ArchivedLogs:Hot Dog

Hot Dog
Dramatis Personae Heather, Mai, Paige, Fiona	2017-01-01 "I am not sure if that is healthy."
Location <NYC> Tompkins Square Park - East Village
Small but popular, this tree-lined park is a perfect centerpiece to the eclectic neighborhood it resides in. Home to a number of playgrounds and courts from handball to basketball, it also houses a dog park and chess tables, providing excellent space for people watching -- especially during its frequent and often eccentric festivals, from Wigstock to its yearly Allen Ginsberg tribute Howl festival. New Year's Day! For some, it's just another chilly day in NYC, where the weather is warmer than usual for this time of year, but still cold enough a coat is required. For others, it's a time for fresh starts, new hope and soon-to-be-broken resolutions. For Heather, it is one of the first days since her bus pulled into NYC. She carries a tattered messenger bad with a few buttons on it, none of which seem to have any kind of interconnected themes or meaning and seems to be zipping about from garbage can to garbage can in the park, checking each one for about thirty seconds before running to the next. Her movements all seem to be on fast-forward, which makes everything she does (even her breathing) have a tinge of unnaturalness. Every few moments she checks her wrist, where she wears two watches: one appears to be a digital watch, plastic with flecks of paint chipped off. The other is relatively new, some kind of smart watch, and likely more valuable than anything else she is wearing. Mai is out on a walk it seems, her jacket fully zipped up to better stay warm, hands tucked into the pockets. She likes parks in general, that little slice of not so city like enviroment inside a city. Overall she looks like she has only recently woken up, all that sparkling she drank last night having made her sleep rather late today, but it was worth it, new year is only once per year after all. Giving a somewhat curious look to the fast moving girl buzzing around the garbage bins, blinking a few times and reaching hand up to rub at her eyes to make sure they aren't still a bit blurry, but nope, it seems that Heather is in fact moving fast and it wasn't just an optical illusion. Heather stops in front of Mai, reaches into her pocket to pull out a rectangular device. She hits a button on her voice recorder that just plays: "Excuse me." The next can on her apparent path is the one that's near to Mai, and here she seems to hit paydirt. A hot dog, only one bite out of it, sits near the top of bin. This hot dog might be here because it has a truly inappropriate amount of mustard on it, but Heather does not question the gift and picks it up out of the bin. Mai arches a brow some as she realizes what the girl is doing. "You new in town?" She inquires, curious about the unusual looking girl, at least she is not freaking out about the too-fast-to-be-normal way Heather is moving. "I am not sure if that is healthy." is offered after teh hot dog is pulled out of the bin, though whether it is because of it being taken from the trash bin, or just because of the amount of mustard on it, is not quite clear. Heather raises her tape recorder again when Mai starts speaking, one hand operating the device and the other carrying the terrible mustard dog. After Mai finishes talking, she plays back, "I am from St. Louis. Hot dogs are very unhealthy. Sometimes people eat unhealthy things." While this plays, she rests the tape recorder on the edge of the trash container so that it is balanced there. The young woman devours the hot dog, seeming to only take as long as the tape recorder plays to finish it. Mai is a bit confused about the tape recorder, and why it is needed in the first place, but can't really think of a good way to ask about it so she ignores it for now. "Ah, well welcome to New York then. You seem pretty fast." she observes with a smile. "I am Mai, by the way." introduction given slightly late but there it is anyway. "So you moved here, or just visiting?" Where New Year's Day most likely greeted many with beautiful, head-pounding headaches, Paige doesn't seem to have been affected. Or, she doesn't seem to have been affected by alcohol at least. The horned girl looks rather worn-out, tired, drained. And despite any and all shifts in the weather, her attire has not changed since she arrived in the city two months ago. Still, she seems determined to be outside today. Walking. Spotting Mai is a coincidence -- the mutant world is really seems much too small -- but easy. The other girl seems to be interacting with another individual, though some details are difficult to make out as they hardly appear to stay in once place for long. A furrow of the brows, ears flicking, Paige raises a hand to her friend as she approaches with a, "Hey, Mai." Heather records Mai's words again, throwing the paper tray that the hot dog was on into the garbage. She wipes her mouth with her sleeve and plays in reply to Mai, "Heather Brown. Codename: