Participants:
Scene Title | Let's Burn a Bum! |
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Synopsis | Angelina with her friends Hayden, Kristen and Sophia go shopping! Then they try to steal and burn a bum! Mortimer and Jack try to save the day, with mostly success. Hokuto has a lot of teaching to do. |
Date | December 22 2009 |
Dreamland!
Once Angelina has drifted off for the night, she's greeted with the sunshine of a warm afternoon, and by virtue of this being a dream, no one questions the fact that she's walking down the street with three friends: Kristen, Sophia and Hayden, all wearing the latest in posh fashion, snickering and chatting about guys, TV, celebrities, typical rich girl stuff who don't have much else to worry about.
They're best friends, she simply knows this as they head into a swanky D&B store, and despite being able to afford it, the girls start slipping things into Angelina's purse, simply telling her to shush. "Come on, it'll be fun!"
Walking up to them, apparently having not seen the slipping of clothing is a six foot one man around their age with stubble around his face, wearing a newsboy hat that hides his eyes and contrasts with his suit. "Can I help you girls?" he asks in a casual fashion, smiling slyly.
Being a pickpocket when she's awake, Angelina doesn't so much as bat a lash at having her purse filled with pilfered goods. She's enjoying it. She does pause though when they're approached, looking him over and glancing to her friends, before she shrugs. "No? We're just lookin' around. Don't need help with that."
"Are you sure?" The man asks, before shaking his head and walking away. Then a different man approaches when the first is out of sight, moving to grab her purse from behind, causing the stolen goods to spill. The other girls gasp, backing up a bit. "What did you do?" they ask in surprise, then start dashing to the door, shoving it open and making a clear turn to the left. Angelina can still run, he's only holding the purse, not her arm. "Don't worry, you can explain it all when the police get here."
Angelina jerks, trying to get her purse before it spills, then she looks down at them in disgust, then to her friends. She looks back to the man and shakes her head. "Fuck that," she says before she darts off towards the doors.
She can hear the snickering of her friends coming from an alley, and one of them peeks out, Sophia, the brunette, motioning for Angelina to come over. "Sorry we ditched you! But we found something fun, come on!"
Angelina looks supremely pissed at her friends, shaking her head. "That was seriously fucked up. You ever ditch me again for something you guys did, and we're done," she says, heading over to see what they found.
The two blondes, Hayden and Kristen, are holding some young blind bum's collection can, pocketing his money as they dodge the tall man's attempts to get the money back, his face obscured by the long dirty hood of his raincoat. "Aw come on, what do /you/ need money for?" they ask, beginning to taunt the man, shoving them with their feet back and forward. "Ew, he's getting our shoes dirty. He owes us now… Doesn't he owe us, Angelina?" Sophia's standing at the entrance of the alley, and the other two are blocking the other exit. Suddenly things appear to be getting weird again.
Angelina stops and watches for a moment, gaping. She closes her eyes and shakes her head, then opens them, fixing them on the blondes. "Give it back," she says, sounding angry again, offended almost.
"Why?" Sophia asks, arms crossed as she gives Angelina an almost appalled look. "We have money, he's just a little… rat. If we take this little bit from him, it won't make a difference." Meanwhile the other two are continuing to shove him back and forward, throwing the can to the ground as they get rougher. "Maybe we should burn him." Kristen suggests almost gleefully.
Angelina stalks over to the blondes, and she gives the closest one a shove. "Leave him alone. You burn him, and I swear I'll make you suffer more than your rich ass has ever suffered before," she threatens in a low, cold voice.
"We're your friends." Hayden pleads when Kristen gets shoved into a wall, all of them constantly smiling. "If you don't do what we want, who else are you gonna depend on?" But then that men, the first man from the store, the one who didn't see her stealing, newsboy hat still obscuring the view of his eyes as he straightens his suit. "I don't know, there's better friends out there. Who needs a bunch of stuck up whores?" he asks with a grin, not exactly something a man from an upper class store says.
