Car Rides And Jungle Gyms

5:45 PM <Nonagon|Stray> Clarissa coughs, a little one, the taste of vomit still lingering in her mouth. She needs to get some water. "Do you..." she coughs again, "do you know what that girl was talking about? Either of you?" ||
5:48 PM <apoc|Runaway> Will shakes his head mutely from the back seat. "I, uh, I've got no fucking clue what the hell she was talking about. She just kept screaming and shit until I... you know." He fidgets slightly. "Uh, punched her."
5:48 PM <apoc|Runaway> Well, he guessed the PRT thing was sorta true? I mean, they were ca- err, parahumans, he guessed. Did that mean the PRT was chasing them? ||
5:56 PM <Pink|DM> ||
5:57 PM <Nonagon|Stray> "And you?" Clarissa asks, glancing out the corner of her eye at the girl. "Do you know anything about her?" ||
5:58 PM <Pink|DM> Gabrielle tenses from the passenger seat, shrinking back as if she could squeeze through the window and escape. Which is kind of funny, since Clarissa actually COULD do that. "She was crazy?"||
6:00 PM <apoc|Runaway> ||
6:05 PM <Nonagon|Stray> "Hmm," Clarissa grunts out, her eyes on the road. The fingers on her left hand thrum on the steering wheel. She coughs again. It doesn't make sense. One of them could be lying... her lips purse. Finally, she decides to let it go. She's not really going to get anywhere anyway. "Okay. Fine. Whatever." She focuses on the task of driving. ||
6:07 PM <Pink|DM> They pass through an abruptly different neighborhood with no particular warning- but on these couple of streets, there is a sudden upsurge of signage in different languages- and a noticeably different, mostly asian demographic. And then they are through it and it is like a switch had been flipped, a subtle but very clear delineation. "Um." says Gabrielle after a bit. "I can... pay a bit more. ...
6:07 PM <Pink|DM> ... for your car. But not a lot."||
6:10 PM <apoc|Runaway> Will almost winces. She really shouldn't do that... they had already agreed on the price and they were going to be staying in a homeless shelter for god's sake, they needed every dollar they had. But he couldn't just tell her that now that she had offered... Dammit.||
6:13 PM <Nonagon|Stray> "Okay," Clarissa says. Her car's kind of a mess anyway, so it doesn't really matter, but she's not going to turn down money. "Thank you," she adds, after a long moment. She keeps an eye out; she doesn't really recognize this neighborhood. ||
6:15 PM <Nonagon|Stray> ((did my post appear?))
6:15 PM <apoc|Runaway> ((yes))
6:16 PM <Pink|DM> Well, on the bright side, at least Gabrielle didn't just blurt out their secret, but... yeah, bad call there. >>
6:22 PM <Nonagon|Stray> ((||?))
6:23 PM <Pink|DM> ((>> means you can post))
6:24 PM <Nonagon|Stray> ((...how is that different from ||?))
6:27 PM <Pink|DM> (more might be posted but it won't interfere with actions)
6:28 PM <apoc|Runaway> "So uh," Will frantically searches for something to talk about aside from the "being attacked by a pre-teen" cape thing. "You're... Are you from Detroit? We're no, uh, I think we already said that." He finished lamely.||
6:30 PM ↔ rycander popped in  •  Gundor → Gundor|Freon
6:36 PM <Pink|DM> Gabrielle twists aroudn in her seat to eye Will.||
6:39 PM <Nonagon|Stray> "Yeah," Clarissa says, her voice quiet, depressed. "Well. I'm not from Detroit originally, but I've lived here for a while. Moved for work," the word is emphasized oddly, drawn out just a little too long, "never moved back." ||
6:40 PM <Pink|DM> The girl looks up. "...Work?" She bites her lip, glancing around the car again.||
6:41 PM <Nonagon|Stray> "I quit. Hated it." ||
6:48 PM <apoc|Runaway> Uh, awkward. Will never had a job. Or moved or anything. Uh... Should he ask how old she wa- no that was a horrible idea. And she might as then how old they were and- yeah. No.
