Participants:
| Scene Title | Use Your Words |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A friendly gathering gets a bit tense at an unexpected display of powers. |
| Date | March 9, 2018 |
Spring is in the air — at least, it's not freezing cold, which is good for those folks who have chosen to make their living out of doors. The empty lot next to the Red Hook Market isn't empty at the moment, but instead looks like a mix between an art show and a junk yard. A tarp has been laid upon the ground and there are strange sculptures made of metal odds and ends upon it. On a baby's blanket, a display of what jewelry — if one considers lug nuts and soda can tabs their personal aesthetic, that is.
Not trying to sell to any of the passersby, a tall, lanky bald man simply sits in a ratty lawn chair nearby reading a yellowed and dog-eared book. Beside him, a fluffy, brindle behemoth of a dog lies watching the world pass by. Beside her, a cardboard sign sits with the words will trade art for food & dog food.’
It may not be cold cold, but Eimi's still bundled up. The teenager slips through the sparse crowd uneventfully, and hugs her jacket tightly around her, her satchel underneath that, and there's a pause in her step when her eyes catch on the cardboard sign. Another pause, and her teeth tug at her lower lip, but she heads over there. Pauses a few steps away, and then pulls a sandwich wrapped in wax paper from her bag, murmuring, "Here," as she offers it over.
She's been hungry too. And recently, and although she may not have much, food at least she shares.
Brynn is becoming a familiar visitor to the market, though not because she purchases things. Instead it's because she is often found sitting in various out-of-the-way spots drawing. Drawing people, drawing the market, drawing whatever catches her eye. Today, because of the smaller crowds in the market, she's taken to doing something a little different. She's using chalks to make pictures on the ground on the paths outside leading to market for people to look at. For people looking at them, it is strangely reminiscent of Dick van Dyke in the old "Mary Poppins" movie, the way she's laying them out with a small bin at one end of the line of pictures. She sits, curled on one hip, as she draws on the most recent image with her left hand, chalks spread around her.
Warmer - in theory - but Iris Earhart is pretty much always in her bright blue jacket anyway, so it's questionable that she even notices to begin with. The way she whistles - some upbeat song she heard on a radio inside of the market. She's just finished her weekly trip, picking of food and ingrediants, or at least what she could give the clamor and demand for such things as of late. In her arms, though, she carries a dangerously tall stack of books. Unlike before, she has them seperated into two half tall stacks, held impossibly still in her arms as she barely peers over them. For once, she's learned from past mistakes.
Outside, she regards the art-and-junk collection with a wrinkled nose. But when she'd noticed this earlier, she hadn't seen the man or his sign - probably in her blind rush to pick up her March selections like she'd promised Anthony she would. Curiously, she starts her way towards the man and his sign, a bright smile on her face.
Another familiar face to the market, Silvia just seems to find areas to hang out in. Her own sketchbook is tucked under an arm, the girl stopping once in a while to sketch an interesting looking person or two before she moves on. As she makes her way along the road, she stops as she notices the man and his dog.
Several other people have noticed him, so Silvia doesn't approach, but she stands off to the side, sketching both dog and human alike, hurriedly trying to capture their essences on paper.
Cesar is "making the rounds", headed towards Red Hook with the intent to visit shopkeeps and vendor stalls, and to keep an eye out for trouble. Ever since the incidents of thievery and unrest, the agent has emerged to basically conduct interviews. That doesn't mean he can't have a moment of amusement or two though. It's at the tail end (or the head) of Brynn's chalk drawings that he starts, peering down at the pictures and following the path laid out. The man tips his hat to the artist, moving along and still looking down until he nearly collides with Iris and her stack of books. "Whoa there," he's quick to say as he sidesteps. Then, "Would you like some help with that?"
Coming out of the market with a cup of coffee held up to her lips — and obscuring her vision — Chess stops short as she almost walks into the drawing Brynn is currently working on, her booted feet going up on tip toe before she takes a step back before she steps on the artist's hands. She starts to apologize, before recognizing the younger woman from a prior run-in with her, and she waits until Brynn looks up to smirk and give a two-fingered wave.
When Arlo is offered the sandwich, he looks up with a smile. "Only in trade, little miss," the bald man says amiably, a southern drawl to his gentle baritone. "Anything you like." He doesn't accept the sandwich yet. The dog's tail thumps as she looks over at the sandwich — she certainly doesn't look like she's being underfed, even accounting for the fluffy layer of fur. Arlo looks to Iris then, with her personal stacks of books, and stands, perhaps to offer her help as well, but then Cesar is doing the same. The dog jumps to her feet when he does, tail wagging like she might get to go on a walk.