Angelina tries to pin Kristen against the wall, to keep her away from the bum, and she looks at Hayden with something close to hatred in her eyes. "You left me to get nabbed by the cops. You're no friend. I'll depend on myself, just like I always have." She glances towards the man, eyes narrowing. "Who asked you? And who the fuck /are/ you?"
"You don't have to depend on yourself, depending on yourself blows, I should know. And I'm here to save you from that bastard." He thumbs at Sophia, whose eyes are suddenly, well, eyeless, deep dark black holes.
Sophia grins, shaking her head as she approaches Angelina, Hayden still shaking the bum around. "You should depend on yourself! People like us don't need you, we have friends, we think alike! No one's gonna relate to a freak like you! They all say they do, they pretend they do, but they only keep you around long enough to kill time before their real friends come."
"You kidding me with that bullshit, right?" says the voice of the bum, a sword suddenly sticking through the jacket and through Hayden's skull. "We're all freaks, no one's in sync. You've gotta depend on someone, just, when they backstab you, you cut their head off before you bleed to death." The bum and the man in the suit sound the same, though with different attitudes, both with their eyes obscured.
Angelina jumps and releases Kristen, pressing back against the wall. "Holy shit…You killed her. Fuck…fuck man, why'd you do that?" She shakes her head, edging away from the bum and the suit, eyeing them both warily. "What the fuck are you talking about? Are you seriously disturbed?"
"You're dreaming. That guy," the man in the suit raises a finger to point to Sophia. "Is trying to mess with your head. He's trying to isolate you so you'll hurt people. He'll break your mind into pieces until he can manipulate you."
Sophia shakes her head, deep black eyes gazing at Angelina as she shrugs dismissively. "They don't know what they're talking about, you can't trust them, you can't trust anyone. You can barely trust yourself. No one will ever offer you true friendship or anything else, you're just a rat from the street."
"Hey, I've been a rat from the street for seven years, and I'm doing pretty alright." says the bum who kicks the corpse of Kristen from his sword. "Alright, so maybe you can't trust me, but you can trust the guy in the suit, he's the reasonable one. We're gonna save you from the prick who suddenly has tits now. You've gotta wake up, it's dangerous to be in his dreams, he'll feed on your weaknesses."
Angelina shakes her head as she looks between all three of them, still creeping away. "Nuh uh. I'm not trusting /any/ of you. You're all fucked up. What the fuck are you guys on? Because lemme tell ya, you need to lay off of it."
"No, seriously, you are in a dream, you need to wake up!" the suited man repeats, though doesn't walk any closer, not wanting to cause even more alarm.
"How can you believe them over me? He killed Hayden!" Sophia pleads, just as Kristen runs over to Hayden's body, dropping to her knees. "This is just proof that if anyone, you should trust yourself! Even if it means yourself wants everyone dead."
"Alrght, enough of this back and forward bullshit." the bum tosses his sword to Angelina's feet, then nods over to Kristen. "You're dreaming, this shit isn't real, they're not gonna die 'cause they're just in your head. We're here to help you, this guy is going into people's dreams and screwing them up! Cut the bitch's head off and just trust us."
Angelina stops and looks between the men and Sophia. "Why should I trust /any/ of you? I don't know you two," she says, motioning to the suit and the bum. "I don't know you, I know /her/," she says, nodding to Sophia. "And I don't kill people. I don't hang with people who /do/ kill people."
"You don't know her because this isn't real. Think about it, look at her eyes." Mortimer points to Sophia, whose eyes have become deep black holes. "You can't see our eyes either. It's weird dream shit. None of it makes sense. Why is a guy from a store on fifth avenue, which doesn't even exist anymore, standing in the middle of an alley, who sounds exactly like a bum who was just being pushed around. And think about your past, can you remember anything?"