Timeslip. If I were a movie spy, that's what they would call me." She pauses the recorder for a moment, making a swirling gesture with her hands before hitting play again, "You seem really slow. I took a bus here. And that's the last thing that happened, so I'm here now, and I won't leave unless someone else puts me on a bus and sends me somewhere else." Her eyes seem not to really focus on anything for long, but they do turn to Paige for a moment and she quickly waves a hand in reply to Paige's wave. Mai offers a light laugh at the reply. "Well, I suppose thats only logical that I would, compared to you. Its nice to met you Heather. Though, umm whats with the recorder?" she finally asks. Then hears a familiar voice from behind her and turns to give a wave to Paige. "Oh, hi Paige. Nice to see you too, your timing is amazing too, I just met another new arrival to the city... and I think you have better idea than I do of how everything works here." she offers with a light laugh. Despite her slightly haggard appearance, much more so than usual for sure, Paige offers a small smile to Mai. "You did? I'm not sure if I really do, but, uh, what's up?" This, all directed towards her friend. Apparently not having heard the recorder earlier, she then looks to Heather. "Hi, uh, I'm Paige." She fishes a hand out of a jean pocket and offers it to the other girl. "Welcome to New York, I guess?" Heather starts up the recording once more, and then raises a finger in a 'wait' motion when she thinks both Mai and Paige are done speaking, though she points to Paige's hand and gives a quick shake of her head before playing something back. "I speak too fast. You speak too slow. I use this to fix it for both of us. Sometimes I have to stop people so that I can listen and speak." She rewinds the tape and replays her introduction for Paige's benefit, "Heather Brown. Codename: Timeslip. If I-" And with a click, she shuts it off again. Mai listens to the recording again, giving a look to Paige and then back to Heather, guess that does make sense, she just hadn't really thought about it since well she doesn't really have much experience with really fast people. "Hey, your always helping me at least." she points out to the goat girl. Then back to Heather. "So I guess that you don't have a place to stay at?" a guess based on seeing the girl searching for food from the trash bin. Paige's head tilts curiously at Heather, ears giving a flick, as the girl holds up a finger. She seems to slouch a little when a handshake is refused and lets her arm fall to her side. "That's...That must be...difficult?" Her statement ends in an inflection as if she is unsure what to make of Heather's power. "I'm sorry we speak so slowly." And it's said with genuine sincerity! After listening to Mai, the horned girl seems about to speak when her right ear suddenly starts twitching. "Ah fuck," is what she offers as she raises her hand to scratch behind her ear. "Helping you? Really?" Then, more softly and mostly to herself, "So fucking itchy." The same procedure as usual is repeated on Heather's end, and she plays for Paige's benefit, likely perceiving the slouch, "Sometimes if I move my hands wrong it hurts people. I would rather not bother with the reaction that comes with that. You cannot control your slowness. I cannot control my fastness. You have horns. Smart. It will help if you bump your head." Unfortunately, tone and expression translates very little over the recording. She starts looking in the trash can again, moving things around while the recorder keeps playing. "I don't stay anywhere. I only sleep an hour at a time. An hour by your view. Longer by mine." Mai is a bit at a loss on what to make of Heather, the girl seems so unusual, much more so than any other mutant that she has met so far, so she is kind of relying on Paige here as the goat girl seems to get along with everyone... well when it comes to mutants at least. "That... sounds rather unusual. It must be difficult to deal with everyone else being so much slower." she guesses, before looking back to Paige. "Yes, with the whole understanding different people and stuff like that. Which I appreciate a lot." Then noticing the scratching she gets a bit worried. "Uh, are you allright?" "Ah?" It's said as a cross between distraction and curiosity as Paige, tilting her head, registers Mai's question. "Just -really- itchy. It's fine, it's fine. Been itchy a lot lately. Sort of everywhere." Another moment passes before the blonde girl actually appears satisfied with the scratching and lets her hand drop. "I'm not really sure I get along with everyone," she counters with a blush and a duck of the head. "But I try." Biting her lip, she regards Heather again. "Yeah, I guess they're kind of useful for that. I mean, they -have- helped me from bumping my head a, uh, few times. But it still hurts a bit. And thanks for not...thanks for not hurting my hand." A tired smile is offered to the wild-looking girl and Paige narrows her eyes slightly. "You