6:48 PM <apoc|Runaway> "Uh, where were you from before?" Will asks hesitantly. It was that or weird, awkward silence.||
6:49 PM <Pink|DM> Crossing the Freeway, Clarissa turns onto the service road. Gabrielle struggles with her window, attempting to lower it. Guess that's one more thing needing fixing.||
6:56 PM <Nonagon|Stray> "Albany," Clarissa says. "You?" ||
7:00 PM <apoc|Runaway> Shit shit shit. "Cleveland." He says the first thing that comes to mind. Fuck should he have... Too late to tell the truth now. ||
7:00 PM <Pink|DM> Subterfuge roll.
7:18 PM <Pink|DM> Yeah, he's pretty amazingly from Cleveland all right, despite having nothing like an Ohio accent.
7:18 PM <Pink|DM> ||
7:22 PM <Nonagon|Stray> Clarissa takes a long internal breath. If the kid wants to talk about meaningless shit... "What brings you to Detroit, Will?" ||
7:24 PM <Pink|DM> Gabrielle tenses up. "...we almost there?"||
7:25 PM <apoc|Runaway> Will's teeth clench reflexively as he stifles a jolt of panic. "Uh, yeah, I think we should almost be there." He responds to Gabrielle, grateful for the distraction. ||
7:28 PM <Nonagon|Stray> Clarissa's not dumb enough to miss that signal. Touchy subject. "We should be there in about-" she coughs, violently, hacking hard. She almost loses control of the vehicle before it settles down. Fuck. "Soon, yeah." ||
7:31 PM <apoc|Runaway> "Err..." Will glances at Gabrielle in the front seat, unsure of how to handle Clarissa's obvious racking coughs. At least she hand't pushed or anything but... "Uh, you alright?" He asks cautiously. "You need to go to a hospital or something?" ||
7:34 PM <Nonagon|Stray> "Fine," Clarissa says, licking her dry lips. "A bug. It'll pass on its own." ||
7:35 PM <Pink|DM> "Uh, sh... uh." Gabrielle straigthens, picking at her skirt. "You should, I mean, you look... Maybe you could come in with us... get some rest."
7:35 PM <Pink|DM> She glances back to Will, as if for support.||
7:40 PM <apoc|Runaway> That... that wasn't the plan. At all. Hell it might already be heard enough for him and Gabrielle to stay together, especially if she can get a spot at a women's shelter and...
7:40 PM <apoc|Runaway> That might actually be better... Maybe...
7:40 PM <apoc|Runaway> "Uh, yeah you know, you could, uh, stay at the shelter too, if you don't have anywhere else to stay, you know?" And she looks like she doesn't from the state of her car and, well, her as a whole. "Even if its just for a few days." Will shrugs. ||
7:48 PM Brood → Brood|zzz
7:58 PM <Nonagon|Stray> Clarissa glances at Will in the rear view mirror, suppressing the heavy urge to slither through the door. This is her car, she reminds herself. "I don't really want to be near a bunch of people right now," she says, trailing off, her shoulders rising defensively. Even after everything, standing up for herself this little bit is still stressful. ||
8:03 PM soulpelt| → soulpelt|sleep
8:05 PM <apoc|Runaway> "Uh, alright." Guess he should've expected that. Will glances at Gabrielle to see if she wants to push the point a bit. Sure it'd be better if Gabrielle had someone else to stay with here but Clarissa clearly didn't want to. If Gabrielle was really worried though...||
8:11 PM <Pink|DM> Gabrielle meets his eyes, does that little 'head shake towards Clarissa' thing. She... doesn't seem like she's gonna speak up though.||
8:27 PM <apoc|Runaway> Goddammit. "Uh, are you sure though?" He tries again. "Sorry its, just that, well, you two could stay at a women's shelter together right?"  He says quickly. "And I, uh, couldn't. So maybe you guys could like, stick together? I can do fine, on my own I mean, but it'd be safer if, you know, you guys could stick together there."
