Logs:S: Pt makes claims of being able to transfer and remove physical mutations at will. Tone was jocular when making this claim. O: Pt displays several distinct physical mutations, including two patches of residual chitin along the side of the neck.

S: Pt makes claims of being able to transfer and remove physical mutations at will. Tone was jocular when making this claim. O: Pt displays several distinct physical mutations, including two patches of residual chitin along the side of the neck.
Dramatis Personae Gino, Tok, Zack
In Absentia	2024-06-03 "Did you see any of those aliens? Weren’t they the coolest?"
Location <NYC> Washington Square Park - Greenwich Village
Behind a majestic white marble arch, a smaller cousin of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, this beautiful green space is a popular destination for the young, the hip, and the artistic. A huge circular wading fountain is the centerpiece, ringed by benches, playgrounds, dog runs, gaming tables, and lush green lawns. In fair weather, the park is almost always crowded with tourists, students, chess enthusiasts, and local families come to tire out their children and dogs. It is summery enough that the hustle and bustle of the park today has gotten decidedly tourist-heavy, and among this cadre perhaps Gino does not stand out too much, in very summer-touristy garb -- punch-bright pink and yellow Hawaiian shirt, khaki cargo shorts, flip-flops, knockoff Ray-Bans and bucket hat hiding much of his face. He even has a ratty fanny pack strapped across his chest. In spite of this very savvy disguise there are some telltale signs of mutation still showing -- sharp growths on his elbows and the backs of his hands, hints of more under his shirt, a matte off-white pallor to his skin that makes his extensive tattoos seem like they were painted on rather than inked. He's holding a skateboard at his side, in one hand (this is perhaps the most likely reason that one of his knees has been ground down to less-spiky nubs, though perhaps he was lucky that the spikes made this a bloodless injury) and, though his sunglasses obscure his gaze, his head is cocked with interest at an ice cream cart, currently serving a small family of tourists. "Those guys take cash, right?" he says. "I can't believe how many places are cashless now." Zack, too, doesn't stand out today as much as he does when he's less well-fed. He's in khaki cargo shorts, also, boat shoes with no socks, a blue button-down open over a white undershirt; the Red Sox hat he's wearing is practically asking for a fight, though he's gamely ignoring the dirty looks. He's largely intact, in the parts that are showing, though there's a telltale sallow waxiness to his skin that still doesn't look quite right; he's got one foot resting on a hoverboard (the kind that actually hovers, not the cheating kind with wheels) and a couple scrapes on one arm that are also bloodless, though they look like perhaps they shouldn't be. "Should be against the law not to take cash at a sidewalk cart." He's peering at the tourists watchfully, unwilling to commit yet to moving when one of the parents pulls out a card. Tok is, attempting to be less noticeable today, but attempt and accomplish are two very different things. She wears a bulky sweatshirt, to hide the tail she has wrapped around her waist, her hair fluffed up so that her horns and ears poke a little less out of her hair than usual, a pair of sunglasses that are only a little bit suspicious looking. She makes a big show of running into a group by some icecream carts, apologizing profusely, grabbing onto one of them for balance...And...bingo! She moves away as quickly as she appeared, her cargo short pockets now jingling with the sound of her prize she snagged off the wrist of some tourist. It's clean, but to anyone watching closely, they might be able to figure out what she just did. She does a quick glance around, spots her next target, some sucker just about screaming I AM A TOURIST!, fanny pack and all. She grins, and makes her way over, casually, to observe what the guy might have on him. She slows, however, when she notices all the mutant aspects, as well as from the guy beside him. Impulsively, as is forgetting what she was originally planning on doing, she speaks up, "Wait- Don't I know you guys?" "Really throwing a wrench in my politics knowing that in a free market, the ice cream carts are just gonna go cashless," Gino complains; he puts his free hand on his hip, his head tilting the other way now, as the milling kids finally get out of the way of the display -- "Six dollars? For