look...you look tired. N-Not saying that you -are-, but is everything okay?" Heather listens over what the other two are saying, and her interactions with the machine seems like some quick high-pitched chirping back and forth. She only plays back after tossing a few cans out of the trash into her messenger bag: "It's very difficult. It feels like a very long time ago that it was easier. Everyone was the same speed. But now they aren't, and this works." She runs her fingers through her tangled hair, working out kinks that her fingers find. "I have been sleeping on transit. Only an hour at a time. Bad quality sleep." Mai listens to what Paige is saying with a somewhat worried look. "Well, I hope you aren't getting sick or anything, being sick sucks." She offers, then as Paige points out the rather tired appearance of the fast girl, Mai takes note of it too. "Hmm, maybe you could try sleeping like a full night for change, that might help? Or is that like... uh something you can't do?" as she doesn't really have a clue of how a super fast person might function. Paige bites her lip while the other two speak, reaching down at some point to scratch at her left leg, though it doesn't help much through the two layers of fabric. "Don't think I'm sick," she replies, distracted. "Just really fucking itchy, you know?" She does stand upright after a few seconds, though. "Well, sleeping on transit will do that to you, right?" This is actually somewhat directed more towards Mai than Heather, as though the older girl is looking for some help figuring things out. "I mean, I can't imagine it would be a smooth ride and who knows how much stop and go there would be, right? I know what it's like to sleep an hou---Well, I, uh, okay, well, not a longer hour?" Ears flick, confused. "But, uh, yeah, it's not good. And you don't really want to be out for more than an hour if you're not actually, you know, in a safe place. So I guess I get that?" Now the middle of her back is apparently itchy and this requires two scratching hands as she arches her back a bit. "Anyway we could, uh, help?" "Do you have fleas? I once had lice. They had to shave my head," plays Heather helpfully, the audio taking a bit of a chipper sort of tone, before returning to the same sort of flat, "From my perspective an hour is five hours. But I don't sleep well. I sleep worse on transit. It's hard to sleep. It's just not a skill I have. And you say that you can help. But it doesn't seem like you can." Mai gives a slow nod to Paige's assuring that she is okay, not so sure of it but not going to press the issue. The mention of fleas makes her giggle a bit though. "I would hope not, taking in the nice place she is living in. And... oh! She meant to ask if we could help, not stating that we can. Though I guess that would depend on if you -need- help in the first place?" she inquires from Heather. Paige seems done, again, with her scratching. Her ears wilt at Heather's comments. "I--I'm sorry. I wasn't saying I -could- help, I was just asking if there...I don't know. I just...I just like to help. Uh, what Mai said." The horned girl seems more defeated than usual at this, head dropping and face reddening a bit. "It's...it's not fleas," she remarks very quietly while staring at the ground. Heather seems silent only for a couple of seconds before answering the question of whether she needs help, "If you have any calorically dense food in your pockets or bags, giving it to me would be helping. If you need me to do something in exchange for it, tell me what you need, and I will tell you if I can do it. I am too skinny and I don't like it." She squints towards Paige and clicks the play button once more, "It's easy to get fleas if you spend lots of time with dogs or cats who also have fleas. I hate itchy skin. If it's not bugs it could be dryness." Mai reaches a hand up to rest it on Paige's shoulder reassuringly as she sees her staring to the ground like that. "Uh... I don't really carry food with me usually... though maybe we could go to get something to eat, hmm?" she ponders, looking at Paige to see what she thinks of it. Paige's body tenses immediately at Mai's touch, but then relaxes. She continues staring at the ground for a few good seconds before lifting her head again, her face not as red as before. "W-we don't need anything in exchange and I don't...I don't carry food because I don't have much money for food." A look is spared towards Mai; a meek, grateful one for the gesture of friendship. "We could find a place, I guess. It's too bad a---" Here she cuts herself off, tilts her head back, and lets out a sigh. "We could find some place, yeah." Ears flick. "And it's not dryness. Or bugs." Heather listens to the audio and tilts her head back and forth a few times before playing back on the recorder, "I mostly need food. I have to eat approximately 1800 calories per four hour and forty eight minute period. That's why I'm so skinny. I have some cash in my bag. But I am saving it." She pulls a water bottle from her