Players:
Summary: Tory is flipping around the park when he meets Candy!
Date: March 14, 2009
Log Title Teddy Bears and Spoons
Rating: G
NYC - Bryant Park
Located right behind the New York Public Library is the quaint Bryant Park. Looking over 42nd Street, chairs and tables have been set up all around the green, making it ideal for book readers, people to sit down and eat, or just relax with friends. Trees surround three out of four sides of the park, and in one of the corners sits a little stand called The witchcraft creamery which offers ice cream sandwiches, milkshakes, floats, and warmer beverages in the winter.
It's a nice afternoon in the park and several people have come out to enjoy the weather including one ferret shifter, Tory. "Hey Teddy! Watch this!" He calls out to a bear that's been placed sitting in the grass, as the silver haired teen runs and starts to do a summersault on the grass and rolls around for a bit. He giggles seeming like he's having the time of his life. A few spoons droop out of the pockets of his long coat as he tumbles around, getting a few odd stares.
With the promise of a new bounty on the horizon, Candy is all smiles as she strides down a nearby path. Sightseeing instead of paying attention, she collides into the back of a man who'd just stopped and started staring at the odd boy. "Dude. What the hell," she calls, taking two steps back and sending him a quick glare. He mutters an appology and starts to scurry off. Candy frowns before following where the man's eyes had been, brows lifting at the sight of the shifter. "You lost a spoon."
"One of my spoons!" Tory says geting up and giving his bear a disappoving glare. "You're supposed to be watching my spoons Teddy." Then he breaks out into a laugh and gathers the spoons he's drooped. "Thank you lady! I have a spoon collection, wanna see?! And I was just doing some flips on the ground for Teddy to watch since it's no longer snowy and cold even though the snow is fun but when it's cold with no snow it's not fun cause you can't make snow angels or have snowball fights."
Candy just blinks for a second, following the boy's endless pratter. Eventually she nods, thrusting her hands in her pockets as she takes a couple steps forward. Clearly he's not in his right mind. So where on earth is a parent, or a keeper of some sort? "I would love to see your spoons," she smiles, leaning against the tree right next to his teddy. "Then perhaps I can hold them for you as you show me some flips? That way you don't risk losing one."
"I don't want to lose any of them cause I like spoon, they're shiny!" Tory says as he squats down in the grass and starts to pull out his spoons. There are over twenty of them in all different shapes and sizes. "This one! Someone carved my name into! Tory!" He says brightly. "And this one Billy gave me, it has cool holes in it!" He doesn't know it's for Absinthe, it's just a cool spoon. "Why do you want to hold my spoons, are you going to steal them, are you a bad guy?" He asks curiously. Even though Tory's twenty, he sure doesn't act like it.
"I wanted to hold them because they are very pretty. I would never dream of stealing them. But, if you want to be sure, you can put them in front of Teddy here so that he may protect them as I watch you flip." Honestly, Candy just doesn' want to see him hurt himelf somehow by landing on a spoon the wrong way. That'd be hard to explain at the doctor's office. She watches him pull out all the spoons, frowning faintly at the Absinthe spoon. But since it's part of a collection ad he doesn't seem t understand anything but 'shiny', she let's it go. "I'm Candy."
"Candy?! I can't have Candy I am a dubiotic!" Tory says with a nod. "They are great!" He says of his spoon collection. "And since you said you're not a bad guy I trust you! You won't steal my spoons." He nods as he's easy to believe people. "Okay watch this!" Tory says running and jumping up before rolling on the ground getting a nice grass stain on his coat, but he doesn't seem to care. He looks up at Candy with his slightly shiny, purple eyes, and grins. "How was that, do you want to try? If you have any spoons I can watch those for you."
Candy watches him with the faintest of frowns. Well that's not good. Especially sice his parents don't seem to be around. By the time he turns back to her, the smile has returned and she's clapping as best she can with a fist full of spoons. "That was amazing," she calls. "I'd love to see it again. But I don't think I could do it myself. I'd probably just get hurt."
Tory tumbles up and giggles. "It's okay! You shouldn't get hurt, getting hurt would be bad. I was just having fun cause I was bored and I like having fun and I lost my ball a while back in another park. I tried to find my friend Nightshade to play with but I think he was at his castle and I don't know where his castle is. Oh! I should go to the zoo later, the Penguins never want to play with me though." He says frowning.
Candy blinks again, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she let's all of that take a second to sink in. "I'd be careful, they don't really like bears and penguins to be together. They don't like each other that much." She smiles and holds his spoons back out to him as promised. "So tell me, are you in the park often? By yourself?"
Tory nods with a smile. "Yup! I like to play in the park so I come down here when I can! Or the other parks, there are lots of them in the city." Tory says nodnoding. "And I'm not a bear I'm a ferret!" He says with a little pout and foot stomp. "The Penguins try to nip at me when I go play with them I'm not going to hurt them the slide just looks fun though." Then he puts his hands over his mouth with a gasp. He moves his hands to say something fast before covering his mouth again. "I'm not supposed to tell strangers that."
Right, and she's the Queen of England. Still, he does have some ferret like behavior. "Well, if you're going to keep going in there, just be careful. You don't want to scare the penguins too badly. And Teddy here might scare them too." She explains, pointing to the stuffed animals. When he gasps she steps back, checking him over. "Oh, well, I have no idea what you just told me, so no harm done."
"Teddy doesn't go in with me." Tory says as he leans in to whisper something to Candy. "He's just a stuffed bear." He says with a chuckle even though he acts like Teddy's real sometimes. "I just told you, I have super powers, I can turn into a ferret." Then he gasps again. "AndIshouldn'thavesaidthateither." But he's got a childs mentality even though he's twenty, he's wants to brag about having superpowers.
