ArchivedLogs:Sweet Street Art

Sweet Street Art
Dramatis Personae Eve, Marinov, Nic
In Absentia	2017-05-09 "Those rotten kids, driving down the local property values."
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. The sun is starting to cast longer shadows as the evening gets underway, and the streets have become less busy as many of the residents of the Lower East Side have returned home, while many others are still out and operating their businesses. Marinov does not seem to notice the cool air as much as most, as they wear a pair of black shorts and a shimmery green vest over their dress shirt. The youth seems to have taken it upon themselves to be a tour guide for the area. "Of course, I spend like... a fuckton of time at Evolve, 'cause they have tea and also a cool crowd... but I like sorta taking a look around the neighbourhood a bit closer, you know? All kinds of hidden gems, even if not all those gems are super friendly. What're you gonna do?" Coming out of Evolve, meanwhile, is young Eve. She's been haunting the place pretty regularly lately. Maybe she likes the coffee, maybe she has a crush, maybe it's the only thing that cures her boredom? Who knows. But she comes from East Harlem, and it looks like the young woman is on her own slow way home. So it makes for a good chance to wave to Marinov when she sees the young mutant on whatever way they are going. "Marinov! Did you see the art the Captain and Jackson Holland painted on the wall over here the other day? It's amazing." Neither does she seem to be wearing a jacket. Just her usual setup. Moving along with Marinov Nic has his hands in his white hoodie pockets red letters reading 'San Jose Gymnastics Club' are emblazoned across the chest. Not as comfortable with the cold chill wind as his friend he's wearing some designer pre-faded jeans. "Evolve? Sounds like a neat place... wait isn't that the place that was in the news a while back? It's one of your famous hangouts? We should go sometime, y'know with Dak." His attention turns to Eve as she calls out to Marinov "Oh Hey, another one of your friends? You're pretty popular aren'tcha Marinov?" At first, Marinov is engaged in conversation with Nic, "Yeah. It's pretty excellent, and has really good tea and coffee and stuff. I'm not a connoisseur of pastries, but from what I hear, they're pretty good too." They stop upon spotting Eve's waving hand, and they raise a hand in greeting in return, "Whaaat? They did some art on a wall? Those rotten kids, driving down the local property values," says Marinov, jovially. "Show me, I bet it's fucking sweet." They glance back to Nic, "Oh. Yeah, Eve, Nic. Nic, Eve. And yeah. I guess I've just got one of those great personalities that everyone flocks to. Like a /good/ personality." The girl approaches Marinov, and soon Eve is holding out a hand to shake before pointing out an alley down the way, with her other hand,"Yeah. We totally got rolled up on, by some neo-nazis. Then I pepper-sprayed them. And myself. And the Cap. Accidentally. It was pretty awfully stupid. Like. Ridonculously stupid. They were good spirits about it." Then she's looking over a Nic with an offered hand,"Mucho gusto. Nic. Huh. So, this your boy, Marinov, or is this your /boy/?" Very different inflections there. Sounds like she approves either way. "Eve? Pretty name, nice to meet ya" Nic says giving the girl's hand a shake He winces at the story of pepper spray "Oooh... that sounds rough, never been pepper sprayed myself, but it doesn't exactly look fun. We should check out the art though." He chuckles at the girl's question "Uhh the first one I think? Whichever one doesn't get me in trouble with Dakota. You a classmate of Marinov's?" "You maced some neo-nazis? I mean, well, not great that you ended up burning your eyes but like... yeah! Fuck up those nazis, Eve! Too many nazis around these days, I've had it with all the nazis," says Marinov, ears still perked up in interest. "And yea, this is a boy who is going out with a friend of mine who shoots, like, force projectiles out of her hands. So, the first one." They gesture forward and start walking towards this alley, walking hurriedly. The girl shakes the boy's hand, flushing at the compliment to her name. Eve actually SIMPERS. Easily flattered, is Eve. Still, that answers pushes her smile back to a normal, friendly one as she remembers what the hell she's doing,"Ooooh. Right. Um... Yeah. Pepper spray is not so great." She walks in the direction of Jax's work of art/graffiti, pleased to be leading the way. "I was proud of the nazi-thing up until the second or third second when the spray hit my eyes. Holy crap it burns so much." Well. "Force projectiles. Right. And by the sound of it, she uses them?" She skitters then, to the other side of Marinov as if to put distance between her and Dakota. No getting shot! The teen offers Eve a pleasant smile "Well you should be proud taking down some Nazis. I guess just be careful to stay down wind next time yeah?" He follows along after the others to see the artwork Jax