z_jay | [Action | January 27th, Morning]

[Action | January 27th, Morning]

Food really had a way of drawing people's attention no matter what age they were. A growling stomach would be the first sound made while Eugene peeked out from the trees at this strange town. He didn't remember coming here, he didn't really even remember much of anything from a few minutes ago, a lot of it was fuzzy. But the desire to eat was real.

So he made it to this shop that smelled nice, watched as people came and went and got hot drinks. Hot drinks sounded good right now, it was too cold outside, so he made his way to the counter, ordered a drink, and went back outside with a warm mug to sit at a table.

His feet didn't quite touch the ground when he sat, but that wasn't unusual, he wasn't tall enough yet to have that luxury. In fact, someone might begin to wonder who this kid is that's arrived. His wings look familiar, black with blue tips, dark curly hair, brown eyes... drawn to food.

[OOC: Action and prose are both welcome. Eugene will likely be making his way around the town in small spurts in an effort to keep warm. Feel free to bother him

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Beat hadn't actually ever met the guy when he was older, so he had no idea who he was now that he was a kid. What caught his attention, though, was the fact that a kid would willingly go to a coffee shop. Beat remembered his time at a coffee shop - it was boring and coffee tasted like ground up water dirt. Blegh.

Rolling to a stop in front of the kid's table, Beat raised an eyebrow and pointed. "Yo little dude, whatchu drinkin?"

The fact he'd been noticed had him clutching his hot chocolate closer to himself, but after a second he reckoned that there wouldn't be any stealing. Maybe sharing, though.

"Hot chocolate. It's cold outside." for which he was genuinely miserable over. It had been so cold outside his wings had shivered.

Oh, thank God. Beat relaxed and a grin spread across his face. "Good, 'cause coffee ain't nothin' for kids to have. It's gross as he--" He stopped, remembering he shouldn't be crass around kids. They picked stuff up quickly, after all. "It's gross as balls." There we go.

"So why ain't you got a coat if you're cold?" Because seriously, even he was wearing one and it was usually a battle to get him to wear even a shirt with sleeves at the best of times.

"I dunno where my coat is." which seemed logical, if not inconvenient. It wasn't like he wanted to be wandering around outside like this. But he had gone looking for his parents for a bit and frozen till his nose and ears burned when he came into a warmer place.

"I woke up in the woods. Have I been kidnapped?" he hadn't wanted to ask because he'd for sure get in trouble for it, but this guy seemed like he'd be nice about it...

"Well we got spares at All Passions, or there's a regular shop over that way if you don't care none for brands," he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the clothing store. He didn't like seeing kids running around freezing, even if it didn't mesh with his tough guy image. No one was really around to see him doting on the little boy, so no harm no foul or fowl or whatever the saying was.

"...Uh..........." Well, that was an awkward question. Beat rubbed the back of his head and looked away and down and everywhere but the kid. "...Sort...of...? But it ain't really bad - not like they're holdin' us for money or nothin'." Actually, it was worse, but why scare a kid? "Um, the name's Beat, anyway. What 'bout you?"

"...Gene." well if he was going to get in trouble for being kidnapped or not-quite-kidnapped he was going to at least get in as much trouble for it as he could. His eyebrows and wings rose when he heard about the clothing shop and he looked where Beat had pointed with his thumb.

"How far? Your name's weird."

"Ain't that far." Beat pulled the skateboard off his back and dropped it to the ground, putting one foot on it.

"And it ain't weird, it's cool. What sorta name's 'Gene'? Sounds like you some kinda science nerd."

"Yours sounds like a vegetable," he stuck his tongue out but eyed the skateboard with interest, leaning over a little to look at it on the ground.

"Fine, it's Eugene, but only my mom calls me that."

"Naw, it sounds like the beat of the music. You'll figure out how cool it is when you get older, yo." And wow, that name. "...And aight, Genes. I ain't yo' mom and I ain't callin' you that, so Genes it is."

He steps up onto the skateboard and pushes forward, motioning for Eugene to follow. "Come on, I'll get you a coat, shorty."

Would he ever learn how amazing music is, it would sustain him through the loss of a lot more than just civilization. He made a small face at 'Genes' but rolled his eyes before going after to follow. Being warm and bundled up was a better option than being sulky and prideful.