that price those things better be covered in gold leaf -- hello," is with a distracted swivel toward Tok. "Uh, maybe. Zack, do we know this kid?" "Place up in Midtown that'll definitely gold leaf your ice cream. Think they charge $9, though." Zack was probably not going to eat the ice cream anyway but he does look sympathetic about the cost. His foot rolls -- glides? -- gently back and forth with the hoverboard. He transfers his slightly squinty stare to Tok. "Do we?" is immediately followed by a mostly amiable, mildly resigned: "Looks like the kind of kid we'd know." Tok narrows her eyes, then perks up, "OH YEAH Yeah! I totally know you guys. Man thank god, I almost tried to ro- rock...Rock...your world. With some. Cool singing. Cause...I sing." She winces. "ANYWAYS! Uhhh... Freaktown right?" She moves closer to stage whisper, "I figured mostly everyone got arrested or something, at least figured you guys would've. Honestly, kinda a relief, you guys seemed cool-" Her eyes catch the hoverboard, and she full on drops to the ground to watch it float, "Whoa! I've never tried one of these! Are they hard to ride?" Gino's brows -- carapaced and shelly -- are rising above his sunglasses; he gives Zack an amused sideways glance. "Aw, I don't mind if you sing, go right ahead," he says. Probably he does not expect Tok to actually follow through. He tilts his bucket hat back a little, leaning down to catch this stage whisper, then straightens up again. "Only kind of a relief? I am hurt -- I say," now he is addressing the top of Tok's head, as she dives for the hoverboard. "You seem to have gotten out there alright." "Oh damn we're gonna get serenaded? Do you take requests? Do "Sweet Caroline"." Zack taps at his board and it rises a bit higher. "It's not hard. You know one of those --" When he gestures -- kind of around Tok's height, really -- it's not really all that enlightening, though he's adding after in clarification, "Bikers. The little blue one. Makes these, he'll probably hook you up if you catch 'em around." He drops down to perch on it, pulling one leg up onto his hovering bench and getting comfortable like he is hoping for a song. "You land okay? After, y'know, all that." Tok's nose scrunches a little being so close to Zack inspecting the board, but she quickly gets distracted when she addresses Gino, "Sorry sorry not just kinda- it's a big relief! Honest. And yeeeah I got out fine, got the hell outta there once things turned south. Not dealing with that again no siree. I got a cool place now, we'll see how long it lasts." Her tail has unwound itself from her waist at this point, unable to keep it from shifting and waving, and she fiddles with it, “And...Ah shit, uh. Sweet Caroline? Yeah I'll do a request. Sweeeet Caroline. Bam bum bum!” She sings, badly. “Good times…something something something…! uh...SO good! So good! So good!" She bows. “Thank you thank you, I accept tips." When he laughs, Gino's laugh is genuine and cheerful, higher-pitched than his speaking voice; he makes a little chef's-kiss motion -- "Bravissimo," he says. "Neil Diamond whomst! I am impressed. I actually am impressed, I feel like cool places are in pretty short supply right now. If your new place turns out not so cool," his light, jovial tone is mellowing out a little, more sincere, "where we've fetched up isn't so bad, either." Zack is thumping a fist against his knee in time with the bum bum bums, his head bobbing along. "Never seemed so good!" he's patting his hand on his thigh now in quick applause. "That's good, that's good. Just tell me it's far from Midtown, ye-ouch." His eyes lift to the sky for a moment, Just In Case. "-- wait, again? Does, uh, does that kind of thing happen a lot around you?" Tok is grinning, sharp teeth on display, at the singing praise, and shrugs at Zack’s question, “Just kinda happens where I go? S’not a big deal though, I’m quick!” She says easily, and jerks her head up towards the sky, “Man! That shit was crazy! See that’s what I’m talking about, was hanging out in some park and BAM! Something comes and ruins the party—wholeass sky opened up! Were you guys out? Did you see any of those aliens? Weren’t they the coolest?” Her eyes scan some of the spikes on Gino, “I bet you crunched some exoskeletons! Like Bam bam!” She does some fake punches, “and you-!” She looks at Zack, then hesitates, “Were like, probably so cool too!” Tok leans in a little, “uh-Is your New place alright from the aliens though? What’s this new place…Freaktown2 perhaps?” She asks curiously, eyebrows raised over her sunglasses. "Fuck no I did not crunch shit," says