ArchivedLogs:Gruff

Gruff
Dramatis Personae Jack, Shane, Veronica
In Absentia	2015-03-13 "It's like a freak convention up in here."
Location <NYC> Lower East Side
Historically characterized by crime and immigrant families crammed into cramped tenement buildings, the Lower East Side is often identified with its working-class roots. Today, it plays host to many of New York's mutant poor, although even here they are still often forced into hiding. Cloudy-cool-grey, it's not exactly /nice/ but it's not really /not/. The afternoon is just kind of muddling on, chill and drab and largely uneventful. At least in this particular stretch of the Lower East Side, just a few blocks outside of Chinatown, a run-down cluster of cheap liquor stores and convenience marts and one small Vietnamese cafe. At the moment the door to one of the conveniece stores is opening, dispensing a tiny blue-skinned figure out into the street. Shane isn't making any attempt to /hide/ his looks, just a dark well-tailored peacoat on over his button-down and slacks, gleaming blue skin and gills and giant pitch-black eyes and uncanny-valley inhuman features easily seen. He has a canvas bag slung over his shoulder and stops just outside the cafe, tipping his gaze up at the sign with a flare of slitted nostrils. Breathing in deeeeep the smell of banh mi. /Hmm/. Unlike Shane, Jack is trying to hide his looks. And that's entirely because he doesn't have any. Wearing worn jeans, old sneakers, and a blue hoodie with the hood up, he's got hands in his pocket as he makes his way down the street. Humming a tune as he goes, he stops mid-step when he spots a familiar face up ahead. His smile is unseen as he approaches. "Hey, Shane." Veronica is walking down the sidewalk sucking on a cigarette. She wears a black canvas jacket with a lot of home-made patches and tattered blue jeans. When she sees the two men in front of her, she hunches her shoulders in and narrows her eyes. "It's like a freak convention up in here," she says, walking between them without really trying to avoid colliding. Shane -- doesn't return Jack's smile, given that it's invisible. His brow just creases, and creases further when Veronica comments. He doesn't move out of her way, shoulders squaring up to /brace/ for collision rather than avoid it. "Excuse /you/, motherfucker." His voice kind of matches his size, really; though his /tone/ is gruff, it doesn't sound like his voice has /dropped/ much, high enough to match his overall androgynous appearance. "Embleer flatscans." Slowing to a stop when he gets nearer to Shane, Jack starts to say something else but Veronica's comments gets his attention first. He tenses on reflex, holding his ground for the moment. He may just appear to be floating clothes but he's solid. Unseen eyes narrow and he glances at Veronica. "Can always turn back around and go the other way if you're that bothered," he mutters, letting Shane handle the gruffness for the moment. "Fuck you, Sonic." Veronica says lightly. She takes the cigarette from her mouth and blows a long stream of kind of rank smoke at the empty space in Jack's hood where she cannot see his narrowed eyes. It's almost like she's curious whether the smoke will show his face. "Hey, here's a concept, maybe YOU can NOT stand in the middle of the sidewalk? Here, let me help." And she shoves Shane, a LOT harder than her casual tone would suggest. The narrowing of Invisble Eyes, also unnoticed. Blowing smoke at Jack, though, that is pretty noticeable. The shove, too. Shane rocks backwards, something rattling quietly in his bag as his foot shifts back a half-step. His teeth bare -- kind of a /lot/ of teeth. An excessive number of very sharp jagged sharkteeth. He steps back forward again to recover the step he just lost, placing himself squarely back in Veronica's path and pulling himself up to his -- /diminutive/ under-five-feet of height. One hand reaches to pluck the cigarette from her hand. "Maybe /you/ can watch where the fuck you're going." Jack coughs when the smoke is blown in his face. And it does indeed show the shape of his face ina ghostly fashion. He waves the smoke away, a spectral hand seen for a few seconds before telekinesis shoves at the smoke too. "Hey," he snaps. He stops himself from saying something else when he notices the shove in progress and curses slightly under his breath. "Or are you just picking a fight with us to be an asshole?" he asks, shoulders tense. He's hoping things don't escalate but he's ready if they do. Veronica moves her hand out of the way and takes a half a step back when Shane's TEETH come out. "Whoa, down, boy." Her whole stance tightens, and the flippant attitude vanishes. "I /was/ watching where I was going." Suddenly she's grinning, as quick as the serious look came it's gone. "And maybe I'm an asshole, but I'm not looking for asshole validation or anything. You offering?" "/Were/ you? Then, what? You just think because /I'm/ blue and /you're/ a fucking toerag you deserve the sidewalk more than me?" Shane's words are punctuated with a shove-shove-shove of his own. Not hard. Just a small-sharp /tap/-tap-/tap/. Small and staccato and very full of prickly sharp claws at the ends of his webbed fingers where they aim at Veronica's chest. "Fucking neighborhood's so gorram full of assholes." "And you have to be rude even when backing off..." Jack mutters, head tilting slightly as if he's rolling his eyes. He snorts in disbelief at Veronica saying she was watching where she was going. He crosses his arms across his chest and glances around to make sure they aren't attracting any unwanted attention. He falls silent though, just keeping watch for now. Veronica watches Shane really closely as his hand comes up to tap her, but she doesn't retaliate. Just takes a long drag of her cigarette and blows smoke in his face. "Hmmmm," she says, mouth flattening into a line with exaggerated thought. "Yeah, pretty much." Shane's hand shoots up. It's kind of /inhumanly/ fast. Not to hit Veronica again. Just to snatch the cigarette straight from her mouth and crumple it, ashes and flakes of tobacco dropping from his hand to the sidewalk when he opens it again. Jack concentrates and focuses his TK on pushing the smoke away from Shane. "Maybe its time you just walked away," he suggests to Veronica. "Turn around and go, cross the street, whatever...just get lost." Veronica's jaw tightens, but then it relaxes again and she smiles an actually sort of cheerful smile. "That's pretty sick," she says, nodding at Shane's hand. "You boys watch yourselves now." She takes a full step back, not subtly, and just heads back the way she came, a weirdly jangling bounce in her step. Shane huffs out -- not a sharp breath, actually. Kind of a quiet laugh. His fisted hand comes down, lightly, on the back of Jack's shoulder. "Dinner?" His mouth has curled up into a grin. "My treat." He's nodding towards the cafe they're outside, holding the door open for the other boy before entering himself. Jack lets out a little breath of relief when Veronica just walks off. He watches her go for a moment before nodding to Shane. "Sure thing," he replies with a nod to Shane. "Your hand okay?" he asks as he steps into the cafe. "Pfft," Shane just snorts in brief amusement. "C'mon, I'm gonna be taking /way/ worse in a couple hours." His smile is even sharper as the door closes behind them.