Skating board is for cool kids only.

[wrathfulkhan]

Characters: Gene, Jackie, Alex, Miles, Aly, and YOOOOUU!!
Date: All of April
Location: Keeliai et al
Situation: The Situation. The one with the MAHSCLES from Jersey Shore.
Warnings/Rating: Will be added as necessary.

A. [Gene] | throughout Keeliai | throughout April | open
Well, here's something odd. Gene's being social. A little bit weirdly so. He seems relaxed and at ease...which is probably a pretty good indicator that something's wrong with him. There's something a little stilted about it, even though he's trying to keep things natural. Maybe that's why it's stilted.

B. [Gene] | House Spicy Iron Dragon | April 2 | closed to Tony
What time is it? That's right, boys and girls. It's time for Gene to do his usual emoting up on the roof. At least it's a nice roof? He'd built it with the express purpose of brooding in mind. Clever boy.

At least he's easy to find. It's been two weeks and he's still shaken up about his mother's rather abrupt appearance and disappearance. Why is it that every time there are these incursions, something happens that breaks him a little more?

C. [Jackie] | the Golden Koi | throughout April | open
After March, Jackie needs a breather. Seeing Wei had been...well, it had been interesting. And Brigid's insistence that her uncle was going to murder him for something he'd had no control over hadn't been exactly comforting either. He's just trying to work at the bar, keep his head down, and mind his own business. He needs a quiet month. Without murder.

Doesn't mean he won't strike up a chat, though.

D. [Alex] | Sky Sector | throughout April | open
Alex has finally saved up enough to move out of the Hotel and into his own small place. Which is good, because being around all of those people for six months was starting to make him extremely cranky. Especially after Mo'd come and gone, which was making him even crankier. Everything is annoying him. Living on his own again is probably going to help fix that. Probably.

Now what the hell is he going to do with the place? He has a small patch of green. Maybe try gardening? Ha! He has a Vantablack thumb.

E. [Miles] | throughout Keeliai | throughout April | open
Time to party hard. By which Miles means, go shoot some B-roll for a story he's going to be doing. Yes, he's got some idiot idea in his head to go chase down something dangerous, because that's just how he is, and he's testing out his repaired camcorder. He can be found wandering the streets with his camcorder in hand, talking to himself, occasionally leaning against a wall, filming his face, checking the angles, and adjusting the light levels. He might be working with what looks like a dinky little camcorder, but it's got some serious guts, and he's an f'ing professional.

F. [Miles] | the Turtle's Head | April 3 | closed to Valdis
Miles has been trying to go up to the Turtle's Head every day or two in order to practice meditation under the calming effect of Tu Vishan, and he's definitely noticed that he's not alone. Those Ban Om guys are there every day, and some of them don't seem to leave. It's a little creepy.

He's been inching a little closer to them every day, doing a little less meditation and a little more observing every time. Hey, he can't help it, he's curious. It's his hamartia. (No, not the John-Green-missing-the-goddamn-point version. The actual version. It's what got him all fucked up at Mount Massive, after all.)

(Miles Upshur: Literal, actual, Aristotelian tragic hero. Because he fucked up by being a dumbass.)

And he's about to fuck up some more. He knows that, and yet he can't stop himself. Damn you, hamartia!

G. [Alex] | Water Sector | April 6 | closed to Bucky
The Water Sector is where Alex does most of his shopping, and some of the kedan merchants have at least learned to grudgingly respect the Foreigner who knows the rules of bartering and is very good at getting what he wants - but is always sure not to cheat them out of what they're due. It's while he's getting some groceries that he notices the man with no arm. A Foreigner, clearly. He doesn't stare; he's seen every type of injury and amputation. But he limps nearby all the same, to get the measure of the man.

H. [Aly] | Metal Sector | mid-late April | open
At least the Metal Sector is somewhat familiar. It reminds her of cities back home, almost, or Linali. She can almost pretend that she's Otherside instead of stuck here. Almost.

She's fidgeting with the ring on her hand, walking around and window-shopping. She's obviously quite new.

I. [Aly] | Earth Sector/Wood Sector | mid-late April | open
Of course, there's more than one way to get the lay of the land, and that's from the air. Sort of. She can't transform into anything that flies, and she can't fly on her own, but she's taught herself how to parkour, sort of, and on a good day she can do a wuxia wire-leap that looks impossible. She just has to believe in herself hard enough.

If anyone's around at night, she can be seen walking and running around on the roofs of the Earth Sector, or climbing trees in the Wood Sector.

---

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Comments

C

[commandandcontrol]

Sonja was making an unusual trip to the Golden Koi; bars weren't really her scene, she had the alcohol tolerance of a six-year-old.

But she had kind of a mission, today, a mission involving a certain bartender's girlfriend who was secretly a werewolf. The mission involved getting Brigid to stop being a freaking idiot, which she needed help on.

Sonja tentatively walked into the bar and hopped up on a stool.

"Jackie! Thank you for helping out with my celebration before."

[jinzhong]

If you ask Jackie, he'll make you a virgin cocktail. He's made things that taste nice!

He smiles at her. "Hey! Yeah, no problem. It was nice to celebrate the new year, and of course I wanted to help a fellow Foreigner out. I know we're not from, like, exactly the same place, but it was still familiar enough."

[commandandcontrol]

"Yeah. Weird dimensions and stuff, am I right?" Sonja could not be less hip when she said 'am I right.' It was so bad it made you wonder if she did it badly on purpose.

"So, to take the conversation in an extremely unpleasant direction, has Brigid told you what's... going on between her and me?"

[jinzhong]

Eep. Yikes.

"Um..." He bit his lip. "...yeah?"

