ArchivedLogs:Canasta

Canasta
Dramatis Personae Jack, Rasa
In Absentia	2014-11-28 '
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. It has not been the warmest of days today, but the sun has been out enough to dry the streets of the precipitation the last day provided. Fewer people than normal are out and about today, given the unspoken holiday of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Most are either nursing their food comas with leftovers, thinning their wallets in anticipation of the next big holiday, or enjoying a four day weekend. Rasa is making hir way out onto the streets bundled up to ward off the near freezing temperatures. Baggy jeans cover spindly legs in more layers than are visible. A puffy purple coat covers hir torso, while a green hijab keeps everything but a narrows strip around hir eyes form being seen. Hazel eyes peek around corners as ze pads in big moonboots down the sidewalks, hands stuffed in hir pockets. Ze seems to be heading vaguely toward Evolve, but hir attention is on the board game store ze passes. Yesterday was one of the best days Jack has had in years. Getting to have Thanksgiving dinner at the Harbor Commons with all those other people that didn't have any issue with his mutation had put him in an amazing mood. Even the evening conversation with Hive and Flicker hadn't dulled that mood. It just gave him more to think about. But with Thanksgiving over and Black Friday in full effect, it's back onto the streets for the invisible teen. He's back in his jeans and hoodie but they've been cleaned and dried, only adding to his good mood. Gloved hands stuffed in his pockets and hood up to hide the lack of visible head, he's wandering in Evolve's general direction as well. Along the way, he's at work...sort of. His work involves casually bumping into someone and secretly 'borrowing' their wallet. Observant eyes might catch him slipping the wallet into his hoodie's pocket but the mark continues on blissfully unaware. Sure, Jack feels bad about it but he wants to buy something to eat at Evolve and cash is hard to come by when you're a homeless kid Rasa doesn't really notice the hooded figure amongst the people walking through the New York streets, but when ze stops in front of the game store to stare longingly at the offerings there, ze notices a lack of face on the reflection in the glass. Hir head tilts to one side in confusion before ze turns around and leans against the glass, looking at Jack as he makes his way through his marks. Hir left ankle crosses over hir right as ze keeps watching, some amusement in hir gaze. Going after too many people in the same area is dangerous but Jack has not had a lot of luck in wallet contents. Credit cards are nice pieces of plastic but useless to Jack. He's only gotten a little bit of cash so he keeps at it. After getting his hands on three more wallets, Jack frowns to himself. He's getting that nagging feeling he's being watched or followed so he glances around and starts moving to duck into the alley near that game store. He's silently hoping he's not about to have to deal with any trouble. He really doesn't want to get into a fight today...at least not one on the streets. He's still torn on the whole fighting club thing Flicker told him about. When hir mark disappears around the corner into the alley, Rasa peels hirself off the building and starts a slow walk in the same direction. Ze leans forward when ze reaches the end of the building and peeks around, the fabric around hir neck flopping forward off hir coat. A single eyebrow rises so high, it disappears under green material, the exhale causing the cloth to ripple in front of hir mouth. "Dude. Did... I not see you at dinner last night?" The voice is a little husky (ze is getting over a cold!) and gender indeterminate, despite the feminine splash of hir clothes. Jack's waiting in the alley, hands still in the pocket and generally tense. He's half expecting some angry and walletless person to come after him. Someone peeking around the corner isn't that. He'd look confused if he could. The voice brings a moment's pause and he's pretty sure he recognizes it. "That depends...on which kind of not see you mean," he says, lifting his head a little more so that under his hood can be seen. Rasa steps forward and makes it into the alley, skirting around the corner. "Well, you know, I'd say I saw you, but that wouldn't be fully true." Ze pushes hir hands into hir pockets further, pulling hir coat forward as well. Ze inhales and shrugs a little. "So, how's it going?" Ze relaxes hir posture as ze turns hir gaze upward to the fire escapes above. That answer makes Jack relax a little, him taking it as proof enough that this person was at the dinner. He's trying to connect the voice to a person though. "Well, it's not going as well as dinner last night but not as bad as the night before so..." he trails off, shrugging a bit. "Things going okay for you?" "Sure. It's kind of cold, but it's early in the season yet, so it's bound to get colder, but I'll probably be more used to it, maybe?" Rasa pulls hir hands out of hir pockets and reaches a hand up hir hijab to rub against hir nose. "Plus, no school for right now. Free time." Ze glances back over at him. "Ah, did we get introduced? I feel a bit like a jerk. I've been around Jax and Micah for a while and new people's names kind of get around. I'm Rasa." Ze extends a glove covered hand. The mention of cold brings a little sigh out of Jack. He's not looking forward to that and has to remember to set aside a little of the stolen cash for firestarting supplies. He glances away as school is mentioned, shaking his head. School is one of those things he's been thinking about since last night. He pauses at the introduction then chuckles before shaking that gloved hand with one of his gloved ones as well. "It's okay. I haven't done a lot of introductions. I'm Jack." "Nice to meet you, Jack. So