bag and drinks most of it down while the last plays: "If you know what it is not, then you know what it is. So maybe use the internet to find an ointment or something that will help. Sometimes I use the internet to find things out." Mai considers for a few moments as she listens to both lines of conversation going on. Figuring that Paige probably knows best herself about what the cause of the itchiness might be, she focuses more on the other topic. "Uh... well I can't say that I would really know what calory numbers translate to as actual food, but I am sure we can find something, hmm, not sure whats open at new years day, though, thats like one of those days of the year when most places are closed." It's the third time this week that Fiona has ended up at Thompson Square Park; it's getting to be a regular thing for the dragon-girl. There's always something going on there; but mostly she seems to end up there because she's currently living nearby. More like... currently sleeping nearby. The state things are in right now, maybe you can't really call them 'living'... But, she is alive, so that's enough. She peers back and forth between the scene going on between Mai, Paige and the unknown girl. "That's..." Paige's ears give a flick and her brows furrow as she thinks, right hand scratching at her left arm. "That's a lot of food!" comes her loud and most brilliant deduction. "Holy fuck, that's a lot of food -- isn't it?" A questioning glance is given to first Mai, then Heather. "Well, it -sounds- like a lot of food. Geez." She has stopped scratching and is now drumming her fingers idly against her arm. "I don't know about anywhere open. Maybe we could check the Internet?" She seems happy enough to let the topic of her itchiness go for now. Once the recording is listened to, Heather pulls out her own phone and types in a search and then plays, "It's a lot of food. A jar of peanut butter is about half of a day's worth of calories for me. Days from your perspective. I am willing to eat a jar of peanut butter. But eating two jars of peanut butter in a day is a bad idea. I am speaking from experience." Mai listens to Heathers 'translation' of what that amount of calories equals in actual food, before looking back to Paige. "Hmmm, I was thinking about perhaps taking us to my place, and I could make some food for us... but I am not sure if that would count as high calory count food as it tends to be fairly, well 'healthy' food as people call it, and I am getting the impression from what you are saying that food with lot of calories is the opposite of that." She hasn't noticed Fiona yet as she is fairly distracted by the rather strange conversation going on. "Ah, hey guys," Fiona gives a little wave, peering back and forth between Paige, Mai, and Heather again. She looks a bit under the weather... and also very confused. "What's going on? Someone's hungry?" her eyes linger on Heather, who of course appears a little fuzzy to her... perhaps. "She looks worse than I feel..." she murmurs. The horned girl's ears twitch as her attention is captured by the new arrival. "Fiona?" she inquires, brows furrowing in concern. "Are you okay? They said you never made it back to the Commons last night. When did you get back? What happened?" She pauses for a moment before her eyes widen. "Oh shit. How much longer are they letting you stay?" To Mai and Heather, Paige says, "There's -got- to be like some burger place open today, right?" Heather does another search and calculation using her phone, then she answers Mai. "High calorie foods are good for people who exercise a lot. People think healthy food is low calorie. But it depends who you are. I move very fast and it takes energy. 44 pounds of broccoli is what I would need to meet the amount I need. And I can't eat 44 pounds of broccoli. It's too much broccoli." She starts digging through her messenger bag for any food that she had pre-prepared. "It's fine if nothing is open. I can keep searching. I have some emergency supplies left still. But I'd rather avoid that." She presses pause, points at Fiona and plays, "You also have horns. But they are smaller than Paige's. Do they still help you if you bump your head?" Mai hears yet another familiar voice as Fiona joins the group, giving her a smile. "Oh hey, look who finally woke up! You were sleeping so soundly that I didn't want to wake you up when I went out for a walk, how are you feeling?" She inquires, before turning to Paige. "Oh don't worry, we were celebrating new year and it went a bit late, so had her sleep at my place so wouldn't risk like waking up the whole house at the commons middle of the night." she explains, then giggles at Heather's mention of 44 pounds of broccoli. "Well, I would say that 44 pounds of anything would be a bit much." Fiona yaaaaaawns, stretching and looking over at Paige, "Ah, it's okay... we went to Time's Square last night... I ah... I think we were on TV!" she notes cheerfully, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. "You should check