Players:
Summary: Jeremy tells Kaji that he needs help with someone.
Date: February 9, 2009
Log Title Finding Trust
Rating: PG
NYC - Burgers and Cupcakes
This little restaurant lives up to it's namesake of serving Burgers and Cupcakes and not much more. There is a big glass display on the counter displaying the days cupcake specials. A big board behind the counter shows their small menu of the various burgers and toppings you can get. Small metal tables that barely fit four people with wooden chairs line the floor and bar style seating lines the window for those who want to people watch as they eat.
It's lunch time and Jeremy has enough money left over from his recent purchase to get him self some lunch. Hamburger with ketcup and a soda, that's about all he can afford at the moment. Nothing fancy. He's sitting at the table, wearing the leather jacekt Kaji gave him, with his backpack on the ground next to him. At least he looks a bit cleaner, he's showered, has clean clothes and even a hair cut.
Thankfully his morning classes are over as Kaji heads into the burger joint; his arms stretching over his head as he steps inside. Once his hands go back into his pockets, there's really only one thing on the guy's mind. And that is food. Food is good for a shifter. Specially one as active as Kaji! So, first thing's first! He's going to order food.
Jeremy doesn't usually look up as people walk in, as he's not that curious and still a part of him likes staying under the radar, so to speak. Though for some reason, Jeremy looks up when Kaji walks in and he watches him for a bit. He's not really sure how to approach him to say hi but he kind of wants to since Kaji helped him out a while back.
.
After ordering his usually, and having his receipt stashed away in his pocket; Kaji turns to look at the people already in the store. A soft hum comes from the shifter as his eyes flick towards each person. This takes a small bit of time since Kaji is getting kinda distracted by the smells of food behind him. He's hungry, can you blame him? But, when his food is ready; he spots Jeremy over where he's sitting and starts to head over there. "Hey there, Jeremy. Long time no see." Spoken as he's walking over.
Jeremy smiles and nods. "Yeah it has been, things have been kind of crazy with the demons about." He says brushing his hair back. "I've also, found a place to stay now." He doesn't think he told Kaji that but then he's been hiding for the most part. He's already eaten most of burger as he tends to inhale food even though he's actually regularly eating decent meals now. He just still doesn't have much in the way of money. "The jackets been a life saver, thanks."
Kaji had gotten his food to go, so he sets the bag up on the table before he sits down on the other side. "You're welcome for it, found another one that was more friendly to artist utensils a short while back." Meaning, it had long inside pockets. He chuckles a bit, "Yeah, I didn't do much of anything when that was happening." A soft pause as he looks over Jeremy for a bit. "You look… cleaner. Did ya finally find a place to go?"
Jeremy nods as he takes a drink from his soda. "Yeah, I found a half way house, hopefully I can finish up school and get a job or something. This place should help me do that." He says raising an eyebrow at Kaji. "Artist Utensils? Do you paint or something?" He didn't see that when he grabbed Kaji's jacket but then he probably didn't paint much in it.
Kaji shakes a hand. "Nah, I'm more of a pencil artist than that. Sketches more than anything." He grins a bit before he takes a drink of his soda and nods a bit; swallowing before he says, "That's good to hear. I'd've offered my place, but it's small enough as it is and only big enough for me." A light laugh afterwards as he smiles.
Jeremy shakes his head. "I dunno if I would have accepted, it's…hard taking handouts." Jeremy admits as he doesn't like it but he knows he has to do what he can to survive. "I kind of want to get out of this hole and hopfully this half way house can help. And at least it's run by someone like us." Meaning mutant. "I'd actually like to see some of your sketches sometime."
This is where Kaji gets a bit narcissistic as he lets out a laugh. "Well, since all the demons were out and about for a good bit. I didn't have time to go out and draw. So, I did the next best thing." He reaches behind him, into his backpack wedged between him and the seat as he pulls a sketchbook out. Something that looks like it's seen a good bit of use. He flips through it a bit to the last picture in there. It's of a wolf, curled up on a bed looking out of a window. "Drew it from a photo."
"Yeah those demons were bad news, I ran into a few when I was out, after that, I stayed in as much as possible." Jeremy tried not to in the first place but sometimes there are….emergancies. He looks at the picture and then looks at Kaji with a smile. "That's you, isn't it?" After all he's seen Kaji's wolf form in both the past and in person. "It's good. Makes me miss doing stuff."
