ArchivedLogs:Smelling Fear

Smelling Fear
Dramatis Personae Micah, Shane, Sebastian, Tess, Spencer
In Absentia	7 December 2013 Most of the soon-to-be Holland-Zedner clan encounters Tess during a food run.
Location <NYC> Chinatown
One of New York's oldest neighborhoods and the oldest Chinese enclave outside of Asia, Chinatown is a vibrant ethnic community, which draws throngs of tourists annually as well. This neighborhood is packed with Chinese-owned businesses, from restaurants to groceries to theaters to fashion. It is a nice enough day out in the City, for December. The sun is shining, leaving temperatures merely /cold/ as opposed to frigid, and there is finally a reprieve from the many days of icy drizzle that preceded this one. Micah, the twins, and a /very/ bouncy Spencer are on their way back to the courthouse with bags containing an assortment of soups, sandwiches, and salads from the first place they were able to locate that wouldn't be potentially filled with /sesame/ in Chinatown. As cold as it is, Micah is in his ever-present gear of olive coat, Jayne hat, and green gradient-striped gloves. He is wearing a pair of slacks and a nicer set of shoes than is his wont, however. As he walks, he splits his time fairly evenly between wrangling food bags and the eight-year-old that keeps forgetting he isn't supposed to dart off to look at every interesting thing that crosses their path. Shane is also looking kind of /sharp/ today; though in him that is common enough he usually doesn't polish up /quite/ to this degree. Kind of excessively so for just wandering around the streets, really, in a grey three-piece suit, bowtie, polished dress shoes, a top hat perched on his head. He's got his arm slung around his twin and a fiercely /bright/ grin on his face that puts his mouthful of /very/ sharp shark-teeth on display. Sebastian is nicely dressed, too, if in more traditional Vietnamese style than Western; the pink of his ao dai matches his brother's bowtie, elaborate yellow embroidery detailing the long dress. "You could put him on a leash," Shane suggests cheerfully, the bag of food that he carries dangling off the crook of the arm that's /not/ around Bastian. "Hey Spence, you want a leash?" "I don't think most people want --" Sebastian starts, but then looks at his brother. Looks at Micah. /Considers/. "-- Hey Spence, you want a leash?" Tess is wandering through Chinatown when she notices Micah, she starts to rush towards him to greet him, smiling. "Hey --" Her smile falters as she notices the shark-like boys, she takes a few deep breaths to compose herself, and smiles again. A bit more nervous now. "-- Micah. How are you doing? Are those two friends of yours?" Shane's question proves effective, in that it brings Spencer bounding back into the group at a high enough speed that he sort of half-crashes into Micah's back to stop himself. "Oh, if I have a leash does that mean I get a fancy collar? Shane has a collar and /Pa/ has a collar and /his/ is all full of lights and they change /colours/. Do I get one like that?" His eyes dart between Shane and Micah, eagerly awaiting the answer. Micah takes a bit of a firmer forward step than he intended, but is otherwise no worse for wear of small-child impact. He just shakes his head, pompom on his hat waggling with the movement. "Careful, Spence. I know we've kept y'cooped up most of the day, but y'gotta stay with us, okay? If y'see somethin' really fascinatin', y'can ask us t'stop an look." Red starts creeping into his cheeks at the line of rapid-fire questioning from Spencer. "Oh, honey, no you're too old for those kiddie leashes an' we're /not/ givin' you a collar oh/gosh/. Just stay with us while we walk, please, hon." As Tess approaches, Micah waves. "Not friends, exactly. These are m'boys. Shane, Sebastian, an' Spencer." His head nods toward each boy in turn. "This is Tess. Jax'n I've met her around a couple of times...parks, mostly. I'm good, sugar. How're y'holdin' up?" "Sure, you -- wait, no? Why can't he have a collar?" Sebastian looks puzzled. "I could even make another one with lights in." "Or maybe one with a GPS tracker," Shane suggests with a snort. The hairless ridge of his brow creeps upward when Tess approaches. "Yo hey 'sup Pa, who's --" As