This is going to be tough.

[commandandcontrol]

"I was kind of hoping to recruit some help."

Sigh. It was so dumb that Brigid was making a huge deal about what she had called her uncle, especially since by all objective measurements it was true.

"She seems to think that cutting me out of her life is going to make all of this better, and obviously it isn't."

[jinzhong]

Jackie frowns. "What do you mean, 'help'? I'm not going to go against her, if that's what you're asking."

He sighs, then. "Look, I get why she's mad, and I get why you're freaked. I'm freaked, too. Guy'd kill me soon as look at me for what I know."

He's not afraid, though. He's done being afraid.

[commandandcontrol]

"That's fine, I'm not asking for that." She'd kind of been hoping to ask for that.

"But can you give me some kind of advice? How close to her uncle is she?"

[jinzhong]

He kind of just...stares at her. "Come on, Sonja, you're smart. She stopped talking to you because you talked shit about her uncle. How close to him do you think she is?"

[commandandcontrol]

"Your right," Sonja said. "This was a mistake. I don't know why I'm trying to stay friends with someone who apologizes for a murderer. Sorry for wasting your time, Jackie."

[jinzhong]

"Sonja..." Jackie sighs. "Look. The way I grew up, people killed to protect each other. That's just how it is when you grow up in Old Prosperity. You grow up in gangs, you learn to fight or die. So I get what it's like for her. I don't like it, but I get it. The guy on top, you die to protect him. You're loyal til the end, you do what he says, you eat, sleep, and fucking breathe because he lets you. The minute he decides you're disloyal, bam--" He snaps his fingers. "You're dead."

He returns to cleaning out a glass. "So if you're going to be mad at her, maybe think about that first. She has to do what he says, no matter what. And you gotta love someone who holds that kind of power over you. Or at least be awed enough to call it some kinda love." He'd been scared of Uncle Po, but thought of him as a god - he'd held reverence for the old man in his heart. Brigid must feel the same way about Uncle Marcus, too.

"So you're tellin' me you didn't grow up like that? Fighting for everything you have with loyalty being the only thing that could get you out?"

[commandandcontrol]

"No! My father is a great, kind man who cares deeply about everyone in Yellow Comet." Kind of dumb, but wise in the ways that... that she wasn't. "He leads by example, with honor and justice his guiding principles."

Okay, this was getting too purple prosey. Now that she was done kneejerk defending her dad, she tried to imagine where Jackie was coming from, and could only shake her head.

"There has to have been another way," she said.

[jinzhong]

He shakes his head. "There wasn't. I only know one person who made it out, and he was lucky." It still hurts to think about Wei. "When you're born into it, you kinda have no chance, you know? Shit, I coulda been a doctor or somethin' if I was from somewhere else. I'm not, though. I'm from Old Prosperity, and even though I am what I am, I'm fuckin' proud of it, you know? I grew up being told to be proud if I could be chosen for the Sun On Yee, and I was, so yeah, I was proud of myself, even though I had to do some shit to make that happen. Back home, you're nobody if you're not in a gang. If you're in one, you get power and respect, at least a little."

He looks at Sonja. "Your dad some kind of, I dunno, leader or something?"

[commandandcontrol]

"Yeah," she said, almost hesitantly. They really... couldn't be from more different places, could they?

She'd never felt more like the 'princess in a tower' than at that moment.

"But... she's not there anymore, right? She doesn't have to defend him like he's hovering over her."

[jinzhong]

He shrugs. Now he knows where she's coming from. But maybe this is why he and Brigid have clicked so well - they know the score.

"She's not, but...you know I only went legit recently, right? I've had the bar for about a year. Before then, I was running with the Snakes. And I've been here a really long time. It's pretty hard to not think like that anymore. I wanted that kind of respect. Still kinda do. But this is better for me."

[commandandcontrol]

She didn't say it aloud, but she had volunteered to work for Tu Yuxnu herself. And she wasn't sure she would have made a different decision then, knowing what she knows now. She supposed there was no high idealism in that decision, was there? Just a lot of self-justification.

She sighed. "But... I can't go back to her and apologize for something that's true. It feels like that would be... enabling. Condescending, even."

[jinzhong]

"Yeah, I get you. But sometimes I guess you gotta decide what matters more to you - how you feel about the truth, or how you feel about being someone's friend."

Ouch. Yeah. This conversation is starting to hurt. He looks down at the glass he's cleaning, and realizes that he's drying it a little more forcefully than intended.

[commandandcontrol]

"That's... really good advice. Thanks."

Sonja looked around.

"What drink do you recommend for someone that gets knocked out by one beer?"

[jinzhong]

Looks like the painful part of the conversation was over. Thank God.

"I can make something without any alcohol, if you want," he says.

[commandandcontrol]

"That sounds perfect, as long as I'm not getting judged for it." Buying juice at a bar was generally an open invitation for getting teased where she came from.

[jinzhong]

"Pfft, no. Gotta keep the customer happy, right?" he says with a wink. Yeah, back where he came from, teetotaling was unheard of, but here, some people just didn't drink. Weird to him, but whatever.

[commandandcontrol]

"Do you have bubble tea?" she asked. It was unlikely, but couldn't hurt to try.

[jinzhong]

"Um...no," he said, a little apologetically, "but I could try and make something kinda like it?"

[commandandcontrol]

"I mean... if it's not too inconvenient." She would leave an extra generous tip.

[jinzhong]

"Nah, it'll be fun," he says with a grin. He likes trying to make new things. "I need to get more virgin stuff on the menu anyway."

[commandandcontrol]

She makes a sour face at the word 'virgin'.

"Who knows, maybe the 'virgin' stuff is what will make this place huge."