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Summary: Jeremy snuggles his stuffed platypus. People watch!
Date: April 8, 2012
Log Title: Platypus in the Park
Rating: PG
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.
Sitting on a blanket not to far from the basket ball courts is Jeremy dressed in his usual long sleeves, pants, gloves and scarf. He's cross legged and has his eyes closed as a stuffed animal, a platypus to be exact, sits in front of him. He looks at the stuffed animal, smoking a cigarette, after a few long drags he puts it out and takes off one of his gloves before he reaches out to touch upon it.
Success means time off, and while waiting for the Blackbird to return from another mission, Connor has taken off this particular sunday night to do something he would normally be doing on a Sunday night. Taking a jog. So dressed down to a pair of track pants, a sleeveless t-shirt, and one of those stupid arm-things for a phone-turned-MP3 player… the heavy bass beats of Paul Oakenfold drive his steps as he moves on past the basketball court. Stopping two thirds of the way down, he pause, and leans down to start massaging the start of a calf cramp. Whoever he is, for those who do not know him… he looks to be very in shape. Athletic leaning into muscular.
Fiona was told to stay out of Mutant Town. But it seems like she doesn't like to follow /rules./ Anybody's rules. At all. She's a being of chaos, in some ways. At any rate, today she's not really out to do anything - in fact, her little homework assignment for Donna is over, so she's got no other reason to be in Mutant Town other than taking a walk. She too, is listening to an MP3 player, though one ear-bud hangs loosely - over time she's learned to keep an ear open to what's happening around her. No reason to get jumped by run of the mill thugs over a song…
Annabeth has parked herselves on one of the grassy spots, enjoying a nice Easter picnic. She's laid out a blanket to sit on, and has a basket off to the side. One body is busy enjoying book while there's still some sunlight left, while the other is tasked with cleaning up her mess in preparation to go home.
Bridget has gone out to explore the city not that she does not already know she grew up here but she does not go out much since her powers are very clear and points her out as a mutant. The two skulls one black and one pink circle around her. They seems excited to be out and about. Bridget is shaking her head as she watches the two as they fly around looking at things. She then frowns at the black one, "Ebony don't eat that. Rats are not food." the skull spits out a rat that runs off.
Once Jeremy's hand makes skin contact with the stuffed platypus he almost freezes, and after a minute he pulls his hand away. He immediately grabs the sides of his heads and doubles over. He mutters to himself as he tries to fight through the images to try to at least manage his abilities.
The oddness of the movement catches Connor's attention, and he palms a six inch cylinder from his pocket and holds it close as he moves slowly around the fence to look at Jeremy. He pauses for a moment while turning off the phone, and as he winds up the earbuds he asks in as calm a voice as possible, "Is… everything allright?"
Fiona glances over, vision suddenly catching on Connor and Jeremy - at which point she herself freezes, then backs up /slowly,/ keeping her distance while she watches what's going on. Jeremy had been very quiet the previous times they met, and now that he's clutching his head… well… she's been THERE before, and had some idea that's it not good to be directly around someone acting like that…
The body that's putting away her picnic catches Jeremy and Connor out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, Annabeth's eyebrows furrow in concenrn and the body that was reading, closes her book and stands up, planning on heading out to help, but Connor gets to him first. Recognizing her neighbor, she calls out to him, "Connor! What's going on? Can I help?"
Bridget has not notice Jeremy but the pink skull does and bumps against her, "What is it Amour?" She looks over and spots Jeremy and gasp and hurries over, "hey are you okay?" She has no medical training or anything but that does not stop her from helping well not helping pretty much coming over and ask that dumb question.
"It's..fine." Jeremy says still holding the sides of his head. "I'm fine." He gasps out. Next thing he knows he has two people around him and he has the look of a scared animal in between two predators. "I was just practicing something someone was trying to teach me. I'm fine." He says almost too quickly, looking around nervously.
Nodding back at that, Connor just says, "Allright… no problem then." And with that he moves to start putting his earbuds back in, though every few moments he takes a look back at Jeremy just in case. Once they're unwound and putting them back in place, he starts flicking through tracks for something appropriate for the rest of his run.