Kaji hehs. "A professor actually called me and advised me to stay home, just to draw things there and show him when it all ended. If it did." He sets the book down on the table, letting Jeremy flip through if he wants to. "Yeah, that's me. Couldn't think of anything interesting to draw. So, I thought why not myself."
"Probably best that you did but then I bet you could have handled yourself against some of them." Jeremy says not trying to flater but be honest. "One of those things touched me and I'm glad that I really couldn't process it." He says taking another bite of his burger, which is almost gone by this point. He smiles at Kaji's last statement. "Well I imagine from what I've seen, you're pretty interesting.
Kaji slips his hand into his bag, grabbing his burger as he laughs a bit. "I don't know if I could handle them myself. I saw what they could do, and I didn't want to be on the receiving end of it." He takes a bite and smiles a bit before he swallows. "Thanks. And the more interesting part of this is that my class just thinks I'm mixing wild life with reality. They don't know it's me." And that's a good thing.
"I saw some teenage type heroes, probaby around my age, actually fight them." Jeremy says as he goes to wipe some of the ketchup off his gloved hands. Even when eating he wears the gloves. "Well it's probably for the best that they don't know. So do you go to college for art?"
Kaji nods a bit, swallowing another bite of his burger. For being human at the moment, he does have the habit to just inhale his food as well. Kind of ingrained from school. Eat faster to get more time on homework and studies. "Yup. Going for my bachelor's degree in it." He hms a bit before he says, "I'm going to say that those teens had powers that didn't require them to be right up in their face, hm?"
"I didn't really watch too much, I was busy running." Jeremy says pushing some of the hair that's fallen in his face. "I never had plans for what I was going to do in college, it was whatever my parents were gonna decide but that's kind of out of the question. So I'm not sure, I always figured I'd go into something boring like finance."
Kaji chuckles a bit, "Well, if ya wanna know how to handle your money or someone else's. That's always a plan." He lets out a soft yawn before he lets out a soft hm, "Guess you're just going to have to look through the catalog or something." He finishes off his burger, and clears his throat a bit. Ate too much too fast, as usual.
Jeremy makes a face. "No, I really don't want to do that. It's hard to explain, my parents, we had things that were expected of us. Expectations that had to be met. I learned how to play the violin because it was expected, same with Track and Field. I liked them both but now that I'm not living there anymore, it's become surviving that's been the main focus. Now that I'm in the half way house it's kind of…what's next?"
Kaji lets out a soft laugh. "Why don't you go back into those then. Music for the violin, and then track and field for something else. Or go for one or the other." He smirks a bit. "I'd go into track and field, but I'd start breaking records too fast for them."
"Well with the violin, I don't own one." Jeremy says and then gets really quiet for a bit. "I don't think I'd get onto any Track and Field team anyway. I'm really out of shape and, there are other things." He's a bit nervous as he speaks and is definately hiding something. "And I don't know Kaji, I haven't even finished high school or stepped in a class room in almost 2 years." Excuses of course.
Kaji shrugs a bit. "So? Get a GED, and start working towards a Community College. Ya have the time, a place to live in. So why not go for what ya need in life to live comfortably." He puts the sketchbook back into his backpack and then takes another drink of his soda.
Huh? Hmm? Bad player. No biscuit.
"It's not easy to do stuff with my powers, I can't touch anything." Again, Jeremy is just making excuses. "I know the GED would be easy, I just don't know." He says getting really quiet. There's one major problem he's terrified to face and to let people know about so he uses his powers as an excuse. Is it part of the problem, yes, the whole problem? Far from it.
Kaji shakes his head a bit. "So you can't touch anything. Big deal, say you have a medical condition that has you wear gloves in public." He smirks a bit as he then says, "There're ways to get around powers in schools. I just avoid the area around the girl's locker room like it's the plague." All those smells. Blech.
"I really don't think I'd want to touch anything in a public school. See the last twenty five years of a certain area, no thank." Jeremy says chuckling. "I'd need help if I did that, since I don't think I'm legally on my own and still legally under the custody of my parents. I've got another couple of months untill I'm legally on my own." Well more than a couple of months but at least it's less than a year. "I've just faced a lot of trouble in the last year or two."