what did you think about dinner? It was an enormous amount of food, wasn't it? They are kind of always cooking, Jax and Micah - and baking too, but that's mostly Jax's thing." Rasa digs hir toe against the ground, drawing a semi-circle in the muck that has accumulated there. "What are you up to today? I was going to peek into Pandemonium, if you'd like to come. I mean, board games may not be your thing - not everyone likes them, but I'm kind of a nerd." "That was the best I've eaten in a long time," Jack replies. "And being around a lot of other people that didn't have any problem with the mutant thing...it was nice. Really nice," Jack replies, rubbing the back of his neck. "Not a lot," he answers, feeling a little worse about his pickpocketing. "I was going to head into Evolve to grab some dinner and see if some people were around," he clarifies. "I could come along if you want. Never seen a store that was for just board games before." "Yeah... they are good too." Rasa nods and unconsciously rubs hir belly. "It's pretty much like the cooking gods blessed them with their power and told them to take it to the world." Ze turns a shoulder and leans against the wall, considering. "Oh, Evolve's good too. We can look at Pandemonium just so you can see the wonders of wall to wall board games, then hit Evolve. I think there are some games you can play in the coffee shop. You know, with dinner." "I give thanks to the gods of cooking and luck then. So glad I met them both," Jack replies, shifting his weight a little. "Okay," he stretches a little. "Sounds like a plan to me," he says. "Games too? Man, that place is amazing. I need to tell Shane how much of a genius he is for running that place that way." "Well, I think it's partially that Shane's part of the demographic he wants to sell to - but he's still a genius because he recognizes it." Rasa waves a hand over to Jack as ze starts to head out of the alleyway. "So, what kind of games are you into? Strategy? Puzzles? Story like games? Have you seen that youtube show where they play games on camera? Well, there's a couple. There's one where they're drunk, but that's not quite as much fun because they just shout all the time. Well. Maybe that's just my point of view. Some people like watching drunks." Making sure his hood is up still, Jack starts following after Rasa. The questions get an invisible frown and his eyes flick towards the ground. "I don't really play a lot of games. Or see much of YouTube at all..." he trails off. "Oh." Rasa frowns. "Ah. Apologies. I just... well, I guess I assume everyone gets the youtube. I've never... well. I've had some shitty experiences, but I've never been without the internet, strangely enough. It's stupid." A deep breath ripples the cloth in front of hir mouth once more as ze turns to head toward the store. "You okay? Is there anything I can do? I've got a boyfriend near Brighton Beach who has a job. Maybe he'll know someone who is hiring and you can ... or maybe Shane'll hire you." "Don't worry about it," Jack says quietly. He'd check the net sometimes whenever he could get into the library. And whenever the librarians didn't chase him out. "I...well...I'll be alright. I'm just," he rubs the back of his neck. "I'm thinking about a lot of things. I met someone after dinner last night who gave me a couple ideas and I just need to think about them more," he smiles invisibly. "Never even thought about asking Shane for a job. Or getting a job at all actually." "What things? I... am sorry if I'm prying." Rasa shuffles a step and turns to pull the door open to the game store, "Some of the guys at the Commons, they do computer work from home. You any good with computers?" Jack shakes his head. "Just...some things. I'm not even sure about any of them yet. Got to talk to another guy that was at dinner last night about one of them," he says, waving it off. There's a faint 'thanks' from him as the door is opened and Jack glances around the shop. "Not really. I mean I can figure out how to use one well enough but I gotta call tech support if things go wrong." "Ah. Well, maybe they do on the job training." Rasa considers before turning hir attention to the board games. The boxes are large and thick, more square than the board games of the 80s and 90s. They all cost about forty dollars, but Rasa doesn't seem to be in a hurry to buy any of them. Ze selects a more simple game - Tsuro - and flips it over to read the back. "Do you have a place to crash?" "Can't say I'd be any good at that kind of work," Jack murmurs. He looks around at all the boxes, not recognizing anything really. And when he sees the pricetag on a couple of them, he stares. "The hell..." he trails off, surprised. The question distracts him from his sticker-shock and he glances at Rasa. "I've got a place I'm staying. It's new but...hopefully I'll be upgrading soon." "What? It's like an investment. If you play it like... forty times, you've basically only paid like a dollar per game. If you play it more, it gets cheaper. But yeah. They aren't cheap." Rasa puts the game ze picked up back. "I... mostly play games at the houses of people who have already bought them and help contribute that way. And good. I'm glad you have a place -- and upgradeable? Good! Great. You like cards?" Ze has found a regular deck of cards and shows them off. "We could get these and play ... poker maybe? Or canasta." "You play a lot of board games then?" Jack asks. "More like I'm hoping to move to a better place," he chuckles. The cards get a blink and then an unseen smile. "Sure, I know cards. But I have no idea what canasta is." "You know, I don't know how to play Canasta either. I'm mostly a hearts or spades person." Rasa shrugs and grabs the cards. "And poker. I'm okay at poker. I'm no card shark, but I know how to play." Ze lifts a hand and waves him in further. "Just wait until you see the magic cards. Man - talk about a way to lose all your money."