Logs:In Which a Very Fancy Beach Is Invaded by Some Very Unfancy Dogs

In Which a Very Fancy Beach Is Invaded by Some Very Unfancy Dogs
Dramatis Personae Ion, Taylor, Tian-shin	2024-03-11 "{I look like a fucking chemist to you?}"
Location <NYC> Breezy Point Tip - The Rockaways
At this hour, in this weather, it would normally be quiet out here. The many motorcycles parked further up the beach (their neat lineup makes the two gaps in their order all the more conspicuous) are keeping away any locals who might have braved the cold. It's a chilly night, wind carrying a sharp bite, but the large bonfire crackling on the sand is turning this end of the beach pretty cozy. There's music blaring (currently David Guetta' "Blast Off") from a very furry robot crafted to look like a dot-lined white moth; there's asado grilling, there's a pair of Mongrels down by the water having a fight that is probably friendly given that nobody is stepping in to break it up. At the edge of the firelight, Taylor is kind of half watching the wrassling and half watching the waves roll in onto the sand. He has a chicken and red pepper skewer in one tentacle, and is taking a swig from a cold bottle of Coke held in another. "Both they colors back in town," he says, finally, and though his expression has mostly been heavy a thin smile is cutting across his face. "We lay Crazy Train to rest with Viper, you know them fuckers up in Kudzu House gonna spread the word far an wide. Maybe take some heat off her a minute, yeah?" Ion barks a quick laugh at this suggestion. He's just recently ceded tending of the grill in order to actually eat a first serving himself. He's just blowing on a still-steaming onion, not quite enough apparently because he's sucking in a quick sharp breath when he pulls it off the skewer with his teeth. He's taking a quick gulp from his drink but this reflex is a mistake because the mate in his gourd is also still hot; his words come out just a little thicker from his twice-burned tongue. "Shit, anyone new up at Snitch House I needa watch out for? Be shocked if someone new ain't rolled up just after the slaughter, thinking they real slick." Tian-shin had been mid-swig and lightly chokes on her tea at "Snitch House", slapping a hand over her mouth to stifle the near-spittake. She's probably aware of Kudzu House's unique residential assignment niche by now, but perhaps she hasn't heard it described quite so baldly. "Oh yeah," she confirms when she's recovered. "This guy showed up a few days after, calling himself 'Razor' and asking to join the safety squad. One of the newer arrivals in guest housing definitely pinged my fed radar, but his name is so generic..." She looks to Taylor for help. "Fast-talking white boy, ends every sentence with 'I'm just saying'?" Her next sip of tea goes down properly. "A lot of tongues are wagging about you coming back after so long. I bet the Kudzu pigs' latest reports were real interesting." "Worse reps we could encourage than being damn near impossible to kill, too." Taylor is just taking another big bite of his chicken but covers his mouth with a spare arm when Tian-shin looks to him for help. "You talmbout Dan the Bog?" This comes with a brief mental image pressed up against their minds of the white boy in question. "We gon have to start numbering the Dans soon -- anyway that man ain't here for no terrorists, he DEA, they think Freaktown at the center some wild-ass drug ring, sound like stereoids just for freaks. City pigs told him he wasting his time in our hood but you know no feds got time for no locally sourced bacon." "Oh you know they got hell of story to tell on me." It sounds somehow like a boast when Ion adds, "Five fucking second I roll into town them fucks start drag all you in like suddenly dogs gonna start talking?" There's a sharp and derisive click of his tongue after this. "What'chu mean, kick? That shit like if Matt do some meth then go to town on you. Freaktown {be burn the fuck down if we --}" He pauses here, teeth clicking against his metal straw as he regards the group with a sudden new uncertainty. "{We not moving that shit, yeah?}" "Yes, him!" Tian-shin snaps her fingers. "I thought he seemed too well coached to be FBI, but I was guessing DHS. I'll try to remember next time--'dan' is literally mandarin for 'bland'." Her eyes widen slightly at Ion's explanation. "{I haven't heard about that one.}" She's looking pensive now, the way she does when she's trying to not look worried. "I've been playing substitute for a whole lot of poppies, but I can't imagine an opioid doing anything like that." "Any story they tell it ain't gonna hold a candle to -- shit I couldn't even make up that nonsense you got into in Nicaragua, man, and the pigs got way less imagination." Taylor's snap of fingers closely echoes Tian-shin's. "Kick, s'right. Might be in the city but it sure as fuck ain't sold in Freaktown. Should it be? Where it even come from?" "{I look like a fucking chemist to you? Out west they been calling it devil's blood.} Iono where it come from, probably hell." Ion's shrug is cavalier as he takes another, less burn-y bite of his kebab. His chin lifts to Tian-shin. "For sure ain't no opioid. I pick some up, you think you can learn a thing 'bout it?" He's lifting his right arm, waggling his hook in an erratic shower of sparks. "Last thing I need, get more amped up, but there probably times some people can use an extra boost, huh?" "{Devil's blood?}" Tian-shin's eyebrows raise up even higher, though she doesn't really sound incredulous. "I can try. A lot of designer drugs are a giant mess--I don't even mean the active ingredients are complex. Most of them are full of impurities from production or packaging or cutting." She looks thoughtful--actually thoughtful now, and not masking stress. "If I have samples from at least two supply chains, that will make it easier. Or faster, anyway. Whether it's useful or not..." Her fingers tighten on her thermos. "We should know more about this stuff if it's going to be a thing." Taylor just snorts at probably hell, his grin getting broader. "{Oh then I'm sure you got a hookup already, huh?}" But the smile fades as Tian-shin speaks, and he's sucking hard at his teeth at the end. "If it is gon be a thing..." His head shakes slow. "Man I been suddenly imagining the Swords rolling up juiced out they damn minds, we do not need Wick On Steroids, but I'on even need to imagine that far. High and overpowered in a whole town of freaks we ain't even need the feds to wreck our shit, can you imagine the party house after one weekend of that kind of thing floating 'round?" "{I know a guy,}" Ion is confirming easily, and despite the continued shivery flicker of electricity around him, despite his assertion not one minute ago that More Erratic Power is not what he needed, despite his intermittent insubstantiality -- he's turning an eager look to the others. "This wasn't a ride I be offering to spice this party up. Later, maybe, yeah? We do a lil experimenting."