Tess's smile falters, Shane's smile /grows/, teeth yet more prominently bared. "/Tess/, sup." He takes a step forward, sharp-clawed webbed-fingered hand extending like for a handshake. "Shane." Sebastian doesn't step forward. His own smile vanishes when Tess stops, and as Shane steps forward he steps /back/, tucking himself behind his brother's elbow with his head dipping slightly downward. "Hi. No yeah he's our dad," he offers quietly. "Like for fucking /real/ and everything or just about." Shane is not quiet, /bright/ and cheerful: "I look good as a Zedner, don't I? /And/ a Holland -- hey shit you do too. Don't we /all/." "Well. Just /about/," Sebastian corrects, still quietly. Tess nervously shakes Shane's hand. Hers looks normal, but definitely doesn't feel it. She's freezing, literally. "Hey Shane, nice to meet you." She is trying not to be scared, but it shows that she's at some level failing. "And I've been mostly fine, Micah." She glances behind Shane, "And who is your brother, Shane?" “"Yeah, why not?" Spence chimes in, his tone very much 'see-B-agrees-with-me'. He's still sort of bouncing at the group's side, but at least he isn't running off anymore. "Maybe 'Bastian can make you bracelets like your pa's. Then you'll be able t'look at 'em. Hard t'see somethin' that's right up against your neck." Micah breezes right past the 'whys', a deeper shade of red layering over the first across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. "Jax'n me're up at the courthouse finalisin' the boys' adoption papers today," he explains, to clarify the twins' comments. He watches the tentative nature of Tess's handshake, his lips pressing thing for a moment. "Tess, honey, it's okay. We're all decent folk here." Spence takes the most important part out of the response: that he can get shiny things. "B's makin' me bracelets!" he announces, grinning up at 'Bastian. "Cool. I'll make you light-up /bracelets/, okay?" Sebastian's tone warms when he addresses Spencer. "With GPS tracker in," Shane reminds. Sebastian's smile quirks a little wider, though unlike his brother he keeps his lips firmly closed over his teeth. Shane's handshake is firm, a brief squeeze before he lets go. "Jeez, you're freezing, you need gloves? I have mittens -- s'not my brother," Shane adds in breezy correction, stepping back to sling his arm around Sebastian's waist. "S'my twin and he doesn't want to talk to you anyway." Sebastian's head turns, face mashing up against Shane's shoulder with this, but he neither affirms or denies this. "-- He's sort of skittish around people who immediately get all nervous like we're monsters, see?" Shane continues just as breezy-light, "Cuz they tend to do dumbass shit without any warning. And we're having a /really/ good day like actually probably the best one in our entire lives and it," it's hard to tell now whether his teeth are bared in /grin/ or snarl, though his tone is cheerful still, "is going to fucking stay that way." "{Kind of are monsters,}" Sebastian points out in Vietnamese, "{we /did/ just eat a girl's arm yesterday.}" "Oh sure yeah but come on who /hasn't/ eaten a person or two in their time? People are delicious." Shane's answer comes in English. Tess isn't sure whether Shane is trying to intimidate her or not, if he is, he's succeeding. Her face grows pale, and she kind of looks at Shane's teeth there. "Don't need gloves, weather's a bit warm today, really. And I'm not going to do anything to either of you, just a little bit scared, I don't mean anything by it." Then Shane replies to Sebastian and Tess just takes a couple steps back rapidly, stumbling over something and falling on her back. "Fuck." “I'm going to have light-up bracelets with /science/," Spencer informs Tess. She's new, so maybe she didn't catch all that conversation where Spence found this out, too. It's important that people know about New and Interesting Things, after all. Micah chuckles at Spencer's antics, though his amusement fades at the interaction between Tess and the twins. "Tess, you remember that whole conversation we had? You got no more cause t'be afraid of m'boys than y'got t'be afraid of me, or /us/ t'be afraid of you. Jax'n I ain't been nothin' but kind an' helpful t'you. I'm gonna have t'ask that