The insistence on trade is considered for a moment and then Eimi nods, bending down to pick up one of the small statue sculpture metal things, a small dog (probably) made out of bolts, and then when he takes the sandwich, the piece is put carefully into her bag. "Alright," she says. "'s not much, but…" A shrug, and Eimi looks from the man, to the dog, leaving her hand where the dog can sniff it, although she catches sight of both Sylvia and Brynn as she turns.
Each of them get a flicker of recognition, a half nod. And then, in her excitement, the teenager herself flickers once, then twice. The half an inch side to side teleportation is quick enough that anyone not looking at her wouldn't see her disappear for less than the time of a single blink.
Brynn pulls her hands back to make sure she is out of the way of getting stepped on just in case the shoes don't stop. When she looks up, it's to see Chess's face. And it's a somewhat familiar one, so the brunette teen smiles. Setting the chalk down on the ground, she waves and then pushes to her feet so she's not in the way, signing Sorry! Not that she expects anyone around her to know sign, but the expression should be enough to convey the thought.
"Oh! Um, I-" Iris looks around, blinking as not one but two men have stook up with the apparent aim of helping her out. "I can- handle it?" Which is true - running her ability through the pages, the covers, and dust jackets allows her to keep them well in grip, and this time she can see so she doesn't think she'll get surprised into droppping them.
But…
Well, the stacks make the offering she was going to give the man and his dog the much harder manage, so with a huff, she hangs her head in defeat and holds the stacks out, one to each. "Just, um- just for a moment, I-" She looks up towards Arlo, and then towards his dog. "I like art. I wanted to give something for some!"
Silvia notes Eimi, nodding in response to the half-nod in her direction. She offers a small wave, more of a wiggling of fingers in her direction before she shoves her sketchbook into the bag she has hanging cross-body over her shoulder. She slowly makes her way over in the groups general direction. She notes Iris as well, not quite waving at her for the moment due to the giant stacks of books she has. She'll get back to her.
Instead, Silvia notes a third person in her vision and this one she approaches. She heads in Brynn's direction, making sure to make herself visible so that Brynn will have a chance to catch the movement of her lips when she talks. "Hi Brynn!"
Cesar levels an evaluating glance around the books to Iris, but if she says she can handle them, he'll believe it. Especially as Arlo stands, and. Well. "Holy sh… man, where you from and who do you play for?" The agent's fairly sizable too, but the other man has nearly a hand of height over. But the comment is lighthearted and just that, a comment. He's looks like he's about to say more, but then the dog is up too, and well. Cesar reaches over to pet her too. She's just so fluffy. "This your stash, man?" And given that he's distracted, he misses the slight flicker from Eimi in that briefest of blinks.
The sandwich is accepted, and Arlo gives a nod to Eimi. "Much obliged, miss. If it's your only meal, though you can have the dog anyway, if you like it, and you can keep your food. I don't want to take the sustenance from someone who needs it more than me or Friday." Because Eimi is a tiny thing, and Arlo is thin, but a grown man who isn't starving.
Much.
He holds it a little uncertainly, while the dog moves toward Eimi's welcoming hand, licking it and offering her head for pets and scritches. She clearly isn't a skittish thing.
The stack of books is accepted, despite Iris' protest, and Arlo smiles. "If you don't have food, I'll take a book, if you like. Art may be a generous term but 'strange sculptural repurposed knick-knacks' is a little long for the bit of cardboard I have, you see," he says amiably, before grinning in Cesar's direction. "Long time ago, I played for Mason University."
By Brynn, Chess nods, and taps herself on the chest. "My fault," she says, before nodding to the chalk drawing. "Very pretty." She keeps her phrases short. She glances at the others who wave at Brynn. "You found some friends. You find a place to stay?"
Eimi giggles and crouches to pet the dog, and looks up at Arlo. "It's not," she says, "just… what I packed to come out here today." She shakes her head, and continues, not quite flatly, "Have the sandwich." Both petting the dog puts her close enough to Cesar, and she nearly bumps into the SESA agent as she stands, and she stumbles half a step backwards and then there's another moment of a blink and she's… gone. Well. More precisely, she's all the way across the empty lot, still stumbling half a step backwards.