8:27 PM <apoc|Runaway> He sounds uncertain even to himself, but at least the idea has some merit, even he can admit.||
8:29 PM ⇐ AceOfSpade quit (540789a9@dlp-66E2EF72.mibbit.com) Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client
8:36 PM <Pink|DM> "Look, I said you can pretend to be my brother or something... they can't just kick you out!" Well, they can, but Gabrielle is... apparently unwilling to accept that. "You can't leave me alone in there, what if... that girl comes back?"||
8:40 PM <Nonagon|Stray> Clarissa's left leg bounces in place, her right foot still on the accelerator. Arguing isn't exactly her strong suit; it makes her anxious. She swallows. "F-fine," she mumbles out. Mentally, she's kicking herself, but folding under pressure is a very old pattern and she definitely doesn't have the mental energy to fight it right now. "I'll go." Maybe she can sneak out later. ||
8:42 PM <Pink|DM> Clarissa turns off into the small parking lot... this looks like the place. Wedged between two churches and what seems to be a private school, it is an unassuming plain building.||
8:44 PM → Teruzi and Nonagon|_ joined
8:46 PM <apoc|Runaway> "Alright." Will blows a out a short breath of air. "Thanks." He mutters guiltily. "A lot."||
8:47 PM ⇐ Nonagon|Stray quit  •  Nonagon|_ → Nonagon|Stray
8:53 PM <Nonagon|Stray> "It's nothing," Clarissa says, though her body language doesn't do much to disguise her feelings. She collects her computer - she's not leaving it alone in the car, not with a bunch of homeless people around - and turns off the vehicle, ready to head inside. ||
9:23 PM <Pink|DM> It is good, for Will at least, that Clarissa aquiesced- they do turn him away, though he can of course come back to visit... he's really going to need to get them some new phones to keep in touch, though. It does leave him in a bit of a bind, though... What to do now?||
9:23 PM Nonagon|Stray → Nonagon|Sleep
9:36 PM <apoc|Runaway> Dammit. It wasn't anything he hadn't seen coming, but still... damn. What to do now... alone, in an unfamiliar city, with nothing more than the clothes on his back and a few hundred bucks...
9:36 PM <apoc|Runaway> And his power.
9:36 PM <apoc|Runaway> Speaking of which, what the hell did that do? It... stopped him from sweating apparently? Right maybe that could help if he had to sleep on a bench or something... What else though? There had been /something/ when that girl kicked him in the knee... and something weird too when he punched her in the face...
9:36 PM <apoc|Runaway> Alright then, he'd have to figure something out about how it worked. Gabrielle didn't want to use hers at all, but, well, as much as he wanted to agree with her, powers would be the easiest way to get by...
9:36 PM <apoc|Runaway> Will nodded to himself a bit, his mind made up, and headed in the general direction of the center of the city. He kept his eyes peeled for an alley or someplace secluded that he use to... test his power? Yeah, guess that was what he was doing.||
10:04 PM <Pink|DM> It's a pretty open area- low buildings, several empty lots. Not really built up enough to really have much in the way of 'alleys' the way he'd think of them. Some actual FIELDS, which he hadn't expected. As he heads down Selden street, he passes a couple burned out buildings- they look fairly recent.
10:04 PM <Pink|DM> ||
10:08 PM <apoc|Runaway> Will glances at the burnt buildings with a bit of concern... but with a bit of relief too. Maybe he can test his power out in there?
10:08 PM <apoc|Runaway> He glances up to street to make sure no one is watching him, and then heads towards them, wondering what could've caused them to burn down.||
10:18 PM <Pink|DM> One of the buildings, shaped rather like a barn with the curved roof, is still mostly intact, though the door is boarded up and the porch missing most of the boards. There isn't any particular sign of what started the fire, but it was probably weeks or even a month ago. A little exploration yields an open window hole, though, just above head height, and it is almost trivial to get up there- in ...
