6/12/2004

06:04 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

Regan Avenue West, Downtown
For two or three blocks, between Thirteenth and Fifteenth Streets, red-brick apartment buildings alternate with the occasional small, struggling side garden or a small business. A pizza parlor decorates the corner of one intersection, and a relatively prosperous deli takes up space at another. Along one street, a fire station interrupts the other buildings, small but obviously in good condition from frequent need. Graffiti shows on sidewalks and on a few of the buildings, but is not prevalent. The road has been paved sometime within the last few years, to judge by the lack of potholes.
Contents:
Todd
Obvious exits:
Regan Avenue  McDonald's  Fire Station  Alley  North  South  

Coming out of the McDonald's, Kenneth holsters his black and silver tennis racket bag up a bit further on his shoulder. A medium drink in his left hand, headphones on his head, and a small bag holding the rest of his unfinished meal accompany him as he makes his way towards the bus stops.

Todd steps around the corner, eyes scanning across the street. They settle on the preppy boy, looking like a juicy target. He begins to stroll the street, looking for all intents and purposes like he's actually going somewhere. He looks up, away from him, and bumps right into him. Accident, it seems. Sadly, the coke almost spills, and who knows what else.

Kenneth nearly chokes on his drink as he's bumped into, but he knows enough not to breathe and swallow at the same time. Spitting the straw from his mouth, he glares at the guy who bumped into him. "Hey! Watch where the hell you're goin!" Jesus. If it weren't for the bag in hand, he'd grab Todd by the shoulder.

Todd gasps, and acts suitably surprised at the bump, holding his hand up apologetically. "Oh! I'm so sorry sir! So sorry, I can't believe I did that!" He continues with the patter as his gloved hands straighten and fix the lapel of his jacket, distracting him with eye contact. "I'm so terribly sorry about that sir! I...." Suddenly the lanky teen spins around on his heel and darts off like a bat outta hell. The reason becomes obvious when there is a soft thump at Ken's feet a second later. An empty wallet sorta thump. Though it might take a second to look down and realize that.

Kenneth's eyes flick from the guy to the thump on his feet and he picks up his wallet. It's a brief moment as he puts two and two together, and gets more than he wants to know. Shoving the wallet in his pocket and throwing his leftovers aside, he shouts again, "HEY!" And the teen takes off after Todd, shoes beating against the ground after him in a chase.

It is a pretty long, dramatic chase, filled with cliches. Near misses, knocked over trashcans and a blaring car alarm. Todd makes a pretty quick pace, and surprisingly, to him, Ken keeps up. Todd winds and guides him deeper into the worse sections of town, where buildings are decrepit, and the citizens are mostly homeless street people. Down an alley, which ends in a pile of junk not there before. A dead end.

Kenneth doesn't care where he's being lead, apparently, so if Todd were to lead him to his doom, he might not even realize it. As Todd reaches the dead end, he follows in until the Gnawer stops. Breathing hard, but not so much so that he can't continue, Kenneth straightens and glances around the alley.

Todd turns, and looks at Kenneth, breathing a bit fast. With the junk behind him, and Ken a couple feet inside the mouth of the alley, he's got no escape. He glares at the prep, and throws his hands up in the air. "Great! Now what the fuck are you gonna do? Huh? You can't chase me, cause I can't run straight up walls!" His voice is colored by some Eastern European accent, Slavic, maybe?

"I'm gonna ask for my money back," Kenneth says steadily, eyes locked on his target like a homing missile. "And you're gonna give it to me." Does he even need to imply, or else?

Todd shrugs forcefully, hands in the air. "Money? What the fuck are you talking about!" The accent is really, really thick now. "Why do you think I have your money?" He says something in Russian, and is sounds really, really pleading. "What did I ever do to you? I bump into you. Why do want to beat me?"

[look Todd]
Todd is a bit taller than some kids might be his age, at just a hair under six feet. He appears to be a bit on the gangly side, with long legs and arms that move fluidly. The top of his head is covered with slightly shaggy black hair that covers the top of his ears. His hair is either naturally sheeny or just wet, perhaps with oil or something else.
His face is nothing special to look at, somewhere on the line between good and bad. His eyebrows are just as dark as his hair, but not nearly as long. The right one seems just a bit shorter than the left, but they are otherwise unremarkable. Under them are his eyes, the color of an overcast day. Such a neutral gray, they would be perfectly flat if there wasn't a glimmer in them. His nose seems slightly misshapen, but not obviously so. Lips, chin, jawbone, are all average. Nothing remarkable at all for that, besides a beguiling smile.
His clothes are simple and somewhat worn, obviously secondhand. Over everything he wears a dark gray suit jacket, tweed, with black elbow patches. It seems a bit wide on the shoulders, and maybe a bit too long in the arms. Speaking of which, the boy is wearing a set of black gloves, accentuating his long, slender fingers. Under the coat is a slightly faded black turtleneck, ribbed. A leather belt and black pants are on the lower section, to compliment. The pants boast a dazzling array of matching pockets, all of which appear to have been sewn on after manufacture. At the very bottom is a pair of scuffed, but shiny and polished boots.