out Evolve, they give away free food if you don't have any money... but..." she ponders, "I don't think they'd be too happy to give away 44 pounds of free food..." Though one of her questions went unanswered and she proceeds to worry about it, Paige lets it drop for the time being. "Evolve is closed," she remarks simply. "I looked it up -ahead- of time this time! But, right, they're closed, so no help from there for today. I...slept through the fesitivities, so I didn't see you on TV." Brows furrow. "You didn't do anything stupid to end up on there, right?" Now, to Heather, "Keep searching? How? Where?" "I don't need as many pounds of calorically dense foods. But I will work for food," plays Heather, "If giving me food incurs significant expense." She hits pause, then points towards the garbage can that she's next to in response to Paige's question, "I found a hot dog in there. People throw away lots of food in the city. Lots of it is perfectly good. Well. Edible." She gestures towards the next garbage bin that is in her planned search, a little ways away. "I want to check that one. I have a good feeling about it." Mai giggles as Fiona mentions the being on tv part. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot that." She notes before shaking her head at Paige. "Naah don't worry, it was just random 'how you doing at new year' quizz that they probably asked from quite a lot of people, it was more like being pretty lucky to get picked as one, or unlucky depending on how you feel about tv I guess." Then at the food dilemma she considers. "Well, there has to be like some hot dog stand open somewhere nearby if you found a hotdog from the trashbin in the first place." "Nah, I don't... think..." Fiona trails off at Paige's question. They totally weren't doing anything stupid, except drinking in public, which is actually illegal in New York City... however, nothing horrible came of it, except for Fiona crashing at Mai's and getting a bad night's sleep. She looks scruffy. That's it! "But I think we're all pretty poor, so, I mean, who's got money to waste on a food cart? There has to be a deli or something open somewhere..." Paige seems to be rather preoccupied while the others speak, ears twitching, though she does nod her head along at certain points. For the most part, she appears focused on regarding Heather; her clothes, the state of her hair, the pallor of her skin, the bags under her eyes, the goggles around her neck, her feet. Then she blinks. "Shoes," the blonde girl remarks, a definite non-sequitor from what the others are talking about. "Shoes," she repeats, pointing a finger towards Heather. "I have boots. I can't --" Paige gestures to her hooves. "-- wear them. Maybe they will fit you. You seem like you could use a new pair of shoes. I'm guessing that...well, uh, walking really fast and stuff wears them out a little quicker? So, um, I have boots. You can have them. For free." Ears flick. "A deli open on New Year's Day? We might -have- to go with the food cart." Mai offers a slight shrug at Fiona's question about the money, which is actually a pretty decent point. "Yeah, I don't think we have much luck finding anything fancier than a food cart that is actually open today. Its one of those 'the whole city is closed' days of the year." Blinking then at Paige's out of the blue declaration of shoes, giving the goat girl a somewhat confused look, until she elaborates on what she meant with it. Heather chitters something at the other three, but it's too fast and high pitched to make out, but this time she did not translate it using the recorder. She looks down at her feet, lifting them up and down a few times before playing, "My feet are often cold. I will almost certainly destroy your boots. But if you do not want the boots I will take them. They will keep my feet warm for some time at least. As for food: I can keep looking at the bins, and I have my emergency supplies. I may have to buy more tomorrow when the stores are open. I am trying to be careful with my cash. I have a limited amount." "Alright, well, we can find a food cart, then... or... I mean I'm sure there's SOMETHING that you could eat back in the pantry at the commons... you know, just, like, canned beans or something." Who doesn't have canned beans? Those are also super cheap. If she needs huge volumes of food, that is. Fiona looks over at Page, "Do you think that would be okay? I'm not sure... but... I don't really have any money. Like, twenty bucks. That wouldn't go very far." The goat girl cracks a grin at Heather's words. "Want them? I -can't- want them. I can't -wear- them. They're new. Like, um, eight months old?" Now she offers an actual smile. "They're nice. I got them off of Amazon. They were worth the price." Ears flick down as her brows furrow yet again. "I had...I had more money then. But, I can't use them. I'm going to go get them, alright? I won't be gone too---" Shoulders slouch and Paige sighs. "It may be a while," she corrects, pointing to Heather again. "For