Gino with amusement, "My exoskeleton is nowhere near tough enough for that, I sorta lost the exoskeleton lottery. You got a weird sense of 'cool'. Did you square off with an alien?" The perplexed tilt of his head at this is not extremely flattering -- he shakes his head. "Nuh-uh, no Freaktown Two. Maybe Freaktown Zero. Been around a lot longer and nowhere near as nice." "They did, uh, kill, just -- many -- thousands of people," Zack answers, in answer to the coolest. "I, uh." His tongue is swiping idly against his lips, his eyes tipping back up, thoughtful. Back to Tok, also thoughtful. His squint is also a little baffled. "Stayed inside until they were good and dead. Helped out a bit with cleanup after. New place is -- safer than Freaktown, I think, but," he nods to Gino, "not even the same universe of fancy. People are cool, though. Real chill about the --" He's waggling his hand vaguely -- towards Tok, towards Gino, towards himself. "Everything." Tok winces, “Well- YEAH it was awful that uh…people…died but the aliens were cool! In the same way tornadoes or tsunami’s are cool y’know?” She tries to reason, which probably doesn’t land very well. “They’re all dead now though so how cool could they be—THE ALIENS I mean, not the people. That would be really…rude..heh.” She laughs nervously in her scramble to clarify. “I guess I kinda squared off? But mostly just ran.” She says briefly, eyes flicking to where Zack waved a hand, to Gino, and back to Zack, “But your place sounds handy! Didn’t even need to face off nothing—that’s the way to do it in my opinion. And if it can survive an alien invasion too…sounds safe.” Her eyes narrow, slightly, “Is it secret? Am I gonna be assassinated or something since you guys told me this?” Gino just snorts. "Eesh, show some respect for the dead," he is not-so-subtly tilting his head at Zack here, his tone just ironic enough to make it difficult to gauge whether he's kidding. He slides his shades down on his nose to peer over them with exaggeratedly wide eyes, blinking -- "Well, I'll be," he says. "And you got no exoskeleton at all. Are horns," he is asking this of Zack, maybe in the hopes that a Medical Doctor is qualified to answer this, "exoskeletons? Never mind --" back to Tok to cheerfully reassure her -- "Not if you keep your mouth shut, you won't. Don't worry. You ever need us," he flashes a big grin, -- "We're conspicuous." "Hey," Zack says with a tone of warning affront at odds with his easygoing expression, "living-impaired. And yeah, all those people they killed and ate horribly, total losers. First thing you learn in medical school -- only the cool survive." He's getting back to his feet though he's not actually going anywhere, just letting the hoverboard settle back down onto the ground. "Horns are kinda exo- and endoskeletons. Keratin sheath, live bone inside. Fucking weird, huh?" He's peering down at Tok's horns, but only briefly. "They just don't really like outsiders. How often," he's asking like this is a serious consideration, "have you been assassinated for knowing the wrong thing?" Tok’s eyes dart nervously between Gino and Zack, long ears flicking downwards, but she seems to relax when they both start to joke about it. “Well, no exoskeleton right now- wait wait live bone? I didn’t know that! Heh. It’s like I got lil bone monsters in here!” She flicks her horns with a claw. “And eh, don’t think I’ve ever been assassinated! I don’t seem dea- uh- living impaired. But it could happen! Being assassinated I mean, always gotta be prepared.” She tilts her head, “Hey do you eat brains?” She asks suddenly, “Is that rude? Sorry, you must get that question a lot, you don’t gotta answer it- WAIT WAIT but can you smell brains? Can you smell mine? My aunt always said I had a thick skull so you might not be able to smell mine.” She says, proudly. Gino has straightened up again, carefully replacing his sunglasses over his eyes. "Right now?" he echoes, with amusement. "Well, you're young. Mine didn't start coming in until I was fourteen." His brows crunch down -- audibly crunch -- "Hey, you can't go around asking people if they eat brains, were you raised in a barn?" Then he frowns, tilting his head -- "Oh no, was that rude?" "I actually don't get that question much, because I mostly hang out with people who have good home training," Zack cheerfully lies. His brow is a little scrunched, and now he's flexing his hand open and closed, watching the motion of his fingers like he hasn't seen them move before. "Don't we all kind of have spooky living bones inside of us -- well." He makes a fist, drops his