Kenneth narrows his eyes and takes a step forward. "You know what the fuck I'm talkin' about. He doesn't care if he's just a little shorter than Todd is. Apparently he's not had a problem fighting with people bigger than he. "So cough up." Plain, menacing but in a don't-give-me-anymore-trouble kind of way, he waits to see whether this guy is going to assume guilt or continued innocence.

Todd holds a hand up, palm out, in a 'Stop' gesture. "D-d-d-don't come any closer! I varn you!" His eyes and face get all crazy-lookin, and his face starts twitching. "This is a dangerous place! Go avay and dun start no trouble!" His other hand, though, is by is side, palm facing away, concealed.

Kenneth just stares at Todd rather incredulously. "You gotta lotta nerve, man," he growls, defiantly stepping ever closer to the other teen. He unshoulders the tennis bag, setting it down beside a dumpster. Then, he presses forward. If Todd doesn't move, he's soon going to experience a one on one fight.

Todd sighs and shakes his head a little, mumbling something in Russian. He brings his arms up in a shrug, getting halfway there before the one hand flicks forward with force. Odd, because Ken is out of striking distance. Or not, rather, as the flick was used to propel a cloud of metal fillings and crushed red pepper towards Ken's face. Ow.

Todd pages to the room: Filings from the pipes. Pepper from any pizza place. It goes in a small container strapped to the wrist. Magicians use them to hold flash powder to make small fireballs.

That, of course, was highly unexpected. Not even Kenneth could've seen that one coming, as at the moment the pepper and metal hits his face and starts to sting, he starts coughing and brings his arms up to his face. The natural thing to do is rub, but he only does this briefly before realizing that it's not helping. A string of curses litters the air, and rather than doing the usual backing off one would expect, the teen literally launches himself forward in a full on body tackle.

Todd takes the opportunity of the brief rubbing and cursing to move away from where he had been standing, hoping that the red pepper and metal had at least temporality blinded the youth. To the side and back, moving as quickly and quietly as he can. That should keep him at bay-constant movement. The same trick might not work again. As Ken moves forward in the tackle, there is a whistling through the air, hard to place because of the echoing alley, and four lines of stinging pain are drawn across his cheek and ear, leaving behind trails of pain like the worst papercut ever.

Todd pages to the room: Just now? Wire whip. Take a length of cable. Strip off 6 inches of insulation. Unravel to that point. Cut tips jagged. Whip.

Kenneth stumbles as his tackle misses, and the cuts to his face renew a feeling of anger. More cursing, but this time lower under his breath, is growled aloud. Almost, too ferally to be anything from some human who's gotten some deep cuts into such a sensitive area. That's when Ken draws himself up and listens for the other teen, his eyes still welled with tears from the pepper.

Todd takes a step, then another, quiet as he can. The whip whistles low, then high before striking at the blinded teen again, ripping across his left cheek, leaving a trail of bloody gashes and agony behind as pepper seeps into the wound.

Kenneth backs off as his face is stung twice again with the whip. Then, just as the whip is being coiled back again, he hears the sound coming from that certain direction and closes in with full speed, likely not giving the Gnawer much time to react. By all accounts, Kenneth has been manuevering the other youth closer and closer towards the wall with his stubborn persistence. It won't be long before Todd runs out of space to move back into. And the look of anger still resides on the younger boy's face, hardly attractive as it's bleeding and wrinkled into a mask of wrath.

Her day has not gone all that well. In fact, her day just got a whole lot worse for the Half-Moon. Taslyn walks back to the farmhouse from the brownstone, hands shoved into her pockets and a scowl on her face. She pauses as she walks down the street and leans over to pick up a quarter. "Well... That truly makes this a day that wasn't totally worthless." She growls under her breath and straightens up, looking down the alley as she looks about the area and seeing... Kenneth and Todd.

Todd is getting irked. He keeps cutting that bastard in the face, and by now his entire head seems to be a mass of blood that flows slickly down to stain that nice white shirt. As he gets closer and closer to getting backed up against the wall, he slips his other hand into his jacket. When it gets pulled out, it holds a dully gleaming stiletto, fashioned from a letter opener. He curses, very softly.