Once she's ganied her feet, Brynn automatically shoulders her backpack. It's a familiar weight and she keeps it close. Her smile at Chess is a little shy at the compliment, but she rummages in her pack's front pocket for a notebook and pen, scrawling Thank you! She has to turn and look at who Chess is pointing to, waving at both of the other teenagers, then she returns to the small notebook and jots down, I found my brother, yes, thank you! He already has a place, so I'm staying with him right now. She tilts her head, shifting so she can keep her acquaintances and the strangers in view — Arlo and Cesar are freakin' HUGE now that they're both standing there and the petite girl looks a little non-plussed just by the sheer size of them. And fascinated, because the lines in Arlo's face give him a gentle demeanor that she likes very much. She was planning on waving Eimi over to her and then the other irl teleports!
Biting her lip, her gray eyes go wide. No, no, no! Brynn frantically waves Eimi over to her. C'mere, c'mere, c'mere!
Iris thins her lips at the mention of exchanging books for art. "Well, books are art," she offers. "Word art!" She beams. "And you can't exchange art for art." Well, you probably can, but that's clearly not something that interests Iris. She offers a look to the dog and a smile, reaching into the bag now that her hands aren't full.
She gets a homemade load of french twist bread out before she sees Eimi teleport, and eyes wide, just drops it back into the bag.
Silvia was about to speak further, but her attention is drawn from Brynn over to Eimi… to where Eimi was, that is. Oh dear. And as she looks around, there's Eimi again. Whoa, she teleported more often than Silvia sanded. She studies Eimi, unsure of what she could do to help, so she just joins Brynn in beckoning Eimi close.
"Yeah if I didn't know better, I'd say you could hold your own with the Knicks," Cesar says with a chuckle. But as he's checking out the art, Eimi nearly stumbles back right into him - but doesn't. The sudden jump is a surprise, to which the man utters a quick "hijole!" and stares around for acknowledgment from everybody else. Did everybody just see that? They did see that. And then he's looking for just where Eimi went. Once he does find her, the man excuses himself and starts walking over towards the girl.
Eimi's disappearance and Cesar's moving toward her makes Arlo frown, his brow furrowing with the lines of worry. The sandwich is pocketed and he brings his hands up and over the smooth skin of his scalp as he glances from man to girl and back. "Leave her alone, you're making her nervous, I think," he murmurs. He looks over at where Brynn is waving and then to Iris dropping the bread back in the bag.
Friday barks, a low whoof, then nudges Arlo's leg until his hand drops down to pet her head.
"Oh, good. I'm glad," Chess says to Brynn, after reading the notebook; her eyes follow Brynn's to where Eimi is now several feet away from where Eimi just was, and she tilts her head. Her eyes narrow on Cesar walking toward her. "Yo, you a fed? Leave her alone," she calls.
As she regains her footing (and her bearings, there's a frown that etches onto Eimi's face for a moment. But then Brynn is waving her over, and then Brynn and Silvia are both waving her over and then suddenly she's in front of them. It's easily twenty feet from where she'd been in less than a second. A slight breeze of air follows the teleporter's displacement, and she glances from them to where she was, from where she was back to Arlo and the dog, and then back to Brynn. "What?" is the simple question asked of the other girl. Cesar's following after her isn't quite pieced together as of yet.
Biting her lip, not sure what the adults around them are calling out, Brynn's anxiety levels ratchet higher. Especially when Cesar starts walking toward the other teen. She eases nearer to Silvia, clearly worried, gray eyes flickering back and forth. Relief colors her expression when Eimi does what she and Silvia were urging, and she steps forward in front of the other wo girls as if she's protecting them from whoever is coming their direction. Chess, just by virtue of being right next to her, also winds up sort of behind her, though Iris isn't because she's standing near Arlo and the dog.
Looking down at the notebook in her hands, Brynn scribbles out rapidly, Don't know who he is. He seems worried, though. If anything happens, go to Aunt Eve or Aunt Gillian. The teen doesn't care if Eimi disappears on her — she has papers. But she shows the note to Eimi as she watches Cesar turn to try to figure out where the teenaged teleporter vanished to this time.
There's a lot of 'wtf is going on' happening at the moment for many people. For Silvia what she's focused on is that there may be a situation in which someone is scaring someone else. She doesn't know what other than that there's some guy that got awfully interested when Eimi teleported. She peers down at what Brynn write, then nods her agreement. "What she said. Just be careful." It seems like Silvia can't do much but just wait to ssee how this pans out.
Steady on, Cesar. He doesn't get very far in steps towards Eimi because the teleporter's in one place and then the next. No matter how many times the man witnesses some Evolved ability, it's something akin to sheer magic. And deep down, strange. He fights the frown that comes up as the people around voice their concerns. He turns to look back over his shoulder at the big man, Arlo, but it's Chess' calling out that gets Cesar's true attention. The man folds his arms across his chest, eyeing the grouping. "I was seeing if she was alright," he says, loudly enough that he can be heard, "Uncontrolled abilities could cause some… confusion." That's what they'll call it. And well, he might sound like an authority figure a little. It's hard to shake that habit.