"This makes perfect sense, we're friends, we've known eachother for… years! You know that, I know it, but we don't know them! You can't trust them, don't kill her, don't kill your friend!" She seems to almost use their words to sow more confusion and distrust, finally beginning to approach Angelina. "Come on, let's go to the movies, we'll leave these freaks behind."
The bum finally starts approaching Sophia, apparently sick of waiting, then reaches out to grab her and gets promptly punched right into a wall, his clothing now a grey buttoned up trenchcoat with fairly short brown hair that /still/ covers his eyes, and the stubble around his chin shows he looks nearly identical to the man in the suit. "Fuck, the hot Asian chick was right, we can't kill him in someone else's dream."
Angelina points at Sophia when she starts towards her. "You stay back. I don't trust /any/ of you. Any of you come near me and I'll kick some ass. I mean it. If this is a dream, and okay, there's good evidence for it, I just want to wake up and get away from you freaks. I've had enough weird shit in my dreams to last me a lifetime."
"You've gotta fight the dream then, you've gotta drive the message home that this is a dream, and you don't give a damn what this Nightmare Man is trying to say to you! Cut her head off!" He doesn't specify which her, just her.
"This isn't a dream, it's real, we're friends, we shop and watch TV and talk about our dates! If anything, you should kill that bum, that dirty stinking bum!" Sophia sounds furious now, with a hint of desperation, dramatically pointing at the bum.
"Fuck, wouldn't be the first time I've been stabbed." the bum says with a shrug, slowly starting to stand with a groan. Smashing into a wall hurts. "When the fucker was in our nightmare, we cut his freakin' head off."
Angelina slaps her hands over her ears. "Stop it! Just stop it, all of you! I'm not listenign to anything any of you have to say!" she says, starting to walk away quickly.
She'll find the streets grow darker the further she walks away, Kristen and Sophia tailing her, talking the entire time. "You can try to trust us, we're just saying you don't mean as much to us as we mean to eachother. You're a street rat. You have money, but you're still not us, you're used up garbage."
"Don't listen to them!" The two voices, the bum and the suited man, they seem to grow fainter as her friends' words become more hurtful. "Wake up! You have to wake up! The things they say don't mean anything! You have to trust us!"
"A leap of faith!"
Suddenly, everything goes white, it's all pure nothingness, simply Angelina standing in an endless void. "Now it's just you, no one else to have to trust, no more faith to be crushed, you're the last person. Can you trust the last person?" a disembodied voice echos in a whisper at her ear.
But off in the distance, she can hear some sort of knocking, a very faint knocking, it's the only sound left in this voice, the sound creating the only sense of direction.
Angelina tenses and looks around, wild fear in her eyes. "Stop it. Stop it, dammit. I won't do this anymore. I want to wake up." She pinches her arm viciously, deliberately /not/ looking towards the knocking.
This nightmare is horrible, this nightmare doesn't seem to want to let go. There are no more voices, she's left completely alone, there's only the faint knocking, and white, everywhere. Maybe she's finally dead.
Angelina looks everywhere but at the sound for several minutes. Or is it hours? Days? Who can tell when there's just white everywhere. Finally, wearily, she moves towards the knocking.
The knocking grows louder as she approaches, but under the knocking she can hear a faint voice from the same area. "Wake up! We can get you out of here! We might die too, you can't give up!"
Suddenly that echoing whisper in her ear returns, almost angelic. "You can't trust that voice, stay here, alone, it's what you want, you can't leave. Where would you go? Who would you go with? Everyone will use and stab you in the back, you have no worth to anyone."
Angelina closes her eyes, draws in a deep breath, then continues moving for the knocking. If she has to pick someone, it's not going to be the voice saying she's worthless.
"You can't trust them, you know you can't! You remember what's happened the last few times you've trusted someone, you know what'll happen! They'll hurt you! It's all you can expect!" the whispering voice continues to grow in desperation the closer she gets to the knocking, and suddenly a fist punches up through the white void, glass shattering as a gloved hand reaches out to her.