you. But I will be back with the boots, okay?" Then a concerned look is given to Fiona. "I don't...have much. But here." Reaching into a back pocket of her jeans, the blonde girl fishes out a ten, a five, and a one. She seems about to give it to her dragon friend before pausing and turning back to Heather. "For you. You need the food more than I do and I am sure I can catch something from the kitchens at some point." Once the wild-looking girl takes the money -- Paige will not accept a 'no' for an answer -- she heads off towards the Commons. "I will be back." Mai gives a wave after Paige when the goat-girl so suddenly decides to go fetch a pair boots, after giving money to this girl that she just met! Then turning her attention back to the two still present. "Umm, so I guess we need to find that elusive food cart then? You know, I don't even remember when I would have last eaten something that 'unhealthy.' I tend to mostly make my own food, mainly because its lot cheaper, but also at least then I actually know what I am eating." Heather does try to refuse the money at first, but then takes it from Paige when she figures that Paige is not going to take no for an answer. She looks at the money in her hands and then tucks it into her sweater pocket quickly enough that it almost looks like a magic trick where she just makes it disappear. She plays on the tape recorder, "A food cart is expensive. Maybe a convenience store is open nearby. When I buy food it is based on a dollar to calorie ratio. Everything has to go the full distance. The trashcan hotdog was a 0$ to 300 calorie ratio. Very good ratio! If everything had that ratio, I would be very well fed! But from the stand, it is not efficient. Don't worry about me. I can stretch this money a long way." She gestures towards her head, tapping on her temple a several times rapidly and hits play, "I am smart like that." "Have you considered... I dunno... I mean, I'm sure there's lots of stuff you could do with that kind of speed," Fiona murmurs, watching Paige go for now. She looks overall pretty worried. So many hungry mutants around. Worst case, SHE could go back to her parents (and maybe get killed, but they'd still feed her at least), but these others? "Are you sure you're okay?" Mai doesn't really know of what else to say, as everyone seems to have different idea of what to do, so she simply offers a shrug. "Well, if you say so, I trust that you know best yourself what is good for you." is offered towards Heather. "My bus arrived in the city not long ago," plays Heather, "At this time I am trying to focus on meeting my physical needs. I haven't yet considered how to use my speed to make money. I think I need to do odd jobs. Clean places or things." She shrugs a shoulder and then says, "You are both friends with this Paige? I have a phone. If I give you my number, will you pass it on? I am not going to wait right here. I can't lose time like that." "Sure, I can do that," Fiona nods, looking at least slightly relieved that Heather... probably has things more together than she does, actually. Just that, Fiona can actually go a day or two without eating... Heather seems to be some kind of monstrous food destroying force. She pulls out her phone, ready for Heather's number. She looks over at Mai, "I think she'll be okay..." Mai nods in agreement with what Heather says regarding the jobs. "Yeah, I think you definetily should focus on jobs that pay by the result not by hour. You could probably make a killing doing like five times as many jobs than a regular person." As the phone number is asked she starts getting her own phone out, but Fiona beats her to it so she lets her to pass on the number, giving a smile to the dragon-girl. "Yeah should be fine." Heather does not speak the digits of her phone number, instead she offers her telephone for Fiona and Mai to take a look at while it is open to the page with her contact information on it. She shifts from foot to foot a couple of times quickly, unable to stand still for much time at all before starting to shift about, playing, "Yes. It will be okay." Fiona punches in Heather's phone number into her own phone, pausing for a moment, "Oh, um, I don't think I got your name? What should I enter it as? I'm Fiona, by the way," she nods, tail swishing a bit pensively. So many weirdos in this town! It's kinda great, but also a little crazy to deal with. Mai does add Heather's number also, just in case, and shows the other girl hers, rather than saying it, as thats probably easier way for the super fast person to get it. "Ok, got it. So, if you like need help with something feel free to call, I can try to help but no promises." she offers with a smile. Heather plays the audio from earlier for Fiona's sake: "Heather Brown, codename Timeslip. If-" Click. She then plays, "I will keep you in mind as a contact who may help, but also may not help. Fiona. I like your horns. I'm going to run now." Heather doesn't spend much time with the farewell portion, instead opting to just go.