y'return the favour of bein' kind t'/all/ my boys or we're just gonna be on our way." His head shakes at the talk of /eating/ people. "Shane, honey, I know she shouldn't be acting all nervous at you, but y'don't gotta intimidate her on purpose, either. Let's all keep it on the polite'n civil side, please." It's about this time that Tess stumbles over. Micah is quickly at her side, kneeling with his bags resting on the ground beside him. "Spence, stay with the twins. Tess, honey, are you okay? Did y'hit your head?" He takes the girl's cursing as a /good/ sign, actually, and waits for her to respond instead of just trying to inspect her for injuries. Shane backs down some at Micah's words -- /before/ he's asked to, really, it's Micah asking /Tess/ to be polite that takes the edge off his smile. Somewhat off, at least, there's no help for its continued sharp toothiness. "You don't have to mean anything by it," he says, mellower in a casually flip tone, "it's enough damage that you do it." He squeezes Sebastian closer to his side. "It's alright, though, the girl /gave/ us her arm to --" "-- we're not eating anybody," Sebastian cuts in quickly here, a flush rising up his cheeks that turns their blue more like purple. "And yeah," briefly his smile returns as he assures Spencer, "I'll make 'em just like Pa's, ok? You can even come to the workshop and help." Shane fidgets, shifting his bag up higher on his arm. There's not really much concern in his expression when he looks at Tess on the ground, just a quick dismissive flick of eyes before he looks away. His tongue runs briefly across his upper teeth. "You're worrying again, Ba. She fell like two feet." Tess pushes herself up, "I'm fine, I think. My arm is st..." she stares to look at her left arm, which is torn open deep enough to bleed, the blood starting to freeze outside her arm instead of clotting as it normally would, though it's still seeping out, "Aw fuck." She pushes herself up further, kind of trying to make the half-frozen wound not obvious. "And I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't be afraid, I'm trying, it's just hard. Jokes like that don't really help." Spencer hangs off of 'Bastian, the physical contact mostly serving as reminder and proof that he's staying where he was told. He leans just as far forward as he can, watching Tess with wide eyes. “Whoa. Whoa, she's got /ice blood/. That's like the /coolest/ thing ever.” For what it's worth, the boy sounds entirely sincere and not at all aware of the horrible pun. Micah shoots a quick and alarmed glance at Shane when he mentions a girl 'giving' her arm. But there are more immediate matters to tend. He makes a mental note to have a /talk/ with the twins later. “It don't take much distance t'cause a head injury if y'hit--” He frowns at the bleeding arm. “Like I keep sayin', I'll stop the worryin' if things'll stop givin' me legitimate cause t'worry. Okay, that's enough blood to soak through clothes; y'need tendin'. I've got a first aid kit in my van. We're parked...not awful far away. You okay walkin' there so we can patch you up, hon?” "Do I /look/ like I'm trying to help, girl?" Now the baring of Shane's teeth is /definitely/ a snarl. Sebastian tugs gently at Shane's arm, pulling him back a half-step. "... I just wanted lunch." "Yeah." Shane's head bonks down against Sebastian's shoulder. "It's not /my/ job to teach you to be a decent human being. That's your own goddamn baggage to earn. /I'm/ trying to have lunch with my family. Not get gawked at like a sideshow freak and /definitely/ not /educate/ your ignorant ass like some fucking mutant ambassador." For all his coarse language his tone is kind of /lazy/, not angry so much as /bored/. This actually makes Sebastian giggle, lifting a hand to cover his lips with his fingertips. His other falls to rest on Spencer's shoulder. "So -- {Sorry,}" in Vietnamese, "just oh my gosh if you were our ambassador can you imagine how much trouble we'd all be in?" Shane's grin brightens. His gills flutter rapidly in a silent burst of laughter. "Ohshit. I would ambass the /hell/ out of. Everything." Sebastian keeps his fingertips pressed to his lips, but his eyes now are locking on to the blood on Tess's arm. He takes in a slow breath, a quiet growl briefly sounding in his throat. His eyes close. He exhales a quick breath. "... ice blood." His eyes stay closed, though his brows raise at this. Shane /snorts/, more /disgusted/ now than anything. "Oh, even better. A freak who thinks she's better than the /freakier/ freaks. Maaan, it's like school all /over/ again." He glances over at Sebastian, lips compressing. There's quiet concern in his voice when he addresses Bastian: "{Dude chill if you bite her now that'll be like fucking bigot /vindication/. You need some food in you?