Kenneth, blind though he may be, furious as he is, isn't going to be stupid when coming at the other boy. No full tackles this time. He slows just as he sees through blurry eyes that his target is up against the wall, stopping not too far from just within the knife's striking range. "You have nowhere else to run," he pants, the white sleeve used to simply smear off the blood from a particularly nasty cut. "And I'm not lettin' you go." Forget that Todd is unscratched, and he's the one who's going to have problems with blood loss.
Long distance to Todd: Kenneth dohs. I mean, that while you've moved from that way, the wall is still behind you. Not that you're trapped or anything.

The glint of metal is enough to make Tas react. She takes off down the alleyway after Todd and the other male. She growls deep under her breath and comes down the alleyway about half. "What are you doing?" As she blocks the alleyway and looks between the two men. "What the hell is going on here." She stops, right in the middle, drawing attention to herself, trying to find out what is happening.

Todd points the tip at Ken, "You're the one who's running. Out of blood. A man can leak money and not die, but blood...." He nods a a little, glancing over at the approaching Tas. "You'd better go..quick." Wen Tas comes up, he keeps his eyes on Ken, and responds. "This dumb |Russian word| here accused me of stealing and chased me. Then, he tries to rob me. I'm jus defending myself is all."

A disbelieving look sweeps like a tidal wave over Kenneth's face. "Oh fuck you. Fuck. You. I so don't need this." Judging by the way he's backing off, it looks like it's the victim who's retreating. He turns his back on the pickpocket, going over to his tennis racquet bag that's been set beside the dumpster. "Fuckit man. There was only a fuckin' couple twenties in there anyway." The youth starts to make his way up the alley, towards Taslyn. Never mind his face has a few ribbons of blood, and dark spots of metal shavings along with pepper, sweat, and tears all mangling his appearance.

Taslyn holds up a hand. "Hang on there. You are hurt. We should get that looked at." She looks at Kenneth. "You." She points at Todd and her eyes narrow slightly. "Explain to me again what is happening here." And she looks at Kenneth as well, "You too." As she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a bandana. "Or I can just go get the cops for the both of you." Yeah, she is bluffing about the cops. She doesn't need them. "And I want the truth." Her eyes bore into the boys.

Taslyn pages to the room: Just a word, Tas has a gift called Truth of Gaia. If you are lying... She will know. That gift is now turned on... You would not know this ICly because there is no outward way of knowing.

Todd whistles very softly under his breath as he begins to coil his slender little wire whip into a tight circle. At the 'You' from Tas he looks up, like a deer in headlights. "Me? Explain? I just did!" He snorts softly at the mention of cops. He knows she's bluffing anyhow, from what happened with Eve. He takes a second to wipe the ends of the whip before tucking it away. "Do you think I'd lie on me mother's grave?"

Kenneth looks up as Taslyn mentions police. That is the utterly last thing he needs. At least with cuts, he could explain he ran into a fence or something. But with cops? He's screwed ten times over. Sleeve wiping more blood, metal and pepper off, he jerks his head over his shoulder, reigning in the urge to call Todd, amongst many other things, a bald-faced liar. "That punk tried to pickpocket me, but was stupid enough to drop the empty wallet right at my feet after he jacked the cash. SMART MOVE THERE, SKIPPY!" He adjusts his headphones, and glares back at the Gnawer. "So I chased him all the way to this fuckin' alley and I asked him to give the money back. 'Course he goes and fuckin' says he doesn't know what I'm talkin' about, and as I got to make him give me back my fuckin' money, he tosses some... some SHIT in my face. Fuckin' burnin' my fuckin' eyes." Nope. Not happy. "And I dunno what the fuck he's doin' with whatever it was but shit..." Suffice to say, the summary is ended there with a string of curses, not of the English language.

Taslyn listens to Kenneth and then looks back at Todd. "I want you to tell me again. To see if the stories match." Her eyes scan over Todd and back to Kenneth. "You. Stay there. Blot your face." She tosses him the bandana and her gaze goes back to Todd. "Well?"

Todd looks over at Kenneth, and the bloodflow, and turns to Tas. "I'm no doctor, but that is a lot of blood. His shirt was white a little while ago. Now its red. You sure its gonna be okay?" He wilts a little under her glare though, and rubs the back of his neck. "Alright. So, I'm walking down the street, not bothering anyone. I bump into this guy here, and he gets real pissed. So I apologize, fix his jacket, try to make it right. Then, his wallet drops. He gets this real angry face, so I start running. I don;t want to get beat up. I run and run and run until he catches me in a corner. He gets all threatening and shit, and I told him to stay away, that I was dangerous. But he kept coming. What was I supposed to do?" All heavily accented, of course.

Taslyn narrows her eyes at Todd. "Did you take his money? Yes or no."

Todd snorts. "What money? He said his wallet was empty."