10:18 PM <Pink|DM> ... fact, it is almost TOO easy.
10:21 PM <Pink|DM> Inside, the floor promptly gives way... and he is safely on firm footing before he even quite consciously realizes what happened. That was... huh. The air inside is sweltering, but of course he isn't sweating... the heavy, sooty dust fills the air, but breathing isn't as hard as he'd expect. He doesn't even feel much urge to blink it out of his eyes, which feel... oddly thick but not itchy or ...
10:21 PM <Pink|DM> ... red.||
10:26 PM <apoc|Runaway> Will stops and blinks anyway, more in an attempt to take in what exactly happened. After he gets his bearings he blinks again. His eyes are... weird. Kinda like what he felt earlier when that girl punched him but, kinda not at all too. He experimentally brings up a finger and touches the edge of his eye, his brow furrowed. ||
10:35 PM <Pink|DM> Usually, it is very hard to do so... but he realizes that the reflexive action that normally closes the eyelid when something approaches is... absent. He can easily touch his open eye, and can clearly see his fingertip smooshing into it. The eyeball is dry, smooth, not squishy or moist at all.||
10:41 PM <apoc|Runaway> Ooooookay. That's... that's not weird at all. Okay so... he doesn't sweat, uh, his arms feel weird if he hits things or gets kicked or... god this is weird. What the hell is this? Alexandria gets super strength and can fly, Legend fires laser and he gets... whatever the hell this is.
10:41 PM <apoc|Runaway> Alright then, speaking of, he rolls up his sleeve and the leg of his jeans, to see if anything is different from when he got attacked by that insane little girl. He /definitely/ felt something happen when she kicked him and he punched her...||
10:42 PM Thalia → Thaliaway
10:49 PM <Pink|DM> Everything seems pretty normal, really. He... feels good. Physically. Better than BEFORE his rough trip, not aching in particular or tired.||
10:54 PM <Pink|DM> Wait, actually... there is something. Hadn't he had hair on his legs and arms? Everything around the affected areas... his skin seems... smooth. Oddly smooth, like someone had rubbed any surface features away.||
10:59 PM <apoc|Runaway> Alright so, its clearly his body that's gotten, well, better? Better and different, apparently. Not only does he feel good in general, but he also... changes somehow. Maybe when something happens? When he got kicked, when he punched the girl, when the dust got in his eyes...
10:59 PM <apoc|Runaway> they all became different. Weirder. Maybe better? Hopefully better. And also hairless. Will isn't too sure how he feels about that last part. Alright then, time to see what happened when he did something... punching a wall, maybe?
10:59 PM <apoc|Runaway> He tried to find a spot that wasn't totally blackened by the heat, somewhere that didn't look like it'd collapse at any moment.
10:59 PM <apoc|Runaway> "Here goes nothing." He sighed, feeling like an idiot. He curled his fingers into a fist, thought back to when he socked that girl in the face, and slammed his fist into the wall. ||
11:42 PM <Pink|DM> The wall crunches a little... but all he feels is a bit of stinging in his knuckles. Like he's punched a wall or something. But... there's a bit of an odd tickle at the back of his neck, and thinking backl he'd feltit earlier too. Like an itch begging to be scratched mentally.||
11:48 PM ⇐ Teruzi quit (uid43982@dlp-95BF23C.tooting.irccloud.com) Quit: this game is gonna kill me
11:51 PM <apoc|Runaway> Will pauses, looking at his knuckles and... nothing. Weird. But there was something... some feeling in his head. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes and... flexed it? Itched it? Did /something/ to it.||
11:52 PM Brood|zzz → Brood
12:05 AM <Pink|DM> He... ripples. He can feel it, like scratching a healing scab, but... better. His flesh smooths like wet clay under a sculptor's hands and he feels... good. Really good. And what he can see of himself... lacks features, but still seems to have all the notable anatomy humans are known for, in sketchy form. Slight suggestions of nails on the ends of his fingers, smooth skin over sleeker but not ...
