Participants:
| Scene Title | Even With Jose… |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | In attempt to drown psychological Pain, Melissa gets a side of physical when she tries to stop Humanis First groupies from defacing a store. |
| Date | July 1, 2010 |
Queens - Outside a bar.
Today hasn't been the best day for Melissa. Despite it being cool, she's felt a little sick and overheated most of the day. Guilt will do that to a person. Which is why, after returning home from Montana, she spent most of the day in her house. She didn't call anyone, didn't even let Abby and Kendall know she was back. No, she wanted to be alone. Just her and her good friend Jose.
Alas, Jose ran out mid-afternoon, and Mel wasn't nearly drunk enough. So she changed, into a long sleeve black shirt and black jeans. Nothing fancy, and the sleeves would hide the little shrapnel cuts. There would be fewer stares and questions that way. Changed, still fairly drunk, Mel went out, on foot given her state of inebriation, and went in search of the closest bar where she could find Jose again. Oh dear, sweet Jose. How you make me forget.
Jose, Jack, Captain Morgan and Gordon's. Four good men all swimming in her blood when she finds that bar, and it closes come 10:30. Last call these days is at an ungodly hour but the people in the city have become used to it since last January. They'll take ten thirty over six thirty. It's cause more than a few businesses to go down and go under due to not enough hours to make money.
But eventually Mel emerges from her choice of Bar, stumbling her pretty little feet away from the safety of the walls that housed the booze that Russia built - hmm Vodka. There's a noise further down the street, a handful of people gathered around a store front. The distinct sound of spray paint can's being shaken then sprayed, someone hooting, another shoving someone else but otherwise hooliganing around. Melissa can't see what they're writing, not quite yet.
She's drunk, yes. Melissa is stumbling and fuzzy headed, her mind not working clearly. But is she drunk enough? Perhaps. Or maybe she's too drunk at this point. She leans against the bar, and is fumbling with a lighter, trying to get it lit, when she notices the noise and people nearby. She squints at them, trying to get her eyes to focus. Nope, not going to happen.
So she sighs and sticks the lighter back in her pocket, leaving the cigarette between her lips as she starts walking/stumbling down the street, curious and feeling no fear. Or guilt. Vodka is definitely a two-edged sword tonight. "Hey! Hey, wha's goin' on?" she calls out, her accent more pronounced than usual.
"Giving someone what they deserve" Someone calls out. There's more shoving still, looking more and more like a late night vandalism in a low population part of town. "Fucking freak owns the store, We're showing him we don't want his business in our city" All haughtily spoken, the posturing of someone who thinks they're bad ass. This elicits high fives and hand claps from his buddies. They space apart enough for one to see the what's spray painted onto the front of the small mom and pop shop, looking like it's a cafe that's only open till just past lunch.
Hate messages everywhere on the window. Humanis first, freaks last, go to hell evo scum. We don't want your kind here. Even the traditional nooses that compose the symbol of the anti-evolved group is there. The building defaced and one person even winding up to swing a bat at the main window.
Well that wasn't what Melissa expected and, drunk or not, she's still outraged on behalf of the store owner. The cigarette falls from her lips as she starts forward again, crushed underfoot. "Hey! Stupid fucking morons, leave it alone. Isn't it bad enough ya kill innocent kids? You're worse than any evolved could ever be," she spits at them, grabbing clumsily for the bat, rage in her eyes.
Well now. What do they have here?
She misses the bat, the others not drunk and it's yanked away from Melissa as the group turns it's attention from the store front and to the woman at hand. "Shit man, she's plastered" Says the likely only one in the group who has a modicum of sense and brains enough. Likely going along for the ride with the others.
