Drive-by Teep'ing

Participants:

bao-wei3_icon.gif harmony_icon.gif mynama_icon.gif tess_icon.gif

Scene Title Drive-by Teep'ing
Synopsis A homeless telepath unnerves some people with his inability to block thoughts, much less stop repeating them.
Date October 25, 2010

Chinatown


People gotta eat, and chinatown is still known as a good place to get cheap food or to buy cheap ingredients to make your own food. From shops, doors, storefronts comes a variety of colors that belong to paper lanterns, roasted ducks that hang in a window waiting to be cut down, chopped and served to a customer. Vendor carts on the side promise roasted goods of all kinds up to and including a nice roasted seahorse for those in want of a bit of crunch.

People come and go on the sidewalks, stopping to peer at the windows of the jewelry stores, run fingers through cheap jewelry on open air stands, examine the counterfeit Gucci's, Fendi's and Vuittons that forever populate Chinatown. The area has it's fair share of homeless people, the ones that haven't gravitated towards Prospect Park and the jewelry store that was robbed the other day seems to be back in business, it's glass replaced. Life goes on here in New York City in the afternoon.

After living in a place like New Orleans and enjoying all the creole culture, Tess decided that she just had to visit Chinatown and see what kind of culture it had. They have Chinese occult shops, right? And all the pretty colors? Perfect opportunity for some major picture taking. So she's wandered out in jeans and a zipped up leather jacket, fingerless gloves on her hand, a black knit cap mostly covering her blonde hair, and a camera in her hand.

She wanders along, pausing here and there to snap pictures of storefronts or decorations, but mostly she takes shots of the people, especially any who look like they belong here in Chinatown.

It should be safe enough for Harmony to head into Chinatown to get a little shopping done. It's been a very weird few weeks. She has been shot at twice, trampled, almost attacked by monkeys, rescued by a guy with a mechanical arm, involved in a lover's crushing drama, and drunk more often than not. Harmony, so far, has lived a pretty interesting life. Things just seem to happen to her in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of moments. This is her worry, as she carries herself down to this side of town, a bag being carried in her bandaged up wrist and her iPod earbuds in her ears. The blond girl dressed in a pair of jeans and a jacket that looks WAY too big to fit her. It must belong to someone else, but she is making a fashion statement of it. At least it matches.

She is here to shop for some food. Few things that you can find at a normal store. She passes the section that seems to be selling the seahorse, and she stares at it, her bright blue eyes blinking and then looking up at the vendor. "You're sick, dude. That's.. just nasty." she shakes her head and moves on.

Walking streets that somewhat literally- you used to own- is a strange affair in itself. Having everyone ignore you- or if they recognize you, still ignore you- is something else. Not that Bao-Wei Cong has made a notation on having anyone at all recognize him. As it stands, at this stage in his life, lab or no lab, Doctor Cong blends almost seamlessly in with the homeless. There is something about his posture, at the very least, that makes the absurdly bundled, large man seem like he has something else in why he is currently sitting in a long line of beggars, either perched inside the mouth of an alleyway, or sitting out near the sidewalk looking for handouts.

In his coat and hat, he looks almost like he is asleep, propped back against the entrance of an alley. In truth, he is just watching. Though at least one person seems to have thought him needful, and a five has been sitting six inches from one knee for ages. The wind and the others have not been daring enough, even if Cong doesn't need or want it.

Watching, perhaps waiting. He is mostly watching people he used to treat- babies he used to scare the shenanigans right out of, at that. His clinic on the far side of Chinatown has been long locked up, the shades drawn and the name on the window scratched haphazardly off. It was actually quite painful to see that for the first time, weeks ago.

Rather than go home directly after school, Mynama Barros-Nunes has instead wandered her way to Chinatown. She doesn't have much purpose other than to be in the mix of people and absorb the chaos. She's thrown an olive green pea-coat over her school uniform - dark navy tights with black ballet flats, a modest yet youthful pleated skirt, navy cardigan buttoned over a white dress-shirt and tie. Her hair is tied at the nape of her neck, any flyaways slicked down against her skull. She carries a mustardy brown messenger bag across her chest, one long-fingered hand curled protectively around the strap.

She pauses by the seahorses in time to hear Harmony's disgusted dismissal, and she can't help but smile at it. "You know what they're for?" she asks with an arch of an eyebrow as she glances between the dried fish on display and the older woman.