.
Kaji smirks a bit. "Schools aren't going anywhere. So ya can take as much time as you need. WAit out the time, and then do things your own way." He takes another drink of his soda before he says, "Could ask the person who runs the place you're in to help ya with it. It ain't wrong to ask for help."
Jeremy nods and keeps quiet for a bit, pondering a few things. "It's…not easy either. I really don't know that many people. You don't form close friends on the street. I mean there's the guy who was a cat, that slime kid Tim, I'm -not- going to the police lady." Well at least he's admiting he needs help with something. "Sorry, you don't need to worry about me. So how long have you been going to art school?"
Kaji chuckles. "Just give it time then." Then he hms a bit, rubbing at the back of his head. "I want to say about a few years now. But, I haven't really been keeping track. Days start to blend together into weeks, then into months. You know how it goes."
Jeremy nods in agreement. "Yeah, I can't believe I've already been in New York for two years. It doesn't always feel like it's been that long." He stops and takes a deep breath, trying to figure out how to word something, it's obvious he's thinking. "Um…Kaji…if someone you knew, had a problem, and you didn't agree with it. Like someone you knew made bad decission once and it's haunted and followed them ever since, how would you deal with it?"
Kaji snickers a bit, and then takes a drink of his soda as he listens to the question. "Well, it'd depend on the problem really. Some're more easily solved than others. While some are nearly impossible to find a solution for."
"It's more…difficult." Jeremy says subconciously moving a hand to rub against his arm. "Sorry, I shouldn't be dumping this on you, you barely know me. I'm just a kid whose down on his luck, pretty much a theif and a street rat and, sorry."
Kaji smirks a bit, arching a brow as well. "Would I be Fenrir if I didn't want to help people?" A simple question.
Jeremy takes off the jacket and takes a deep breath, before pulling up his sleeve revealing his 'track marks'. "I..have a problem. I problem I can't get away from. It's something I like but I need it other wise….someone offered it to me, because of the visions, they kept coming. I tried it once and since then, I've needed it." He speaks softly the entire time and his voice is filled with shame as he does.
Kaji hms softly, looking at the marks with an impassive look on his face as he says, "Sometimes people need things like that to survive. Even if you're filled with shame over it, if you need it to keep your sanity…" He goes quite himself, thinking a bit, "Have you tried to find anything else that does the same thing? Or is that the only thing so far."
Jeremy shakes his head. "It's not the powers anymore, I figured out it was skin contact after but by the time, it was too late. It's the withdrawl, I can't take the withdrawls. I wan't to quit but I can't. Smoking keeps the withdrawls from getting really bad, for a while, but it's not who I want to be, an addict."
Kaji doesn't have any idea on how to get help with that, and he lets out a sigh. "You said you knew a police officer? She might be able to help you more than I can. She'd know places to go, numbers to call and everything. Rehab is better than anything. Just make sure she knows about… well, your powers."
"I'm not going to a police officer about this, what if they find a way to contact my parents? I'd probably get arrested." Jeremy says almost panicked. "I don't know, sorry I dumped this on you. I don't mind going to rehab but my parents…they can't know I'm here."
Kaji says, "Oi, oi. Calm down. It was only a suggestion." The shifter let out a sigh before he looks down at his watch and lets out a mumble. "Damn." Kaji looks back at Jeremy and says, "If you don't want to go to her. Then try and look for some way to beat it. While it'll be hard and rough, the end result will leave you feeling much cleaner than your look." He stands up, gathering his trash as he says, "I gotta jet. Class starting in about thirty minutes, and I got to get through traffic.""
Jeremy looks at Kaji and nods, his heart still racing a bit. "I dunno. I'll..find someone." Jeremy says but he's not sure who, that's the issue. "Thanks, and good luck getting to class." He says as he's probably just goingn to sit there for a bit unless his heart calms down before going to the half way house to try to figure things out there.
Kaji smiles a bit. "Don't worry about me, I know a short cut." It involves roof tops, fire escaped and black fur. He lets out a soft laugh. "Good luck trying to find someone. Maybe you'll run into someone with a healing power or something." He shrugs a bit before he heads out of the door, walking into a shadow as he shifts into his other form and takes to his 'short cut'.