'Oh, who are you? You an evo lover? Got your hands up up in the pants of one of them?" The ring leader sneers, taking a step forward. Bat boy thunks the bat against one of his hands. "Hey George, Worse, I bet she's a fucking freak herself. You an evo? Maybe we should be painting you"
Melissa grimaces when she misses the bat, and she struggles to try and make herself focus, but focus just isn't coming that easily right now. "So what if I'm an evo lover? I'd rather fuck every evo in the world that lay a finger on any one of you pathetic bastards," she sneers at them. "Do yourself a favor'n just leave this place alone." Not smart, Melissa. Not smart.
SMACK
The leaders fist lashes out, aiming and hitting Melissa in the temple, catching her off guard thanks to her inebriated state and the lack of common sense that is a hallmark of Jose's visits to most who over indulge in his presence. Down she goes, the hit strong enough to make her stumble back then fall to her knee's.
"Fucking freak lover! Should go to hell like the rest of them" Someone else aims and lands a swift kick to Melissa's ribs, follow by another. A third about to get in on it, incensed by her audacity and group mentality, but there's a group of people coming out of the bar, unseen before and in their wake, a bouncer from the bar who got called out because of what they saw brewing down the street under the lamplight.
'Hey! Knock it off down there!" The hulk of a man bearing down from afar.
The first hit doesn't earn them a single noise from Melissa, other than the sound of her feet on the pavement. The kicks, however, have her grunting softly, then gasping out a breath and she curls into herself, instinctively trying to protect the more vulnerable parts of her body. It hurts, but perhaps not as much as it should. One good thing about Jose is he numbs the pain a little. One bad thing is it makes her control weaker.
Arms curled protectively around her stomach, Melissa glances up, murder in her eyes for the one who first hit her. "Already there," she whispers, not really realizing that her control is starting to slip, a low-level pain beginning to radiate around those nearest her. It's not bad, not yet, barely even an annoyance. For now.
Like cockroaches when the light turns on, the arrival of people that will bring numbers even, are enough to make the guys who chose to prey on someone weaker to scatter. Run, turn, flee, live to deface buildings another day. Even as the pain begins to latch onto them. Baseball bat swung at the main window of the shop, the sound of glass shattering and falling to the floor is easily heard above the beat of retreating footsteps or the arrival of others as someone kneels down to grab a hold of Melissa's shoulder. "Hey, lady, you okay?" The bouncer giving a bit of a chase, realizing that Melissa was a recently left customer.
The touch has Melissa flinching, until she realizes that it's not a touch meant to hurt her. "'m fine," she mumbles, wheezing a little. "Just need…need a cab." Walking home is not an option for her right now. She uncurls slowly, wincing, and just as slowly works up to her hands and knees. "Need a minute. Just a minute."
'Jesus, those fuckers" One of the women in the friendly group curses, getting a look at the defaced store while another carefully helps Melissa up. "You sure? We can call an ambulance" Cops will be here soon too if the alarm that has started to go off in the store is any indication.
The offenders have scattered, the bouncer coming back at a slower pace, digging a cellphone out of a pocket, likely to call the fellow business's owner. "They hurt you?" He can't see the mark on the side of her face that will blossom into a black eye and bruises along the side of her cheek. "She wants a cab" Cabs are expensive though, but they'll come. "Get her inside, the lot of you can wait in there in case the fuck faces come back"
Ambulance. If one came, would she know the person inside? The people? Melissa pushes that thought away and shakes her head, a hand gripping the shoulder of the person helping her stand. "I'll be fine. You ran 'em off before they could do much," she says, struggling to hide the fact that OMG it hurts, even with the alcohol fuzzing it up.
Doubtful, if the look on the bouncers face could be read. He's since his fair share of bar brawl injuries. "Get you a cab then" He concedes, the other bar goer's, two women and a guy helping Melissa back towards the bar so that she can can get the so called Taxi.
One of the women look over their shoulder towards the bouncer and the broken window. "You're lucky" She intones. "Store owner too. They coulda set off a bomb at that guy's store" They saw the HF sprayed all over the front of the building, they see the news. Mel would know this too…
It could have been much worse.