hand to his side. "Spooky animated bones inside us. Woah. Is it more or less spooky if the bones in you are dead?" He's turning his attention away from his companions to only slightly attend the sounds of upset and alarm not too far away, which precede the arrival of a very muscular pitbull-mix, tan with white socks and a white blaze; the dog looks mostly healthy except for the fact that one of his ears is hanging barely-attached, and he's got a filthy rubber ball held in his huge jaw. "Hey, buddy, is that yours?" Zack is asking the dog with no actual censure, lazily attempting (with no real success) to wrestle the ball back from his dog's mouth. He lifts his brows at Tok as he waggles halfheartedly at the ball. "You got a name?" “Nah the circus.” Tok responds to Gino, completely serious and not really phased by the barn comment, “And how old do you think I am? Just cause im short doesn’t mean I’m twelve years old! I turned uh. 68 this year!” She lies, “‘Sides I got these but these won’t be growing.” She tugs the neck of her sweat shirt to show off the two small patches of alien exoskeleton. “Well…I don’t think they will. But hey who knows!” She drops the sweatshirt back in place. “Hmm…I think bones gotta be more spooky if they’re dead by definition-“ She startles at the appearance of the dog, the fur on her tail fluffing up at the sight of the barely attached ear, but she quickly smooths it back down. She crouches down to watch the doggy, not reaching out though, “Oh! Yeah. I’m Tok. What about you guys?” "Sixty-eight? Sorry, boss, can I come to your next birthday? 'Cos, nice." Probably Gino was going to continue being facetious, but the arrival of the dog distracts him from further comment -- he lifts one hand totally unnecessarily to shade his eyes as he squints off at where, presumably, Zero picked up this rubber ball. "Hmm," he says, "Think that's our cue to go?" He is dropping the skateboard anyway, one foot keeping it from rolling away. "As in, Tik?" he says. "I'm Gino." "I was going to guess thirteen but I guess I was still lowballing it." Zack does have an obligatory snicker at Gino's quip. Zero is finally dropping the ball when Tok crouches, turning around to barrel his enormous head slow and heavy against her chest as he lumbers practically into her lap. "Mmm --" He glances over his shoulder to where a pair of women leaving the dog park are still trying to calm their riled-up dogs, shooting him and Zero angry looks. He shrugs. "They probably won't come heckle," though he's tapping his board back to life, too. "Zack." He points to himself, and then the large dog, "that's Zero. Are you just," he squints at the exoskeleton patches, "every kind of -- uhh. Just seems like this," he gestures towards Tok, "like a lotta genre crossover, you know?" Tok can stop the giggles that bubble out when Zero starts barreling into her, and she happily gives scratches as a reward—being oh so careful around the ear and with her own claws. “Hey hey- I was calling myself Tok way before that app came out—uh—Y’know, the one those dang kids are using. I wouldn’t use it, obviously, cause I’m 68 years old.” She says, jokingly. Her ear flicks in the direction of the women sending Zack looks, and she casts them a cautious glance, before focusing back on petting Zero. She seems ready for something though, sensing they might have to cut the conversation short at a moments notice. “Hmm…I dunno how to answer that.” Tok answers bluntly in response to Zack’s question, “I guess I am a lot of kinds of something! I wasn’t born with it all—Some things stick, some things don’t. Wish more things would stick though, I wanna look like a freakin’ kaiju one day.” She grins, sharply, “You guys could too if you ever wanna give it a shot. Just lemme know!” The dropped ball starts to roll away before stopping dead on the pavement -- Gino leaves his skateboard popped back on its tail to go pick it up, tossing it to Zack with only a bit of unnecessarily showy baseball windup. (The actual toss is not terribly fast.) "You'd make one small kaiju," he remarks, letting the board drop back onto its wheels. "You can lay waste to ant civilizations. What are we giving a shot? I already kinda look like I rose from a pile of toxic nuclear sludge in the sea, I think." Zack lifts a hand to snatch the ball out of the air. "What do you mean, stick?" He's tossing the ball up and down lazily. Zero is half-turning, pressing one large haunch against Tok so he can continue getting scratches as his head bobs up and down to track the motion of the ball. "Think we all got the monster down already." Tok