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

"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."

Admittedly, he was letting out the breath he'd held in relief that he hadn't fallen face-first into anything. He almost wanted to jump and clap that he'd managed to move into a straight line before Beat was nudging him to stand properly. He positioned his feet as told, knees bent and body poised for movement before smiling at Beat.

"Are you a brother?" he had a feeling like he knew how to look after people, even if he had trouble in school...

He hadn't been expecting that question. He usually shrugged off any suggestions or even the slightest hints that he was a good guy, but being asked point blank if he was a brother or not wasn't something he had ever thought would come at him. Beat blinked down at Gene for a few moments, then creased his brow, trying to think up an answer.

"Why? You got brothers?" Okay, so that wasn't really an answer at all, but he was genuinely confused as to how someone could pick up that he had siblings. Was this kid psychic or something??

Not psychic, perceptive, but it was all in how he easily moved him earlier, steadied him on the skateboard. It wasn't just that he'd done this before to teach others, but there was something brotherly about it. Familiar and sturdy. Eugene shook his head to answer, but at this juncture he was six-- things could change. "Not me, but my friends at school do."

He launched himself off as instructed, but with too much confidence and ended up losing a fight to keep his balance, toppling off to the side

Beat shrugged a little, not sure what exactly gave him away as being a brother. No one had really picked up on it in the Game until he actually flat out told Phones, but then he'd been running for his life and her life at the time so all in all, he'd probably been acting a lot differently. Thinking back on it, Beat began to wonder if he wasn't stuck in a rut here - unable to age or come back to life and--

"Oh crap!!" The kid toppled from the skateboard and Beat leapt forward, grabbing at him and trying to turn him so Beat would be the one hitting the ground first to act as a cushion.

The initial shock of losing his balance and bracing for impact was jarring when he thudded against something warm and less hard than the ground. In fact, he hadn't expected Beat to be able to move that fast at all and he blinked several times before glancing up to look at his face.

Then he smiled, sheepish, laughed softly. It was a little embarrassing, a little absurd, but he was kind of glad. It was nice to have someone older to look out for you.

"Whoops."

Sometimes it was an advantage to be as big and fast as he was - especially when he was amplified by pins - and sometimes, like today, it made him forget that he had wings on his back in lieu of focusing on a goal. He'd managed to save the kid from getting his face eaten off by pavement, but now Beat was gritting his teeth through the pain of his wings protesting the sudden shock from the fall.

"Yeah, ain't nothin'." He tried not to sound like he was squeezing the words out between his teeth, but he wasn't so sure he was succeeding. "Jus' take it easy still, aight? You ain't got a helmet on and you crackin' yo' head open ain't good for learnin'."

Squirming his way free of Beat, Eugene offered him a hand to help him up. The grimace of pain hadn't been missed and Eugene hadn't realized until after that doing that, Beat had hurt himself. "You okay?" it was a little hesitant, because part of him, the larger part, felt immediately bad for Beat.

"I can get you ice. There's lots of ice." the chill out here, the snow and winter, he never thought he'd have a legitimate excuse to shove snow down someone's shirt.

"Yeah.. I'm coo'. Jus' gimme a minute." Beat took the kid's hand and used it help pull himself to his feet. He knew he had a soda pin around here somewhere, borrowed from the others, he just had to find it. He didn't wear it often, despite all the scrapes he got into. His back ached and he rolled his shoulders and his neck, digging around in his pockets. The first two to come out were his Tin Pin Fire and Tin Pin Wheel pins and he held them out to Gene.

"Yo, hold these a minute."

Holding his hands out to do as asked, he blinked down at the things placed in them. Taking a closer look, he drew his brows together in a thoughtful look before giving Beat the same. What were these things? Despite a few scrapes, he didn't look bad once he stood, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. Plenty of times he'd scraped his knees through pants, and that hurt like nothing else.

"What're these?"

"My pins." He kept searching, ending the explanation there as if it made enough sense on its own. He extricated a piece of gum, an old gum wrapper, a die, and then finally a pin badge like the other two that had a can embossed on it. "You ain't seen pins before?"

He held the can badge in his hand tightly and closed his eyes. He wasn't as good at this as Rhyme or Phones or even Shiki, but he could still at least eke out a little power from the healing pin. As soon as he closed his eyes - or rather squeezed them shut - he felt the ache in his wings start to dull and the power of the pin drain out. When the pain was sufficiently gone, and the pin itself used and needing a recharge, he opened his eyes and tossed it in his palm lightly. "Pretty handy stuff."

Wide-eyed, Eugene watched Beat make use of the pin in a way he had only read about in books or seen in cartoons. Pursing his lips in thought, he squeezed the pins that Beat handed him earlier, trying to concentrate and only managing to hold his breath.

When nothing happened, he huffed and held them back out to Beat, eager to do something that he could at least manage. "Yeah, well, skateboards are cooler."

No, he wasn't frustrated that he couldn't do special powers. Okay, maybe a little.

[Action | January 27th, Morning]

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