"They are for eating, one dollar for four" The owner of the stall plucks up some of the seasoned roasted starfish, waving them in the air in front of Harmony and Mynama's face with a semi-toothless grin. "Three for seventy five cents, you take" She waves them a bit more in their face.

"Two tins of baby formula" Walking across the street with a shuffling gait, wearing shoes that might be in dire need of being replaced before the real cold weather sets in, one of the homeless "What is that smell?" He stops to pick up a paper cup, peering inside the contents before tossing it to the side, continuing on his pacing. "I'll call it a good day. I need four taro roots. I hope he doesn't figure it out" The ramblings of a crazy homeless guy who frequents this part of Chinatown with his scraggly long greasy grey air and layers of clothes that have seen better days.

A woman pushes a stroller right past him as quick as possibly as if she might catch something by proximity and he only holds out a hand "Spare some change. Oh oh god don't touch me"

Harmony, Mynama and the Chinese vendor get immortalized in digital film, by way of several shots taken before Tess lowers the camera and glances to the homeless man. She tilts her head, snaps several shots of him as well, moving around slowly to get various angles. Then the camera is lowered and she digs in her pocket, fishing out change as she moves towards the man. "Why don't you want people touchin' you?" she asks, her accent blatantly Cajun, as she offers the change to the man.

Harmony takes in a breath, preparing to answer Mynama about the seahorses. And judging by the look on her face, her response isn't going to be a pleasant one regarding the subject. But the words are stolen from her lips by the store owner speaking up before she does. And the air she takes in is the taste of the seahorse aroma. It makes her cough out the fragrance and wrinkle her nose, quickly covering her mouth with her good hand, "Ew!" she cries, taking a step back. Her brows come to knit together, and she fans her face with the fish-like expression of disgust. "I just.. threw up in my mouth a little bit, I think.." she tells Myanma. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. Could be true.

The ranting homeless person catches her attention momentarily, and she turns to look at them passing, blinking as something said hits her. "Huh…" She was just thinking that too. Well.. part of it. Everyone had a bit of hard luck sometimes, and as such, the person's plight has Harmony digging around in her pocket, looking for some change.

Watching is not terribly hard, when you have a show. Bao-Wei keeps his arms crossed, long coat and scarf acting as a buffer for any movement of his own. His hat is low, and his gloves are worn, but one reason that none of his 'fellows' come near is that his skin is the shade of something having been kept in a morgue. He looks sick- dead, really. The air near him is chilled, and the position in which he keeps himself seems to allude that he cannot stay warm.

Cong's vision rests idly on those crossing to and fro, including the singular man that goes about his mumbling journey, suddenly faced with a girl with a camera. Bao-Wei frowns, though he does nothing about it. If she wants to put herself in danger, that's not his problem. It's still numbingly rude, no matter his inaction.

Mynama just laughs at Harmony before she digs into her bag to dig out and hand over a dollar for the dried seahorse, idly wondering just how it works. It's a question for the nerdier classmates in her biology class to ponder over for her, with the dangled ruse that they might get the chance to try it.

She glances momentarily at the mumbling homeless man, then the man planted in the doorway. Neither of them make her want to linger. But her dark eyes don't stay long on either of them as she tucks her newly purchased delicacies into her back along with her anatomy and physiology textbook and a worn out and well-loved copy of Activating Evolution.

You say, "Maybe I should try one" The homeless guy turns to Tess when she talks to him, he registers what she says but doesn't answer her back. Not in the way that she likely expects. "What's the deal with this guy? I think these pictures should be black and white. Wonder what would happen if I touched him…"

He reaches out, grabbing the offered money and shuffling off towards Harmony and Mynama. "I hope he smacks her in the mouth." He digs a hand around in his pocket, pulling out a rumpled Mcdonalds napkin and blowing his nose with it "I have to wait until she gets off until I can see her about that file." He looks at Bao-Wei when he says it, then to a passing Asian woman who's dress is fairly high quality. "If he only knew what was under my dress he wouldn't look at that bitch like he does"

Then away, each time his gaze lands on someone, he talks. The ramblings of a Crazy man? "Do seahorses actually work as an aphrodisiac? Is there a place online where I can find out? Oooh, I wonder if I can get…" He looks away, shuffling towards the vendor with the seahorses, offering out the money Tess gave him. "Four. Please don't touch my cart I don't know where your hands have been, I wish you'd leave this part of town""

Tess looks started when the man speaks to her. "Hey! That's what I was thinkin'! You read my mind, like, literally!" she says after a moment, her tone and expression bright. Enough that she follows him towards the stall and the two women she was just taking pictures of. "I didn't think all of that though. You readin' everyone's mind, or is that what you're actually thinkin'?" she asks, grinning at him and momentarily forgetting about the camera in her hand.