12:05 AM <Pink|DM> ... very defined muscles... And he itches, oddly, with a sort of POTENTIAL... He somehow knows he can push this... somehow.||
12:19 AM <apoc|Runaway> Oooookay. From weird to weirder. His skin buzzes and tingles and... doesn't, all at the same time. It's like his entire body has been dipping in carbonated liquid. And just like before it... itches somehow. It feels somehow soft and malleable, as if he lacks solidity or maybe...
12:19 AM <apoc|Runaway> Will shakes his head, drawing himself out of his thoughts. The sensation of his... power, he guesses, is alien, strange. No matter how much he tries to describe it to himself, he always falls short.
12:19 AM <apoc|Runaway> Uh, so, he's got some weird... mode? Flip a switch and this happens... alright then, uh, try that punch again?
12:19 AM <apoc|Runaway> He winds up and punches the wall once more, maybe now that the switch has been flipped something different will happen?||
12:29 AM <Pink|DM> His smooth skinned fist hits, hard... not much more damage, but it doesn't hurt at all. And his hand... had shanged. Still smooth, but the knuckles are more prominent, broad and thick and hard with bone. As he concentrated, the shape exaggerates slightly. It isn't... looks. It is PURPOSE. If he wanted to hit the wall... what if he wants to knock right through the wall? Or climb it, or...?||
12:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> Will furrows his brow. That was sorta like before, when he hit the girl... but something's different, something's urging him to do something differently than when he hit her... to move somehow. He blinks and grits his teeth. Alright then, uh, might as well. He backs up a bit to get a running start and sprints towards the wall, trying his best to scale it.
12:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> Maybe he can use his like, claw things to climb it?||
12:51 AM → AceOfSpade joined (4e7dbb1d@dlp-2F212AF1.mibbit.com)
12:58 AM <Pink|DM> It isn't even a challenge. He moves, crossing the shattered floorboards as if they were level ground, and hios fingers dig confidently into the ruined wall, and he climbs almost as easily as moving along the floor. There is, however, a sense of urgency. Somehow, he knows that any changes won't last long once he stops moving, that is it his momentum that keeps pushing the change. He finds himself ...
12:58 AM <Pink|DM> ... perched upon a ceiling joist under a gaping hole in the roof, not even breathing hard.||
1:01 AM <apoc|Runaway> The feeling seems to take control over him, the urgency, the need to run, to move, pressing him onward. Will goes with it. He leaps upwards towards the hole in the roof, to grasp it, to pull himself up. ||
1:03 AM <Pink|DM> His arms are longer, his fingers as well, and with a spiky surface to the tips. He easily pulls himself up, and finds himself in the bright sunlight... ...did that car passing by see him?||
1:06 AM <apoc|Runaway> Shit, uh... he glances around frantically for a second then... "Fuck." Will mutters, and hops back down into the building, aiming to land on the wall he climbed before.||
1:12 AM ⇐ AceOfSpade quit (4e7dbb1d@dlp-2F212AF1.mibbit.com) Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client
1:15 AM <Pink|DM> His takes a slightly different path this time, and his feet are feeling really awkward inside these shoes- without them he feels like he'd have an even easier time of this. Still, it doesn't present much difficulty.||
1:23 AM <apoc|Runaway> Will forces himself to stop, dropping to the ground floor. His body practically hums with... not nervous energy, but energy all the same. Like it not only /can/ run for miles, but that it /wants/ to. /Needs/ to. Holding himself back takes effort. He has to clench his teeth the stifle the urge to just... run, and jump and...
1:23 AM <apoc|Runaway> He wrenches himself back, his hands practically shaking. He needs to... no, can't go out now, not in the middle of the day like this... Will tries to flex that /thing/ in the back of his head, head power. Tries to turn it off, make the need to run and move go away, for now.||
1:31 AM <Pink|DM> It takes a while- he can dismiss it, but the effects take a while to go away. Still, it does obey, once he's stopped moving.||
1:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> Will sighs in relief. Alright so, it looks like... some sort of weird shapeshifting thing. That made him want to run. And jump. And climb. Alright, that was... weird, but that was really a good way of describing everything today. He'd have to start re-accessing his definition of weird, it looked like.
1:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> So his power was... good for running away? Or just getting around, he guessed. That was somewhat disappointing, if he was going to be honest, he used to like Legend when he was a kid and in comparison to all the famous Protectorate heroes that everyone knew... well, it seemed rather lackluster.
1:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> Maybe that was just normal? Every cape couldn't be the Triumvirate right? Will hadn't been a cape fanboy, so he didn't really no for sure, but it made sense that most capes would be, uh, more normal? Less walking laser beams or invincible goddesses?
1:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> Still, most probably didn't do whatever he did. Maybe it wasn't all bad... he'd gotten something like sharp claws back there, he could use those to fight and stuff, if he had to. Not that he planned to, but... shit, that was just something capes kinda... did, right? There weren't any capes that he knew of that like, ran in the Olympics or whatever he could
1:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> do.
1:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> He forced his rambling thought back to the subject at hand. Right, okay, you know what you do now. What's next... uh, he needed something he could contact Gabrielle with, a place to stay, maybe a place he could stay with Gabrielle - someplace besides a shelter. He'd need money for that... but first thing's first. Uh... a burner phone? Or something like that.
1:41 AM <apoc|Runaway> Alright, that'd have to do. He looks around the burnt remains of the building, searching for a way out.||
1:46 AM <Pink|DM> It is funny... To him, almost every direction from here is a way out- even straight up and down.||
1:49 AM <apoc|Runaway> Test number two, then. He flexes his power again, gets a running start, and jumps, reaching out the pull himself up to where the floor fell away beneath him before.||
2:03 AM <apoc|Runaway> ((REDUX))
2:04 AM <apoc|Runaway> Will almost flexes that muscle again, the power lurking in the back of his head, but he holds back. No need. Save it until tonight. He takes another breath and goes back through the tiny window he climbed through. ||
2:10 AM <Pink|DM> Even without pushing himself, he has little trouble getting out- he runs right along the remaining floor joint running to the window and, one handed, pulls himself up, the other hand extended out to grab for a handhold- slithering his body forward, he swings around, dangles a moment, and drops lightly to the ground.||
2:15 AM <apoc|Runaway> Guess that year or so of gymnastics paid off. One would not believe the shit a guy had to put up with for doing gymnastics for even a year in high school... and he didn't even get to keep doing it, after the divorce.
2:15 AM <apoc|Runaway> But that was then. Will looks back and forth across the street to make sure no one's staring at him, then buries his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and sets off in the direction of the few high rises he can see. Malls and stuff are usually near those right? Hopefully he can find a computer cafe or something he can use to figure out where he can buy a
2:15 AM <apoc|Runaway> pair of phones... otherwise he'll just have to get lucky. ||
2:21 AM <Pink|DM> Well, it had gotten the attention of some of those very cute gymnast gals, at least. But they, like the rest of his old lives, are far away now. He can't actually see any highrises from here. The area is more suburban than he'd expected. HE's never really been to the big city much, and on his previous trips he'd never left the mass of downtown. This is... a different side to the place, that's ...
2:21 AM <Pink|DM> ... for sure. If he follows the road, though,it looks like it meets up with a more major artery further... south? Is that south? They'd headed north to get here, so...||
2:24 AM → rycander joined (rycander@dlp-46881128.hsd1.ca.comcast.net)
2:24 AM <apoc|Runaway> He really wasn't good with big cities like this, especially unfamiliar ones, but he'd have to make do. The... direction he thinks is south, that's sorta towards downtown, right? Or is it east? In any case, he follows the road. Bigger roads usually lead to malls and stores, right?||
2:41 AM <Pink|DM> And so, off he goes...|||