"My mom is prettier than you," it would have been more of an insult if he didn't suddenly miss her. And his dad, but he just wiped his nose on his sleeve and sipped his hot chocolate. "Why's your name Beat? For music?"

"Dude, I hope she's prettier than me. You got a mom who looks like a dude, you gotta wonder 'bout that." Beat rolled lazily across the plaza, the wheels clattering over the stones. He shot a glance back and noticed the wings on the kid's back, knowing that he'd probably be here for awhile. It wasn't right, bringing kids in like this. He brought his eyes back forward, swerving around a pile of snow easily with a sway of his hips and knees.

"And it's 'cause my last name's Bitou. Beat's just easier t'say than my first name and it's dumb." He kicked off the ground again, rolling forward a bit more. "But music's pretty rad, so it worked out."

"My last name is Woods. Like the place with a lot of trees." According to Eugene the prettiest lady in the world was his mom, though he switched from thinking about her to listening to the sound of that skateboard going over the stones. It was kind of cool, in its own way.

"You don't like your last name?"

"Dude, I know what woods is." Kids. Seriously. Beat sighed and rolled on. So he was Eugene "Genes" Woods. What a name. At least it was better than what Beat had, but at the same time - wow. "You could go by Woods, if you wanted - it ain't a bad nickname. Sounds like you some kinda famous person then. But me? Nah. People call me Bitou and I expect some kinda yellin' to start after it. Teachers always did that in school wit' me. S'why I hated it so much."

He rolled up to the porch of the clothing shop and whipped around to a stop, hopping off the board and kicking it up into his waiting hands. "Aight, here we go. All the clothes you want an' it's all free."

"Kinda famous?" he was way too cold to be lingering outside once they'd reached the store and he hurried in after Beat, rubbing his hands together and blowing on them. His wings were curled up next to him, as close as he could get under the circumstances, and he quickly made his way over to the jackets.

"I guess, maybe. But I like being called Gene." He poked his head out from behind some fabric when Beat spoke about school. "I just started school. It's alright." then again, he wasn't instigating any fights. He kind of liked being able to interact, befriend, and take naps with a group of children.

"Why'd you wanna fight over that?"

Beat shrugged at the first question. He'd heard of some famous person with that last name, but he couldn't remember anything else about them. The thing they'd been famous for had been boring for him, so Beat hadn't paid the guy any more attention that recognizing he was famous for something boring.

He closed the door after him when Gene ran inside and straight to the jackets, lingering by the toques as he looked them over. Rhyme could make stuff, but it had been awhile since Beat had gotten her anything. Maybe a new hat was in order now that she was getting older (unlike him). Beat had stopped celebrating his birthday a long time ago, when he realized he still wasn't alive here, but Rhyme was - and she was getting bigger.

He shrugged again and moved away from the hats, joining Gene by the jackets. "I didn't ask for no fights, but the teachers couldn't leave me alone. Bugged the hell outta me, so I took off and tha's what got me in trouble. You just started, judgin' by yo' size, so it ain't so bad yet. But it gets hard later wit' all the 'learn this' an' 'learn that' and mem'rizing stuff that just ain't interestin'."

"It changes?"

He stopped browsing and poked his arms through a smaller sized jacket, one that was big, fluffy, and very warm. Squeezing himself into it, he gave Beat a dubious look. "Why do the teachers bother you? They're not supposed to be bullies." Briefly he looked to where Beat had been browsing a few moments ago, but didn't think much of it.

"You should maybe use 'please' at the end. Adults always want to hear that when you're asking for things."

Beat sighed dramatically, rolling his head back to stare at the ceiling as if it had some sort of answer for him. Kids were so innocent. They had no idea the horrors that came when you hit high school and how it all went to crap with tests and homework and memorizing dates for stupid battles that someone won like a million years before you were born so who the hell even cared anymore??? But the ceiling had no answers, so he ran his hand down his face and looked back at Gene.

"Teachers're teachers. If you fall asleep in class, they're gonna yell at you. Ain't my fault their stuff's borin' and I can't do it." He huffed and shrugged again, looking through the rack of jackets for something that might fit Rhyme. Something darker pink with a hood maybe - with fur around the edges. That was in fashion, right? "Sayin' please don't got nothin' to do with it neither. It's 'cause they say I'm stupid and not doin' good in school so they yell and then the 'rents yell and it's just stupid."