Harmony hesitates for a second as the man continues to ramble on. Ohh-kay.. He's a bit on the crazy side. Poor thing.. a blond brow raises and she continues to fish around for money. After a second or two, Harmony pulls a crumpled wad of some change wrapped in a dollar from her pocket. "Ah.. Thought so.." the girl nods and reaches out to hand it over to the guy. "There ya go, dude. Hope it helps." she smiles and nods, raising her casted hand up to lift her bag so she can look in it, "I'd give you some food, but.. I haven't had a chance to get any yet."

Out of the corner of her eye, she catches the transaction being made by Myanma, which causes a frown to crease across her forehead, "Ew! You're actually gonna buy that? They're like.. bones. And they probably don't gut them or anything. You'll be eating it's organs which are probably just as crunchy too. Ew!"

Bao-Wei watches the man far more closely when he is able to hear him echo virtually word-for-word what was just running through his own head. He seems to get the same attention from the girl with the camera, and it's no wonder. With what he is saying, Bao-Wei knows he can't be the only one. Timing and interaction is too perfect, especially when the man goes to purchase something. Though it is not enough to make him get up from where he is, it is enough for him to scrutinize the women, the man at the booth, and the homeless man himself.

Mynama immediately shies away from the homeless man when he nears her, and it's only exacerbated by the fact that he's saying what she's thinking. Harmony's question delays her escape, and her hands tighten around the strap on her back as she looks from the homeless man to the other woman, glancing momentarily to Tess. Tourists.

"This is ancient medicine," she says with narrowed eyes. "If it didn't work, do you think people would still be using it? Besides, it's natural. How can that be worse than all the synthetic shit that pharmaceutical companies cram into stuff?"

Adjusting the position of her bag on her shoulder, Mynama backs away toward the man in the doorway, looking anxiously over her shoulder when she finally does turn.

"get the hell out of my head, fucktard" It comes off as rudely as possibly, the man looking to Mynama when he says it, as if he might channel her almost perfectly. Bao would know, likely, that the man can't help it. So many people, close proximity. Never learned to put up mental shields. Harmony thrusts money at him the same time as the seahorses all crispy and spiced on the stick are thrust at him by the vendor. "Go away, go away, go away" He retorts, reaching for the seahorses with one hand and the money with the other. Money is thrust into his pocket and he turns, meandering away towards bao, a glance to Tess. "Schizophrenic" She has her answer.

"Vomit would be better. Oh hey, someone else looking for a good day, that's kinda neat." He bites down on one of the seahorses, ripping off it's head with his side teeth, chewing quite noisily, little flakes of seahorse flicking from his mouth.

"He's going to need more than seahorses." Spoken around a mouthful of the aquatic creature who's end life is a stick shoved up it's ass and roasted over an open fire.

"Schizophrenic? Aww…You should like, get some help. There's a hospital or somethin' 'round here for evolved people, maybe you should go there, see if they can help," Tess says to the man, before remembering her camera and snapping a few shots. Then a bill is dragged out of her pocket, offered to the stall vendor and she grins. "I dunno if those things are aphrodisiacs, but maybe they're better than gator on a stick."

"Ancient medicine?" Harmony asks, looking like a non-believer. "For a dollar? Really? If it's so effective, it'd be a liiiitle more expensive, don't you think? Heck.. if calling something ancient medicine is an effective tactic to get people to by something, I should get some poptarts, crumble them up and sell them to diabetics as some miracle sweet that they can actually eat." Yep, she isn't convinced that eating seahorse is something that should be eaten freely. She wrinkles her nose as the woman gives it to the homeless man, "Aw, dude.. that's just not right.." she shakes her head, and even more so as the man starts eating it.

That is when it hits Harmony.. she just had the SAME thought he spouted off. Like.. to the letter. "Whoa. Is he in my head or something?" she blinks to the other woman standing there. "Aw man! How much can he see?! I don't want my dirty laundry put in someone else's head! I have drunken nights that I'm supposed to take to the grave."