}" Sebastian's tongue flicks out briefly to wet his lips. He opens his eyes, nodding. "/You/ go tend the cold-hearted chick," Shane says this cheerier, lighter, "We, who's /we/, Ba? /We've/ got better things to do with ourselves. Like eat." Tess is about to accept Micah's offer of help when she overhears Shane, and she shakes her head. "Don't. It's not worth your time, spend it with your family." She's just kind of hiding the blood as much as she can, looking for some place to go. "Everyone is probably better off if me and my stupid ass dies anyway." “/I/ wanna go to your school,” Spencer says, as if that means it /must/ be the best place ever. His nose scrunches a little, his voice taking on a hint of a whinge. “Yeah, why aren't we eating? I want my sandwich.” He puts a hand over his stomach, suddenly exceedingly aware of the fact that he hasn't had lunch yet. /Right there/ is where the sandwich needs to be. “Everybody stop /right now/,” Micah orders in that voice that is gifted to parents and schoolteachers for the express purpose of cutting through kid-chatter and demanding attention. “No one is threatenin' anyone else. No one is insultin' anyone else. And no one is dyin'. Spencer, you an' the twins can eat lunch as soon as y'get back t'the courthouse. The three of you split these bags up t'carry back there. Be careful on the way there; you're in charge of Spence stayin' safe.” He fixes Shane and Sebastian with his gaze at that, to ensure they're hearing him. “I'll be in shortly. Tell Jax not t'worry.” Now he turns back to Tess, still stern-faced. “No one is better off for anyone up an' dyin'. You're not gonna die. I can't /force/ you t'accept help, but I can recommend it strongly. It'll only take a minute t'get your wound disinfected and covered over so y'don't get an infection an' y'stop bleedin' everywhere. So, are y'comin' or not?” Sebastian bends down to kiss Spencer on the top of his head. "You will some day, probably. Then you can be in the workshop as /much/ as you like." His eyes flick back to Tess's arm, but then shift away sharply. He glances at Micah's bags, but doesn't take them. "Pfft tell Pa not to worry, may as well tell the goddamn sun not to shine." Shane gives Sebastian his /own/ bag, stepping forward to claim the ones that Micah set down. "Spence'll be safe, c'mon. Someone would have to fuck with /us/ to mess with him." His teeth flash in another bright grin, but it's sharp and hard-edged. "C'mon, B, let's eat. {/Food/.}" Sebastian offers Tess a tiny, shy smile. "I hope you --" But this just trails off with a darker blush and a dip of his head/ He slips his free hand into Spencer's. "See you soon, Ba." Shane doesn't say anything further. He bumps Sebastian's shoulder with his, nudging his brother around Tess to continue back towards court. Tess sighs and looks away from the twins and Micah, "I guess I'll come." She seems unhappy, and says softly. "I screwed that up big time, didn't I? I was trying not to show my fear, but I guess I'm no good at that." “Said t'tell 'im, not t'make it happen,” Micah replies with a little shake of his head, clearly not expecting the telling to be entirely successful. “Thank you, boys. I'll be right along. Won't take but a few minutes.” He sighs, shaking his head again at Tess's question. “It wasn't...good, no. Ain't good t'seem afraid at people in general. Either puts 'em on edge if they /aren't/ tryin' t'be scary, or lets 'em know they're scarin' you, if they are. Y'don't want either of those things, 'specially out on your own like this. Just keep remindin' yourself that folks is folks, yeah?” Once the boys are safely on their way, he leads the injured girl the short distance to his parking spot to get patched up.