glances at the ball, distracted, and then sticks a tongue out at Gino, “I ain’t that short, you guys are just giants! When I get my growth spurt we’ll see whose king of the ants.” Her agitation is quickly smoothed over when Zero adjusts, and she continues petting. “And-Well sure you got the monster down. But you could always be a different genre of monster. ‘Sides, the more monster-y people are the more fun it is.” She pauses, like she might not explain some more, but her eyes catch Gino’s jagged edges and Zack’s all around sallow waxiness and bloodless scrapes. “You guys seem chill.” She says, making her decision. She taps a horn, “I could give one of you my horns for a bit. OR I could snag those cool spikes you got.” She points at Gino’s spikes, “It’s just temporary, but if I get lucky, sometimes a lil bit of it hangs around. It’s what I mean by sticks. S’like a prize, or trophy, Y’know? From all the cool things I’ve been.” She takes a moment to scan the two of them, curiously, lingering on Zack for a moment longer, “Most people aren’t for it BUT HEY, could be a lotta funnnnn!” She sing songs. Gino rolls the skateboard forward and back under his foot -- "Growth spurt? Whaddaya talkin' about, old man?" Then, rather less jokingly, "What are you talking about? You can steal mutations -- change mutations?" Something in his posture shifts minutely, uneasily, even though he's still outwardly just bro-ing down in a park; his hands slide into the pockets of his shorts. "Sorry, kid, I only let my friends have my spikes," he says. "You want a piece of this as a trophy you gotta at least have brunch with me." "Snag --" Zack's eyes dart quick to Gino's hands. He blinks. Then smiles a little wider. "Oh -- oh. That's a wild trick, lil guy. I think I'm monstery enough already without the horns, but --" After his next upward toss of the ball he's quickly giving Tok two thumbs up. "Be all the monster you can be." Then trying to catch the ball again, which he fumbles back to the ground. Zero bounds up to grab it (huge paws thumping clumsily against Tok as the dog leaps up) and Zack drops a hand casually to the dog's head, scratching there and geeently urging Zero closer to his side. "Shit, brunch, we are overdue for some grub," he's saying to Gino. "There's definitely a kebab place round the corner that takes cash." “Ay I don’t steal! It’s a fair trade.” she says, pockets jangling with her stolen goods, “Don’t dock it till you try it” she says, hands up in mock surrender. She makes an oof sound at Zero’s paws, and carefully extracts herself from the dog, brushing herself off. It doesn’t help much. “A place that takes cash? Man good luck with that. No one carries cash anymore, made my life a hellava harder.” She stretches, “oHOH! Can I come? To get kebab’s? I think I’ve got a few bucks on me!” She shoves her hands into her pockets, and maybe pulls out some extremely crinkled dollars. Maybe barely recognizable anymore. “I can be stealth mode too!” She wraps her tail back around her waist, re-messes up her hair, and grins. “I’ll be like, SO chill. I promise! And we can talk about things only fellow 68 year olds talk about. Like uh….taxes.” "Bruh, you think we pay taxes?" Gino snorts. Alas, that his eyes are hidden behind his sunglasses -- surely whatever expression is producing this odd bobbing head tilt at Zack is very emotive as he weighs whether to take this tiny elderly mutant to lunch. It is after a telltale pause that he says, "Naw, I backtalked Yousef last time I went there, I think I gotta give that another week to cool off. Maybe we better grab something on our way home." He lifts one hand at Tok in a three-fingered wave -- "Hey, next time! I'll let you know when it's senior night, eh? Hah." With that, he steps more firmly onto his board and careens down the sidewalk toward a flock of pigeons. Zack is making solid eye contact back with Gino through this bobbing, still smiling though with an uncertain skew of wrinkled brows and squinting eyes. The expression smooths out as Gino answers, and he nods a little more decisively. "Yo, Zero --" He's pointing to the hoverboard; the dog obligingly sits right in its middle. "Kebab place if just on the corner if you're hungry and not on the outs with the owner." Zack is gesturing across the park to the corner he's indicating, but he himself is kicking his board back into gear. "-- take care, yeah?" And then he's zipping off after Gino, Zero's tongue lolling in the wind. “Yeah yeah! Next time. I’ll see you guys around” Tok says cheerfully. She waves as they zip away, and she disappears back into the crowds.