Bao-Wei gets to his feet only when the other man wanders closer, his having ignored everyone else come into play only then. One hand holding down his hat, Doctor Cong makes a note of all but stumbling out onto the sidewalk, almost coming to a circle with the 'mind reader'. His gaze under the brim is quite scrutinizing of the man, once again, and his thoughts purposefully gravitate towards something succinct, something very clear and poignant. If this guy is listening to himself talk? Perhaps it will serve him a clue.

If he can't understand himself- well- too bad.

Mynama has no idea what's up with this homeless guy, but she does know she doesn't want to be close by when whatever is bound to happen happens. She can't afford to be caught in the crossfire. Not when she's fed her father some story about going to the library to return materials to cover for her little trip to Chinatown.

Still, she moves slowly down the street even as the surrounding crowd adjusts it's flow to give the man a wide berth. Her own words, ugly as they are, make her shake. It's a horrible intrusion, and it's hard for her to tear her eyes away from the offending telepath.
ORDER: It is now your pose.
"There should be laws about people getting into people's heads. It's totally unethical. Like tapping phone lines. Or like, going through someone's stuff." The homeless man yells it out, as if he were proclaiming the end of days watching Mynama leave. "Maybe it's already been done?" The rest of the seahorse is shoved in his mouth, the stick tossed to the ground, even as he speaks again, a slightly hysterical tone to his voice in between nibble of the next seahorse.

"Does he know about my ability? About what happened the other night? Oh god, what if I start going all glowy? If I start freaking out, I will, calm down, maybe he can't see that. Oh! If he can see my thoughts, I probably should be thinking something else. Um.. okay.. I can.. give you radiation poisoning! Boo! Like your DNA normal? Might not wanna stand near me!"

He stops when Bao gets his attention, focusing on the loiterer before turning, heading off down the street and away from everyone. "Carry the twelve, and I'll have three hundred, shit not enough for rent. Jesus I have to get this brief in or I'm going to miss the deadline and I can't loose this case" On and on it goes till they can't hear him anymore and just a trail of seahorse sticks in his wake.

Tess pauses mid-way through the rambling, and looks around at the others gathered in this particular area. "Okay, who's radiation person, raise a hand so I can back away slowly. And if any of you killed someone last night, don't raise your hand 'cause I don't wanna be next on your list of people to kill so you can keep it all secret-like," she calls out. "Is the radiation person the glowy one, 'cause I'm so totally lookin' for someone to start goin' all Twilight now, and I'll have to point'n laugh if you do."

"Ugh.. seriously.." Harmony winces, as he just starts spouting off things she thought word for word, "It's almost like he's not even processing what I'm thinking, he's just.. repeating it." she frowns. Her eyes roll upward for a moment, "Meh.. no harm it it I guess." Harmony sighs, and she relaxes her shoulders a little. Tess' inquiry makes her blink. "Uh.. no, no no.. It's really not like that." she raises her hands and waves them back and forth defensively. "I was just thinking that to try and scare him.. I mean.. I /can/ do the radiation thing, but I can control it… usually.. normally.. most of the time. And it's usually not dangerous.." She becomes a little flustered about the situation and then finally gives in, frowning, "God, dude! Why'd you have to be some kinda mind reader or something?" she gripes at the homeless man.

Well, he'll be damned. It worked. Bao-Wei is a little taken aback when his encounter is not re-read by the man's speech, and the man apparently takes the mental note to heart. He peers after the departing man, his expression past a coil of tattered scarf remaining skeptical. But, as he is leaving, and the 'event' seems to have ended, Doctor Cong tugs his coat tighter around his shoulders, giving one more look towards the trio of stalled women before moving off himself, aiming to go deeper into alleyway he had been idling around in.

When Harmony speaks Tess glances at her and grins impishly. "Holy hell it worked! Radiation, huh? Freaky. Can you zap spiders'n stuff and turn people into real life Spidermen? That would be so freakin' awesome man." She looks at her camera, scrolling through her pictures as she starts wandering off. "Definitely black and white for these. Maybe some of the Staten ones too," she mumbles to herself.

"Um.." Harmony frowns at Tess' description, "I don't think real radiation works that way?" She looks a little uncomfortable all of a sudden, her eyes shifting from left to right, halfway wishing she had the power to disappear right now. "It's.. more.. um.. yeah.. I think I'd better be going now, really." Fortunately for her, the other woman is starting to wander off. Harmony is quick to follow suite, turning and quickly hurrying down the street away from the area. "Ugh.. I can't believe this.." she facepalms and rubs her eyes. "Nightmare. Nightmare.."


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