Candy leans in close as he whispers to her. "Oh really? But he looked so real." She leans back and taps her chin, studying the teddy bear. "Yes, yes, I see it now. I can see it in the button eyes." As he admits the fact about his mutancy, a silent 'why me' flitters through her mind. She must have some kind of scent that attracts them. "It's alright, you're secret is safe with me." Safer withher than it is with him, even.
Tory gives Candy a strange look. "Are you okay Candy-Lady? He doesn't look real at all, I found him in the garbage." He admits but that doesn't stop him from loving the bear. He tilts his head to the side to consider her before breaking out into a grin. "Okay thank you I'm not supposed to tell people but sometiems I do cause it just kind of slips out and lucky that it's never been to the wrong people and there are a few heroes who know too! I want to be a superhero someday like Ms. Marvel! With out the boobies cause I don't have those cause I'm a boy and that'd be ew."
"I'm fine," Candy says with a bright smile, glancing to the bear. "Well, it could have been a bear cub. I find him rather convincing. But it's probably for the best he's a toy, otherwise it might be to scary for me /and/ the penguins." Watching him, she can feel that tug that most people get when dealing with a child. "Well, you should be more careful about you who tell. Not everyone is as nice as me. And not everyone is okay with mutants. Especially with all those not-so-nice guys that have been running around lately."
Tory crosses his arms over his chest and pouts. "I'm not a mutant." He says as he knows he isn't. "And Teddy doesn't look like a real bear but he's still my friend! Like Nightshade is too! Nightshade is purple and we play chase and hide!" It's kind of like hide and seek by with rules that only make sense to their warped minds. "You are a nice lady! I like you! I should show you my paperclip chain sometime, it's really long and shiny and She-Hulk gave me paperclips and She-Hulk really is green!"
"Alright, super powered being, then. It doesn't make it any more safe for you to share with strangers. Luckily, I'm one of the good guys." She tugs her bounty-badge out from under her shirt, letting it dangle on the chain that keeps it around her neck. "But you should be more careful. Not everyone is a good guy. But yes, I would love to see your paperclip chain sometime. How many do you have so far?"
Tory starts to count on his fingers muttering as he tries to count. "Uh…Many!" He says eventually as he doesn't remember. "Oooo you have a fancy badge! Are you a police officer woman? Police people are cool! They help stop bad guys like Spider-Man does!" He's a little bit of a hero fan boy. "The Good Guys are the bestest!"
"The good guys are indeed the best. ..est." Candy nods with a wide smile. "But no, I'm not a police officer, I go after the people the police already caught who ran away so they don't have to go to prison. The police are very busy, they can't always hunt them down." Watching him count on his fingers, she blinks. "That must be a lot."
Tory sage nods as he grins brightly at her explination. "Oh! Okay! Then you help the police! That's even awesomer. Do you have super powers?" He asks as his lavender eyes light up with excitement. "And it is a lot, I like spoons and paper clips and string and CD's and action figures and change and lots of other things!"
"Oh my goodness, that's a lot of things to like. But they're all very good things." Candy crouches to block other people from being able to see her hands. "I don't have a power, persay. But I do have a very special gun that has powers." To demostrate, she opens her palm, a gun appearing in the center. Her fingers wrap around it so it can't be taken, not really wanting him to touch it. He might hurt himself, or someone else. Or her! "But it's very dangerous, so I'm going to put it away where nobody can get it." She slides it into a holset at her hip, latching the safety down.
Tory looks at the gun wideyed and then looks up at Candy and whispers. "Guns are very dangerous." He doesn't even make an attempt to touch the shiny object. "I don't touch guns, they're bad, very bad." At least for him. He lets out a big yawn and stretchs. "I'm getting sleepy I think I'm going to go to sleep now. It was nice meeting you Candy you're really nice and cool and I like you!" He says reaching into his pocket and pulling out a feather to give to her, it's a random pidegon feather he found on the street.
Candy nods her head in agreement. "Very very dangerous," she says emphatically. The feather is taken, pinched between two fingers. "Thank you very much, that's sweet." And so gross. But in keeping up appearences, she slides it gently into a pocket, so it sticks mostly out. "Do you have somewhere safe to sleep?"
"Yes I do! It's over there!" Tory says as he points off in a direction towards the street. "Well under there. Teddy will be with me and I have my blankets and stuff down there!" He says as if he doesn't have a worry in the world. "It's my secret home." He says as it's hard for anyone to sneak between the storm grate openings.
Candy frowns when she spots what he's talking about. Or atleast what she assumes he's talking about. Dear god. "You.. sleep in the sewers?" The very thought horrfies her. "Well, if you'd like somewhere dry, somewhere you can shower and get your clothes clean, here's an address." She takes out a business card and hands it to him. "I have an apartment above my business. You can sleep there. Alright? Or go there if you're ever in trouble."
Tory shakes his head so his silver hair flys up a bit. "Nope! I live in a hole around the sewers! It's actually dry and warm there! And when I need to get clean I use the foutain in one of the parks!" He says taking the business card. "Thank you Candy!" He says taking the business card and shoving it into one of his pockets with a bunch of other crap that's in there.
The very thought of this child like boy having to live in the 'around sewer hole' is to much for Candy. But she can't force him to live outside his comfort zone. And it's not her job. And sadly he's too old to call child services. Still, she'll check the run away and missing preson's files later to see if she can piece together this clearly unstable guy's background. Maybe find someone he trusts to really take him in. "Anytime. Catch you later."
Tory grins and waves. "Bye bye!" He says grabbing his Teddy and running off. He doesn't go down the sewer right away but waits a bit until he can drop down as a ferret, pushing his bear through first than tugging his clothes in after him. It's a trick he's learned how to do over time.