After observing for a moment, a thought occurs to Fiona - the other thing that Donna had told her. About them owing a debt, and to at least some extent, helping to look out for the man and his friends. 'As if he needed it,' she thinks… however, once she's near to them, it's apparent that there wasn't as much trouble after all. Fantastic. She blinks at Connor as he runs off.
Bridget frowns at the guy and nods, "fine." The black skull flies closer to Jeremy it starts to make sounds like out of a Halloween sound track. Bridget frowns, "Ebony let him alone." The black skull turns and makes more sounds at her. She folds her arms under her breast, "It does not matter if you thinking about not telling the truth he said he is fine." The skull seems to pout not a easy feat with out lips and slowly flies back to her. The pink skull said in the same scream sound track as the black one and the black one turn at her and buts the other skull with his head. The pink returns the but and both start to band heads over and over again.
Annabeth doesn't look at all convinced by Jeremy's profession of okayness. "Allright," she says gently. "If you want some water or a soda, I've got a bit extra out over TAUGHHH!" Both of Annabeth's bodies jump nearly ten feet in the air when the black skull suddenly appears out of nowhere, causing the one who was putting away the picnic to spill said water.
With a shaking hand, Jeremy goes to pull out another cigarette and instantly drops it as there's a black skull right in his face. He falls back a bit so that his arms are propping him up on the blanket. "Get…get it away from me." He mutters sounding terrified before the skull flies back to it's owner. Jeremy's to scared to move for the moment as he just stays there breathing quickly.
"Welcome to Mutant Town." Connor mutters almost under his breath, and then shakes his head, before saying a bit louder, "Hey. Leave the guy alone. He wants to sit here and play with his stuffed animal, then let him be." The cylinder he palmed is slid back into his pocket, and he then moves to start stretching and get back into his run, but he remains close enough to assist if listeners do not hear.
Fiona eyes Connor for a moment, thinking about whether or not it'd be appropriate to say anything. Donna never told her to actually /talk/ to him… Judging by how their little encounter over Robyn's cell phone went, that might NOT be a good idea anyway… So for now, she turns to leave, putting some distance in between the two of them. Skulk skulk skulk.
Bridget sighs and grabs both the skulls and pulls them apart, "stop fighting or I'll turn around and go back to the school then you two can float in the corner for the rest of the day. The skulls settled down and look down. She looks at the men, "sorry for that Ebony has no manners." She looks at the black skull say your sorry?" The skull floats just in front of Bridget and with the strange scream language nods his head back to Jeremy. Bridget nods, "that's better." She then turns to walk away and the skulls follows her, "I can't take you two anywhere."
Annabeth recovers faster than Jeremy does and stoops to pick up his dropped cigarette and offers back to him. "Here you go." The body that's cleaning up the mess that was made when she was startled gives Bridget a rather unfriendly glare.
The words from Connor snap Jeremy out of his scared state and he mutters, "I'm not playing with a stuffed animal." He can't help feel he needs to clarify that. Then Bridget has he skulls talk to him again and that voice just weirds him out. "Just leave me alone….please." He says. He looks at Annabeth's hand for a few seconds and reaches for the cigarette, pulling it away as quickly as possible.
Connor puts his hands up in surrender, "Allright… sorry. Sorry." And then with a shake of his head, he starts back on his path, and begins to finish off the jog he'd begun, making his way down the trail and off towards the main Avenues and the commerical part of Mutant Town.
Fiona continues heading off - also out of the park! That was probably too close for her liking. But now she knows for sure that Connor is in mutant town - at least for now. Donna'll be happy about that…
Bridget keeps talking to the skulls as she turns the corner. She vanish from sight.
Annabeth can't help but look concerned, as Jeremy acts ever so much like a puppy who's gotten kicked one too many times. "Are you sure?" she asks, even though she's pretty sure she knows what the answer will be.
"I'm fine." Jeremy mutters out to Annabeth as he starts to pack up his stuff into his backpack, being a bit more forceful than he intends. He doesn't even look in her direction even after he's packed up and slinging the backpack on his shoulder. He feels like this was a complete failure at an attempt to try to deal with his powers so he makes his way out of the park.
Annabeth gives Jeremy a little helpless shrug as if to say, 'If that's what you want,' and then turns back to help herself pack up for the night.