left. "Oh I don't think you have to worry about Dakota really, she said she doesn't have the best control, but from what she's told me it's really only if her emotions get away from her. Or if a jaguar jumps out at her from behind a tree." Nicodemus says poking his tongue out at Marinov. "Oh, yeah. Pepper spray isn't great. I've had my share of experience with, ah, chemical irritants, yeah? I've got strong senses, ugh, so I get why it can be a bad idea to use 'em," says Marinov, shaking their head and following Eve around to the alleyway. "And I don't even look like a jaguar! I don't know why you two were even thinking about jaguars in those woods. Still, it didn't hurt so much, I've taken worse hits than that for sure." "There wasn't exactly time for me to really, you know... check wind direction and maneuver them into an ideal position." The young woman sighs to herself, and Eve seems... embarrassed,"I should've let the Captain and Holland take care of it." The girl makes a face. "Jaguar? But... Marinov's a people, not a jaguar?" Eve looks very confused at this. "Anyway, they already were hassling me for being brown. I wasn't thinking to clearly. If they figured out I was trans, I would've gotten... probably something worse than pejoratives." She makes a face, and then Marinov gets a look as she spreads her arm expansively to show. "You must be pretty tough, huh?" "Fair enough, I guess when the time comes to chemically irritate someone you can't really ask them to wait while you take a wind test." He sighs and shrugs his shoulders "Sure Marinov's people, but in the dark in the woods when you're already talking about bears and jaguars and whatnot... it's easy for your mind you to play tricks on you, also Marniov wasn't nearly so darkly coloured last I had seen her." Nic frowns and grumbles "Hassling you just cuz of how you look, and how you are... friggin people why do so many people have to be assholes. It doesn't hurt them any just be who you want to be." His frown turns to a smile and nod in agreement "Yeah Marinov's super tough I wouldn't want to be on her bad side." "Me? Yeah, you better believe I'm tough," says Marinov. "Sometimes it's sorta surprising. Like... um, I'm still pretty lightweight, though, so even if I can endure a lot, it's not like I don't feel it or anything." They shake their head and add, "Yeah, people like that are usually not that, uh, understanding of people who are gender non-conforming. Or like, anyone who has any sort of difference at all from their nazi ideal. Glad you made out alright." As an afterthought, they remark to Nic, "My pronouns're they and them." The girl smiles a little bit over at the boy. "No shooting my friends please. They're kind of cool, and they were like one of the first mutants I've ever met." Eve indicates Marinov then,"She and her, myself." A pause, and she examines Marinov,"So, enby huh? I wasn't really sure, so I was kind of dancing around it. Figured you'd tell me when you were comfy or felt like it." Eve clasps her hands behind her neck after looking at the painted robot, and wonders out loud,"What do you think?" As for gender non-conforming,"It's not much better in my community. We're about half and half on mutants, and almost entirely hostile to trans folk. It's why I made dad and mom put the sign in the window. You know, though, we got a pretty good mutant foot traffic, so business has picked up a little. Not like, a lot. But a little. So they're sort of coming over to my way of thinking." "Oh umm sorry about that Marinov... them and they it is" Nic tries to recall if they've mentioned that to him before curious he's hung out with Marinov a number of times and doesn't think it ever came up. "Nazi ideal pfff" He scoffs at the thought "Sounds like an oxymoron to me." The young gymnast gives a short laugh at Eve's no shooting request "No worries there, I neither willing nor able to shoot anyone, no fancy powers here, and I certainly ain't packin. Oh and uhh he and him for me." Looking at the graffiti robot Nic nods "Looks pretty sweet, too bad it's unfinsihed though." Looking over at Marinov "You know who did it? Invite them to your show?" Letting out a slow sigh "Unfortunately it's pretty hard to get away from the discrimination even good communities are not /good/ just less bad... looking back I suppose where I grew up was pretty tolerant compared to a lot of places people still said shitty things, diet bigots I guess... I hate to consider that good though." "Oh. Yeah, I usually don't make a big deal about pronouns on my first meeting with people but, like, if I know I'll see them around a bunch, yeah, I'll get into it," says Marinov, shrugging a shoulder, "Non-binary, yeah. But, good that your parents are pretty open. And open to mutants too, huh? Maybe I'll check it out sometime. Always good to give some money to, like, mutant friendly places." They look critically at the robot, then snap a picture of it with their phone. "Sweet street art." They glance at the others, "Hey, want to pick up some coffee or tea somewhere?"