinda." She walks up to the massive pile of sand, and uses her foot to dig a crude hole in it; into which she stuffs her garbage, and kicks sand overtop of it. "I'm sure there's a garbage can in there somewhere," she comments.
Fiona laughs! "Yeah, I think there /might/ be… but… who's gonna dig through it to find that? In fact, who's gonna clean that up, I guess, is a better question but…" she glances about the rest of the park - judging by the state of it, the answer may very well be 'nobody.' Still, piles of sand can be fun for kids… right? As long as they're not getting exploded or stabbed. "So, you know Tony Stark? I'd kinda like to meet him sometime… I'm sure you get that a lot, though."
Tabitha shakes her head slowly. "I'm not cleaning it up, that's for damn sure." She steps back away from the sand, and shoves her hands in her pockets. "I don't know if 'know' him is quite the right word, but… well, he kinda set me straight when I was making some bad choices, right? And he's helped me out quite a bit. He's an awesome guy." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "Uhm, I met him because I was doing something pretty… uhm… irresponsible, let's put it that way. I don't recommend trying to meet him that way."
"Oh! Well…" Fiona trails off, "I want to be like him! I mean, helping people, you know. That sorta thing. I figured, I have these powers… well, it was an accident, but why not try and do something good with them, right?" Oh yeah, she's /totally/ got her head screwed on straight. Going into the superhero arena with zilch for experience is the best idea EVER!
Tabitha shifts her feet, and her tail flicks behind her. "I uhh…" She coughs softly. "He keeps telling me to stay out of trouble, right? I mean… he's a highly experienced, big and badass hero with the Avengers and all that. We're just two teenage chicks who think we're tough." She shrugs, and reaches up to scratch at the side of her neck. "And I look like I spread disease in my off time but that's beside the point."
"Well, rats don't spread disease, rats are actually pretty clean. It's the fleas that spread the disease… usually," Fiona points out, "You don't have fleas, right?" the sorceress is PRETTY sure that Tabitha probably does not have fleas. "Well maybe, I guess. I get pretty restless though. It's like an itch that I just have to scratch."
Tabitha scowls. "No, I do not have fleas," she replies in an exasperated tone of voice. "Just a bunch of fur and big ears. And a tial. That gets *in the way* I might add. I'm always afraid I'm gonna get it caught in the rear wheel of my bike." She perks an eyebrow upwards, and eyes Fiona. "You know, I'd actually kinda like purple eyes, that'd be cool."
"I do like them… I mean, they're pretty. They remind me of certain mistakes that I made though. They used to be brown," she laughs, brushing a lock of hair out of her face, "The purple means… well, I guess you can probably guess," she shrugs. "I just told my mom they were contacts."
The rat girl shrugs, and nods once. "Yeah, I realize where you got 'em. And I still say that was a pretty bad plan — no offense or anything, I mean. I know I can hardly criticize." She taps her thumbs against her belt, and glances over her shoulder. "You need to think about what you're gonna do about that, if you don't mind my saying."
"Well, I don't know! The whole thing happened on accident. I was just reading some stupid old book, how was I supposed to know magic was real or… that it would suck me into another dimension?" Fiona sighs, shaking her head, "I have absolutely no idea what to do about it! I don't know anybody else who knows about anything. I mean…" she trails off, "I talked to this one girl, who's a bit familiar with it, and she said she could help. But, I'm pretty sure she's totally evil. I don't mean like, crazy mutant evil. I mean like, bonified biblical evil."
Tabitha shakes her head slowly, and hmms softly. "Well, I dunno what to suggest," she admits. "I mean like… I don't know anything about magic. I just know a little about being a mutant." She scratches the back of one of her ears. "Sounds like this Biblically bad girl isn't the one you should be talking to, though. But, I'm really not sure who *does* know anything much about magic."
Fiona taps her chin, "Me either… There are so many crackpots out there, and so much misinformation, it's almost impossible to find anything that works. That's one thing they never show in the movies! But it's okay, really, I haven't died or started speaking in tongues like that girl in the Exorcist," she smiles faintly. "I just have to hang in there I guess."
"For now," agrees the rat girl. "I guess. I mean I don't know what else to tell you to do. but… I mean, fight it too, right? Don't let it take over and own you. You gotta own *it*. Right?" She flicks her ear, and drops her hand back down to her side. "If you feel your… demon or whatever trying to make you do bad things? Try to refuse, and do something good instead. I think."
Fiona nods, "Yeah, I got it! I'll definitely try my best," agrees the girl. "That's why I wanna be like Iron Man! I read he's an alcoholic and has all sorts of scandals, but he still goes out and tries to save everyone, and even has time to help people turn their life around. I mean, he's totally rich, so he COULD just sit around and enjoy all his money and not do anything, right? If someone with temptations like that can be a hero, then I can definitely do good, even if my powers came from somewhere really bad." She stands up, stretching, "Anyway, I should probably be getting home soon, it's starting to get pretty dark."
~ Fin ~