"Come on, hurry up, we can't let him through! Just trust us, trust us and take my hand!"
"Shut up!" Angelina screams, before she grabs impulsively at the hand, to grip it firmly.
The hand is pulled hard, pulling her through the floor and into an intensely white light. When her eyes open again, she's laying on a therapist's couch, New York snowing outside of the room. They're clearly still dreaming, and there are mirrors hovering around the small room. There are two men, both the same height, though they wear different styles. One, Mortimer is in a casual black unbuttoned suit jacket, with a buttoned up light-blue denim shirt, some blue jeans, and a pair of black boots. The other is in a long grey trenchcoat buttoned down the middle, with the same jeans and boots.
"I think we fucked up." Mortmer says with a sigh, looking her over. "Shouldn't she… feel better? Do you feel better? You're out of your dream, this is Hokuto's I think."
Mortimer, who's basically the other's twin, more or less, takes a seat in the comfortable chair near the couch, and Jack just stands, arms crossed. "The Nightmare Man is trying to manipulate people, take advantage of their weaknesses, and do… something. We're not sure on that part yet. We're helping Hokuto save people from him. You could probably help too, if you wanted. We're helping her 'cause she saved our lives."
Angelina shakes her head and rises to her feet, starting to pace. "Nuh uh. I just want to wake. I want to not have these dreams anymore."
Jack's head turns from side to side, watching her pace, almost seeming a bit dizzy at times. "That's why we're trying to stop the Nightmare Man. Well, I'm trying to stop him 'cause I'm gonna get in Hokuto's pants, but he wants to stop him 'cause the guy's bad." With the mention of 'he', there's a nod over to Mortimer.
"Right, you've gotta trust us, we can protect him from you, and you'll be fine. Don't let that crap in your dreams get to you, you have to overcome it. But I saw where you were coming from in there, I'm in a situation like yours while I'm awake. I've got a place on Staten, but I don't have shit for money." He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, writing a number down, then holds it up to her. "Remember this number and write it down when you wake up. We can talk in real life. I'm still trying to find Hokuto, but I've only met her in dreams."
Angelina looks back, sneering a little. "If you've got a place then your situation isn't like mine. I'd love to have a place." She looks at the paper, rolling her eyes. "This is too fucking weird. And I'm not helping you bang some chick who may not even exist."
"I have a place, he doesn't have shit." Jack is quick to correct, not exactly appreciating Mortimer laying claim to his things.
"Anyway," Mortimer dismisses Jack's words, waving a hand. "We're not asking you to help, it's too dangerous, but, you just seem like you have it hard. Hell, everyone thinks we're dead, my ex was kidnapped and tortured by a serial killer, and now she probably hates me because of him." nodding to Jack. "My place is underground, locked up pretty tight. His people hang out there a lot, they're who paid for it. If you need a place to sleep or just wanna talk, just give us a call. You should be waking up at any moment, but we've gotta get going to another dream. So, I'll see you around."
Angelina glances between the two of them before she shakes her head. "You're fucking nuts. I've got to be fucking nuts for even considering listening to either of you. But have fun or whatever playing with the other guy."
"Technically I'm the one who's nuts," Jack points out, heading for one of the mirrors. "He's just a figment of my imagination manifesting itself as disassociative personality disorder because of deep-seeded guilt and our father being an insane psychologist." That said, quite casually, he jumps into the mirror.
Mortimer shakes his head, walking right after Jack. "Forget him, just remember my offer, alright?" He smiles, then heads into the mirror right after Jack. The mirror seems to be some sort of garden party, a different scenario just like the other mirrors. Then, after a few moments, she'll finally find herself awakening.
Angelina waves a hand absently, dismissively. "Yeah, whatever," she mutters before she tries pinching herself again. "This is fucking nuts," she manages to sigh out before her mind finally jerks her awake.