Arlo doesn't move, one hand on the back of his head, the other petting the dog's head. Otherwise, he's like a tall, lanky statue, standing where he is in the midst of his junkyard art. Aside from his hand scritching Friday's ears, his eyes are all that move, glancing from one person to the next.
Suddenly, each of them get an image in their heads: a lonely beach in what seems to be winter; the beach itself not made of sand, but rocks, smooth and worn and rounded by the water. The water is peaceful, a cool blue, slowly lapping at the shore slowly and gently. There's the sound of a sea gull somewhere in the distance.
And then it's gone.
Chess, finding herself behind the younger girl, steps back around her, where she can keep her eyes on Cesar — on everyone, really. "Relax, kid," she tells Eimi. "You need to run, I can distract him." Of course, she can teleport and not run, but the offer's there, anyway.
Louder, she calls to Cesar, "Use your words next time, yeah? Don't go charging after kids."
Eimi's eyes flick over the page, and she blinks a few times. "Eve or Gillian," she says, shaking her head a moment. She's calmer than the other teens, and takes a half-step to the side so she can side-eye Cesar. It verges on a glare from the teenager but it's not long-lived. The image and the peacefulness of it interrupts the glaring, before then Eimi calls back out, matching Cesar's volume, "I'm fine," but the words are flat, uninflected, and nearly emotionless, followed by, "and I know my ability just fine so you must be the one confused." There's a pause, and she shakes her head and glances towards Silvia and Brynn, offering her friends a faint smile. And Eimi pulls her hands from her pockets, sets them at her sides, positions herself in between Silvia and Brynn with the silent offer that if they want to get out of here whenever she does.
Brynn notes Chess's movement out of the corner of her eye and sidles further out of the adult's way, conveniently enough a bit closer to Eimi — the silent offer is understood even without overt communication. She still isn't following most of what's happening. Shoving the notebook back into her pocket, she sucks in a startled breath as the mental image hits her. It's… beautiful! And although she has no idea of the source of it, she's grateful that someone is attempting to at least let them know that things are okay. Still… she's more than a little worried. She seems about to bolt herself, a faint frown furrowing her brow.
This feels like a Mexican standoff. Silvia moves her hand down, ready to grab Eimi's if things go sour. Really, she's focusing on not turning into a pile of sand and shifting into a crack and so far she's doing a great job. She looks between Eimi and Cesar, waiting for there to be a move. Someone has to break.
There's a few seconds of tense facedowns, the agent unwittingly perhaps making the situation worse with the sense of stubborn will pushing back against the skittish band of pseudo-sisters. He looks from one face to the next, as if committing them to memory, and is about to say something else before there's that beachside projection right into where it jars him right out of it. In a way, it does take the wind right out of the agent's sails, leaving him adrift and actually confused for that moment. His arms uncross and he looks around again for the source, but that's unlikely to just show up and present itself to him (little does he know). So the man concedes, hands lifting placatingly. "Alright. Alright, you got it. You're in control." He's the one backing up then, and once he's at a more polite range of distance, he turns and starts to head away from the market lot. "Enjoy the rest of your day, ladies and gentleman."
Arlo sinks back down into his lawn chair once Cesar moves away, and Friday lies down across his feet, tail wagging a few times, thumping against the plastic tarp. He exhales, and takes out the sandwich that was tucked into his shirt pocket, peeling it open to take a bit of sandwich meat to offer the dog, who slurps it up happily.
When Cesar speaks, Chess gives him a exaggerated and campy thumbs up, with a cheeky smile, as if praising him for finding 'his words.'
She turns to the little gaggle of teenage girls that have suddenly all clustered around her. "Peace out, kids," she says, and begins to move in the same direction as Cesar, though definitely at a distance.
It's not a bad view, really.
Eimi lets out a breath, and shakes her head and squints her eyes shut for a moment once Cesar leaves. But it's a nice evening outside, and now she can spend it with her friends instead of yelling at weird strangers.
"C'mon," she says to Brynn, and to Silvia, taking their hands in hers and leading towards away from the market, once Brynn has the last bits of her things gathered. "That was weird," she says. "But there's a great rooftop nearby. Let's go over there." It's a few steps towards the crowd, and then Eimi adds, "Take a breath," and then all three of them disappear.