He looked down at Gene, his hand resting on the jacket rack's metal bar. "So be smart, aight? 'Cause then you ain't got no problems."

"...But they yell at us if we don't fall asleep..." not only was he confused, he was personally affronted for Beat to have such hideous teachers. "Besides, you're smart. You showed me where the jackets were and I couldn't find it without you."

Or maybe he could have, but it would have been later and probably with a lot more freezing. Which he didn't like doing, at all. So he smiled and faced Beat, listening to him speak. Even with his funny way of speaking, Beat didn't seem stupid to him. Just a different kind of smart.

"You're good at your skateboard. Mom yells at me if I try, she says I'll get hurt."

"Look, it's diff'rent when you get older, aight? Right now, you gotta sleep. But later? You can't." He shrugged off the compliment, not used to being called smart or any approximation of it. He'd rather just ignore that he'd done anything, really, except make sure a kid didn't freeze to death. Even with his reputation to maintain, he couldn't let a kid die of the cold. That was just, well, rude.

"An' since yo' mom ain't here, if you wanna try the board, you can. It ain't really that hard t'do."

"They can't just change the rules like that," he looked positively perturbed, almost pouting and huffing through his nose at the notion that they'd force all sorts of things on you like that. His eyes lit up and the scowl/pout evaporated at the suggestion he give the board a try.

He looked at Beat like he'd just given him Christmas and his birthday on the same day. His birthday wasn't on Christmas, at least.

"How... how d'you do it?" stepping closer, he bent a little to inspect the board, hesitant but excited.

"Kid, adults're gonna be doin' that a lot t'you, so be ready." That was all the advice he could really give a kid as young as Gene. He still had the blissful days of elementary school ahead of him and it wouldn't be until junior high that he'd have to start pushing the books and doing all the stuff that Beat hated so much about school. Until then, it was peaches and pears or whatever the saying was.

"We can't do it inside - so get yo' stuff and meet me out there." He jerked his thumb back out at the plaza.

Being told that the adults would start to do that didn't bother him, he doubted they'd change, anyway. Grown ups never changed, they were always a bit grumpy. Beat was still young enough to be different, and cool, and he was going to show him how to skate board, so he nodded quick and zipped up the front of his jacket.

No time was wasted while he made his way out, pulling a face at the cold but braving past it. "Is it too cold to do it? Will we catch a cold?"

Beat didn't waste any time either. He grabbed the pink jacket with the fur lined hood for his sister, slung it over his shoulder and headed out into the plaza ahead of Gene. Once outside, he put the skateboard down, the wheels clacking against the stone.

"Dude, you got a jacket on. Whatchu worryin' 'bout cold for?" Not that Beat ever had to worry. He wasn't sure if someone like him could even catch a cold anymore. He had to be alive for that and technically he was neither alive or dead - it'd certainly explain his relatively good health here. "'Sides, stop worryin'. We got skatin' to do. Look, you climb up on the board and we'll see 'bout you gettin' yo' balance, aight?"

"It's cold," he huffed, muffled as it was behind his jacket. The cold wasn't a creature to underestimate, he knew this well in the six times he'd encountered it. Aside from that, he made no complaints as he stood on the skateboard, clearly having an idea of what he should be doing, but woefully inadequate in the how to do that.

Form, it was not good. But he still tried, stubborn and headstrong, and planted one foot firmly on the board and used the other to propel himself forward. It wasn't far, and he wobbled with a soft waugh but managed to keep upright till he stopped.

Beat watched as the boy wobbled his way across the plaza, half cringing in fear that he'd plummet head first into the pavement and then someone would blame him for the kid's death. But as Gene drew to a soft and slow stop, Beat straightened and had to admire the boy's dedication to a craft he obviously didn't know about. Jogging over, Beat put a foot out in front of the skateboard to stop it from going any further and then grabbed Gene by the waist.

"You gotta loosen up. Skatin' like you some kinda stiff is jus' gonna make you eat pavement. And when you push off?" He pointed down at the boy's feet. "Put your other foot behind you like this." He demonstrated, pointing his front foot at an angle and the back foot slightly askance from it. "Keep yo' knees bent and stay low, means you ain't gonna wobble 'round like a bobbin' doll."

[Action | January 27th, Morning]

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)