Taslyn growls. "Dammit. I want a yes or no answer and I want it now."

Kenneth shakes his head, looking a bit worse for wear from said blood loss. "It... really doesn't fuckin' matter, alright? You can have the fuckin' forty dollars, punk ass. But if I ever see you comin' on the street again, you are toast." His black eyes blaze, as he looks over his shoulder. The bandanna in hand is squeezed into a rag, but he's not using it. The shirt is sacrificed.

Todd gestures at Ken. "See? The stupid fucker doesn't even care if he lost his own money! I can't believe you'd believe that pansy-ass bitch over me, Tas!"

Taslyn looks at Kenneth. "You can go." Then she turns back to Todd. "You are going to answer my fucking question that you have dodged three times now." Her jaw clenches and she bores her stare into Todd's eyes. Her hand goes out and she grips Todd's collar. "I'm in a bad fucking mood. So. Now. I want my FUCKING ANSWER! DID YOU TAKE THE MONEY? YES.. OR NO?" As she pushes him against the wall, her back now to Kenneth as she shifts into glabro, looking almost normal from the back, just as if her clothes got a little tighter.

Kenneth at first was bewildered inwardly as Todd knew this random woman's name. It's when he's told he can go, that Kenneth obviously takes that hint. He sets the unused bandanna (albeit now with some blood dripped on it surely) onto the dumpster nearby, and turns around. No mercy is spared for the pickpocket, who seems like he's just about to get his due.

Todd yips as he gets slammed, and tilts his head up exposing his throat. "Fuck yeah! I got to bail my sister out of jail, Tas! You know that! The family needs a place to stay..fuck, we need the money! It'll be a cold day in hell, too, before I stop doing my part. All day I fucking work my ass off busking and at night I steal. For my family. I ain't proud, but I gotta do it. You understand?" He seems forlorn, almost at the brink of tears. Its heart-achingly pathetic.

Taslyn growls a little bit more. "And what happens when you get caught and go to fucking jail, Todd? What sort of stupid shit are you doing? What are you fucking thinking?" Tas is livid and shifts back down to homid, letting Todd slip down to the ground. "You... Are not to leave my FUCKING side. Do you understand? You are now my best little buddy until we speak with Olga and Megan." She shoots the boy a glance, "Do you understand? And we are going to talk when we get back to the house." Her hand wraps around his collar, fingers gripping the fabric as she walks him back to the farmhouse.

Kenneth, though he's far off at the mouth of the alley, hangs around somewhat at the mouth and catches the names echoing down the way. Satisfied that the other guy is going to get his due someway or another, though the thought occurs to him that maybe Tas is actually on Todd's side and doing all this to bluff, he shrugs smugly and then winces. "Fuck," he mutters beneath his breath, touching the painful cuts on his face. Now it's a debate of risking getting mugged for nothing on his way to the hospital, or risking getting grounded by his parental units.

Todd keeps his throat exposed. "Well its not like I got gold stacked up in my bathroom. I don't have much choice, now do I? Fuck, and its not like cuffs or bars can hold me!" He huffs and straightens his lapel, then erks as his collar is grabbed. "Tas! Fuck! I can't go there Tas....I gotta stay here in the city!"

Kenneth walks on. To the nearest bus stop he can find, because he has at least enough change to check into the ER at Hilliard.

"Olga will understand." Taslyn's fist still grips the boy. "She will know why you aren't in the city. Gonna lock you in my room at the farmhouse." She jerks at his collar. "Not to mention that you would completely be breaking all kinds of laws if you made it into jail in the first fucking place." The last sentience is muttered under her breath and close to Todd.

Todd yelps and tugs back. "No, she won't. I got shit that needs to be done by the time she gets back. Things to be fetched and a hole to fucking clean. 'Sides, Jo is defenseless without me!" He yips as he's tugged again, feet dragging. "Fuck, Tas, Olga trusts me, why can't you? Is it cause you don't trust her?"

Taslyn keeps holding Todd. "You fucked that up when you pulled a knife on a human. And what was that wire thing? Give me that..." She looks at Todd, waiting for him to fish it out of his pocket. "Drawing attention to yourself. Not good."

A bus passes by the alleyway's entrance. Probably the one that Kenneth is going to take. The poor bus driver is going to have one hell of a night's start.

Todd narrows his gaze at her, whispering. "That is for /my/ Elder to decide. You are not of my /family/ and you hold no position in the 'group.' Thusly, my Elder's orders to remain in the city stand." He sighs. "You don't get it. I don;t think you can ever understand...."

Taslyn jerks the boy around so fast. "No, Todd. You don't understand. You are a danger to the whole sept." She talks quiet and leads Todd back to the farmhouse before she says another word.